Farm

[A. S. farm a, fearm, or feorm, food, a meal; gefeormian, to supply with food. The word arose from the original practice of letting lands, on the condition that the tenant should supply his lord's household with so many nights' entertainments.) A portion of land under cultivation, taken on lease or rented; ground let to a tenant for tillage, pasture, ., on condition of his paying a certain sum, annually or otherwise, for the use of it. A tract of ground or landed estate devoted by its owner to agricultural purposes. The state of lands let out for cultivation by tenants; as, to set out a landed property in farm. - A district or territory farmed out for the collection of certain revenues therefrom. (Agric.) A portion of ground cultivated for the purpose of profit. Farms are of different kinds: where the principal part of the land is ploughed, they are "arable farms;" where the raising and fattening of cattle or other live-stock is more immediately the object, they are known as "grazing farms;" where the chief object is the obtaining of the different animal products, such as milk, butter, and cheese, they are called "dairy farms;" and where the two systems of arable and gra management can be combined, they are "convertible farms." As manure must be had in order to keep up the productivene of farms of any kind, the last may probably be generally considered as the most advantageous. In the selection of a farm and of the locations for its buildings, care should be taken to avoid the inconvenience arising from climate and the quality or situation of the ground. Both pleasure and profit should be considered in the purchase of a F. The Romans laid it down as a rule that no degree of fertility should tempt a man to purchase in an unhealthy country, nor the pleasantest situations in a barren one. "Buy not too hastily," says Cato, "but view again and again the purchase you intend to make; for, if it be a good one, the oftener you see it the better it will please you. Examine how the neighboring inhabitants fare. Let the country it lies in be a good one; the ways to and from it good; and the air temperate. Let your land, if you can choose your situation, be at the foot of a hill, facing the south, In a healthy place where a sufficiency of water may be farms his ground on scientific principles. Farm'able, a . That may be farmed; susceptible of agricultural improvement; as, farmable soil.