PREFACE. 



Tras pnrpoee of this volume is to supply a ready reference library of uao- 

 ful facts and suggestiona for fanners and housekeepers. Within the pre- 

 scribed limits of the work it would be impossible to present the fullest 

 details of agricultural and kindred sciences, hence the author has deemed 

 it politic to deal mainly with the more practical relations of agriculture and 

 domestic affairs. Such matters as are self-evident and well understood by 

 every practical agriculturist — as for instance the details of the cultivation of 

 the commoner farm products — it has been thought wise to treat upon but 

 meagerlr, in order that full scope might be given to practical hints and tise- 

 ful suggestions in all branches of agriculture. The object of the work ia 

 not to tell the farmer and the housewife that which they already know, but 

 to present to them valuable information which it ia believed cannot £ul to be 

 of material assistance in rural homes. 



' In the preparation of the work great care has been taken and no paina 

 have been spared to make it complete in every detail. Ck)n8ultation of the 

 best authorities insures its reUaliiUtj-, and it is beUeved that it will bo found 

 invaluable by all who become fjoeseiised of it, and that it will prove one of 

 those exceptional books which are prized more highly by reason of age and 

 constant association; for it will doubtless be consulted almost daily in the 

 course of rural aud household affairs. There is hardly a day in a farmers 

 life but that some problem arises not easy of solution without a reliable 

 treatise of this kind to consult. Such a want it ia the purpose of this volume 

 to supply. The author is well aware that the masses of agriculturists have 

 but little money to waste upon luxuries of any kind, and he is equally con- 

 fident that the purchase of this book, far from being a waate of bis hard 

 earnings, will prove one of the most profitable of invcatments. Its peruaal 

 will develop ne w ideas, new methods and new theories in every branch of 

 farm labor of incalculable value, and the household department will be 

 found equally aa serviceable to the farmer'a wife aa will the agricultural de- 



irtmcnt to the farmer. 

 In the compilation of the work we have been largely indebted to the 

 leading agricultural journals of this country and Europe, aa well aa to many 

 standard works upon agricultural and household topics. Access to ext£ i- 

 sive files of the former could alone insure completeness in a work of tl is 

 kind. Entire originaUty, therefore, we do not claim. We maintain, ho v- 

 ever, that we have snccee'ded in producing a work of far greater value tt in 

 any exclusively original production could possibly be, for we present her in 

 the views of nearly all the ablest writers in the country upon the yarions 

 topics treated, giving to the people at large the benefits of their extensive 

 experiment and research. It would be possible for a farmer, by subscribing 

 for all the leading agricultural periodicals of the country for a number of 

 years and by purchasing a considerable Ubrary of standard works upon the 

 subject, and carefully culling thereixoia 9UQh items aod articles aa he cou- 



