349
Short Horn Cow, 352
Devon Cow and Bull, 355
Southdown Ram and Ewe, 359
Long-wooled Ram and Ewe, 362
Common Sheep, 364
Remarks, 365
WATERFOWLS, 370
The African Goose, 370
China Goose, 371
Bremen Goose, 372
A WORD ABOUT DOGS, 374
Smooth Terrier, 377
Shepherd Dog, 381

PREFATORY.

This work owes its appearance to the absence of any cheap and popular
book on the subject of Rural Architecture, exclusively intended for the
farming or agricultural interest of the United States. Why it is, that
nothing of the kind has been heretofore attempted for the chief benefit
of so large and important a class of our community as our farmers
comprise, is not easy to say, unless it be that they themselves have
indicated but little wish for instruction in a branch of domestic
economy which is, in reality, one of great importance, not only to their
domestic enjoyment, but their pecuniary welfare. It is, too, perhaps,
among the category of neglects, and in the lack of fidelity to their own
interests which pervades the agricultural community of this country,
beyond those of any other profession--for we insist that agriculture,
in its true and extended sense, is as much a profession as any other
pursuit whatever. To the reality of such neglects they have but of late
awaked, and indeed are now far too slowly wheeling into line for more
active progress in the knowledge pertaining to their own advancement. As
an accessory to their labors in such advancement, the present work is
intended.

It is an opinion far too prevalent among those engaged in the more
active occupations of our people,--fortified indeed in such opinion,
by the too frequent example of the farmer himself--that everything
connected with agriculture and agricultural life is of a rustic and
uncouth character; that it is a profession in which ignorance, as they