THE AGRICULTURAL PAPERS OF 

 GEORGE WASHINGTON 



APRIL, 7TH-15TH, 1785 



This extract from Washington s diary gives us an excellent 

 example of the care he took to record his agricultural activi 

 ties, and of the thoughtful attitude he seems to have had to 

 ward his occupation as a farmer. 



It may be interesting to note here, too, that these entries 

 were made in his diary about two years after the close of the 

 Revolutionary War. 



EXTRACT FROM WASHINGTON S AGRICULTURAL 



DIARY 



April 7th, 1785. Cut two or three rows of the wheat 

 (Cape wheat) within six inches of the ground, it being near 

 eighteen inches high, that which was first sown, and the 

 blades of the whole singed with the frost. 



8th. Sowed oats today in drills at Muddy Hole with 

 my barrel plough. 1 Ground much too wet; some of it had 

 been manured, but had been twice ploughed, then listed, then 

 twice harrowed before sowing ; which, had it not been for the 

 frequent rains, would have put the ground in fine tilth. 

 Ploughed up the turnip patch at home for orchard grass. 



i See page 1, Selection No. 34 for a more complete account of this im 

 plement. 



17 



