Agricultural Botany: An Enumeration and Description of Useful Plants and Weeds, Which Merit the Notice, or Require the Attention, of American Agriculturists

Excerpt from Agricultural Botany: An Enumeration and Description of Useful Plants and Weeds, Which Merit the Notice, or Require the Attention, of American Agriculturists

Agriculture, in a broad and legitimate sense, being a comprehensive system of Natural Science - involving more especially a practical acquaintance with the useful portion of the Vegetable Creation, - I have long thought it due to the Profession, and desirable in every point of view, that the young Farmers of the United States should acquire an exact knowledge of the Plants which it immediately concerns them to know; and that they should be enabled to designate, and treat of them, with the precision and methodical perspicuity which belong to scientific language and arrangement. Under this impression, and in the hope of promoting an object deemed so important, the present work has been compiled. In submitting it to those for whom it is more particularly intended, I am not unaware that its technical features are ill-suited to the notions of many plodding disciples of the old school of Agriculture, who despise every form of knowledge derivable from Books, - and whose ideas never stray beyond the manual operations of the field and the barn-yard. It is scarcely probable, indeed, that any written treatise - though couched in the most familiar dialect - would obviate the objections, or conciliate the prejudices, of such antiquated tillers of the soil. My views, therefore, have not been directed to that unpromising quarter. I address myself to the youthful and aspiring Agriculturists of our country, who seek to elevate their noble Profession to its just rank among human pursuits, - and who feel that the exercise of intellect, as well as of muscle, is indispensable to the accomplishment of their purpose.

I have preferred to treat of the Plants, which it more immediately behoves the farmer to be acquainted with, according to the most approved method of our day, and in the language of Systematic Botany. By exhibiting as much of the classification, or frame-work of the Science, as is requisite to present the Genera and Species, here described, in their natural and relative positions, the Student will be enabled to comprehend their connection with the other portions of the System, and to examine them, as the Geologists say, in situ. In that process, he will necessarily have to learn something of their structure, and essential character; and that I should consider as an important advantage, - even if his researches should there terminate. His knowledge, however limited, will be established on a correct basis, - and will be always available in his intercourse with men of science: But, to those who may subsequently resolve upon a more extended acquaintance with the vegetable kingdom, such knowledge will be a clear gain, and a valuable preliminary step; that step which, according to the proverb, is the only one which costs.

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