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PREFACE. 



The Farmer's Dictionary was undertaken originally for 

 the purpose of supplying a want long felt by the editor, in 

 common with the agricultural community, of a short expla- 

 nation of the many technical terms introduced into the works 

 written on farming. Much opposition has arisen to the use 

 of technical words in these productions, and our journals are 

 full of complaints, from respectable men, against the innova- 

 tion. If, however, words having so precise a meaning, and, 

 in many instances, conveying so much information, be dis- 

 carded, what shall be substituted in their place ? It is obvi- 

 ously impossible for every writer who has occasion to use 

 the terms hybrid, hydrogen, or eremacausis, to explain in de- 

 tail what these mean ; and if the attempt were made, our 

 treatises would present the most tiresome examples of tau- 

 tology. Each farmer may satisfy himself with a set of arbi- 

 trary terms, which convey all the information he desires ; but 

 they will not answer if he wishes to impart that information 

 to others. There is, perhaps, no greater drawback to tbe 

 advancement of our art than the indefinite words used among 

 us — words which are often peculiar to a small district, and 

 which are used to designate a variety of objects in different 

 parts of the country. We find one writer using the word 

 " withers" for the shoulders of an animal, another for the 

 womb. 



The friends of agricultural improvement, and especially 

 our journalists, should use all exertions to establish a suitable 

 nomenclature. The art has arrived at that stage that this is 

 the greatest object to be accomplished. It will open to the 

 practical man the extensive information of the scientific world, 

 and will enable the theorist to study his generalizations by 

 consulting the works of the true farmer. I have not, in at- 

 tempting to carry out my original design of preparing a 

 vocabulary, thought it advisable to insert every provincial 

 phrase, but have taken only those words in common use 

 among farmers, and which have become somewhat fixed by 



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