The agriculture and rural economy of France, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland

Front matter

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Preface

This treatise is respectfully commended to the candour of the reader. It was deemed a high eulogium when it was said of one on a memorable occasion, " She had done what she could." The author claims no higher merit than having, in the most anxious manner, exerted his humble talents, and availed himself of all the means within his reach, to accomplish his undertaking in a practical, useful, and acceptable manner.

In treating of sdnie subjects, many minute 4ptails are omitted, because he was not willing to tax his readers' attention with things already perfectly familiar. In regard to any agricultural operation, or crop, or improvement, the most full, exj)licit, and practical directions are given, and every peculiar feature brought prominently forward. Many things are omitted because they are of doubtful utility, or of uncertain authority. His great object has been, not to publish theories, but to state facts ; and the determined results of enlightened, exact, and conclusive experiments.

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There is some miscellaneous matter in the book ; yet he claims for it, if it have any. the merit of being strictly and highly practical. Even the miscellaneous matter, he hopes, will not be found without its use ; and if it serve to establish some moral sentiment, incidentally suggested by the subject, or to relieve in any degree the monotony or tedium of what might otherwise be, to many readers, unattractive, he trusts that an attempt thus to mingle the "agreeable with the useful" will not be severely judged. The great art to which the work is devoted is every day acquiring new importance, in its connexion with the economical and moral condition of civilized society ; and he consoles himself with the reflection, that the labours of a good portion of a life not short, devoted to advance and elevate this great art, if they serve only to awaken the ambition, and stimulate the exertions of those more competent to the task, will not have been thrown away.

London, July, 1848.