snort local.rules help

["Brent" <misterb () cybertours com>]

Im trying to run snort on my FBSD 4.3 box ...when i start it doing:

/usr/local/bin/snort -d -h 192.168.0.0/24 -l /var/log/snort.log -c /usr/local/etc/snort.conf &     

  from /etc/rc.conf
i get it cant initialize because it cant find local.rules.... however the local.rules is in the the default directory 
for snort
but its empty

there is A  local.rules.sample    but im not sure how to apply it to my situation..

any help is greatly appreciated

Brent