PREFACE. vii 



Author is distinguished for his clear, philosophical mode of treating his sub- 

 jects, and has brought to bear upon them a mind well stored with the fruits of 

 long experience, close study, and diligent research. The present volume 

 does not do him entire justice, as in order to render it more useful, I have 

 introduced a variety of additional matter in the form of Notes from different 

 portions of his volumes, and from other German writers of high repute. This 

 destroys in some degree the unity of the work, and yet I trust these additions 

 will not be thought irrelevant. I might indeed have placed them in an Appen- 

 dix, but I have chosen to throw them in where they appear as most corres- 

 ponding with the design of the work. Yet many of them would have been 

 unnecessary here, as belonging rather to another portion of the work, had the 

 whole Manual, of which this forms a part, been published. My notes and 

 extracts are inclosed in brackets, thus [ ], and are marked- by a Tr. at the 

 end. I may have overrated the value of the work I have translated, from my 

 own comparative ignorance of many of these practical details; I do not pre- 

 tend to say that all of them are of equal value for the farmer ; but I have felt Mr. 

 Fleischmann's judgment to be a correct one, and that much valuable matter, 

 even for our farmers, is comprised in the following pages 1 am confident that 

 nowhere in our own country, and perhaps not in the English language, can 

 there be found a book of the same moderate size which contains an equal 

 amount of estimates of proportions, &c., relating to farming, and which may 

 be relied on as from the best authorities. I am also confirmed in my opinion 

 of the work, by those editors and others who have examined it. 



The great distinction in German Agriculture, compared with our own, is 

 economy. The question is not, whether a great crop can be produced, or a 

 fine story can be told, what large animals can be raised, &c., — but what is the 

 whole cost, the expenditure of labor, of land, of manure, &c. For this reason 

 computations have been made, and the proportion of all the parts and processes 

 has been fixed. Economy compels them to weigh and measure their fodder. 

 The minutest details have been entered into, the most difficult points exam- 

 ined, and the results brought out. 



Thaer's great book in four quarto volumes is a beautiful specimen of a philo- 

 sophical arrangement and discussion of the subject. Judge Buel, in his Farm- 

 er's Companion refers several times to Thaer. He speaks of him as one 

 " who has not, perhaps, his superior in the practical and scientific business of 

 farming anywhere." The Author of The British Husbandry says of him, 

 ** whose practical knowledge cannot be too highly appreciated," also, " whose 

 great practical experience and deep science, added to the candor with which 

 his remarks are imparted, stamp an inestimable value on his works on hus- 

 bandry." He quotes always, however, from the French Translation of Baron 

 Crud called Principes Raisonnes. Thaer was along time at the head of the 

 Agricultural school of Mogelin in Prussia, where many experiments were tried 

 on the various points of husbandry under his own eye ; and the results em- 

 bodied in his numerous works and contributions to Scientific Journals. 



ScHWERTZ, also, was Director of Experiments and Professor of Agriculture 

 in the King of Wurtemberg's Agricultural institution, and resided in the year 

 1837, at the age of 77 years, in Coblentz. He travelled as an Agriculturist in 

 various parts of the continent ; and is the Author of a number of works on the 

 Agriculture of Alsace, Hofwyl, Westphalia — some of which were published in 

 Thaer's Annals of Agriculture. His reputation is high, and he is frequently 

 quoted by the most distinguished writers on Agriculture, in Germany. His 

 Practical Agriculture is contained in three large volumes, to which a fourth, 

 drawn from his papers, was to be added by a friend. 



Veit was Professor of Agriculture in the Royal institution of Bavaria, and 

 his work is full of results of experiments and calculations at that seat of Agri- 

 cultural Science. 



