74 



indeedj as a farm, it had the greatest natural 

 advantages of any farms I had occasion to 

 view that were to let. 



While I remained with the General, a 

 half-brother of hi-s (of the name of Holi- 

 day) came and gave me an invitation to go 

 to see him. This gentleman was said to 

 be one of the best farmers in America; and 

 was as much distinguished for tillage as 

 Mr. Gittings for meadow. I went and 

 stopped a day with him : and as his farm 

 joined to General Ridgely's estates, I had 

 great satisfaction in his company ; and got 

 my own ideas substantiated by facts from 

 him, he having tried saintfoin, rye-grass, 

 and several other English grasses, and dif- 

 ferent things in the same way. He grow- 

 ed wheat upon his land, or on a small part 

 of it. He told me it was a very precarious 

 crop ; that his best produce was from eight 

 to ten bushels per acre ; and sometimes 

 not even the seed again, it being frequently 

 totally destroyed by the Hessian fly. Inrich 

 or highly-manured lands, the crops of wheat 



