-60- 



Mr. Young's letters v/hich you have been so kind as to communicate to 

 me. I have never before considered with due attention the profit 

 from that animal. I shall not be able to put the farm into that form 

 exactly the ensuing autumn, but against another I hope I shall, and I 

 shall attend with precision to the measures of the ground and of the 

 product, which may perhaps give you something hereafter to communi- 

 cate to Mr. Young which may gratify him, but I will furnish the 

 ensuing winter what was desired in Mr. Young's letter of Jan. 17, 

 1793. I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, dear 

 Sir, your most obedient humble servant. - H. A. Washington, ed.. The 



WrltinRs of Thomas Jefferson . 4:3-5 (Washington, D. C, Taylor & Maury, 1854). 



JEFFERSON TO PRESIDENT WASHINGTON, FROM MONTICELLO, MAY 14, 1794 



Jefferson worked out a crop rotation which he used to restore the 

 lands at Monticello which had suffered from neglect under 

 overseers during his long absences. 



.... I find on a more minute examination of my lands than the 

 short visits heretofore made to them permitted, that a ten years' 

 abandonment of them to the ravages of overseers, has brought on them a 

 degree of degradation far beyond what I had expected. As this obliges 

 me to adopt a milder course of cropping, so I find that they have 

 enabled me to do it, by having opened a great deal of lands during my 

 absence. I have therefore determined on a division of my farm into 

 six fields, to be put under this rotation: first year, wheat; second, 

 corn, potatoes, peas; third, rye or wheat, according to circumstances; 

 fourth and fifth, clover where the fields will bring it, and buck- 

 wheat dressings where they will not; sixth, folding, and buckwheat 

 dressings. But it will take me from three to six years to get this 

 plan underway. I am not yet satisfied that my acquisition of overseers 

 from the head of Elk has been a happy one, or that much will be done 

 this year towards rescuing my plantations from their wretched condi- 

 tion. Time, patience and perseverance must be the remedy; and the 

 maxim of your letter, "slow and sure," is not less a good one in agri- 

 culture than in politics.... With every wish for your health and hap- 

 piness, and my most friendly respects for Mrs. Washington, I have the 

 honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. - 



H. A. Washington, ed.. The Wr itings of Thoipas Jefferson. 4:105-107 (Washington, 

 D. C, Taylor & Maury, 1854). 



