iv Advertisement. 



bandry, should retard the improvement this kind of know- 

 ledge would promote. The few who engage in the task of dif- 

 fusing agricultural knowledge and intelligence, are not assist- 

 ed or supported as they merit. They must, however, be con- 

 tent with doing all the circumstances and difficulties they en- 

 counter permit. They must be satisfied with their own con- 

 sciousness of the purity and usefulness of the motives which 

 actuate them. The ribaldry of small critics (if any there be) 

 who nibble at modes of expression not objects of literary 

 scrutiny ; and the feeble sarcasms of those who, instead of 

 encouraging, attribute laudable exertions to communicate and 

 diffuse agricultural information to personal vanity; or to a rage 

 for what such puny (or, in their own phraseology,/?^ wet/) cen- 

 sors call " riding their hobby horse," must be disregarded. 

 The numbers of such hypercritics must be so small, and their 

 patriotism so much below the freezing point, that they should 

 not excite even the momentary attention of those who wish 

 to promote the prosperity of their country. One valuable 

 improvement introduced, or made more generally known, 

 through their agency, far over balances a thousand verbal 

 criticisms, and sour or fanciful strictures. I say not this 

 with any reference to myself (for I have not the presump- 

 tion to claim any right to exemptions, or peculiar attention 

 to my wishes or requests) but to impress on others, of more 

 capacity but little active zeal, a disposition to render to 

 their countiy the service it requires. This is not only called 

 for, from those who can furnish the necessary facts, but it is 

 more imperatively demanded from those whose talents, and 

 literary, as well as other capabilities, can turn facts to the most 

 profitable account. 



