St, John (Crevecoeur) wrote these “Letters” during a period of seven years prior to the American Revolutionary War, while farming land near Orange County, New York. They are told from the viewpoint of a fictional narrator in correspondence with an English gentleman, and each letter concerns a different aspect of life or location in the British colonies of America. the letters are written in a spirit of touching simplicity, almost better than Chateaubriand. You’d think neither of them would ever know how many beans make five. This American Farmer tells of the joys of creating a home in the wilderness, and of cultivating the virgin soil.