P K E F A C E, 



THIS Essay is a fragment of the course of Lectures which I 

 had undertaken for instruction in Rural Economy at the 

 Agricultural National Institute. Although denied the 

 opportunity of using them in the way of oral teaching, I 

 considered that these notes might prove useful in another 

 form, and began by publishing extracts from them in the 

 Revue des Deux Mondes. The kind reception which the 

 series met with, both in France and in England, has 

 induced me now to collect them info one volume. 



I hope soon to give a sequel to this publication. In 

 the years 1851 and 1852, during the short existence of 

 the Agricultural Institute, I found time to compose a 

 complete course of Eural Economy. I am now revis- 

 ing my Lectures, and hope soon to publish them. But I 

 thought it advisable, for the sake of the science itself, to 

 precede the preceptive part of the subject by a practical 

 demonstration of its utility. 



Some persons have done me the honour to consult 

 me as to what should be done in France, in order that 

 we may benefit from the examples of England and 



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