The Science and Practice of Agriculture

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1846. Excerpt: ... THE SCIENCE AND PEACTiCE OF AGRICULTURE. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN AND IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. Agriculture was the first art or trade practised by man. Of this we are informed by holy writ and profane history; and it is obvious, that the best mode of raising and procuring their subsistence, must have been the first care and occupation of the human race. For the same reason it is the most important, and will engage the greater number of the people in every prosperous and happy country. It is the most healthy occupation in which mankind can be employed, --constant exercise in the open air, among the products of nature, turning up and cultivating the soil, free from the gaseous efHuvia and pestilential vapours generated and rising from crowded cities and manufacturing towns. Hence, the inhabitants of rural districts, possessed of the necessaries of life, and the means of procuring them sufficiently, are more healthy, happy, contented, virtuous, peaceable, and attached to their country, than any other class of the community. It is the most honourable trade; for in all ages and countries agricultural pursuits have been followed by every class and grade of society, from the chief magistrate to the lowly peasant. Emperors, kings, princes, and nobles, have patronized and practised it. In our own times and country, our beloved Queen, with the Prince-Consort, are setting a right royal example to every farmer and good housewife in Her Majesty's dominions. It is the most profitable of all trades, when conducted with skill and success. Nature supplies the raw material, and by her great agents, heat, light, air, and water, keeps the whole machinery in continued action, ministering to, and supplying the wants and necessities of the animal and vegetable creation. Man has o..