PBEFACE. 



THE province of the teacher is to communicate elementary 

 as well as advanced knowledge. Whatever he may do in 

 the form of original and elaborate research, to his pupils he 

 must ever appear as a patient expounder of first principles. 

 The following chapters actually embody a course of lectures 

 delivered to science teachers last summer. The intention 

 was to open up the subject of agriculture in such a manner 

 as to indicate to them the many aspects from which it may 

 be viewed. It has always been difficult to accurately define 

 the position which agriculture occupies in relation to other 

 branches of knowledge. Sometimes it has been called a 

 science, and at other times an art. It has been viewed as a 

 trade and as a profession, but it is neither one nor the other, 

 and in order to be correct we must take refuge in such 

 ambiguous expressions as occupation, pursuit, or calling. 

 Agriculture is too dependent upon circumstances, and too 

 uncertain in its results, to be viewed as a science, and too 

 natural to be called an art. It is not, strictly speaking, a 

 trade, and is not included among the professions. It is more 

 ancient than knowledge, and lies fundamentally at the basis 

 of our very existence. In addition to hunting as a means 



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