FARMER.
Any number of persons may play. All the 8’s and all the 6’s but the ♡6 are discarded from a pack of fifty-two cards. All court cards count for 10, the ace for 1, and all others at their face value. A pool is then made up by each player contributing one counter. This is the farm, and it is sold to the highest bidder, who must put into it the price he pays for it. He then becomes the farmer, and deals one card to each player, but takes none himself.
The object of the players is to get as near 16 as possible, and each in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left must take at least one card. After looking at it he may ask for another, and so on until he is créve or stands. Should a player overdraw himself, he says nothing about it until all are helped, when the hands are exposed. Any player having exactly 16 takes the farm and all its contents. If there is more than one 16, that which is made with the assistance of the ♡6 wins, otherwise the one which is made with the fewest cards. If this is a tie the eldest hand wins. If no one has exactly 16, the farm stays with its original owner deal after deal, until exactly 16 is held by some player.
Whether any one wins the farm or not, when the hands are exposed all those who have overdrawn must pay to the one who owned the farm at the beginning of that deal, as many counters as they have points more than 16. These payments do not go into the farm, but are clear profits. Those who have less than 16 pay nothing to the farmer; but the one who is nearest 16 receives a counter from each of the others. Ties are decided by the possession of the ♡ 6, or the fewest cards, or the eldest hand, as already described. If the farm remains in the same hands, the farmer deals again, and collects his profits until he loses his farm. When the farm is won, it is emptied, and resold as in the beginning.