PREFACE 



IT IS to be lamented that it falls to the lot of 

 an individual to risque the publication of the fol- 

 lowing sheets, in which the agricultural part of the 

 community are more immediately, though not 

 solely, interested. An ineffectual attempt has been 

 made to establish a state society of agriculture, 

 whose useful and agreeable employment it should 

 be to invite and promulgate communications, sti- 

 mulate experiments, and cherish and reward, with 

 honourable testimonies at least, the ingenious and 

 industrious cultivator. An application was made to 

 a former legislature of the state, for an act of in- 

 corporation of such a society, and a plan there- 

 with suggested. But no steps have yet been taken 

 in the business. It is to regret, and not to censure, 

 that I mention the circumstance. It is difficult, 

 if not impracticable, to produce conviction in the 

 minds of the generality of farmers, that persons 

 who have not been educated or manually employ- 

 ed in farming, can give much useful information 

 in, or effectual energies to, agriculture. And yet 



