-29- 



compleated; and with the information, & accuracy I am persuaded it 

 will be executed, under your auspices, must be extremely desirable. — 

 The climate of this Country, particularly that of the middle states 

 is congenial to this species of animal; but want of attention to them 

 in most farmers, added to the obstacles which prevent the importation 

 of a better herd, by men who would be at the expence, contributes 

 not a little to the present inferiority we experience.... 



■K y , ^ Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson had the perusal of the papers 

 / which accompanied your note of the 11th of Sep. 



With great respect and esteem I have the honor to be Sir, 

 Your Obed Servt. G. Washington. - Le tte rs from His Exc e lle ncy George Wash- 

 ington ... to Sir John S inclair ...p. 21-28 (London, W. Bulmer and Co., 1800). 



WASHINGTON TO JEFFERSON, FROM MOUNT VERNON, OCTOBER 4, 1795 



The early leaders like Washington and Jefferson had a mutual in- 

 terest in agricultural advancement and exchanged views 

 on the subject. The following is an example. 



J-l I am much pleased with the account you have given of the succory. 

 This, like all other things of the sort with me, since my absence from 

 home, has come to nothing; for neither my overseers nor manager v/ill 

 attend properly to any thing but the crops they have usually culti- 

 vated; and, in spite of all I can say, if there is the smallest dis- 

 cretionary power allowed them, they will fill the land with Indian 

 corn, although even to themselves there are the most obvious traces 

 of its baneful effects. I am resolved, however, as soon as it shall 

 be in my power to attend a little more closely to my own concerns, to 

 make this crop yield in a degree to other grain, to pulses, and to 

 grasses. I am beginning again with chiccory, from a handful of seed 

 given me by Mr. Strickland, which, though flourishing at present, has 

 no appearance of seeding this year. Lucerne has not succeeded better 

 with me than with you; but I will give it another and a fairer trial 

 before it is abandoned altogether. Clover, when I can dress lots 

 well, succeeds with me to my full expectation, but not on the fields 

 in rotation, although I have been at much cost in seeding them. This 

 has greatly disconcerted the system of rotation on which I had decided. 



