PREFACE.
When, at the suggestion and request of the publishers of Weale's Rudimentary Series, the preparation of the present volumes on Farm Engineering was undertaken, it was thought that Mr. Andrews' work on "Agricultural Engineering"—dealing with buildings, barn implements, and field implements, and published in this series thirty years ago—would require to be only partly rewritten to make up this and the two succeeding volumes of the present series of Farm Engineering Text-Books. It was soon found, however, that the task of adapting that once valuable work to the wants of modern agriculture involved something more than the preparation of a new edition. Although Mr. Andrews' volumes were amply illustrated, and his plans and designs of farm buildings were well ahead of the times in 1852, not one of the old blocks has been deemed suitable for reproduction in the present volume, and only two or three pages of the original text have been allowed to stand. Practically, therefore, the present is a new work.
In preparing it the aim has been to produce a book which will be serviceable to agriculturists and agricultural students rather than to professional architects and builders, to the latter of whom, no doubt, the work must appear incomplete and faulty. It is not,
