HOUSES FARM-BUILDINGS, IMPLEMENTS, DOMESTIC ANIMALS, ALBANY, NEW-YORK: LUTHER TUCKER, OFFICE OF THE CULTIVATOR. 1855. PREFACE. In presenting to the public the first volume of the ANNUAL REGister of RuraL AFFAIRS AND CULTIVATOR ALMANAC, it may be proper to state briefly its object. It is intended to offer, in the present and succeeding issues, in a plain, simple, and intelligible form, (rendered more so by ample illustrations,) the best information in relation to all the principal details of Modern Improved Farming, according to the most approved and established practice of the day, and to afford such hints on Rural Economy generally, as may enable every farmer, in some particulars at least, to effect important improvements. The construction of farm buildings generally, the breeding and management of domestic animals, the manufacture of manure, the cultivation of crops; the planting, training and culture of fruit trees; laying out door-yard grounds and ornamental planting, kitchen gardening, the construction and use of improved farm implements and machines; and, in short, every department of practical knowledge immediately connected with modern agriculture, will be presented in a condensed form, and in a practical manner, to the reader. It will be continued annually, with such improvements as experience shall suggest in each successive year, so that it may constitute an authentic ANNUAL REGISTER of the true progress of Rural Improvement. It is proper for the publisher to say, that the copy for this volume of the ANNUAL REGISTER has been prepared expressly for its pages, by Mr. JOHN J. THOMAS, of Macedon, N. Y., author of the "American Fruit Culturist," "Farm Implements," &c., &c., with the usual taste and ability which mark his works. His chapters on Country Dwellings, Improving and Planting Grounds, the Culture of Fruit, &c., embrace suggestions and directions that cannot fail to interest and profit every resident in the country, treating as they do of the chief means by which Rural Life is rendered attractive, and a Rural HOME comfortable and pleasant, and containing more information on all the accessories of a country dwelling, than any other publication with which we are acquainted has ever supplied, in so small a compass, and with such variety of illustration. |