Exchange 4-25/28. ingress GENERAL PREFACE. A GLANCE at the title-page and index of this work will show the many important subjects embraced in it. Separate and complete treatises are given upon each. The department relating to THE FAMILY will be found to contain much new and valuable information, important to every housekeeper. THE FARM, from its great importance, has received special attention, and contains, it is believed, much valuable instruction. THE KITCHEN, FRUIT, and FLOWER GARDENS have each received careful attention, and may be relied upon as containing instructions which are the results of long and thorough practical experience. Each of THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS is separately considered, and all the necessary instructions given for their successful breeding, rearing, and management, in health and disease. It has been the aim of the editor to be useful rather than original. No one man, however large his experience or thorough his observation, can be as safe a counselor or as wise a guide, upon the many subjects embraced in this work, as the collected wisdom of scores of minds, each long and thoroughly conversant with particular subjects. The editor, therefore, though not unfamiliar with the topics embraced in this work, has nevertheless chosen to use his experience and judgment in collecting the most useful and important information, from the most recent and reliable sources, and in arranging it in such form as should render it at once easy of comprehension and practice, and therefore useful to the masses. He has long felt that a work embracing the features of this was much needed in most American families; and this view of its necessity and utility, he has the pleasure to say, has been concurred in by all to whom its plan has been submitted. The aim has been to make the work plain and practical-to avoid mere speculation, and uninteresting and unprofitable details to condense the most useful and important information possible within prescribed limits, and to adapt it to the wants of practical men. It was intended to be a reliable and convenient reference book for the various duties appertaining to THE FAMILY, THE FARM, and THE GARDENS, and to the rearing and management of THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS-to aid the memories of the experienced and to instruct the young. With ample materials, and careful and persevering effort to accomplish his purpose, the editor can only say, that he hopes the reader will find the execution of the work as perfect as its plan. The Horse: how to Breed, Break, Feed, and Manage, and how to Treat his Diseases; together with The Art of Taming as practiced by William and Cattle: the Dairy and Fat-producing Breeds, and their Management in Health AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. THE following, among other authorities, have been consulted in the preparation of this work, and to which we are more or less indebted for the valuable facts and instructions which it contains, viz.: Southern Rural Almanac, American Agriculturist, Fruit Culturist, Fruits and Fruit-Trees of America, Fruit Garden, Boussingault's Rural Economy, Gardeners' Chronicle, Breck's Book of Flowers, Patent-Office Reports, Book of the Farm, Southern Cultivator, Muck Manual, Fruit Grower's Guide, Genesee Farmer, Rural New-Yorker, Valley Farmer, Johnson's Agricultural Chemistry, Loudon's Gardening, Loudon's, Mrs., Companion to the Working Farmer, Progressive Farmer, Farmers' Every-Day Book, Gardeners' Instructor, Dana's Prize Essay on Manures, Youatt, Martin, Stevens, Guenon, Youatt, Randall, Skinner, Martin Richardson, Delamar, Dixon, Kerr, and Miner, on Poultry, Phelps, Miner, Weeks, Quimby, &c., on Bees, Transactions N. Y. State Agricul tural Society, &c., &c., &c. |