farming

farming, in taxation

farming, in the history of taxation, collection of taxes through private contractors. Usually, the tax farmer paid a lump sum to the public treasury; the difference between that sum and the sum actually collected represented his profit or loss. Although tax farming is no longer practiced, it was common in the cities of ancient Greece and in republican Rome, where the collection of direct taxes was farmed out to publicans; in the Roman Empire only indirect taxes were farmed. In the past, tax farming was practiced in most countries of Europe and Asia. In England the system was tried briefly but played no important part. It was most fully applied in France after 1681, when Jean Baptiste Colbert founded the general farms as an agency of royal administration. The collection of certain indirect taxes was leased by the king to the company of farmers general, a chartered body of 40 financiers (at one time they numbered 60) that guaranteed a fixed sum of revenue in advance. Popular hatred soon developed against the huge profits and extortionist practices of the farmers general, whose organization was abolished (1791) in the French Revolution; some 30 former members of the farm—Antoine Lavoisier among them—were guillotined in the Reign of Terror.

Bibliography

See G. T. Matthews, The Royal General Farms in Eighteenth-Century France (1958).

---

farming, in agriculture

farming, in agriculture: see agriculture.

---

farming

See pharming.

---

farming [′fär·miŋ]

(agriculture)

The skills and practices of agriculture.

---

Farming

Aristaeus

honored as inventor of beekeeping. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 105]

Ashman

goddess of grain. [Sumerian Myth.: Benét, 57]

Barren Ground

Dorinda Oakley makes her father’s poor farm prosperous. [Am. Lit.: Glasgow Barren Ground in Magill I, 57]

Bergson, Alexandra

proves her ability above brothers’ to run farm. [Am. Lit.: O Pioneers!, Magill I, 663–665]

bread basket

an agricultural area, such as the U.S. Midwest, that provides large amounts of food to other areas. [Am. Hist.: Misc.]

Ceres

goddess of agriculture. [Rom. Myth.: Kravitz, 13]

Chicomecoatl

goddess of maize. [Aztec Myth.: Jobes, 322]

cow college

an agricultural college. [Pop. Culture: Misc.]

Dea Dia

ancient Roman goddess of agriculture. [Rom. Myth.: Howe, 77]

Demeter

goddess of corn and agriculture. [Gk. Myth.: Jobes, 429–430]

Dionysus

god of fertility; sometimes associated with fertility of crops. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 575]

Fiacre, St.

extraordinary talent in raising vegetables; patron saint. [Christian Hagiog.: Attwater, 130]

Freya

goddess of agriculture, peace, and plenty. [Norse Myth.: Payton, 257]

Frome, Ethan

epitome of struggling New England farmer (1890s). [Am. Lit.: Ethan Frome]

Gaea

goddess of the earth. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 785]

Georgics

Roman Vergil’s poetic statement set in context of agriculture. [Rom. Lit.: Benét, 389]

Giants in the Earth

portrayal of man’s struggle with the stubborn earth. [Am. Lit.: Giants in the Earth, Magill I, 303–304]

Good Earth, The

portrayal of land as only sure means of survival. [Am. Lit.: The Good Earth]

King Cotton

term personifying the chief staple of the South. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 445]

Kore

name for Persephone as symbol of annual vegetation cycle. [Gk. and Rom. Myth.: NCE, 1637]

Odin

god of farming. [Norse Myth.: Benét, 728]

Persephone (Roman: Proserpine)

goddess of fertility; often associated with crops. [Gk. and Rom. Myth.: NCE, 1637]

Shimerda, Antonia “like

wavering grass, a child of the prairie and farm.” [Am. Lit.: My Antonia, Magill I, 630–632]

Silvanus

god of agriculture. [Rom. Myth.: Kravitz, 13]

Triptolemus

an Eleusinian who learns from Demeter the art of growing corn. [Gk. Myth.: NCE, 557]

Walstan, St.

English patron saint of husbandmen. [Christian Hagiog.: Brewer Dictionary, 1138]

wheat ears, garland

of to Demeter, goddess of grain. [Gk. Myth.: Jobes, 374]

---

(jargon)

farming - (From Adelaide University, Australia) What the heads of a disk drive are said to do when they plow little furrows in the magnetic media during a head crash. Typically used as follows: "Oh no, the machine has just crashed; I hope the hard drive hasn't gone farming again."