484 



THE FARMERb' REGISTER. 



AGRICULTURAL LETTER FROM GEN. WASH- 

 INGTON TO HIS OVERSEERS. 



From the Farmers' Gazette. 



We are indebted to the kindness of an old 

 friend (or tlie Ibliovving valuable document; valu- 

 able not only because of the revered source from 

 which it eraanatecf, but because it affords aiany 

 excellent lessons from an able and practical 

 farmer ; it is too strongly characteristic of the 

 American hero. We see here the exercise in 

 private life of that attention to detail, that in- 

 flexible devotion to order and discipline, which 

 so eminently mark the public character of Wash- 

 ington. No one can read this letter without see- 

 ing at once that 'he writer was an industrious, 

 sound, practical farmer. He, whose indomitable 

 energy had given Ireedom to a world, did not es- 

 teem" the most minute details of agriculture un- 

 worthy his attention. 



It will probably surprise the reader to find 

 Gen. Washington insisting upon the use of har- 

 rows and cultivators in the cultivation of his corn; 

 this we have been accustomed to plume our- 

 selves upon as a much more modern invention. 



This letter, directed to his overseers, is taken 

 from the manuscript copy in Washington's own 

 hand writing, and as we are informed, now ap- 

 pears in print for the first time. 



Philadelphia, Uth July, 1793. 



Gentlemen.— h being indispensably necessary 

 that I should have some person at Mount Vernon 

 through whom I can communicate my orders ; 

 who will see that these orders are executed ; or, 

 if not obeyed, who will inform me why they are 

 not; who will receive the weekly reports and 

 transmit them ; receive money and pay it ; and 

 in general to do those things which do not apper- 

 tain to any individual overseer— I have sent my 

 nephew, Mr. Howell Lewis, (who lives with me 

 here,) to attend to them until I can provide a 

 managerof established reputation in these matters. 

 You will, theretbre, pay due regard to such direc- 

 tions as you may receive from him, considering 

 xhem as coming immediately from myself. But 

 that you also may have a general knowledge of 

 what I expect from you, I shall convey the Ibllow- 

 ino- view (which I have of the business commit- 

 ted to your charge) as it appears to me, and direct 

 you to govern yourself by it : as I am persuaded 

 nothing inconsistent therewith will be ordered by 

 Mr. Lewis, without authority from me to depart 

 Irom it. 



1st. Although it is almost needless to remark 

 that the corn°giound at the farm you overlook 

 ought to be kept perlecily clean and well plough- 

 ed yet, because not only the goodness of that 



crop depends upon such management, hut also 

 the wheat crop which is to succeed it, ! cannot 

 forbear urging the propriety and necessity of the 

 measure in very strong terms. 



2d. The wheal is to be got into the barns or 

 into stacks as soon as it can be done with any sort 

 oF convenience, that it may not (^eepccially the 

 bearded wheat, which is subject to injury by wet 

 weather,) sustain loss in shocks—and because 

 the shattered grain in the fields may be beneficial 

 to the stock ; but no hogs are to be put on stubble 

 fields in which grass seeds were sown last liill, 

 winter or spring ; other stock, however, may be 



turned on them, as it is rooting that would be pre- 

 judicial. 



3d. The whole swamp, from the road from 

 Manley's bridge up to the lane leading to the 

 new barn, is to be got into the best and most 

 complete order for sowing grass seeds in August 

 — or, at the farthest, by the middle of Septem- 

 ber. The lowest and wettest part thereof is to be 

 sown with limot-hy seed alone. All the other 

 parts ol" it are to be sown with timothy and clover 

 seeds mixed. The swamp on the other side of 

 the aloresiid lane (now in corn and oats) is to 

 be kept in the best possible order, that the part 

 not already sown with grass seeds, may receive 

 them either this autumn (as soon as the corn can 

 be taken off' with salety) or in the spring, as cir- 

 cumstances shall dictate. 



No exertion or pains are to be spared at Dague- 

 run to get the swamp from Manley's bridge up 

 to the meadow above, and the two enclosures in 

 the mill swamp, in the highest order lor grass, to 

 be sown in the time and manner above mention- 

 ed. But that no more may be attempted than 

 can be executed well, proceed in the following 

 order with them, accordingly as the weather may 

 happen to be, lor this must be consulted, as dry 

 weather will answer to work in the low parts 

 best, whilst the higher grounds may be worked 

 at any times. 



lit. Begin with the swamp from Manley's 

 bridge upwards, and get all that is not already in 

 grass well prepared lor it, and indeed sown. 2d. 

 That part of the lower meadow on the mill run, 

 which lies between the old bed of it and the race, 

 and within the fiences. 3d. After this is done, 

 take that pan in the enclosure above (which was 

 in corn last year) lying between the ditch and 

 fence of No. 1, up and down to cross fences. 4th. 

 Then go over the ditch and prepare slipe after 

 slipe as the ditch runs from the one cross lence to 

 the other, and conif ue to do this as long as the 

 season will be good, or the seed can be sown 

 with propriety and safety. 



1 conceive that the only way to get these 

 grounds in good order and with expedition, is to 

 give them one good ploughing and then to tear 

 them to pieces with heavy harrows. Whether it 

 be necessary to cut down and take off the weeds 

 previous to these workings can be decided better 

 by experiments on the spot than by reasoning on 

 it at a distance. My desire is that the ground 

 shall be made perlectly clean, and laid down 

 smooth ; without which meadows will always be 

 foul — umch grass left in them, and many scythes 

 broken ia culling what is taken off'. 



4ili. The t)uck wheat which has been sown for 

 manure ought to be ploughed in (he moment a 

 sufRi'ieiicy of seed is ripe to stock the ground a 

 second lime; oiherwise, so fir Irom iis answering 

 the purpose ol manure, it will become an exhaust- 

 er. For this reason, if the ploughs belonging to 

 ihe liirm are unable to turn it in time, those of 

 Muddy hole, Dague run and Cnion liirm must 

 combine to do it, the work to tie repaid by the 

 farm which receives the benefit, as soon as the 

 work is accomplished thereat. 



5ih. Where clover and timothy seeds are mix- 

 ed and sown together, allow five pints of the first, 

 and three of the latter to tlie acre ; and wliere 

 timothy only is sown, allow lour quarts to the 

 acre. Let the seed be measured in the proportions 



