4 INTRODUCTION. 



adopted in conjunction with ample draining, with or without the additional advantages 

 derived from sub-soil ploughing. 



Many of the processes which may be resorted to in carrying out the new system 

 are in a great degree mysteries to thousands in the United States, although familiarly 

 known and long employed in other countries, where with not half the natural advan- 

 tages the labour of the husbandman is far better rewarded. Such has been the agri- 

 cultural improvement effected in Flanders, that the whole country may almost be 

 styled a garden, each acre being capable of supporting its man. Scotland, in little 

 more than half a century, has changed from comparative unproductiveness, into one 

 of the richest agricultural districts in Europe. In Great Britain, the products of the 

 grain harvests have increased within sixty years, from one hundred and seventy to 

 three hundred and forty millions of bushels. The system inculcated by the new 

 principles, has even in some districts of our own country, where they have been well 

 followed up, increased the value of farms, two, three, and four hundred per cent. 

 from twenty and thirty dollars to one hundred dollars per acre. " It has," says Buel, 

 " made every acre of arable land, upon which it has been practised ten years, and 

 lying contiguous to navigable waters, or a good market, worth, at least, one hundred 

 dollars, for agricultural purposes." 



The zeal for the promotion of good husbandry which pervades the country at large, 

 is displayed in the geological surveys which have been finished, or are in progress, in 

 most of the states ; in the agricultural surveys in several others, together with the 

 liberal premiums appropriated by legislative authority, and innumerable societies, foi 

 the encouragement of every thing tending to improve and advance the agricultural 

 interests. It is also shown by the extensive circulation of the many periodicals de- 

 voted in whole or in part to agricultural subjects, through every section of our ex- 

 tensive country. In these, matters of greater or less interest are brought before 

 thousands of persons interested in rural pursuits, and sufficiently educated to compre- 

 hend and discuss the merits of most of the questions. It might appear invidious to 

 single out the names of particular publications, all of which are more or less instructive, 

 and some highly so. It would be difficult to find a single one from which information 

 may not be gained the value of which would greatly transcend the ordinary pit- 

 tance obtained from subscribers. Indeed, the extremely low prices of the annual 

 subscriptions to nearly all our American agricultural periodicals are so far from being 

 remunerative, that their editors may claim to be regarded as missionaries devoted to a 

 high cause, and willing to labor almost without hire for its promotion. 



Book-farmers have long suffered under general discredit, and been exposed to 

 abundance of taunt and ridicule, even from their own agricultural brethren. Doub* 

 less the imperfection of much of the scientific data furnished and practised upon has 

 often given occasion to unsatisfactory results. But the rapid progress of science 

 has developed new facts, and furnished much more accurate information. Undei 

 the direction of Davy, agricultural chemistry made vigorous advances. His many 

 splendid discoveries, and especially his demonstration that the common alkalies, pot- 

 ash and soda, and the alkaline earths, magnesia, lime, and alumine, were not simple 

 elementary substances, but the oxides of metals, seemed to give a new impulse to 

 those who sought to make chemistry subservient to agriculture. But even with the 

 brilliant achievements of Davy and the subsequent valuable researches of Count Chaptal 

 in France, agricultural chemistry remained very imperfect. Too exclusive attention 

 had been devoted to the mineral constituents of soils. Most gratifying and important 

 results have been since obtained through the able investigations of several eminent 

 French chemists, among whom we may name, Raspail, De Saussure, Braconnot, and 

 Boussingault, all of whom have devoted special attention to ascertaining the nature 

 and properties of organic substances entering into the composition of soils. What 

 England commenced by Davy, and France followed up so ably by her distinguished 

 chemists just named, Germany seems to have the honour of almost perfecting 

 through the brilliant achievements of her chemist, Dr. Liebig, the highly important 

 results obtained by whom have been recently placed before the world in his trea- 

 tises on "Agricultural Chemistry," etc. The interesting developments made in these 

 works, of the chemical agencies operating in the various stages and conditions of growth, 



