4 



Orators and poets of all ages and countries 

 have extolled the importance of Agriculture, and 

 sung of the charms and beauties of rural life. As 

 the first want of man is food, and the only supply 

 being the produce of the soil, the cultivation of 

 the earth and the keeping of tlocks and herds 

 must have been coeval with the first fixed forms 

 of human society, and the history of this neces- 

 sary art may be justly regarded as the history of 

 civilization itself. Not only do we depend on 

 the skill and industry of the husbandman for the 

 staff of life, — "our daily bread," — l)ut also, in a 

 great measure, for the raw material, as it is 

 termed, which the manufacturing and ornamental 

 arts of an ever-advancing civilization work up 

 into the necessaries jind adornments of social and 

 domestic life. 



If, therefore, agriculture be so ancient and 

 indispensable, not only to the general well-being 

 of society, but to the very physical existence of 

 man, removed but a degree from the savage state, 

 the question naturally arises in every reflective 

 mind, acquainted with its general or particular 

 history, How is it that this most valuable art has 

 ^ not kept pace with the other industries of life, 

 but has generally been found lagging behind, and 

 frequently exhibiting symptoms of a feeble and 



