86 The Agricultural Papers of George Washington 



in respectable order. 



I would let these four farms to four substantial farmers, of 

 wealth and strength sufficient to cultivate them, and who 

 would insure to me the regular payment of the rents ; and I 

 would give them leases for seven or ten years, at the rate of 

 a Spanish milled dollar, or other money current at the time 

 in this country equivalent thereto, for every acre of plough- 

 able and mowable ground, within the enclosures of the re 

 spective farms, as marked in the plan; and would allow the 

 tenants, during that period, to take fuel ; and use timber from 

 the woodland to repair the buildings, and to keep the fences 

 in order until live fences could be substituted in place of 

 dead ones ; but in this case, no sub-tenants would be allowed. 



Or, if these farms are adjudged too large, and the rents, 

 of course, too heavy for such farmers as might incline to 

 emigrate, I should have no unsuperable objection against 

 dividing each into as many small ones, as a society of them, 

 formed for the purpose, could agree upon among them 

 selves ; even if it should be by the fields as they are now 

 arranged (which the plan would enable them to do), pro 

 vided such buildings, as they would be content with, should 

 be erected at their own expense, in the manner already men 

 tioned. In which case, as in the former, fuel, and timber for 

 repairs, would be allowed; but, as an inducement to parcel 

 out my grounds into such small tenements, and to compensate 

 me at the same time for the greater consumption of fuel and 

 timber, and for the trouble and expense of collecting small 

 rents, I should expect a quarter of a dollar per acre, in addi 

 tion to what I have already mentioned. But in order to 

 make these small farms more valuable to the occupants, and 

 by way of reimbursing them for the expense of their es 

 tablishment thereon, I would grant them leases for fifteen or 

 eighteen years; although I have weighty objections to the 



