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Edited by Charles William Burkett, recently Director of Experiment Station, Kansas State Agricultural College; Editor of American Agriculturist
Types and Breeds of Farm AnimalsCyril G. Hopkins, Ph.D.
Professor of Agronomy in the University of Illinois, Chief in Agronomy and Chemistry and Vice Director of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station
Ginn and Company
Boston - New York - Chicago - London
Entered at Stationers' Hall
Copyright, 1910
By Cyril G. Hopkins
All Rights Reserved
910.2
The Athenaeum Press
Ginn and Company, Proprietors, Boston, U.S.A.
Dedicated to the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations The Rightful Guardians of American Soils
To Use the Land without Abusing It
--J. Otis Humphrey
Liebig said, "Agriculture is, of all industrial pursuits, the richest in facts and the poorest in comprehension." To a large degree this statement is still true, and the chief purpose of this volume is to bring together in convenient form the world's most essential facts gathered from the field and laboratory, and to develop from them some foundation principles of permanent agriculture; for, as Liebig also truly said, "Facts are like grains of sand which are moved by the wind, but principles are these same grains cemented into rocks."
While one dare not believe that error has been completely avoided, the facts presented have been checked with all reasonable care, and they may be accepted with the confidence that they are accurately reproduced from the original data.
Unsolved problems still remain, and some conclusions which seem to be indicated by the data thus far reported may be modified later when more complete information is afforded. The author will always receive with deep appreciation suggested additions, modifications, or corrections.
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say to the reader that his general knowledge of farm practice is presupposed, and no attempt has been made to include herein a thousand details with which every man experienced in the art of agriculture already is familiar.
For the sake of himself and his children it must be said to the practical farmer that he should encourage the teaching of the science of agriculture in the school, even though he may know much more than the teacher concerning the art of agriculture.
vii
viii Preface
To encourage the teacher, let me say that much of the science of agriculture can be successfully taught without a field or a garden, and even without complete knowledge of the art. Thus, you may teach why clover should be grown and when it contains the most nitrogen, but leave the farmer to determine for himself when to plow it under, if he is the better judge of seasonal conditions and of their probable influences upon his own soil and crop.
Cyril G. Hopkins
University of Illinois
Urbana
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