Catechism of practical agriculture

Preface

In arranging the matter of this Catechism of Practical Agriculture, I could not do otherwise than follow the plan I had adopted in the Book of the Farm , as I still believe no plan is better suited to teach practical agriculture off a farm , to one entirely ignorant of it, than following in the successive seasons the routine of operations performed on a farm.

In a work professing to treat of the use of machines, woodcuts are obviously required to give a clearer idea of their construction than any description, however luminous, can possibly do ; and these accordingly have been employed to the utmost extent compatible with the elementary character of the work. Figures of certain operations which involve many particulars of detail are also given, in order to show the details at a glance.

Should this little work find its way into the public schools of the country, Teachers might extend the questions largely on every subject treated of, and introduce others on several subordinate subjects that have been purposely omitted in order to retain the work within reasonable compass. It would be advisable for Teachers to exhibit working specimens of hand-implements, and show the manner of using them. Other machines than those figured might be traced with chalk upon a black board, and their superiority or inferiority to the machines given, pointed out. Drawings of the cultivated plants in their different states of growth, and of the varieties of live-stock usually reared, might be placed before pupils with much advantage. Samples too of the various grains and seeds sown on farms would at once impress upon the memory of pupils then' identity and use.

By means of such a course of tuition in the school, and exemplified on the neighbouring farms, the occupants of which would doubtless be willing to second the views of Teachers, a large amount of correct agricultural knowledge would be imparted to young boys and girls, destined to earn their livelihood on farms, and which at present is only obtainable by labour in the fields, to the serious neglect of other kinds of knowledge only to be acquired at school. Thus, by combining a professional with the usual education to young farm-labourers of both sexes, a larger portion of their time might be spent at school than is at present, greatly to their own advantage in mental culture, and to that of their masters in securing servants of superior capacity.

Redbrae Cottage, Edinburgh.

B S.

Contents

WINTER.

PAGE

Winter ; its order in the agricultural year, .