FARMER. 



FARMS, OLD AND NEW. 



obtained, there are few situations where water ' 

 cannot be got by sinking a well ; the best way 

 is to raise it into a cistern, which may be ; 

 placed in any of the shelter yards, and from 

 this be conveyed by pipes to the different yards, i 

 furnished wiih proper cisterns and ball-cocks. I 

 The passages and entrances to the buildings 

 should be wide ; the gates hung on wooden 

 posts or hewn stone pillars. 



FARMER (Sax. peopmep, Fr. fermier). A 

 person whose business or employment is the 

 cultivation of land, the breeding, rearing, and 

 feeding of different sorts of live stock, and the 

 management of the various products which 

 are afforded by them; hence those engaged in 

 this way may be further distinguished into 

 arable, grazing, dairy, hay, and other kinds of 

 farmers, according to the modes in which their 

 farms are cultivated or employed. 



The farmers of Great Britain, who are ge- 

 nerally men of superior intelligence to those of 

 Flanders or other parts of Europe, may be ar- 

 ranged into the following classes : 1. The great 

 proprietors and country gentlemen. 2. Yeo- 

 men and farmers, properly so called. 3. Pos- 

 sessors of small farms. 4. Cottagers, includ- 

 ing different descriptions of people, who culti- 

 vate small farms, and a few acres adjoining to 

 towns and villages. 



FARM-HOUSE. The dwelling occupied by 

 a farmer. The principal objects to be attended 

 to in erecting a farm-house are, convenience 

 and a salubrious situation. Besides the gene- 

 ral salubrity of the spot where dwellir 

 to be erected, the air, water, and soil | 

 quire to be particularly attended to : the first 

 should be pure and temperate; the second 

 une and easily obtained. The most 

 healthy and convenient site on the farm ought 

 to be selected for building the house ; easy ac- 

 cess and central situation being taken into con- 

 sideration. An abundant supply of water tor 

 domestic purposes, and for live-stock, is indis- 

 pensable. The water, however, should not be 

 stagnant. Ponds in the immediate vicinity of 

 a house are not essentially injurious, unless 

 they become dry in summer, or towards au- 

 tumn ; for at the period between the drying up 

 and the complete dryness of ponds, or stag- 

 nant pools, the decomposition of animal and 

 vegetable matter which is then proceeding 

 evolves miasmata that generate disease. A 

 dry gravelly soil, through which the rain can 

 freely percolate, is to be preferred. The degree 

 of dampness of a locality may be always pretty 

 correctly estimated by observing the quantity 

 of moss and lichens upon the trees ; and the 

 weeds being those that grow in marshy situa- 

 tions. 



FARMING. The business or management 

 of a farm, comprehending the whole circum- 

 stances and conduct of it. 



It is a practice that demands constant care 

 and attention, as well as much activity and 

 judgment, to conduct it in a proper and advan- 

 tageous manner. It requires an intimate and \ 

 practical knowledge of all the arts of cultiva- \ 

 lion and management, as well as of the nature 

 and value of every kind of live-stock; and | 

 ttill further, a perfect acquaintance with the 



arious modes of buying and selling, and the 



constant state of different markets and fairs. 

 In addition to all these, there are several other 

 minutiae of much consequence to the success 

 of the farmer, which will be treated of under 

 their respective heads. 



Farming, once regarded as a profession easy 

 to be understood and successfully followed only 

 by the empiric, has long since been viewed in 

 a different, in a wiser manner. It has been 

 justly said that no pursuit requires more talent, 

 perseverance, and more careful observation, 

 than the cultivation of the earth ; that so far 

 from its being an empirical business, it is, in 

 fact, one that several other sciences illustrate 

 and assist one, whose professors cannot too 

 often examine the practice of other cultivators; 

 and hence, since it has been found that the la- 

 bours of the chemist, the botanist, the mecha- 

 nist, and the geologist, are all available in the 

 service of the farmer, it has followed as a na- 

 tural consequence, that the farmers of our age 

 have become a more scientific, more educated, 

 and a far more enlightened class than those of 

 any previous generations. 



F M;MS. OLD AND NEW. Whether it is 

 more profitable in the United States, to lay out 

 money in the purchase and improvement of 

 exhausted farms, or in the clearing and im- 

 provement of new land, is a question which 

 requires more mature consideration than has 

 been generally given to it. Calculations em- 

 the several expenses required in the 

 two operations would seem to show, that the 

 intelligent farmer, versed in the various pro- 

 cesses of producing manure and taking ad- 

 vantage of green fallow crops, will lay out his 

 means most profitably in restoring worn-out 

 land to fertility; provided he does not commit 

 the common error of endeavouring to improve 

 more land than his resources will enable him 

 to do justice by. 



On the other hand, the man of more limited 

 means, who cannot buy an old farm or get one 

 on a sufficiently long lease, may, by going west, 

 purchase land at $1-25 per acre, or 200 acres 

 for $250, which will be already in the highest 

 state of fertility, but seriously encumbered 

 with heavy timber or other natural besetmerit. 

 This he clears and brings under cultivation 

 little by little, working, perhaps, a certain por- 

 tion of his time for others, in order to obtain sub- 

 sistence previous to the coming in of his crops. 

 Every acre cleared may cost him some 15 or 

 20 dollars, which, however, adds the same 

 amount to the value of the farm, whilst every 

 bushel of grain and every addition to his stock 

 is so much gained. It may be several years 

 before the pioneer will accumulate much pro- 

 perty. Still, however, the prospect of an ulti- 

 mate independence thus held out to the poor 

 and industrious settler, is a good one. 



He who has the advantage of sufficient 

 means to enable him to purchase exhausted 

 lands at from 5 to 10, 20, and even 30 or 40 

 dollars per acre, may, by a judicious applica- 

 tion of lime, marl, plaster, and other mineral 

 fertilizers, aided by green fallow crops ploughed 

 under to form a mould, soon resuscitate a farm 

 and render it again highly productive and 

 valuable. The following facts will demonstrate 

 the practicability of what is here asserted. Mor 



453 



