look forward with fond anticipations to the 
hour of returning to the simple life of a Vir¬ 
ginia farmer, of which he wrote to Alexander 
Spots wood : “ I think with you that the life 
of a husbandman of all others is the most 
delightful. It is honorable, it. is amusing, 
and, with judicious management, it is profit¬ 
able.'* An opinion, gentlemen, the truth of 
which I sincerely trust you may all realize 
in your own operations. 
THE GREATEST FARMER IN AMERICA 
Thk following is an abstract of remarks 
made by CoL Jakes Baron Hope, before the 
Norfolf, Va., Pom. and Hort. Societv re¬ 
cently. Col. Hope said It is my int ention 
to t ake you to the Estate of the Father of 
his Country, and to show you George Wash¬ 
ington as a Virginia Farmer of the last cen¬ 
tury. A protracted sickness has prevented 
my putting the ample facts at. my command 
in a satisfactory shape; but while I am 
ashamed of the poverty of my art, 1 do not 
blush for the cure with which I have made 
my investigations, nor for the copiousness of 
my materials, only a small part of which I 
can use. Passing by the great worth, lofty 
virtues and illustrious career of Washing¬ 
ton, to which we all pay an homage, I begin 
first with Mount Vernon, where indeed I shall 
linger for the greater part of the time I have 
allowed myself in illustrating his system of 
agriculture. This estate consisted of the 
Mansion House Farm, on which, as its name 
indicates, his residence stood. Then, attached 
to it, were the following:—Union Farm, 
Muddy Hole, Dogue Run rind River. These 
estates, at the time of his death, contained 
an aggregate of 8,027 acres, as may be seen b v 
reference to IPs will, and a water front o'f 
over ten miles in extent. He owned lands in 
Fayette and Washington counties equal to 
4,644 acres * on t he Ohio and Great Kanawha. 
58.37.5 acres, which land, in his own language,', 
was ' the cream of tin- country,” and here lie 
had a river front of 58 miles. In addition, 
lie had a tract of 1,800 acres on Four Mile 
Run, then the Round Bottom opposite Pipe 
Creek, 15 miles below Wheeling, containing 
EXPERIENCE WITH BONE DUST IN 
RAISING POTATOES. 
I am one of that numerous class of small 
farmers, who own from four to six acres, 
consequently cannot keep cows or llGrses 
profitably ; so we have no ham-vard manure, 
and have to depend on the commercial fer¬ 
tilizers in order to raise our crops. Having 
used fish scraps, and Peruvian guano year 
after year successfully, but thinking that a 
change from these very ammonial manures 
to one less stimulating would l ie an ad vantage 
to the. soil (which is sandy loam), and crops, 
I endeavored to inform myself as to the 
qualities of the different manufactures of 
bone manures, and thought. I would give 
“ Ralston’s Crescent Bone” atrial; so bought 
a barrel of 255 lbs. from Ralston's agent here, 
on May 27, and the following week planted 
my potatoes, about, one-sixth of an acre. 
In Ralston’s pamphlet, or circular, there 
were no special instructions how to use this 
manure on potatoes; for “corn in hill 300 
lbs,” So inferred if it was to be used on 
corn in the liili it would do to sow it iu the 
drill for potatoes. My rows or drills were 
300 yards long, and 1 sowed of the “ Crescent 
Bone” dust nine pounds by weight on this 
300 yards, and planted my Early Rose seed ; 
covered with a hoe and mellowed the ground 
as in garden culture. 1 also planted one-half 
my patch with Peach Blow seed, cut from 
large, well-formed potatoes, and sowed also 
nine pounds actual weight, in my drill of 300 
yards, and treated the Peach Blows iu all 
respects like the Rose, hoping in the full to 
have a nice crop, and a good experience to 
relate. 
When I thought my potatoes had been 
planted long enough to be coming up, I dug 
Into them with my hand and found the 
Peach Blow seed all rotten and full of small 
maggots; also most of Early Rose, were 
rotten, and not a single Peach Blow ever did 
come up, Of the Rose a few sickly plants 
came up every one or two, and sometimes 
three rods apart. Of these plants I was very 
choice, hoeing them often, and top dressed 
them with plaster, as the weather was very 
dry, hoping the plaster would help to attract . 
some moisture from the atmosphere, as well 
us ammonia. The largest of the Rose pota¬ 
toes from these few plants are as large as 
hen eggs, and soggy and insipid things 
enough. 
