4 PREFACE. 



I make no pretension to scientific or literary attainments, 

 other than such as men acquire in the active business of 

 life. I write as I think and practise ; and have endeavored 

 to adapt my style to the capacities of common readers. In 

 detailing the operations of the farm, I have endeavored to 

 explain the principles on which these operations are founded. 

 Indeed, so far as my ability would permit, I have endeavor- 

 ed to unite science and art, as I think they ever ought to be 

 united, in all the business of farming of which I have treated. 



The great objects of the farmer should be, to obtain the 

 greatest returns for his labor, without deteriorating the fertilitij 

 of the soil ; and to restore fertility , in the most economical way, 

 where it has been impaired, or destroyed, by bad husbandry. 

 It has been my aim to give instruction upon these points, and 

 to explain the principles upon which my recommendations 

 are based, and upon which my individual practice has been 

 founded. J. Buel. 



Albany, September, 1839. 



NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 



Scarcely had the ink with which this volume was written become dry, ere 

 we were called upon to mourn the loss of its intelligent and highly-respected 

 Author, who, while on a mission of good to his Agricultural brethren, was sud- 

 denly cut off, in the mid-day career of his usefulness, at Daubury, Con., October 6, 

 1839, after an illness of a few days' continuance. The high estimation in which he 

 was held, is amply evinced by the expressions of regret for his loss, and of 

 respect for his memory and worth, that have appeared in the public prints 

 throughout the Union. He had long been identified with one of the most im- 

 portant interests of our country, and more recently shone as an ardent advocate 

 of another equally as important interest. After a careful examination of the 

 various projects that have been devised for furnishing School Districts with suita- 

 ble Libraries, he became fully convinced of the superiority of the Massachusetts 

 plan, and accordingly repeatedly expressed, through the columns of the Cultiva- 

 tor, his decided preference for ' The School Library' now publishing under the 

 sanction of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and, as a still stronger evi- 

 dence of his preference, he prepared for the larger Series the present volume. 



During the past season, he compiled a volume, consisting of selections from 

 the columns of the Cultivator ; permission to print which was by him granted to 

 the Publishers of 'The School Library,' but they preferring a freshly written 

 and original work, were favored with this. It was the intention of Judge Buel 

 during the coming winter, to follow this with another work on matters interest- 

 ing to the Farmer and general reader, but the All-wise Disposer of events has 

 seen fit to order differently, and this volume, tlierefore, as his last and most 

 important work, must be looked upon as a rich legacy by him bequeathed to 

 the friends of Agriculture and Education, and as an earnest of what, had his 

 life been spared, he would have continued to do, for the advancement of the two 

 interests, for whose success his earnest aspirations were sent up. 



A call having been made for this work, the Publishers have been induced to 

 issue the present edition in advance of that designed for 'The School Library.' 



Boston, November, 1839. 



