222 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 
tion and soil erosion were problems he was continually fight- 
ing, and he made extraordinary efforts to preserve the texture 
of the soils along the river banks. His Mt. Vernon estate 
amounted to over eight thousand acres, and was subdivided into 
five farms, the home farm being called Mansion House Farm. 
In 1760 his principal crops were clover, rye, grass, hops, tre- 
foil, timothy, and speltz. His operations as a livestock man 
were particularly comprehensive. He raised cattle, sheep, swine, 
horses, deer, turkeys, and geese, with his greatest interest in 
sheep, horses and mules. At this day it is rather curious to 
find negroes listed among the livestock products of his farm. 
GENERAL WASHINGTON kept stallions for public service, prin- 
cipally of the Arab breed, but he also in his later days had a 
few Narragansett pacers. GENERAL WASHINGTON imported a 
number of sheep from England, mostly rams, these animals 
being of the Dishley-Leicester breed, originated by RoBERT 
BAKEWELL (72). He was the first breeder of mules in America, 
having imported several Spanish jacks, and was presented with 
a pair of Bedford pigs by a British Admiral, which had an 
important influence in the foundation of the Chester White 
breed of swine. 
Modest, disinterested, generous and just, he sought nothing 
for himself in the way of public favor, and declined all public 
reimbursement beyond his original outlays, scrupulously 
accounted for. What better eulogy has ever been written than 
Ricuarp Henry Lee’s “First in war, first in peace and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen.” 
