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PREFACE 



THE general principles and a large part of the facts to be taught 

 in most subjects in the elementary schools are the same in every land. 

 "* Some subjects might be taught in the Philippine Islands from Ameri- 

 <^can texts, except as they gain in presentation by the use of local 

 x examples and illustrations. With agriculture the case is very differ- 

 ent. The subjects to be studied are almost all different from those 

 in the United States; the climate is different, the economic conditions 

 are different. A useful text-book must be adapted to all of these 

 differences. 



V Our text-books are the products of evolution, those in use to-day 

 c^ having the good features but, as far as can be helped, not the weak- 

 nesses of their predecessors. The teaching of agriculture in any 

 large number of schools is so recent that this selection has not yet 

 gone far. Even in temperate countries, there has not yet been time 

 . for general experience to decide what material, from the almost un- 

 V) limited amount available, should be chosen for school use ; the 

 methods of presenting it are as diverse as the limited number of books 

 mits, and a logical relation of the material seems as yet to have 

 been less considered by most authors than the exercise of the eyes 

 v and hands and the teaching of mere facts. 



In a subject in which texts are still so undeveloped, and in the first 

 attempt in a tropical field, 1 it is inevitable that this book will be far 

 from what many will think it should be. Under the circumstances, 

 I trust that their criticisms will be constructive, and that they will 

 be sent to the author. 



There is nothing unreasonable in good agriculture, and the fact that 

 a text on the subject must be practical does not involve its being dis- 

 connected or illogical. I believe that whatever success has rewarded 

 my effort to present this subject logically increases, instead of detract- 



1 Lyon's interesting reader is not, and is not called, a text-book of agriculture. 



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