It will be said by some, “ why did you 
plant right on to the bone dust ?” I say if 
Mr. Ralston knew it was a dangerous ma¬ 
nure to use so, why did he not, iu his circular, 
“ Crescent 
would be Baron of Cameron, as bis younger 
brother now in, though he dues nor take upon 
himself the title.” Tims you see, gentlemen, 
that a kinsman of the gallant Guardsman, 
the Lord of Grcenway Court, who ended his 
eventful life in Virginia, abandoned his rank 
ami renounced a title among the most, hon¬ 
orable of the British Empire. The prow of 
this story is found in the fact, that this estate 
was then in the market, at &J3.33 per acre a 
sum equal to at least $ 10 .') of our currency/ 
All t his, however, has been iu the nature of 
a digression, and I now return to the heroic 
figure of our great Virginia farmer. For his 
daily life and habits at Mount Vernon I must 
refer you to the pages of Irving, where all 
the life and movement and coloring which 1 
exclude from this paper will lie found com¬ 
bined in a vivid pienn e. I oniv remark that, 
like a good farmer lie rose at dawn, and was 
one of the very few grandees in the colony 
or infant Republic who personally looked 
after his own affairs. He was fond of Geld 
sports and kept a pack of hounds which he 
I followed with hearty enjoyment; but, this 
exhilarating sport was always made a matter 
of incidental amusement, and not a pun-nit, 
as was unfortunately lint too common with 
the gentry of that period, 
1 have shown 3-00 the magnitude of the 
estate on which he lived, and f now, by your 
permission, will show you how he systemati¬ 
cally increased its area and productiveness. 
This he did by reclaiming heads of creeks and 
inlets just as we may do here. In his direc¬ 
tions for managing Union farm, he says : 
“Although I may find myself mistaken, lam 
inclined to put the other prong of this swamp 
into meadow, and have directed the mode to 
60 pursued to accomplish it. Next to this 
let ns much of the. inlet in [field] No. 2, as can 
be laid dry for the purpose bo put in corn, 
and when this is effected, planted in grass. 
As the Geld comes round all the inlets’may 
be prepared for grass if circumstances will 
permit. The inlets at the ferry might, be 
brought into excellent meadows at very little 
expense ; but t.o dwell ou the advantages of 
these would be a mere waste of time.” So 
also in speuking of the River farm he said : 
“And as the fields come into cultivation, or 
us the labor can be spared from other work, 
t he heads of all the inlets in them must, be 
reclaimed and laid to grass, whether t hey be 
lurcrn rtv amnipi T! J i - g j \ ' r> J i ,i I - Q j , 
' 1 01 nines ueiow vvnecjmg, containing 
5S7 acres, with 2 X A miles of river- front, and 
251 acres at Great Meadows on Br;vddock's 
Road, a line which will forever remain asso¬ 
ciated with the courage and sagacity of Col. 
Washington, when on the staff of that gallant 
but unfortunate commander, 1 n addition, he 
acquired, by bis murriaga with Mrs. Oustis, 
control oC 15,000 acres of land and 300 slaves, 
for which information 1 am indebted to the 
President of our State Agricultural Society. 
I need not say 1 mean Major Genera! W. i'i. 
F. Lee, who now resides at the White House, 
where his ancestress wag married to Wash¬ 
ington. In addition, he owned lauds in 
Pennsylvania, lu Gloucester and in the Great 
Dismal Swamp, which he personally sur- 
veyed, and out of this examination and his 
report thereon grew the company which is 
now iu existence in the city ol Norfolk. Fi¬ 
nally he owned lots in Williamsburg, Rich¬ 
mond, Manchester, Fredericksburg and Alex¬ 
andria. 
