The oldest published version I can find is in:

The Farmer's Almanack ... for ... 1801, by Robert B. Thomas (Boston [Mass.]: John West, 1800), page [36].

Note: Google Books has this cataloged as 1800, but the bound volume they reference consists of several annual issues beginning with 1800. The song appears in the issue for 1801, probably published in 1800. The pages are unnumbered; I deduced page 36 by counting from the title page of the 1801 issue. The page numbers assigned by Google are nonsensical.


THE FARMER

Come, each jolly fellow, who loves to be mellow,
Attend to my song and sit easy:
One pitcher in quiet, my boys, let us try it;
Dull thinking will make a man crazy.

For here I reign king; let us laugh, drink, and sing;
Let no one appear as a stranger;
But shew me the ass, that refuses his glass,
And I'll order him hay in the manger.

By ploughing and sowing, by reaping and mowing,
Kind Nature supplies me with plenty:
I've a plentiful board, and a cellar well stor’d;
My garden affords ev'ry dainty.

I've lawns and I’ve bowers; I've fruits and fine flowers;
I’m here like a justice of quorum:
In my cabin's far end, I've a bed for a friend,
A clean fire-side, and a jorum.

Were it not for my seeding, you'd have but poor feeding;
You'd surely be starved without me.
I'm always content, when I've paid off my rent,
And happy when friends are about me.

Draw on to the table, my boys, while you're able;
Let me hear not one word of complaining;
For the jingling of glasses all music surpasses—
I love to see bottles a-draining.

Let the mighty and great roll in splendor and state,
I envy them not, I declare it:
I kill my own lamb, my chicken and ham;
I shear my own fleece, and I wear it.

I’ve partridge and quail, good cider and ale,
And the robin’s my daily alarmer:
So my jolly boys, now, that follow the plough,
Drink “Long life and success to the Farmer.”