THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 119 



Improve the first turn of good sledding to draw 

 home your wood and fencing stuff, for the next season ; 

 the winters are so precarious, you may not have an- 

 other. It is of the highest importance that you pro- 

 vide in winter for the next season, as well as to pro- 

 vide in summer for the next winter. Think of ease, 

 but work on ; the rich improvements before you, 

 should be your ample reward, together with the flour- 

 ishing state of your families. The example of every 

 thriving merchant, or mechanic, is before you; if 

 they did not lay in their stock in due season, they 

 would soon run out, and so will you. 



Look often to your water-courses ; see that the 

 wash is properly directed, by not flowing too long, 

 or too much, in one place, to the damage of your field, 

 and see that your banks and dams are not broken, 

 and washed away ; this is both a cheap and rich ma- 

 nure, and such as no prudent farmer will neglect. 

 The wash of the roads may be turned on to your 

 sloping grounds, with very little expense and trouble, 

 and afford you a handsome profit. 



Two most important things now claim your atten- 

 tion ; the first is, see that your children are not only 

 steady at school, and well supplied with useful, and 

 valuable school books ; but improve every possible 

 opportunity to improve your own minds by reading 

 history, geography, biography, and the sciences ge- 

 nerally. 



Converse with, and examine your children often 

 upon their studies at school ; you will not only dis- 

 cover the state of their*mprovements, but you can 

 do more than the master, by encouraging and excit- 

 ing their ambition. One hour's instruction by con- 

 versation, is worth two by reading, upon the same 

 subject. 



In vain you toil to become rich, if your children 

 ore not educated properly, to take good care of it af- 

 ter you are dead. In our children we live again after 

 we arc dead, and all the good there is in acquiring 

 more wealth than is necessary for our support, is to 



