IV ADVERTISEMENT. 



In this country there is, happily, a large and increasing class 

 of Farmers to whom these remarks are not applicable men in 

 whose hands the character of British Agriculture is not likely to 

 suffer; but there is also another and a larger class to whom 

 they may with propriety be addressed those who have not had 

 the same advantages for acquiring a knowledge of their profes- 

 sion, or, having had, have not made the same use of them. 

 Still, there may be some matter in our pages for both classes. 

 In Agriculture, each day brings with it its lesson; every Farmer, 

 from the highest to the lowest, has every day something to 

 learn when he ceases to be a Student, he ceases to fulfil the 

 duties his profession imposes on him. 



Without attempting to estimate the relative number of the 

 two classes, we may fairly assume that, out of the 350,000 

 Farmers of Great Britain, there are thousands who have not 

 yet become practically acquainted with the Thrashing Machine, 

 that there are tens of thousands who have never seen a 

 " Reaper," and hundreds of thousands to whom " Steam Tillage" 

 is at present perfectly unknown. Yet these are all vast im- 

 provements upon existing practices, conferring benefits nlikp 

 upon the individual who adopts them, and, through him, upon 

 the community at large. In our Cropping and Farm Practices 

 generally well-nigh the same unsatisfactory condition of things 

 is seen. Knowledge, however, must be possessed before it can 

 be applied ; and it is with the view of offering that, in a simple 

 and condensed form, to those interested in the cultivation of 

 the soil, that this little Work has been arranged. 



In the present Series, the Mechanical Appliances of the Farm 

 will be only treated incidentally, as the particular subject under 

 discussion may require ; the ordinary Farm Crops, their Culti- 

 vation and Treatment, their Chemistry, and the various Injuries 

 to which they are liable, with the Remedies recommended, will 

 form the staple contents of each number. 



EDINBURGH, Oct. ]85'J. 



