The Agricultural Papers of George Washington 93 



the last war. To grant to one, therefore, would open a wide 

 door to applications of a similar nature, and to consequent 

 embarrassments. Probably the sum granted at the last ses 

 sion of Congress to the daughters of the Count de Grasse has 

 given rise to this application. That it has done so in other 

 instances, I have good reasons to believe. 



I am much pleased with the account you have given of the 

 succory. This, like all other things of the sort with me, since 

 my absence from home, has come to nothing; for neither my 

 overseers nor manager will attend properly to any thing 

 but the crops they have usually cultivated ; and, in spite of 

 all I can say, if there is the smallest discretionary power al 

 lowed them, they will fill the land with Indian corn, although 

 even to themselves there are the most obvious traces of its 

 baneful effects. I am resolved, however, as soon as it shall 

 be in my power to attend a little more closely to my own 

 concerns, to make this crop yield in a degree to other grain, 

 to pulses, and to grasses. I am beginning again with chic- 

 cory, from a handful of seed given me by Mr. Strickland, 

 which, though flourishing at present, has no appearance of 

 seeding this year. Lucerne has not succeeded better with 

 me than with you; but I will give it another and a fairer 

 trial before it is abandoned altogether. Clover, when I can 

 dress lots well, succeeds with me to my full expectation, but 

 not on the fields in rotation, although I have been at much 

 cost in seeding them. This has greatly disconcerted the 

 system of rotation on which I had decided. 



I wish you may succeed in getting good seed of the winter 

 vetch. I have often imported it, but the seed never vege 

 tated, or in so small a proportion, as to be destroyed by 

 weeds. I believe it would be an acquisition, if it was once 

 introduced properly in our farms. The Albany pea, which 

 is the same as the field pea of Europe, I have tried, and found 



