PREFACE 



lieving as I do, in the God-appointed duty of 

 working land to its top limit of producing 

 power,— I said a great deal that looked like 

 a mild Georgic. 



And yet, with a feeling for his poor boy, and 

 a remembrance of what crisp salads I had 

 found in the city markets, after mine were all 

 mined and devoured by the field-mice, — I wrote 

 a great deal that had the twang of Meliboeus in 

 the eclogue, 



En ipse capellas 



Protenus ^ger ago 



In short, in my reply, I beat about the bush :— 

 so much about the bush in fact, that this book 

 came of it. 



Edgewood, 1863. 



VI 



