428 AGRICULTCRE. 



tate. During tte Revolution, althDugt necessarily absent from 

 Mount Vernon, lie endeavored to carry out his plans -by frequent 

 and minute directions to his manager there. 



No sooner had the war closed, than 'Washington immediately 

 retired to his beloved Mount Vernon, and was soon deeply immei-sed 

 in the cares and pleasures of the life of an extensive^landed propri- 

 ,etor. But it was by no means a life of indolent repose, though 

 upon an estate large enough to secure him in the possession of 

 e^ery comfort. The very first year after the war, he directed his 

 attention and his energies to'the improvement of the mode of farm- 

 ing then in vogiie in the whole of thatpS*^ of the country. 



He quickly remarked, that the system of the tobacco planters 

 was fast exhausting the lands, and rendering them of little or no 

 value. He entered into correspondence with the most distinguished 

 scientific agriculturists in Great Britain, studied the ablest treatises 

 then extant abroad on that subject, and immediately carried into 

 practice the most valuable principles which he could draw: from^he 

 soundest theory andpractiee then known. At a time when the 

 planters were thinking of abandanibg their worn-out lands, Wash- 

 ington began a new and most excellent system of rotation of crops, 

 based on a careful exai&ination of the qualities of the soils," on his 

 estate, aind by substituting grains, grass, and root crops, for tobacco, 

 he soon restored the soil tcgood condition,' and found his iricoine 

 materially increasing, while his neighbors, who pursued the old sys- 

 tem, were daily growing poorer. 



■ Nothing was more remarkable, among the trials ~pf this great 

 man's character, and nothing contributed more to his success in all 

 he undertook, than the complete manner in which he first mastered 

 his subject, and the exact method in which he afterwards marked 

 out and pursued his plans. 



In farming, this was evinced in the thoroughly systematic course 

 of culture which he adopted on his It^ount Vernon estate. This 

 estate consisted of about 8000 acres, of which over 2000 acres, di- 

 vided into five farms, were under cultivation. On his map of this 

 estate, every field was numbered, arid in his accompanying agricul- 

 tural field-book, the crops were assigned to each field for several 

 years in advance. So well had he studied the nature of the soils. 



