of the farm-house, and, finally, the most fitting construction of the farm-house itself, according to the size and situation of the farm, are discussed, described, and explained.  Plans and estimates of every expense are added, and woodcuts illustrative of every less known suggestion.  These are not only sufficient to guide the intelligent young farmer in all the preliminary arrangements for his future comfort and success, but will, we are sure, supply hints to many older heads for the reconstruction or improvement of farm-steadings, heretofore deemed convenient and complete.  The following chapter aids him in the choice of his servants, and describes distinctly the duties and province of each.

And now, having concluded his domestic arrangements, [3] he must learn to know something of the weather which prevails in the district in which he has settled, before he can properly plan out or direct the execution of the various labours which are to be undertaken upon his farm during the winter.  A chapter of some length, therefore, is devoted to the “weather in winter,” in which the principles by which the weather is regulated in the different parts of our islands, and the methods of foreseeing or predicting changes, are described and illustrated as far as they are known.  This is the first of those chapters of The Book of the Farm which illustrates in a way not to be mistaken, the truth announced at the head of this article, that skilful practice is applied science.

[Footnote 3:  Hesiod considered one other appendage to the homestead indispensable, to which Mr. Stephens does not allude, perhaps from feeling himself incompetent to advise.]

To some it may appear at first sight that our author has indulged in too much detail upon this subject; but he is not a true practical farmer who says so.  The weather has always been a most interesting subject to the agriculturist—­he is every day, in nearly all his movements, dependant upon it.  A week of rain, or of extraordinary drought, or of nipping frost, may disappoint his most sanguine and best founded expectations.  His daily comfort, his yearly profit, and the general welfare of his family, all depend upon the weather, or upon his skill in foreseeing its changes, and availing himself of every moment which is favourable to his purposes.  Hence, with agricultural writers, from the most early times, the varied appearances of the clouds, the nature of the winds, and the changing aspects of the sun and moon, and their several significations, have formed a favourite subject of description and discussion.  Thus of the sun Virgil says—­

  “Sol quoque, et exoriens et quum se condet in undas,
  Signa dabit; solem certissima signa sequuntir. 
  Et quae mane refert, et quae surgentibus astris.”

And then he gives the following prognostics, as unerring guides to the Latian farmer:—­