George Washington 



Farmer 



an 



ii^^V IRST in better farming, 

 > : ^"^T^r first in love of farm life 

 ^J^ and first to vision a nation 

 grown Trom the soil." Such is the esti- 

 mate of one author of George Washing- 

 ton as a farmer. 



A visitor to Mt. Vernon in 1785 said 

 that his host's "greatest pride is to be the 

 first farmer in America. He is quite a 

 Cincinnatus." 



George Washington inherited an estate 

 of 2600 acres in 1754 when his older 

 brother Lawrence died. The tract was 

 located in lower Virginia, described as "a 

 high, dry and healthy country 300 miles 

 by water from the sea." The history of 

 Mt. Vernon begins in 1 674 when Lord 

 Culpepper conveyed to Nicholas Spencer 

 and Lieutenant-Colonel John Washing- 

 ton 5,000 acres of land "situated and be- 

 ing within the said territory in the coun- 

 ty of Stafford in the freshes of the Potto- 

 mocke River and . . . bounded betwixt 

 two Creeks." John Washington's half 

 was left to his son Lawrence, and, by 

 Lawrence's will, it was left to his daugh- 

 ter Mildred. She sold it to the father of 

 George, who, by his will, left it to his 

 son Lawrence, with a reversion to George 

 should Lawrence die without issue. 



The original house was built about 

 1740, and the place was named Mount 

 Vernon by Lawrence, in honor of Ad- 

 miral Vernon, under whom he had 

 served at Carthagena. After the death 

 of Lawrence, the estate of 2600 acres 

 came under Washington's management, 

 and from 1754 it was his home, as it 

 had been practically even in his brother's 

 life. 



Twice Washington materially enlarged 

 the house at Mount Vernon, the first 

 time in 1760 and the second in 1785, and 

 a visitor reports, what his host must have 

 told him, that "it's a pity he did not 

 build a new one at once, for it cost him 

 nearly as much to repair the old one." 



George Washington by his own ad- 

 mission loved the farm. "Agriculture has 

 ever been the favorite amusement of my 

 life," he said. "The more I am acquainted 

 with agricultural affairs, the better 

 pleased I am with them; insomuch, that 

 I can find nowhere so great satisfaction 

 as in those innocent and useful pursuits." 



On one occasion he said: "My country- 

 men are too much used to corn blades 

 and com shucks; and have too little 

 knowledge of the profit of grass lands. " 



In that day destructive farming was 

 the rule; soil conservation was unknown. 

 Discussing the question further in 1791 

 he said: "The aim of the farmers in 

 this country (if they can be called farm- 

 ers) is, not to make the most they can 

 from the land, which, is or has been 

 cheap, but the most of the labour, which 

 is dear; the consequence of which has 

 been much ground has been scratched 

 over and none cultivated or improved 

 as it ought to have been; whereas a 

 farmer in England, where land is dear, 

 and labour cheap, finds it to his inter- 

 est to improve and cultivate highly; 

 that he may reap large crops from a small 

 quantity of ground. That the last is 

 the true, and the first an erroneous poliq-, 

 I will readily grant; but it requires 

 time to conquer bad habits, and hardly 

 anything short of necessity is able to 



accomplish it. That necessity is ap- 

 proaching by pretty rapid strides. 



"A piece of land is cut down, and 

 kept under constant cultivation, first in 

 tobacco, and then in Indian corn (two 

 very exhausting plants), until it will 

 yield scarcely anything; a second piece 

 is cleared, and treated in the same man- 

 ner; and then a third and so on, until 

 probably there is but little more to clear. 

 When this happens, the owner finds him- 

 self reduced to the choice of one of three 

 things — either to recover the land he 

 has ruined, to accomplish which, he has 

 perhaps neither the skill, the industry, 

 nor the means ; or to retire beyond the 

 mountains; or to substitute quantity for 

 quality, in order to raise something. The 

 latter has been generally adopted, and, 

 with the assistance of horses, he scratches 

 over much ground, and seeds it, to very 

 little purpose. " 



Like all other planters in lower Vir- 

 ginia in Colonial times, George Wash- 

 ington's crop was first tobacco, and more 

 tobacco; but from the first this one-crop 

 system displeased him, originally, per- 



haps, because his land was not of the 

 best quality for this crop; but more 

 because of its effect on the soil, the 

 special labor requirements, and the com- 

 plications of its marketing. He was one 

 of the first large planters to diversify 

 his crops. Still, in 1759, he made 37,- 

 000 f>ounds of tobacco and in 1763 

 almost 90,000 pounds; but by 1773 it 

 had fallen to 5,000 pounds, and it was 

 never a main crop thereafter, though he 

 continued to raise a small quantity down 

 to 1789. 



Wheat became his substitute as the 

 chief crop; and, in spite of other plants, 

 so remained. In 1769 he sold 6,246 

 bushels, but later he milled the w-heat 

 himself and sold the flour. Most of his 

 flour went ultimately to the West Indies; 

 and from it the greatest part of the farm 

 revenue probably came. He experimented 

 widely in its culture, tried various ways 

 to prevent rust or the Hessian fly from 

 spoiling the crop, tried various plows, 

 and made a plow on his own plan. He 

 also invented a barrel drill. He esti- 

 mated the proper time to begin reaping 

 and the progress of the cradlers, in- 

 vested in threshing machines and had a 

 threshing floor in his new round barn 

 instead of outside as was the accepted 

 custom. 



Besides wheat he raised other grains 

 — corn, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, 

 which last was also plowed under as 

 a fertilizer. But these were mainly for 

 domestic consumption. Com gave him 

 much trouble, and his land, not being 

 esp>ecially fertile, was not favorable for 

 the crop. At times he had to purchase 

 com to make up the quantity necessary 

 for the slaves' food allowance. The plan- 

 tation was almost self-sustaining, for he 

 cultivated hay crops of various varieties, 

 including alfalfa which he called lucerne, 

 and more common vegetables — roots 

 , •■ ■. (Continued on page 31) 



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FEBRUARY. 1938 



29 



