INTRODUCTION. 15 



most other arts and professions, it follows of necessity that the 

 farmer requires the same education and discipline of mind as 

 those do who practice law, medicine, engineering, and the 

 mechanical arts. 



Agriculture should not be looked upon as the end of life, 

 but only as a means of securing the necessary food for subsis- 

 tence: this, as well as all other pursuits, should be adopted 

 with the view of enabling men not only to improve and 

 beautify the earth, but to cultivate the moral, intellectual and 

 social powers, and to fulfil according to their capacity, their 

 proper station among their fellow men. It should not tend to 

 make men mere machines, who toil for the sole purpose of 

 gratifying grovelling and depraved appetites ; but it should 

 elevate and refine to the highest degree of perfection, all the 

 better faculties of our nature. 



A large part of the farming community already recognize 

 the utility of the natural sciences in the cultivation of the soil. 



Some elementary books have been written which have 

 been favorably received by the farming public. Among 

 the natural sciences, Geology has received more attention than 

 any other among this class of men. The connection of this 

 science with agriculture is so apparent to every one who 

 learns but the rudiments of it, that it needs only to be intro- 

 duced, (in treatises which are plain and well arranged,) to be 

 studied and applied in practice. It teaches the origin and 

 nature of all the various soils and rocks, and all great physical 

 changes which are taking place from natural causes on the 

 earth, and beneath its surface. 



Botany is also of much importance: and indeed the agricul- 

 turist and horticulturist are the only persons to whom the 

 study and practical application of its principles are indispen- 

 fitble. It teaches the characters, habits and localities of nearly 

 one hundred thousand different species of plants; it treats 



