17 



has not yet touched one half of the Enghsh area : with the 

 potato for its precursor, how rapidly would the plough 

 follow ? 



I have dwelled so long upon the excellencies of this ac- 

 commodating vegetable, that I shall not enter upon the 

 question, to which the study of its natural history^ 

 habits, and properties, must give rise, in the distri- 

 bution of the departments of the agricultural science 

 I have made ; — the theorist and experimentalist must adjust 

 these between themselves, having the double task before 

 them, of making us better acquainted with the varieties 

 of the potato we already possess, and also of discovering 

 to us the new varieties of this vegetable, which nature has 

 yet in store for us, to reward our industry and sagacity. 



I have often complained that the agricultural science 

 was left almost exclusively in the hands of PRACTICAL 

 FARMERS and AGRICULTURAL BOOKMAKERS. 



I now speculate upon the assistance and co-operation 

 of a very different description of persons, whose zeal I hope 

 to animate, and whose force I shall labour to concentrate, 

 in pursuit of a favourite object, the improvement of this 

 useful and necessary science. 



In every part of the United Kingdom, I see AGRICUL- 

 TURAL SOCIETIES formed, and in these the respectability 

 of the contiguous country collected: we have thus every 

 where assemblages formed of the friends of agriculture, 

 and the well-wishers to its improvement ;— talents, wealth, 

 zeal, and liberality, are embodied, for the avowed, and 

 sole purpose of benefiting their country, by the advance- 

 ment and improvement of this useful and necessary science 

 or art, in which soever light we choose to consider it. 



I am proud of having my name enrolled on the lists of 

 many of those respectable societies ; I look up to these 

 c 



