Rural Economy, in Its Relations with Chemistry, Physics, and Meteorology

no equally complete and extensive body of new and interesting facts has ever before been presented in a collected form to the agricultural world.

It will be observed that the capital, the all-important subject of Draining, as the great master-engine of agricultural improvement, is merely touched upon by our Author in a cursory way; should this incite a feeling of disappointment, it must be borne in mind that he has accomplished all, and more than all, that he proposed to himself, which was not to write a complete work on practical tillage, but rather, as his title implies, on "Rural Economy," i. e., the economic production and application of the produce of the soil under the guidance of chemistry.

Among the faults of execution for which the Translator ventures to solicit the agricultural reader's indulgence, is the occasional adoption of terms which are rather French than English. Many of these words are, in the original, not merely technical, but local and provincial, and are not inserted in any of the dictionaries. Moreover, in the description of certain processes and operations, the Author has occasionally employed terms for which there is no English equivalent; and the Translator had frequently no other choice than that of either leaving the sense of the passage obscure and defective, or, on the other hand, of adopting the barbarisms in question, which not only deform the English of the construction, but cannot fail to be offensive to the taste and professional prepossessions of the agricultural reader.

With reference to the weights and measures made use of in the original, it may be proper to state, that (against strong temptation to let them stand as in the French, merely adding a table of equivalents) they have, at the instance of the Publisher, been reduced into their corresponding quantities in the English standard. Grammes, in the more delicate experiments, have been reduced into grains troy, assuming the gramme as equal to 15.438 grains; in less delicate experiments, grammes have been converted into pennyweights (dwts.) and ounces troy. Kilogrammes are given in lbs. avoirdupois; and where the quantity was large, they are often brought into tons, cwts., qrs., &c., taking the French kilogramme at 2.2 lbs. avoirdupois. The Litre, or present French measure of liquids, has been reduced into pints, calculating the French measure at 1.76 pints English imperial measure. The Hectolitre employed in measuring grain, is rendered into bushels, estimating it at 22 gallons English dry measure. The old French Quintal is also sometimes employed this measure of weight has been either reduced to its proper corresponding quantity, 1 cwt. 3 qrs. 24 lbs. English, or where odd numbers might be disregarded, it has been called 2 cwts. The Are, or French superficial measure of quantity, has been calculated throughout at 120 square yards English: the Hectare at 2.4 acres English.

The labor of reducing these measures into their English equivalents has been immense; and errors, in spite of the best care which could be exerted, have doubtless in various instances crept into the

reductions. Slight discrepancies between aggregate sums and their component quantities will also be apparent here and there, an inexactness which arises from the number of decimal places not having always been carried out far enough.

Our Author often quotes English agricultural writers, whose weights, &c., he has always been at the pains to reduce into their corresponding French equivalents. Not having at all times the works referred to at command, the Editor was compelled to bring back the French weight or measure into the corresponding English one by calculation. Thus from not knowing the precise equivalents adopted by M. Boussin gault, some trivial discrepancy between the computed and the original weights, &c., may have resulted; but as the quantities that have been treated in this way are especially important as relative, scarcely ever as absolute quantities, the error where it occurs can be of no real consequence. Metres, centimetres, and millimetres have been reduced into English feet and inches, assuming the metre as equal to 39.370 inches. Finally, and to conclude our list of reductions, (would that it had been shorter!) the degrees of the centigrade thermometer have been brought into degrees of the only scale in familiar use among us, viz. Fahrenheit's.

In the translation the Editor has endeavored (not always with perfect success) to be as little technical as possible, with a view to the convenience of the general reader. In a very few places he has even ventured slightly to condense the style of the original in order to keep the volume within moderate dimensions, occasionally throwing the information contained in a table into the text or narrative; and where the Author appeared to him to be forgetting the rural economist in the mere chemist, as where for example he describes the special modes of preparing and purifying indigo, &c. he has made bold to retrench details, and give the results or conclusions only. All analyses bearing on the practical subject, whether it was the soil that produced, the crop that was grown, or the animal which fed on that crop, have been scrupulously retained. In conclusion, the reader is earnestly recommended to read an admirable little work, the joint production of Messrs. Dumas and Boussingault, entitled in the original, "Essai de Statique Chimique des Etres organisés," which has been presented in a clear English translation, under the title of, "An Essay on the Chemical and Physiological Balance of Organic Nature," and may be regarded as a most valuable introductory aid to the perfect comprehension of Boussingault's Philosophy of Agriculture, and as a key to the more scientific and technical portions of the work now submitted to the public,

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