PREFACE. 



The objects and purposes of the following Work are fully set 

 forth in the introductory chapter; but I may be permitted to 

 remark here, that its compilation and arrangement have oc- 

 cupied a very large share of my time and attention, and I can 

 therefore assert with confidence, that it will be found the most 

 full and complete book of the kind that has ever yet appeared. 

 It is not a mere condensation from Encyclopsedias, Commercial 

 Dictionaries, and Parliamentary and Consular Reports ; but is 

 the fruit of my own Colonial experience as a practical planter 

 and of much laborious research and studious investigation into 

 a class of ephemeral but useful publications, which seldom meet 

 with any extended or enduring circulation — assisted, moreover^ 

 by the contributions and suggestions of many of the most 

 eminent agricultural chemists, planters, and merchants of our 

 Colonial Possessions and Foreign Countries. 



Few are aware of the great labor and research required for 

 digesting and arranging conflicting, accounts — for consulting 

 the numerous detached papers and foreign works treating of 

 the subjects embraced in this volume, and for referring to 



