Tine Agricultural Papers of George Washington 49 



flour. When this work is set about as the sole, or as a serious 

 business, it will be executed properly. But when a little is 

 done now, and a little then, there is more waste, even if there 

 should be no embezzlement, than can well be conceived. 



One or two other matters I beg may be invariably at 

 tended to. The first is to begin harvest as soon as the 

 grain can be cut with safety ; and the next, to get it in the 

 ground in due season. Wheat should be sown by the last of 

 August; at any rate by the 10th of September; and other 

 fall grain as soon after as possible. Spring grain and grass 

 seeds should be sown as soon as the ground can possibly, 

 with propriety, be prepared for their reception. 



For such essential purposes as may absolutely require the 

 aid of the ditchers, they may be taken from that work. At 

 all other times they must proceed in the manner, which has 

 been directed formerly; and in making the new roads from 

 the Ferry to the Mill, and from the Tumbling Dam across 

 the Neck, till it communicates with the Alexandria road, as 

 has been pointed out on the spot. The ditch from the Ferry 

 to the Mill along this road may be a common four-feet one. 

 But from the Mill to the Tumbling Dam, and thence across 

 to the head of the old field by Muddy-Hole fence, it must be 

 five feet wide at top, but no deeper than the four-feet one, 

 and the same width at bottom as the latter. 



After the carpenters have given security to the old barn 

 in the Neck, they must proceed to the completion of the new 

 one at the Ferry, according to the plan and the explanations, 

 which have been given. Gunner and Davis should get bricks 

 made for this purpose ; and if John Knowles could be spared 

 (his work, not only with respect to time, but quantity and 

 quality to be amply returned) to examine the bilged walls, 

 and the security of them, but to level and lay the founda 

 tions of the other work, when the bricks are ready, it would 



