4 To Readers and Friends. 
husbandry, will claim our particular attention. Its pages •will, 
however, receive solidity by judicious selections combining science 
with practice. 
The truth is, that facts and experiments in agriculture are so 
slowly evolved, that in our opinion, such a journal affords ample 
field in which to introduce them to the reader. 
The science of agriculture seems to be gaining votaries in every 
part of the community. There is no single profession in all the 
wide circle of callings, requiring more varied, accurate, and ex- 
tensive knowledge, than the cultivation of the soil. But when 
robbed of science, the noblest calling of man loses all its charms. 
Fortunately for the age in which we live, men of learning have 
stepped forward to rescue agriculture from its fallen conditior>. 
Few as yet have learned that agriculture is, emphatically, the 
science of production. 
It was Mr. Buel's motto, "To improve the soil and the mind," 
but though his idea might have been correct at the time, now the 
order should be reversed, " The improvement of the mind and the 
soil." 
We will endeavor to impress upon the minds of our readers the 
important truth, that if we would better the condition of our vast 
farming population, we must have reference to the mind as well 
as the soil; and while we give strength to the body by the im- 
provement of the one, we should by no means overlook the cul- 
ture of the other, which most directly concerns ourselves and our 
children. 
The grand secret of improving the soil consists in knowing its 
wants and being able to supply them. The correct combination 
of the different properties of a soil must be studied. Farmers 
should cultivate their minds as w-ell as their fields. They can 
gain as rich rewards in the mental, as they can in the natural 
world. Without intelligence, he cannot discharge, in a proper 
manner, the duties of a citizen. Agriculture is a science that 
requires experience and study. 
The general diffusion of information, and the elevated standard 
of education, for those designed to hold the plow, have already 
