IV GENERAL PREFACE. 



farming and house-keeping in the country, is 

 the mode that I shall pursue. I shall give an 

 account of what I have done ; and, while this 

 will convince any good farmer, or any man of 

 tolerable means, that he may, if he will, do the 

 same, it will give him an idea of the climate, 

 soil, crops, &c. a thousand times more neat and 

 correct, than could be conveyed to his mind by 

 any general description, unaccompanied with 

 actual experimental accounts. 



5. As the expressing of this intention may, 

 perhaps, suggest to the reader to ask, how it is 

 that much can be known on the subject of 

 Farming by a man, who, for thirty-six out of 



fifty-two years of his life has been a Soldier or 

 a Political Writer, and who, of course, has 

 spent so large a part of his time in garrisons 

 and in great cities, I will beg leave to satisfy 

 this natural curiosity before-hand. 



6. Early habits and affections seldom quit 

 us while we have vigour of mind left. I was 

 brought up under a father, whose talk was 

 chiefly about his garden and his fields, with 

 regard to which he was famed for his skill and 

 his exemplary neatness. From my very infancy, 



