32 The Agricultural Papers of George Washington 



barley (for I had made many fruitless inquiries in this State, 

 and the parts of Maryland bordering on it, before I wrote 

 to you), induced me to put the ground, which I had first al 

 lotted for this grain, into wheat and rye; but, if you could 

 secure and send to me, by one of the first vessels bound 

 from your port to Alexandria, fifty bushels, I will yet find 

 as much ground as will receive this quantity of seed; or, 

 if you have engaged one hundred bushels of this grain from 

 Reuben Haines, as the expression of your letter seems to 

 import, I will readily take it, but would not choose to be 

 under any promise of supplying him with the produce of it ; 

 first, because being uncertain of the yield, and inclining 

 to go pretty largely upon it if I find it likely to answer my 

 purpose, I shall want a good deal for seed; and, secondly, 

 because the freight around, it is to be feared, would sink 

 too deep in the scales to render me any profit upon a small 

 quantity. 



The clover seed, as I conceived this had been a productive 

 year of it, is high; yet I would beg you to send me three 

 hundred weight. As soon as I know the precise cost of 

 this, and the barley, the money shall be remitted; or, if you 

 have any dealings in Alexandria, and an order on me will 

 answer your purposes equally as well, it shall be immediately 

 paid. 



If it is the same thing to Mr. Haines, whether I take 

 fifty or a hundred bushels, I shall, under the circumstances 

 already mentioned, prefer the former quantity. It is so 

 essential to every farmer to have his seeds by him in time, 

 that I would urge in strong terms, that these now acquired 

 be sent to me by the first good water conveyance. The 

 uncertainties and disappointments of last spring will always 

 make me anxious to obtain all my seeds long before the sea 

 son for sowing them shall have arrived. At any rate, let 



