TO THE 



PRESIDENT AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE 

 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



GENTLEMEN : 



JL RESUMING upon your acquiesence, I introduce to your no- 

 tice this little practical treatise upon one of the most interesting 

 and pleasing branches pertaining- to the science of agriculture. 

 The utility of a cheap publication of this kind, for the informa- 

 tion and encouragement of our farmers, is unquestionable. If 

 this humble attempt should meet your approbation, and be found 

 to possess a degree of merit calculated to co-operate with your 

 zealous efforts to promote agricultural pursuits and improve- 

 ments in our country, a knowledge of your character is an am- 

 ple pledge that you will not withhold your patronage and favour. 

 If, however, it shall appear that 1 have subjected myself to the 

 accusation of having stepped beyond the limits, within which 

 my actual knowledge should be confined, then will a conscious- 

 ness of laudable motives, of assiduity and fidelity in the collec- 

 tion of experimental facts, remain as my only consolation. I 

 am not unapprized of the almost invincible prejudice, which pre- 

 vails among our farmers, against what they term "book-farm- 

 ing," "book-knowledge," &c. &c. ; and the anecdote is fresh in 

 my memory, of an honest farmer, who, on being inquired of 

 Why his neighbour's farta was not productive, replied, "because 

 he has booked it to death." These prejudices exist chiefly among 

 those, whose minds are unenlightened, and views unexpanded by 

 that useful knowledge, which is only to be acquired by reading. 

 It must be conceded that almost all improvements are derived 

 from the records of practice and observation ; and when we 

 have reason and experience to support, and plain facts to con- 

 firm, we may become less tenacious of the rules of our fathers, 

 believing that it may be the reserved privilege of the children, 

 to acquire the skill of producing two spires of grass where their 

 fathers produced but one. Tt is a remarkable fact that the first 

 planters bequeathed to their posterity a greater number of or- 



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