Encouraged by the favorable reception of his former works, the author presents in the following pages what is intended by him as a popular compendium relative to Sheep, Swine, and Poultry.

It would not have been a difficult matter to collect material bearing upon each distinct class sufficient for an entire volume of the present size. Indeed, the main trouble experienced has been the selecting of such facts and suggestions only as seemed to him of paramount practical importance. He has not deemed it advisable to cumber his work with items of information which could be of service to particular sections and localities only; but has rather endeavored to present, in a concise, yet comprehensible shape, whatever is essential to be understood concerning the animals in question.

The amateur stock-raiser and the wealthy farmer will, of course, call to their aid all the works, no matter how expensive or voluminous, which are to be found bearing upon the subject in which they are for the time interested. The present volume can scarcely be expected to fill the niche which such might desire to see occupied.

The author’s experience as a veterinary surgeon among the great body of our farmers convinces him that what is needed by them in the premises is a treatise, of convenient size, containing the essential features of the treatment and management of each, couched in language free from technicality or rarely scientific expressions, and fortified by the results of actual experience upon the farm.

Such a place the author trusts this work may occupy. He hopes that, while it shall not be entirely destitute of interest for any, it will prove acceptable, in a peculiar degree, to that numerous and thrifty class of citizens to which allusion has already been made.

The importance of such a work cannot be overrated. Take the subject of sheep for example: the steadily growing demand for woollen goods of every description is producing a great and lucrative development of the wool trade. Even light fabrics of wool are now extensively preferred throughout the country to those of cotton. Our imports of wool from England during the past six years have increased at an almost incredible rate, while our productions of the article during the past few years greatly exceed that of the same period in any portion of our history.

Relative to swine, moreover, it may be said that they form so considerable an item of our commerce that a thorough information as to the best mode of raising and caring for them is highly desirable; while our domestic poultry contribute so much, directly and indirectly, to the comfort and partial subsistence of hundreds of thousands, that sensible views touching that division will be of service in almost every household.

To those who are familiar with the author’s previous works upon the Horse and Cattle, it is needless to say any thing as to the method adopted by him in discussing the subject of Diseases. To others he would say, that only such diseases are described as are likely to be actually encountered, and such curatives recommended as his own personal experience, or that of others upon whose judgment he relies, has satisfied him are rational and valuable.

The following works, among others, have been consulted: Randall’s Sheep Husbandry; Youatt on Sheep; Goodale’s Breeding of Domestic Animals; Allen’s Domestic Animals; Stephens’s Book of the Farm; Youatt on the Hog; Richardson on the Hog; Dixon and Kerr’s Ornamental and Domestic Poultry; Bennett’s Poultry Book; and Browne’s American Poultry Yard.

To those professional brethren who have so courteously furnished him with valuable information, growing out of their own observation and practice, he acknowledges himself especially indebted; and were he certain that they would not take offence, he would be pleased to mention them here by name.

Should the work prove of service to our intelligent American farmers and stock-breeders as a body, the author’s end will have been attained.