

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The following pages formed the substance of a 

 short series of articles on Chemistry, which origi- 

 nally appeared in the columns of the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle. The interest which they excited in the 

 readers of that journal, has led to their republica- 

 tion in a separate and more complete form. It 

 would have been easy to have greatly increased the 

 size of the book; and indeed it was frequently very 

 difficult to select from the mass of information which 

 exists those facts which appeared most worthy of 

 notice. The original object of the Author was to 

 give such an elementary sketch of the science as 

 should enable those ignorant of the subject more 

 readily to comprehend the works of the various 

 authors who have written on Agricultural Chemistry. 



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