AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOR THE 
ITarm, Garden, and Honseliold. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOHLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.’’— 
©RANGE Jubd, A.m., ) ESTABLISHED IN 1842. 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. V 
Office, 41 Pails Row, “Times Buildings.” ) Published botli in English and German. 
VOLUME XXI—No. 4 NEW-YORK, APRIL, 1862. NEW SERIES—No. 183. 
$1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE. 
SINGLE NUMBER, 10 CENTS. 
For Contents, Terms, etc., sec nasre 
Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1862, hy 
0range Judd, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of 
the United States for the Southern District of New-York. 
Other Journals are invited to copy desirable articles 
freely, if each article he credited to American Agriculturist. 
April. 
The last words of the Farewell Address of the 
Father of his country, read in every village and 
city in the loyal States on the late anniversary 
of his birth, are still lingering in our ears. “ Re¬ 
lying on its kindness in this as in other things, and ac¬ 
tuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so nat¬ 
ural to a man who views in it the native soil of him¬ 
self and his progenitors for several generations, I an¬ 
ticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat inrwhich 
I promise myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet 
enjoyment of partaking, in the midst of my fellow 
citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a 
free government." No wonder that he looked 
forward with such eager anticipation to his 
secure retreat upon the shores of the Potomac. 
Virginia had been the home of his fathers for 
four generations, and Mount Vernon had been 
the home of his affections, and the scene of his 
industries before he assumed the cares of State. 
Amid all his public cares at the head of the ar¬ 
mies of his country during the war of independ¬ 
ence, and at the head of the government after 
peace was declared, he never lost sight of his 
private affairs. There was a constant supervis¬ 
ion not only of the general plan of farm oper¬ 
ations at Mt. Vernon, but of all details, extend¬ 
ing to the rotation of crops, the planting of par¬ 
ticular fields, manuring, tillage and marketing. 
Washington was kept so constantly in public 
life from middle age to his death, that it is very 
natural that we should know much more of 
him as a General and Statesman, than as a til- 
i ler of the soil. But we find among his papers 
and letters that he was quite as good at tilling 
the soil as at any of those tasks to which his 
country called him. He knew how to plan a 
campaign in the fields of husbandly quite as 
well as in the fields of war, and had he never 
been known as General and President, he would 
have stood in the front rank of the rural im¬ 
provers and planters of his native State. It 
was hy his thorough and systematic attention to 
his own private affairs, that he acquired those 
habits that made him so skillful a manager of 
public interests. He was known to the men of 
his time as the owner of one of the largest and 
loveliest estates in America, an estate that he 
had adorned and cultivated with his own hands, 
and made immensely productive hy a system of 
husbandry of his own devising. It was because 
he had taken root in its soil, and grown to a 
princely stature, acquiring wealth and fame by 
his wise management at home, that lie was 
wanted hy the wise men of his time to manage 
their quarrel with the mother country. We have 
done well as citizens to recall his political teach¬ 
ings in the farewell address at the recent anniver¬ 
sary of his birth. There are somethings note¬ 
worthy in his life at Mt.Vernon, to which we as 
farmers shall do well to give heed at all times. 
He was an enthusiastic lover of rural life, re¬ 
garding the noble art of “ agriculture as the most 
healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of 
man." It was always a sad day, whenever he 
turned away from the rich landscape beauty of 
the Potomac, from the beautiful lawns sloping 
down to the river, from the winding walks and 
shrubbery, from the fruit and flower garden 
planted by his own hands, and from the broad 
acres rendered productive hy his skill, for the 
artificial life of the city, and the corrupt moral 
atmosphere of scheming politicians. No day 
was so joyful to him as that which welcomed 
him to his farm. Is there not a rebuke here for 
the multitudes who are turning their backs upon 
the old homestead, exchanging the plow for the 
yard stick, a certain and honorable means of 
subsistence for the golden visions of hazardous 
speculation ? In his view, there was nothing 
like farm life. In their view, anything else is 
better than farm life. 
He gave a minute personal attention to all 
the details of his farming operations, carrying 
out a well planned system. His Mt. Vernon 
estate consisted of about 8000 acres, of which 
over 2000 acres divided into five farms were un¬ 
der cultivation. He did not suppose that the 
farm would take care of itself, and support him 
without his planning and management. Sparks, 
in his biography, says of him, “ With his chief 
manager at Mt. Vernon, he left full and minute 
directions in writing, and exacted from him, a 
weekly report, in which were registered the 
transactions of each day on all the farms, such 
as the number of laborers employed, their 
health or sickness, the kind and quantity of 
work executed, the progress of crops at the va¬ 
rious stages of their growth, the effects of the 
weather on them, and the condition of the horses, 
cattle, and other live stock. By these details, he 
was made perfectly acquainted with all that was 
done, and could give his orders with almost as 
much precision as if he had been on the spot. 
Once a week, regularly, and sometimes twice, he 
wrote to the manager, remarking on his report 
of the preceding week and giving new direc¬ 
tions. These letters frequently extended to two 
or three sheets, and were always written with 
his own hand. Such was his laborious exact¬ 
ness, that the letter sent away was usually 
transcribed, from a rough draft, and a press 
copy was taken of that transcript, which was 
carefully filed away with the manager’s report, 
for his future inspection. In this habit lie per¬ 
severed with unabated diligence, through the 
whole eight years of his Presidency, except dur¬ 
ing the short visits he occasionally made to Mt. 
Vernon, at the close of the sessions of Congress. 
He moreover maintained a large correspondence 
on agriculture with gentlemen in Europe and 
America. His thoughts never seemed to flow 
more freely nor his pen move more easily than 
when he was writing on agriculture, extolling it 
as a most attractive pursuit, and describing the 
pleasure derived from it and its superior claims, 
not only on the practical economist, but on the 
Statesman and philanthropist.” 
Here was undoubtedly the secret of his suc¬ 
cess as a farmer. No business can he made to 
pay unless a man will give his close attention to 
it. If a man holds his lands as a speculation, and 
is always ready to sell out to the first man who 
offers him a handsome advance, he can not ex¬ 
pect to make money by the culture of the soil. 
He not only gave close attention to his busi¬ 
ness, but he managed his lands skillfully. He 
was a progressive farmer, making free use of 
hooks and correspondence, as well as his own 
experiments, to advance himself in his favorite 
art. He quickly observed that the system of 
culture prevalent among his neighbors, was fast 
exhausting their lands and making them of no 
value. At a time when they were thinking of 
abandoning their cultivated fields, he adopted a 
most excellent system of rotation of crops; and 
substituting grains, grass, and root crops for to¬ 
bacco, he soon restored the soil to good condi¬ 
tion, and found his income increasing, while his 
neighbors who pursued the old system grew 
poorer. Every field was mapped out, and the 
crops assigned to it, for several years in advance. 
How completely this peaceful farm life filled 
the cup of his bliss, we see in his letter to Oliver 
Woleott: “ To make and sell a little flour an¬ 
nually, to repair houses fast going to ruin, and 
to amuse myself in agricultural and rural pur¬ 
suits, will constitute employment for the few 
years I have to remain on this terrestrial globe. 
If also I could meet now and then the friends I 
esteem, it would fill the measure and add zest, 
to my enjoyments; hut if ever this happens, 
it must he under my own vine and fig tree, as 
I do not think it probable that I shall again 
go beyond twenty miles from them.” 
