INTRODUCTION. XllI 



intelligence was extended to the business of the fields ; 

 the means of ameliorating the soil, and improving its pro- 

 ductions, were established and increased ; and private in- 

 terest was for ever united to the public good. At that 

 period, agriculture took a new impulse ; and since then, 

 its progress has been rapid. The nature of soils has 

 been better known ; the cultivation of artificial meadows 

 has been extended ; and a rotation of crops has been 

 established upon principles recognised in all those coun- 

 tries, where agriculture has made the most progress. 

 The number of domestic animals has also progressively 

 increased, and, with them, the manures and the labors 

 which form the basis of agricultural prosperity. 



It remains to us, at this day, to improve agriculture by 

 the application of physical science. All the phenomena 

 which it presents, are the consequences necessarily re- 

 sulting from those eternal laws by which matter is gov- 

 erned ; and all the operations which the agriculturist per- 

 forms, serve only to develope or modify these laws. It 

 is, then, to the acquisition of a knowledge of these laws, in 

 order to calculate their effects and modify their action, 

 that we ought to direct all our researches. 



Can ar>$r study present to the agriculturist more attrac- 

 tions, than that, which has for its object the explanation 

 of those eiFects, which every day captivate his senses 

 and astonish his reason ? Without doubt, observation 

 has made him acquainted with the uniform march 

 of nature. In all her operations, he can judge of the 

 modifications effected in her productions by the state 

 of the atmosphere, the variation of climate, and the 

 nature of the soil. Even this practical knowledge en- 

 ables him to direct many of the labors of the field. 



