THE COMMENCEMENT OF OPERATIONS. 21 



and develop a plan for future operations. What to do about 

 buildings, what fences to remove, so as to enlarge his fields, 

 what to rebuild, what land, if any, to drain, what crops to 

 plant, what stock to keep, how to improve the pastures, which 

 meadows to break up, which to top-dress and bring into better 

 mowing condition — these and a hundred other questions will 

 present themselves, and they must all be decided with most 

 careful judgment. Though he do his best, he will make many 

 mistakes, and when, in the spring, he comes to review in the 

 field his winter's work in the house, he will see reasons for chang- 

 ing many of his plans. But, for all that, his plans will have been 

 profitable to him, in many ways, and he will be in a better posi- 

 tion to decide on the best course after having made them. 



When he really gets at work, in March or April, he will have 

 his hands full, and his head full, too, with the management of 

 each day's operations. Then, his practical experience will come 

 into play, and, tempered by what he has learned by his winter's 

 reading, must carry him through planting, haying, and harvest, as 

 best it may. 



It would be too much a work of mere imagination to describe 

 all the labors of the season ; to fancy this field to be drained ; 

 that one to be made smaller ; this larger ; a barn to be built here ; 

 a shed there ; and all that, — I prefer to leave these details to the 

 young man's own discretion, and, (as I cannot write out direc- 

 tions for all farms,) to turn to the discussion of the various prin- 

 ciples and operations which all farmers need to know about, so 

 that not only he, but all others, may have, so far as I am able to 

 give it them, a convenient hand-book of their occupation. 



