VI PREFACE TO THE RURAL TEXT-BOOK SERIES 



literary character of this first volume also won a good 

 hearing for the undertaking. 



The time has come when special texts on agri- 

 cultural and rural subjects are needed in educational 

 institutions; and I now, therefore, project another line 

 of rural books, to be known as The Rural Text-Book 

 Series. This Series is to be coordinate with the other 

 Series, the former designed primarily for popular read- 

 ing and for general use, this one for class-room work 

 and for special use in consultation and reference. It is 

 planned that the Rural Text-Book Series shall cover 

 the entire range of public-school and college texts. 



I consider it to be significant that I am able to begin 

 this new Series, also, with a book on the soil. These 

 two soil books well illustrate the two methods of treat- 

 ment of a subject; and this later one impels us anew not 

 to forget, in all our new discussions, and especially amid 

 the social and economic speculations on which we are 

 now entering, that a well-maintained soil is the first 

 essential, not only to agricultural progress but to human 

 prosperity. The soil is the greatest natural resource. 

 We must never, in our philosophy, get away from the 

 land. 



Attention is called to the analysis of the subject- 

 matter of this volume as outlined in the table of contents 

 and expanded in the text. The educational value of 

 any subject or volume lies not so much in the information 



