PREFACE 



AT length we have completed another volume, which 

 will be a proo; of our perseverance ; with whatever other 

 consequences it may be attended. In it will be found many- 

 useful pieces of information^ though novelty may not at- 

 tract the merely curious inquirer. To practical men, the 

 developement of old operations, tested by experience, are 

 more important, than new discoveries : yet some of evei> 

 these will be seen. Nothing injures agriculture more than 

 whimsical novelties ; except bigotted adherence to old and 

 bad habits. It should be the aim of all agricultural publica- 

 tions, to record and promulgate good practices j and to ex- 

 tinguish, by practical and well ascertained facts, the mischiefs, 

 or insufficiency, of old and inveterately bad customs. New 

 discoveries seldom occur : but when they are known, they 

 should be examined with care, and received with caution ; 

 but without prejudice. When tested by experience, they should 

 be added to the store of profitable lessons j and explained 

 and enforced by intelligence and industry. Agriculture, 

 like the Common Law, is more indebted, lor its best principles, 

 to precedents founded on wisdom and experience, than it is 

 to the presumed improvements ot theorists, and speculative 

 experimenters. This is enough for us to concede, to those 

 who receive every thing zvritt en with d strust and hesitation; 

 and suppose that none are acquainted with husbandry, but 

 those who hold the handles ot the plough. To those who 

 began with theories, originating in ingenious and speculative 

 opinions, philosophy, and the arts and sciences, are highly in- 

 debted for some of their best principles. Pursuits with the fatu-= 



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