PREFACE TO THE RURAL 

 TEXT -BOOK SERIES 



In 1895 the preface was written for the Rural Science 

 Series. It set forth the purpose of the Series to be the 

 desire to place in readable form the best results of 

 scientific thought and discovery relating to agriculture 

 and country life, in order that the general public might 

 be made aware of the progress, and that farmers might 

 be led more effectively to apply the information in their 

 daily work. It was the hope that the Series, under the 

 present writer's direction or another's, might gradually 

 extend itself to the whole range of agricultural scientific 

 literature. The books now included in The Rural Science 

 Series are about two dozen, making nearly two volumes, 

 on the average, for each year. The number of writers on 

 agricultural topics is increasing, the knowledge on all 

 subjects is rapidly accumulating, and the reading-public 

 is gradually enlarging; there is every reason to expect, 

 therefore, that the Series will extend itself still more 

 rapidly in the years to come. 



It was considered to be an auspicious circumstance 

 that the Rural Science Series began with a book on the 

 soil, for this grounded the enterprise. The scientific and 



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