George Washington 



Fanner 





li 



IRST in better farming, 

 first in love of farm life 

 and first to vision a nation 

 ^urown from the soil. " Such is the esti- 

 mate of one author of Geori;e Washing- 

 ton as a farmer. 



A visitor to Mt, Vernon in I7!^'i said 

 that his host's 'greatest pride is to he the 

 first farmer in America He is t|uite a 

 Cintinnatus." 



George Washington inherited an estate 

 of 260(1 acres in l?")! when liis older 

 brother Lawrence died. The tract was 

 located in lower Virginia, described as a 

 high, dry and healthy country 3('0 miles 

 by Neater from the sea. " Tiie history of 

 Mt. \'ernon begins in Ki"! when Lord 

 C uljx'pper con\eyed 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 Oeeks." 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, w ith a reversion to George 

 should Lawrence die without issue. 



The original house was built about 

 17-10, and the place was named Mount 

 Vernon by Lawrence, in honor of Ail- 

 miral Vernon, under whom he had 

 served at Carthagena. After tiie death 

 of Lawrence, the estate of 2600 acres 

 came under Washington's management, 

 and from l?*)! it was his home, as it 

 had been pr.icti^allv even in his brother's 

 life. 



Twice Washington materially enlarged 

 the hou.se at Mount Vernon, the first 

 time in f^rtO and the second in 17S5, 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 corn shucks: and liave too little 

 knowledge of the profit of grass lands." 



In that day destructive farming ua-> 

 the rule; soil conservation was unknown 

 Discussing the c]uestion further in l"^)l 

 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 his 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 improve^t 

 as it ought to have been ; w hereas .i 

 farmer in England, where l.md 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 poliiv, 

 F will readily grant; but it requires 

 time to conc]uer bad habits, and hardlv 

 anything short of necessitv is able to 



accomplish it. That necessity is ap 

 pro.iching by pretty rapid strides 



A piece of land is cut down, and 

 kept under constant ctiltivation, first in 

 tobacco, and then in Indian corn (two 

 \ery exhausting plants), until it will 

 yield scarcely anything: a second piec- 

 is cleared, and treated in the same iiian- 

 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 lanii 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 

 tjuality, in order to raise soinething. The 

 latter has been generally adopted, xid. 

 with the assistance of horses, he scratches 

 over much ground, and seeds it, to verv 

 little purpose." 



Like all other planters in lower V^ir- 

 ginia in Colonial times, George Wash- 

 ington's crop was first tobacco, and more 

 tob.icco; but from the first this one crop 

 system displeased him. originally, per- 



liaps. because his land w.is not of the 

 !>est quality for this crop; but more 

 because of its effeit on the soil, the 

 special labor requirements, and the com- 

 plications of its marketing. He was one 

 of the first large planters to diversify 

 Ins crops. Still, in l"*!*;. he made ^7,. 

 (HH) [-(ounds of tobano and in l~fiS 

 almost 90.000 pounds; but by l~~s it 

 had fallen to ^.000 pounds, and it was 

 never a main crop thereafter, though he 

 continued to raise a small quantity down 

 to l~S'; 



Wheat Ix-came his substitute as the 

 chief crop; and. in spite of other plants, 

 so remained. In \7&) he sold 6.2 46 

 bushels, but later l>e milled the wheat 

 himself and sold the flour. Most of his 

 tlour went ultimately to the West In, lies, 

 and from it the gre.ttest part of the farm 

 revenue probably came. He experimented 

 widely in its culture, tried varioiis ways 

 10 prevent rust or the Hessian dy I rem 

 spoiling the crop, tried various plows, 

 and made a plow on his own plan. He 

 also invented a b.irrel drill. He esti- 

 mated the proper time to begin reaping 

 .ind the progress of the iradlers, in- 

 vested in threshing machines and had a 

 threshing floor in iiis new round barn 

 instead ol outside as was the accepted 

 custom, 



Hesidcs wheat he raised other gruns 

 - coin, oats, barley, rye. buckwheat, 

 which last was also plowed under as 

 a fertilizer. But these were mainly for 

 domestic consumption. Corn fi.wi: him 

 much trouble, and his l.ind. not being 

 especially fertile, was not favorable for 

 the crop At times he had to purchase 

 corn to make up the cjuantity 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 comtnon vegetables - - roots 



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FEBRUARY, 1938 



29 



