HISTORICAL lATRODlLrioX 



AGRIcri/lTRF. IS the art of obtaining, from the earth, food for the 

 sustenance of man and his domestic animals, and the perfection of the 

 art is to obtain the i^reatest possible produce at the smallest possible 

 <^xpense. I'pon the importance of the art it is needless to ex|)atiate. 

 for bv it every country is enabled to support in comfort an abundant 

 population. On this its strength as a nation depends, and, by it, an 

 independence is secured. An agricultural country has within itself the 

 necessaries of life, and to maintain these there will never be wanting a 

 host of patriotic men. 



The origin of the simplest arts of life is involved in the obscurity 

 which envelops the early history of the human race. Before there can 

 be any motives to record events, some considerable progress must have 

 been made in civilisation. When attention is altogether directed to 

 obtaining the means of subsistence, there is little leisure, nor is there 

 any great desire, to communicate the knowledge acquired by experience. 

 Warlike achievements are the first things recorded, and the peaceful 

 labours of the husbandmen are overlooked. It has been often observed 

 that nations are very considerably advanced in civilisation before they 

 •commit to writing, records or memorials of any kind, and that a much 

 greater progression has been made before any notice has been bestowed 

 upon the most simple and necessary of all the arts of practice, in the 

 •employment of the earth for providing the necessaries of life. 



In tracing the progress of an art from the lives and writings of the 

 inventors and improvers, the practical knowledge is derived which sees 

 the foundation of the system that has been followed, and perceives the 

 difficulties that are to be overcome and the contentions that are to be 

 •encountered in making the least deviation from established usages ; and 

 in this respect learning received advantages from the in\(iUion ot 

 printing, which spread the dominion of knowledge to an immeasurable 

 distance beyond its former limits, and there soon appeared a necessity ol 

 c-oUecting and condensing the widely scattered materials into such 

 limited forms as were easy of manijjulation and distribution. In tin- 

 oldest writings which have been handed down to us it is a curious 

 fact that the common operations of husbandry are mentioned or alluded 

 to in much the same terms in which we should describe them now, and 

 so are many of the implements and also the productions, but they are 



