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the opinion of others whom I have consulted, the low rent which I 

 shall mention hereafter; and provided also I can settle it v/ith good 

 farmers. 



The quantity of ploughable land (including meadow), the rela- 

 tive situation of the farms to one another, and the division of these 

 farms into separate inclosures, with the quantity and situation of the 

 woodland appertaining to the tract, will be better delineated by the 

 sketch herewith sent (which is made from actual surveys, subject, 

 nevertheless, to revision and correction), than by a volume of words. 



No estate in United America, is more pleasantly situated than 

 this. It lies in a high, dry, and healthy country, three hundred 

 miles by water from the sea, and, as you will see by the plan, on one 

 of the finest rivers in the world. Its margin is washed by more than 

 ten miles of tide-water; from the bed of which, and the innumerable 

 coves, inlets, and small marshes, with which it abounds, an inexhaust- 

 ible fund of rich mud may be drawn, as a manure, either to be used 

 separately, or in a compost, according to the judgment of the farmer. 

 It is situated in a latitude between the extremes of heat and cold, 

 and is the same distance by land and water, with good roads, and the 

 best navigation (to and) from the Federal City, Alexandria, and 

 Georgetov/n; distant from the first, fifteen, from the second, nine, 

 and from the last, sixteen miles. The Federal City, in the year 1800, 

 will become the seat of the general government of ^the^. United States. 

 It is increasing fast in buildings, and rising int^/Ccinsequence; and 

 will, I have no doubt, from the advantages given to it by nature, and 

 its proximity to a rich interior country, and the western territory, 

 become the emporium of the United States. 



The soil of the tract of which I am speaking, is a good loam, 

 more inclined, however, to clay than sand. From use, and I might add, 

 abuse, it is become more and more consolidated, and of course heavier ^ 

 to work. The greater part is a greyish cla^ r-come part is a dark_v^''^ 

 mould; a very little is inclined to sand, ano^sTarcely any to stone. 

 A husbandman's wish would not lay the farms more level than they are; 

 and yet some of the fields (but in no great degree) are washed into 

 gullies, from which all of them have not as yet been recovered. 



This river, which encompasses the land the distance above- 

 mentioned, is well supplied with various kinds of fish, at all seasons 

 of the year; and, in the spring, with the greatest profusion of shad, 

 herrings, bass, carp, perch, sturgeon, &c. Several valuable fisheries 

 appertain to the estate; the whole shore, in short, is one entire 

 fishery. 



There are, as you will perceive by the plan, four farms besides 



