Farmer

[A. S. feormere.) In England, one who farms; one who cultivates leased lands. - A husbandman; an agriculturist; one who works at tillage, . One who takes taxes, customs, excise, and other sources of revenue, to collect for a certain rate per cent. -( Min ing.) In Cornwall, Eng., the lord of the manor in which mines are worked. -In the U. States, a person whose busine 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. In this country, the F. is generally the owner of the farm he occupies; and depending on its products for his subsistence and fortune, has thus every inducement to thoroughne and intelligent care in its cultivation. Farm'er, in Ohio , a post-village and township of Defiance co., about 145 m. N.W. of Columbus; pop . of township, about 1,800. Farm'ere , n . A woman who manages a farm. (R.) (In this sense the word farmer is generally applied to females equally with males.) Farmer-general, n . [Fr. fermier-general.] ( French Hist.) A title given in France to the members of a privileged a ociation, who, before the revolution of 1789, farmed certain branches of the public revenue, that is, paid the government a certain fixed annual sum for the right of collecting certain of the taxes. Under Francis L., in 1546, the duties on salt were first raised by farming the monopoly of its sale in each town. In 1599, Sully introduced the system of disposing of the right of farming the taxes to the highest bidder, and in this way greatly increased the public revenue. In 1728, under the regency, several of the individual leases were united into a fer me générale , which was let to a company, the members of which were termed fermiers généraux. In 1789, the number of F. G. was 44, who paid into the treasury 180 millions of livres annually. They were po e ed of extensive powers and privileges, conferred upon them by special decrees; and, from the manner in which they exercised their powers, they were viewed with great detestation by the people. Hence, during the Revolution, to which this in no small degree contributed, Farmersville, in Tezas , a post-office of Collin co. Farmersville, in Wis ., a former P. O. of Dodge co. Farm'er Village, in New York , a post-village of Seneca co., about 6 m. S. E. of Ovid. NOW FARMER. Farmerville, in Pennsylvania , a village of Union co. Also called FARMERSVILLE and CoWAN.