PREFACE. 



WHILE Works embracing details of the Science and Practice of 

 Agriculture have been issued in considerable numbers, those 

 which relate to what may be termed the Science of Landowner- 

 ship, or the general Management of Landed Property, are com- 

 paratively few. Yet this is a matter in which many persons have 

 a direct interest, rendering it desirable that full and clear infor- 

 mation should exist on all points connected with it. Thus we 

 have, in the first place, the Proprietors of Land, Tenant- Farmers, 

 and those who represent the proprietors, and stand between 

 them and their tenants, or Land Agents ; but beyond those 

 parties there are others occupying subordinate positions, such 

 as Farm-Bailiffs, Foresters, and even Country Tradesmen, all 

 more or less directly engaged in the business of Estate Man- 

 agement. 



In preparing the ' BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE/ I have 

 endeavoured, therefore, to address myself to each section ; and, 

 while fully acknowledging the great merits of several of my 

 predecessors in the same field of labour, I have reason to believe 

 that a Work perhaps more suited to .the advanced ideas and 

 requirements of the present day than most of those which have 

 hitherto appeared, is not uncalled for. We live in an age of 



