viii PREFACE. 



The chapters are indeed lectures, and each chapter opens 

 with a reference to what had previously occupied attention. 

 Omissions of certain principles made during the delivery of 

 one lecture were often supplied upon the next occasion, 

 whereas in the ordinary course of writing, an exhaustive 

 treatment would have been preferred. It is my hope to 

 follow up the present volume with another, and to open up, 

 to the best of my ability, the proper lines upon which the 

 principles of the whole art of Agriculture should be taught. 



JOHN WKIGHTSON. 



Downton, April, 1888. 



