18 

 FOUR TABLES OF CROP ROTATION 1793-1799. 



These tables are here inserted to show with what prodigious 

 industry Washington studied the rotation of his crops look 

 ing for the greatest yield with the least investment. These 

 tables were apparently made for comparative purposes, in an 

 effort to discover which system of rotation would give the best 

 results. 



Jared Sparks in his &quot; Writings of Washington &quot; (1837) 

 Vol. XII, p. 374, makes the following statement concerning 

 these tables : 



&quot; To understand the tables of Rotation of Crops which 

 follow, it should be observed, that they all apply to one and 

 the same farm, which contained 525 acres, and was divided 

 into seven fields. The first part of each table indicates the 

 kind of products destined for each field, under the respective 

 years. Then follow the times for ploughing the different 

 fields, and the number of days it will take ; next, an estimate of 

 the probable quantity and value of the products ; lastly, re 

 marks on the plan of the table, and on the results of the rota 

 tion. 



&quot; In a note attached to these tables, Washington says : 

 The ploughing is calculated at three fourths of an acre per 

 day. If, then, one plough will go over a seventy-five acre 

 field in one hundred days, five ploughs will do it in twenty 

 days. In some ground, according to the state of it, and the 

 seasons, an acre at least ought to be ploughed per day by 

 each team; but the estimate is made at three fourths of an 

 acre, in order to reduce it to more certainty. The fields are 

 all estimated at seventy-five acres each (although they run a 

 little more or less), for the sake of more easy calculation of 

 the crops, and to show their comparative yield. &quot; 



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