THE farmer’s manual. 
DECEMBER. 
'07 
Your farming is now all done, and I trust well 
done ; no man has thrown away a dollar unnecessa- 
nly upon new and visionary schemes, by making 
experiments upon English farming in our country ; 
or lost two dollars in saving the expense of one cent 
stock of manure, iiloughing, 
and tilling his fields, draining and bogging his wet 
mowing grounds, or not manuring, plastering, or 
washing his dry mowing grounds, or bv not rinsing 
and steeping his seed- wheat, or by sowing too spar- 
ttigly, or by not steeping and plastering his seed-rye, 
oats, barley, &c. or by neglecting to steep his Indian- 
corn at planting, and rolling it in plaster, or even by 
not plastering or ashing the hills, or even by neglect- 
ing to plaster his potatoes at planting, or at hoeing ; 
or what is worse than all, by neglecting to plaster 
his young clover, and suffering his fences to be out 
of repair, and thus waste his crops ; with all the 
tram of evils which follow ; poverty, disgrace, dis- 
tress and ruin. I am persuaded that every farmer 
who reads this work, has applied his money liberally, 
and to the best^ advantage, and is now prepared to 
amuse himself in the rare of his stock, in the social 
enjoyment of his friends, his family, and his fire-side, 
through the long approaching winter, with his heart 
lull of graiiiude to that God who is the parent of Na- 
ture, and of all her productions, and who has thus 
enriched him with the bounties of his common provi- 
dence, rewarded liberally the labours of his hands, 
and given him all things so richly to enjoy. 
Farmers,^ you are, under God, the lords of this 
lower creation ; in obedience to the command of God. 
you till the earth, nature’s vast store house ; into 
your hands she pours her wealth, through a thousand 
tributary streams, and from your stores are fed the 
inhabitants of the palace, and the cot. This high, 
this elevated, this ennobled rank in life, is calculated 
