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PREFACE 



TO 



THE REVISED EDITION OF 1868. 



M. F. LE PLAY, one of the closest observers of the age, distinguished 

 by his capacity to lay aside all prejudice and pride of opinion, and found 

 his conclusions npon evidence derived only from the most exact and 

 reliable data, one whose active and well adjusted mind has long been 

 devoted to investigations connected with the conditions and developments 

 of all the great branches uf industry, the imperial counsellor and com- 

 missioner-general, charged with the organization and direction of the 

 several Universal Expositions held in Paris from 1855 to 1867, thus 

 expresses his views of the important position to which Agriculture is 

 entitled among the diversified branches of industry.* 



The agricultural product superior to all others is wheat, which, next to 

 milk, contains most of the indispensable elements required to sustain the 

 human body. Wheat takes from the earth a large amount of phosphorus, 

 the essential element for the formation of bones, although in most soils 

 hardly a trace of it is perceptible. This wonderful concentration in wheat 

 of the materials of the human body, the mysteries of which science has 

 only begun to reveal, evidently furnishes the primary foundation for 

 the grandest developments of population and the highest achievements 

 of civilization. 



Agriculture holds out to families the most permanent prospect of em- 

 ployment and subsistence. It adapts itself with admirable pliancy to all 

 the relations of industry, whether on a limited or extensive scale. It 

 organizes itself spontaneously in accordance with the intellectual or moral 

 condition of families and the diverse circumstances under which these 

 may exist. It establishes between the family, the soil, the plants, and 



* La ReTorme Sociale en France Deduite de 1'observation comparle des peuples Euro- 

 p6ens. Par M. F. Le Play, Auteur des Ouvriers Europeans, Commissaire General aux Ex- 

 positions Universelle de 1855, de 1862, et de 1867. 



