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 



