134 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



He has lately built a barn . . . destined to re- 

 ceive the productions of his farm, and to shelter his 

 cattle, horses, asses, and mules. It is built on a plan 

 sent him by that famous English farmer, Arthur 

 Young. But the general has much improved the 

 plan . . . His three hundred negroes are dis- 

 tributed in different parts of his plantation, which in 

 this neighborhood consists of ten thousand acres." 



Four thousand acres and more were under cultiva- 

 tion, and from the Mount Vernon landing Washing- 

 ton's tobacco and his wheat and his well known and 

 prized brand of flour, went, some to the West Indies, 

 and some all the way across the Atlantic to the mar- 

 kets of England. 



It was his purpose and delight that every part of 

 the place should be kept with the utmost neatness; 

 but during his two long absences, each of eight years 

 for the war kept him from home as long as his two 

 terms as President things were not done as they 

 would have been under his watchful eye. This he 

 expected of course, and he refrains characteristically 

 from complaint. But a word or two now and then re- 

 veal his discomfort and disgust at the neglect as 

 when he writes, immediately upon his return from 

 being President, that part of the work of a joiner 

 whom he wishes engaged at "the Federal City" (Wash- 

 ington now) or George Town, will be to give some 



