-14- 



his (Winlaw's) threshing machine. The effect was, the heads of the 

 wheat being seperated from the straw, as much of the first was run 

 through the mill in 15 minutes as made half a bushel of clean wheat — ,, fl 

 allowing 8 working hours in the 24, this would yield 16 bushels pr, y^ 

 day. Two boys are sufficient to turn the wheel, feed the mill, and 

 remove the threshed grain after it has passed through it. Two men 

 were unable, by winnowing, to clean the wheat as it passed through 

 the mill, but a common Dutch fan, with the usual attendance, would 

 be more than sufficient to do it. The grain passes through v/ithout 

 bruising and is well separated from the chaff. Women, or boys of 

 12 or 14 years of age, are fully adequate to the management of the 

 mill or threshing machine. Upon the whole, it appears to be an easier, 

 more expeditious, and much cleaner way of getting out grain than by 

 the usual mode of threshing; and vastly to be preferred to treading, 

 T<hich is hurtful to horses, filthy to the wheat, and not more expedi- 

 tious, considering the numbers that are employed in the process from 

 the time the head is begun to be formed until the grain has passed 

 finally through the fan. - J. C. Fltzpatrick, ed.. The Diaries of George 

 Washington . 1748-1799 . 4:72-73 (Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1925). 



WASHINGTON TO ARTHUR YOUNG, FROM MOUNT VERNON, AUGUST 6, 1786 



This letter to Arthur Young, the foremost propagandist for improved agricul- 

 ture in his time, registers the great interest and enthusiasm of Wash- 

 ington for agrioulturo. His pointed criticism of those who looked 

 askance at anything nev; in agriculture is of special moment. 



£ 1 have had the honour to receive your letter of the seventh of 



January, from Bradfield-Hall, in Suffolk, and thank you for the favour 

 of opening a correspondence, the advantages of which will be so much 

 in my favour. 



'>(, j Agriculture has ever been amongst the most favourite amusements of 

 f^ my life, though I never possessed much skill in the art; and nine 

 years total inattention to it, has added nothing to a knowledge which 

 is best understood from practice; but with the means you have been so 

 obliging as to furnish me, I shall return to it (though rather late 

 in the day) with hope and confidence. 



The system of agriculture, if the epithet of system can be applied 

 to it, which is in use in this part of the United States, is as 



