8 The Agricultural Papers of George Washington 



with none; but, if yours should view the subject differently, 

 burn this letter, and the draught which accompanies it, and 

 the whole matter will be consigned to oblivion. 



All my landed property, east of the Appalachian Moun 

 tains, is under rent, except the estate called Mount Vernon. 

 This, hitherto, I have kept in my own hands; but, from my 

 present situation, from my advanced time of life, from a 

 wish to live free from care, and as much at my ease as 

 possible, during the remainder of it, and from other causes, 

 which are not necessary to detail, I have latterly entertained 

 serious thoughts of letting this estate also, reserving the 

 Mansion-House Farm for my own residence, occupation, and 

 amusement in agriculture; provided I can obtain what is, in 

 my own judgment, and in the opinion of others whom I have 

 consulted, the low rent which I shall mention hereafter; and 

 provided also I can settle it with good farmers. 



The quantity of ploughable land (including meadow), the 

 relative situation of the farms to one another, and the di 

 vision of these farms into separate enclosures, with the quan 

 tity and situation of the woodland appertaining to the tract, 

 will be better delineated by the sketch herewith sent (which 

 is made from actual surveys, subject nevertheless to revision 

 and correction), than by a volume of words. 



No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated 

 than this. It lies in a high, dry, and healthy country, three 

 hundred miles by water from the sea, and, as you will see by 

 the plan, on one of the finest rivers in the world. Its margin 

 is washed by more than ten miles of tide-water; from the 

 bed of which, and the innumerable coves, inlets, and small 

 marshes, with which it abounds, an inexhaustible fund of rich 

 mud may be drawn, as a manure, either to be used separately, 

 or in a compost, according to the judgment of the farmer. 

 It is situated in a latitude between the extremes of heat and 



