iv PREFACE. 



Bidered of the greatest interest and value, and pasting them in a scrap-book, 

 to collect a mass of matter equivalent to that portion of this book allotted to 

 " The Farm," and his wife, possessing herself of authorities upon the sub- 

 jects in which she is interested and pursuing a like course, might produce a 

 partial duplicate of the matter contained in the department of "The House- 

 hold " ; but the cost would have been as three hundred to a unit, and the 

 result would bo a clumsy, voluminous scrap-book with no method of ar- 

 rangement, in comparison with a neat, handy and convenient volume ar- 

 ranged with every facility for reference. From this indisputable argument 

 the value of the work to all interested in the subjects of which it treats may 

 be computed; but we would not bo misunderstood as claiming that the pos- 

 session of the work by a farmer and housekeeper will obviate the necessity 

 of subscribing for the agricultural paper as usual, for, while the book is the 

 more valuable for reference, especially in cases of emergency, the agricul- 

 tural paper is indispensable as enlightening the farmer upon the new theo- 

 ries constantly being promulgated and the new discoveries at all times being 

 made, without which knowledge he would fail to keep pace with the age in 

 which he lives, and therefore bo nnable to compete with his more progressive 

 neighbors in the prosecution of his calling. 



The term " Cyclopsedia " as applied to the work is a misnomer according 

 to the lexicographer's definition, inasmuch as the aljihabetical arrangement 

 of titles, as required for works thus designated, has not been preserved, the 

 compiler being convinced that the arrangement of the subject-matter in 

 departments would be more acceptable to the public. As by common usage 

 applied to any work covering all subjects embraced in a certain field of 

 knowledge, however, the title is entirely in keeping with the character of the 

 book, for as a treatise upon all matters pertaining to the farm and the house- 

 hold it is complete. It is a book for each of the heads of the rural house- 

 hold, being equally as valuable and interesting to the farmer's wife as to 

 the farmer himself, and may bo truthfully said to embrace the cream of 

 more than a dozen ordinary volumes, for it combines a book on Rural Archi- 

 tecture, on Crops, on Fertilizers, on Gardening, on Fruit Culture, on Live 

 Stock, on Poultry, on Dairy Farming, on Bee Keeping, on Implements, on 

 Farm Management, on Cookery, on Medical Matters, on Fancy Work, on 

 Floriculture, on the Toilet, on Domestic Economy and Household Manage- 

 ment — in fact, it embraces all subjects in which farmers and housekeepers 

 are most directly interested. < 



The arrangement of the work in departments will, we think, commend 

 itself to all, while the copious index at the end will render it extremely easy 

 of consultation. The book is a permanent storehouse of useful facts, liinta 

 and suggestions for farmers and housekeepers. It may be consulted upon 

 any problem or in any emergency that may arise, and will rarely fail to 

 eUcit the information desired. Wo believe it to be the very book that every 

 farmer and housewife needs, and that it will repay its email cost many time* 

 over each mouth in the year. 



