Xiv PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION.

myself was ultimately fixed upon, to take an Agricultural Survey of the county of Stafford: my appointment was not an early one, and the survey was delayed and protracted by other avocations in which I was previously engaged. At length however a Report was sent to the Board, and by them printed, and circulated through the county; which has since received remarks and additions from some respectable gen- tlemen and farmers, which are now incorporated with the original. matter, and the whole thrown into somewhat another form; agreeable to a plan chalked out by the Board; and in which form it is here presented to the Public.

I understand that there is reason to believe, the accounts of the other districts in the kingdom will soon be completed; in which case, a greater mass of agricultural information will have been collected in the space of a little more than two years, than probably can be found in all the preceding publications on that subject put together.

Next to collecting information, the improvement of a country must depend upon a proper spirit of exertion, to bring the knowledge thus accumulated into action; and in addition to former motives, it may now be stated, that the legislature has at length taken the plough and the spade under its immediate protection.

Exertion, and capital, are the two main springs of im- provement; there is little risk of any deficiency in the latter, unless our capital should be diverted from its natural channel to remote and foreign speculations; the best mode of pre-

venting which, seems to be,—to make the kingdom known