450 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



place offers greater inducements, than the vicinity of 

 Washington. Commodore Jones/ who has a farm a few 

 miles up the Potomac, told me that, when he commenced 

 operations there, a few years since, it was the universal 

 opinion of his neighbors, that he could not raise grass. 

 But he commenced a new system with a new set of plows 

 procured from you, turning over a deep furrow and fol- 

 lowing with a subsoil plow, the first one ever used in that 

 vicinity, and by the use of the first lime, plaster, guano, 

 and bone dust, together with all the manure that could be 

 saved or manufactured, he soon had good fields of grass 

 for hay or pasturage. Subsoil plowing not only saves 

 land from suffering by drouth, but is almost invaluable 

 in preventing the soil from washing away and forming 

 deep gullies. At first, his neighbors were very shy about 

 experimenting with any of these fertilisers. Now, it is 

 not unusual for one man to expend $500 for such sub- 

 stances, and make a large profit, too, upon the outlay. 



December 17th, I passed from Washington to Rich- 

 mond, 133 miles. Fare $5. The boat leaves there at 9 

 o'clock, stopping at Alexandria, about 10 o'clock, passes 

 Mt. Vernon, the resting place of him who said — "Agricul- 

 ture is the most healthy, the most useful, and the most 

 noble employynent of man."^ It arrives at Acquia Creek, 

 55 miles, about one. Here we take good cars upon a rail- 

 road, which, after struggling through many difficulties, is 

 now in very good condition ; and if the owners of the 

 lands along side of it only understood their interest, they 

 would make it the means of improving large tracts, that 

 now pain the eye with their barrenness. The advantages 



^ Thomas ap Catesby Jones, naval officer, born in Virginia, 1789; 

 died at Georgetown, D. C, May 30, 1858. Commanded fleet at New 

 Orleans during War of 1812. In command of station off California 

 in 1840. Upon learning, from what he considered reliable sources, 

 of war with Mexico, took possession of Monterey; was suspended 

 for this action. Settled at Prospect Hill, Virginia, and became in- 

 terested in wheat farming. Contributor to The Plow, 1852. Lamb's 

 Biographical Dictionary of the United States, 4:452. 



^ This quotation from George Washington was used as a motto 

 by agricultural periodicals of that time. 



