Editing Farm (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Marion Cty, Iowa Farmer w mule drawn wagon, 1920s.jpg|thumb|A farmer harvesting crops with mule-drawn wagon, 1920s, [[Iowa]], US]]
The word in the sense of an agricultural land-holding derives from the verb "to farm" a revenue source, whether taxes, customs, rents of a group of manors or simply to hold an individual manor by the [[feudal land tenure]] of "fee farm". The word is from the medieval Latin noun ''firma'', also the source of the French word ''ferme'', meaning a fixed agreement, contract,<ref>Larousse Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise ''Lexis'', Paris, 1993</ref> from the classical Latin adjective ''firmus'' meaning strong, stout, firm.<ref>{{cite book|title=Collins dictionary of the English language|year=1986|publisher=Collins|location=London|bibcode=1986cdel.book.....H|editor=Patrick Hanks}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Cassell's Latin dictionary|publisher=Funk & Wagnalls|editor=James Robert Vernam Marchant, Joseph Fletcher Charles}}</ref> As in the medieval age virtually all manors were engaged in the business of agriculture, which was their principal revenue source, so to hold a manor by the tenure of "fee farm" became synonymous with the practice of agriculture itself.