488 



FARMERS" REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



dies, with small hammers, seated on a hirge rock 

 and leasling wiih great gout on these dainties. * 

 In Soulhern Africa the oysters of Mossel Bay, 

 are much celebrated, and their flavor considerecl 

 BO fine, that epicures have been induced to visit 

 the bay from Cape Town, (Caps of Good Hope,) 

 for the express purpose of enjoying a lt;ast of 

 them. Th'd ilistance is about three hundred miles, 

 so that ihey onirht to be good to repay the trou- 

 ble, t 



WASHINGTON S AGRICULTURAL NOTESi 



[Notwithstanding the numerous public avoca- 

 tions and duties, in which Washington was en- 

 gaged !br a lame portion of his lile, it is known, 

 that to no one object did he give so much of his 

 time and attention as to aijriculture. The fre- 

 quency and minuteness of his directions to his 

 manaircrs on this head, and tlie unceasing corres- 

 pondence which he kept up during his absence 

 from Mount Vernon, are truly astonishing, when 

 it is considered in what important and absorbing 

 interests his mmd was perpetually occupied. We 

 have selected a (ew particulars from his manuscript 

 papers, which, at the same time they illustrate his 

 agricultural habits, may in part serve as practical 

 ■hinlSj or salutary maxims, to farmers in creneral.] 



j^Im. j^lmanac. 



1. Directions to the manager of his farm. 



A system closely pursued, although it may not 

 in all its parts be the best that could be devised, is 

 attended with innumerable advantages. The con- 

 ductor of the business, in this case, can never be 

 under any dilemma in his proceedings. The 

 overseers, and even the laborers, know what is to 

 he done, and what they are capable of doing, in 

 ordinary seasons. The Ibrce to be employed may 

 be in due proportion to the work which is to be per- 

 fornfied, and a reasonable and tolerably accurate es- 

 timate may be made of the product. But when no 

 plan is fixed — when directions flow from day to day, 

 the business becomes a mere chaos, IrequenlJy 

 shifiing, und sometimes at a stand, for want of 

 l<nowing what to do, or the manner of doing it. 

 Thus is occasioned a waste of time, which is ol 

 more importance than is generally imagined. 



Nothing can so eflectually obviate the evil, as 

 an established system, made known to all who are 

 actors in it, that all may be enabled thereby to do 

 their parts to advantage. This gives ease to the 

 principal conductor of the business, and is more 

 satisfactory to the persons who immediately over- 

 look it^ less harassing to the laborers, as well as 

 more beneficial to the employer. 



Under this view of the subject, the principal 

 service which you can render me, is to explain to 

 the overseers (who will be furnished with dupli- 

 cates,) the plan, in all its parts, which is hereafter 

 detailed; to hear their ideas with respect to the 

 order in which the different sorts of work therein 

 pointed out shall succeed each other, for the pur- 

 pose of carrying it on to the best advantao-e; to 

 correct any erroneous projects they may be dis- 

 posed to adopt ; and then to see that they adhere 

 strictly to whatever may be resolved on, and that 



* Martyn's Hist of the Br. Col. vol. iv. p. 295. 

 t Webster's Voyage to the S. Atlantic Ocean, 1830, 

 Tol. i- p. 223, 



they are always (except when otherwise permit - 

 ed) on their fiirms, and with their people. The 

 work, under such circumstances, will go on 

 smoothly; and, that the stock may be well fed, 

 littered, and taken care of according to the direc- 

 tions, it will he necessary to inspect the conduct 

 of the overseers in this particular, and Ihuse also 

 whose inmiediate business it is to attend upon 

 them, with a watchfid eye; otherwise, and gene- 

 rally m severe weather, when attention and care 

 are most needed, they wdl be most neglected. 

 ■ Economy in all things is as commendable in the 

 inanairer, as it is beneficial and desirable to the 

 employer; and, on a farm, it shovvs itself in noth- 

 ing more evidently, or more essentially, than in 

 not suffering the provender to be wasted, but, on 

 the contrary, in taking care that every atom of it 

 be used to the best advantage ; and, likewise, in 

 not permitting the ploughs, harness, and other im- 

 plements of husbandry, and the gears belonging to 

 them, to be unnecessarily exposed, trodden under 

 foot, run over by carts, and abused in other res- 

 pects. More good is derived from attending to the 

 minutiae of a farm, than strikes people at first 

 view ; and examininir the farm-yai'ds, fences, and 

 looking into the fields to see that nothing is there 

 but wliat is allowed to be there, is oftentimes the 

 means of producing more good, or at least of avoid- 

 ing more evil, than can be accomplished by riding 

 from one workinij parly, or one overseer, to another. 

 I iiave mentioned these things not only because 

 they have occurred to me, but because, although 

 apparently trifles, they prove far otherwise in the 

 result. 



To request that my people maybe at their work 

 as soon as it is light, work till it is dark, and be 

 diligent while they are at it, can hardly be neces- 

 sar}-, because the propriety of it must strike every 

 manager, who attends to my interest, or regards 

 his own character, and who, on reflecting, must 

 be convinced that lost labor is never to be regained. 

 The presumption is. that every laborer does as 

 much in twenty-four hours, as his strength, with- 

 out endangering his health or constitution, will 

 allow. But there is much more in what is called 

 head-work, that is, in the manner of conducting 

 business, than is generally imagined. For take two 

 managers, and give to each the same number of 

 laborers, and let the laborers be equal in all res- 

 pects. Let both these managers rise equally 

 early, go equally late to rest, be equally active, 

 sober, and industrious, and yet, in the course of 

 the year, one of them, without pushing the hands 

 under him more than the other, shall have per- 

 formed infinitely more work. 'J'o what is this 

 owing? Why, simply to contrivance, resulting 

 fi^om that forethought and arrangement, which 

 will guard against the misapplication of labor, and 

 doing it unseasonably. In plou<ihing, for instance, 

 though the field first intended for it, or in wliich 

 the ploughs may actually have been at v.-ork, 

 should, fi'om its situation, be rendered unfit (by 

 rain or other cause) to be worked, and other spots, 

 even though the call for them may not be so 

 urgent, can be ploughed, this business ought to go 

 on, because the general operation is promoted by 

 it. So with respect to other things, and particu- 

 larly carting, where nothing is more common, 

 than, when loads are to go to a place, and others 

 to be brouffht from it, though not equall}^ neces- 

 eary at the same moment, to make two trips, 



