VI PREFACE. 



neglected or disregarded receipts of th< 

 ancient world. Should the present work 

 contribute to such a result, the Author will 

 then have effected all the benefit he could 

 anticipate. 



It is hoped that the learned Reader will 

 not deem the Author intrusive or pedantic 

 in giving a slight biographical sketch of the 

 ancient writers he has quoted; as such me- 

 moirs may not always be familiar to those 

 who may be disposed to turn over his leaves, 

 nor is it to be expected that the farmer or 

 the gardener is fully acquainted with ancient 

 physicians; or that those whose occupations 

 confine them to cities, should have acquired 

 a perfect knowledge of the lives of the agri- 

 culturists of antiquity. 



Selections from those poets who seem to 

 have made this part of Nature's works their 

 peculiar province, have been interspersed, 

 from a desire to clothe information in an 

 amusing garb ; and sometimes as the only 

 confirmation of ancient customs, which the 



