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iv TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 
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botanical descriptions. And in this way the farmier, even if he have no special knowledge, 
is enabled to pass out of. the region of empiricism, and enter upon the cultivation of a plant 
completely equipped for success. : : 
Dr. Stebler—who speaks on this point with uncommon experience and authority—has 
devoted particular attention to the impurities and adulterants which are encountered in 
commercial seed. The matter is as important, perhaps, as any with which the seedsman and 
the working agriculturist are concerned ; and our author has illustrated his remarks. with a 
great number of cuts in black and white, by whose help the student may readily detect the 
presence of the said impurities and adulterants, and assure himself that he is not working 
with unzound materials. The paramount importance of genuine seed fo a ake is 
obvious; and Dr. Stebler’s demonstration of the precautions which have ‘to be taken to 
secure good quality is absolutely clear, exact, and sufficient. lin 
The descriptions of the several types of forage are based on a careful schemeof 
scientific statement. ‘This is fully explained in the Introduction to the whole work, so that 
in this place it will be enough to note that reference to special points is made easy by the 
employment of a system of “margination” (so to speak), which enables students to take m 
the contents of a page at a glance. | 
It remains to note that the Appendix is of singular importance. It consists of four 
Tables, all carefully designed and executed with a view to a particular end, viz., the 
appli¢ation of calculation to this department of agriculture. In Table I is given the 
amount (per acre) of germinating seed to be sown in order to procure a full crop; it 
enables the seedsman and the farmer easily to calculate the proportions in which to use the 
constituents of any mixture that may be required; and in this way it makes it difficult for | 
those concerned to produce any but a rational mixture, or to fail to meet the requirement 
of a given case.* Table IL shows how this is to be done, the seed (it is assumed) being 
of average quality. Table III sets forth the nutritive value of the various grasses and 
cloyers, and supplies another set of data to be taken into account in determining the 
constituents of profitable mixtures; while Table IV gives a comparative view of the 
amounts of mineral matter removed from the soil. 
The study of the forage plants is now a special branch of military education ; and I 
have every reason to believe that Stebler’s work will presently be found as essential a feature 
of the curriculum at Sandhurst and Aldershot as in those of the several agricultural and 
veterinary colleges througnout the country. Be this, however, as it may, I do not hesitate 
to affirm that, if Stebler be destined, as I believe he is, to become a power in British 
agriculture, the effect will be to increase the production of good forage and to considerably 
improve the practice of this most important branch of farming. 
A. N, WALPINE. 
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* Hitherto none but empirical formule have been used. But it is not doubtful that if the farmer onan determine, 
by simple calculations, the amounts of seed by which to secure a set of definite results, the conditions of grass 
culture in the British alarntts would very soon be changed for the better. The seedsman now knows the’ quality of 
the seeds which he supplies ; and it is desirable that the farmer should require him to provide a table, based on this one 
of Stebler’s, and showing how much seed of the quality he has on sale should be sown per acre. If this were done, 
both seedsman and farmer would be gainers. : 
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