ver
their respective departments of labour.... He should always deliver
the daily allowance of corn to the horses. _He should be the first
person out of bed in the morning, and the last in it at night_. On
most farms, he sows the seed in spring, superintends the
field-workers in summer, tends the harvest-field and builds the
stacks in autumn, and thrashes the corn with the mill, and cleans it
with the winnowing-machine in winter. He keeps an account of the
workpeople's time, and of the quantity of grain thrashed, consumed
on the farm, and delivered to purchasers."--Vol. i. p. 221.

The practical man who reads the above detail of the steward's duties,
will see at once that it must have been written by "one of themselves;"
and, by its correctness, will be able to judge of the full faith
which may be placed in the numerous other details upon every branch
of practical farming with which the work now before us is so full.

We have brought prominently forward the above extracts in relation to
the _minutiae_ of the farmer's life--to the detailed practical
knowledge which is so valuable to him, as being those upon which it
appeared to us that a writer who was capable of getting up a book at
all, much more such a book as this professes to be, in reference to
the higher branches of the farmers' art, was most likely to fail.
But these parts of the work are written not only knowingly and well,
but with an evident relish for the subject. Let us turn, therefore,
to the more intellectual part of the book, and see how far this part
of the task has been satisfactorily accomplished.

_The Book of the Farm_ is mainly intended as a manual for the
master-farmer, accompanying him every where, and at every season of
the year, counselling, guiding, and directing him in all his
operations. But it has a higher and more useful aim than merely to
remind the practical agriculturist of what he already knows. It is
fitted, without other aid, to teach the beginner nearly every thing
which it is necessary for him to know in order to take his place
among the most intelligent practical men; and to teach it precisely
at the time, and in the order, in which it is most easy, most useful,
and most interesting for him to learn it.

The beginner is supposed by Mr. Stephens to have undergone a previous
course of instruction under a practical man, and to enter upon a
farm of his own in the beginning of winter. This farm is a more or
less naked and unimpro