WASHINGTON, THE FARMER. 429 



tjiat with sligLit subdivisions and experimental deviations, this sci- 

 entific system of rotation was pursued with great success, from about 

 1786 to the close of his life. 



After about four years-;— the most agreeable,, doubtless, of his 

 whole life — ^passed at Mount Vemoni, in its improved condition, he 

 was again called, by the spontaneous voice of one people to the 

 Presidency. Much has been said and. written about the reluctance 

 of CincinUatus to leave his farm, and return. to the service of the 

 Koman Republic ;, bit the sources &r regret in his position must 

 have been small, compared to those which, Washington felt, when 

 he left Mount Vernon on this occasion. The farm of Cincinnatus, 

 which has been rendered famous in cj^ssical history, was. anJheredi- 

 tary allotment of four acres, and its cultivation was part of the 

 daily toil of his own hands. Mount Vernon, on the other hand, 

 was oiie of the largest and loveUest estates in America ; it stood 

 amid the tich landscape beauty of the Potomac, its beautiftd lawns 

 running down to the river, its serpentine walks of shrubbery, its 

 fruit and flower-garden, planted by its master's own hands,* and its 

 broad acres rendered productive by an intelligent and comprehen- 

 sive system of agriculture of his own construction — think, oh ye 

 who have never thus taken root in the soil, how hard it must have 

 been for .Washington the Farmer, to surrender again, even to the 

 flattering wish of a whole nation, the life that he so much loved, for 

 the hard yoke of what he, felt to be; the most difBcult public 

 service. . / 



It is the best prpof of how thoroughly devoted by natural taste 

 was Washington to agriculture, that instead of leaving Mount Ver- 

 non to the charge of the excellent agent whom he had well 

 grounded in h|s own system of practice, and who could no doubt 

 have continued that practice with success, he never lost sight for a 



* Waahington's residence exhibited every mark of the cultivated and 

 refined coiintry gentleman. He appears to have had considerable taste in 

 (irnamental gardening ; he decorated his pleasiye-grounds with much effect : 

 and his diary shows that he collected and planted a variety of rare trees 

 and shrubs with his own hands, and watched their growth with the greatest 

 interest. He employed skilful gardeners, and pruning was one of his favor- 

 ite exercise^. 



