TO THE READER. 



THE Lighthouse of Agricultural Chemistry is now be- 

 fore you, treating upon one of the most important occu- 

 pations in the world upon the products of which all 

 are equally dependent the manufacturer, the mer- 

 chant, the mariner, the politician, the statesman, and 

 mechanic, alike resort to our mother earth. We begin 

 to find that the great question of the day, in all our large 

 commercial cities, is not so much upon stocks in ex- 

 change, as upon the probable state of the crops this 

 season. Therefore it may well be said, he who makes 

 two blades of grass to grow where but one blade grew 

 before, is a benefactor to mankind. This is the work of 

 agricultural chemistry to perform ; and without this chem- 

 ical knowledge, the lands of the farmer will soon become 

 Unproductive, notwithstanding it may be highly ma- 



