16 

 WILLIAM STRICKLAND July 15, 1797. 



An able discussion of the Englishman s criticism of agricul 

 tural methods followed in the United States is contained in 

 this letter. Washington deplores the wasteful use of land, 

 and the expensive style of fencing then in vogue in this coun- 

 try. 



There are also some interesting remarks upon the methods 

 of planting wheat, and growing clover with orchard grass. 



TO WILLIAM STRICKLAND, IN ENGLAND 



Mount Vernon, 15 July, 1797. 

 Sir, 



I have been honored with yours of the 30th of May and 

 5th of September of last year. As the first was in part an 

 answer to a letter I took the liberty of writing to you, and 

 the latter arrived in the middle of an important session of 

 Congress, which became more interesting as it drew more 

 near to its close, inasmuch as it was limited by the constitu 

 tion to the 3d of March, and on that day was to give po 

 litical dissolution to the House of Representatives, a third 

 part of the Senate, and the Chief Magistrate of the United 

 States, I postponed, from the pressure of business occasioned 

 thereby, the acknowledgment of all private letters, which did 

 not require immediate answers, until I should be seated under 

 my own vine and fig-tree, where I supposed I should have 

 abundant leisure to discharge all my epistolary obligations. 



98 



