xii Preface, 



the greatest improvements in husbandry, have 

 been either suggested, or made, by those who were 

 not professional farmers. If pecuniary assistance 

 should be required out of the pubhc funds, it 

 should be afforded. A cent expended, with pro- 

 priety, to aid and reward genius and industry, in 

 pursuing agricultural experiments and researches, 

 will add an eagle to the public stock. This is 

 applying nourishment to the root of the public 

 prosperity. 



Were it without example, it would be surpri- 

 sing that legislatures, consisting for the most part 

 of farmers, have done so little for the encourage- 

 ment of a profession, which is calculated, above 

 all others, to produce additions to the common 

 mass of property, by creating countless supplies, 

 drawn from the earth. 



In England, the establishment of a Board of 

 Agriculture, under the patronage and pecuniary 

 encouragement of the legislature, is recent, but 

 its advantages are incalculable. 



In France, agriculture is accounted, as it really 

 is in all countries, the basis of public and private 

 wealth and prosperity. Its patronage and encou- 

 ragement are placed among the first objects of 

 public attention; and radically interwoven with 

 the principles and system of their national policy 

 and government. Perhaps the period is not distant 