You will observe that I have been only 7 
able in part to give you the extent of bis 
possessions; but we sec that he owned or 
managed us a fiduciary, during the most, 
vigorous years of his fife, an aggregate of 
61.244 acres, and that his riparian ownership 
amounted to 70' j miles. Having given you 
this general and imperfect view of bis pos¬ 
sessions. a very great part of which were its 
primeval forest, to which on a more formal 
occasion J might have ventured to give some 
coloring, 1 rut urn lu tlm Mount Vernon estate 
as it was iu 1762. Ac that time it contained 
8,2150 acres under cultivation, and was worked 
bj- the following force of hands : 
Men. Buys. Women. Girls. 
gageu m tne crops should so soon as corn 
planting is completed in the spring be unin¬ 
terruptedly employed in raising inud from 
the pocoxonR and from the beds of the creek 
into the scow ; untl the carts, as soon as the 
manure for the corn and potatoes is carried 
out, ure to be incesmnUy tlraioinoil [the mudj 
to t he compost heaps in the field which are 
to be manured by it.” 
It is hardly neoessaiy for me to say any¬ 
thing on this point, bui’the,Mayor of Norfolk, 
the Hon. John R, Ludlow, has achieved such 
wonderful results under this system that, I 
beg leave to attract your attention to his 
garden, and especially to his trees, which, 
transplanted in some eases full grown, arc 
strong and vigorous, while the results of his 
horticulture must be seen to be believed. The 
fert ilizer he lias used has been t he mud which 
he has taken up from the river bottom, and 
this is within reach of almost every farmer 
in tide-water Virginia. But with all this 
minute, core, judicious economy, and accurate 
utilitarianism, Washington had an eye to 
the beautiful, as is shown by his love of trees 
and flowering shrubs, for as we learn from a 
letter of his to Mr. Jefferson, he had a botan¬ 
ical garden of his own, to which he was 
Xt eatly devoted. In evidence of hi? fondness 
for trees we And him writing an order to one 
of his managers to save him all the honey 
locusts possible, and in the fail to plant them 
on the ditches, where they are to remain, 
says lie, about .six inches apart, one seed from 
another. Again in directing certain work, 
he say? : The cedars are not, to be cut down, 
but only trimmed, the other trees left here 
and there for shade. ' 
Again he writes ; Li clearing the whole of 
this ground let all the ivy and flowering 
shrubs remain on it over and above the 
clumps and other single trees where they 
may bethought requisite for ornament. 1 
niight go 011 thus, gentlemen, at great length 
in my quotations; but in reproducing the 
words ot Washington it is not necessary to 
multiply them on this or any other subject, 
and I have only dune so to a very' limited 
extent in order to show what value he at¬ 
tached to a thorough system and undeviating 
economy in his farming operations—an econ¬ 
omy which was far from parsimony as light 
is from darkness. But, us he himself says in 
his directions to George A. Washington, 
•• His object is to labor for pro lit.” His views, 
gentlemen, require no elaboration at my 
hands. You can all appreciate their worth, 
mid lu this region can apply them by the 
Mansion House Farm. 12 (> — .1 
MuilUy Hole Farm. 3 — <j — 
Ferry Furm. 7 4 18 — 
River Farm. 8 — 18 — 
Hogue Run Farm... (i — 8 2 
Total force, 12fi. SC 10 63 25 
The above is taken from Iris Manager's Re¬ 
port for April 14, 1792. 
Going a step further I find in a letter to 
Arthur Young, of England, dated Philadel¬ 
phia, December 12 , 1793, that the General 
described his estate as follows, and Mr. Irving 
in hjs charming life has copied in full the 
paragraph from which I quote n part:—“ No 
estate,” says the General, “ in United Amer¬ 
ica is more pleasantly situated than this. It 
lies in a high, dry, healthful country, 300 
miles from (lie sea on one of the finest rivers 
in the world. A husbandman's wish would 
not lay the farms more level than they are. 
The river, which encompasses the land the 
distance above mentioned (ten miles), is well 
supplied with various kinds of fish at all sea¬ 
son? of the year, such as shad, herrings, bass 
carp, perch, sturgeons, &c„ &c., a-ud, several 
valuable fisheries appertain to the estat e-— the 
whole slime, in short, is oue entire fishery.” 
The separate farms wore divided into fields, 
numbered from one to seven, the better to 
enable him to carry on the vise system of 
rotation iu crops to which he so rigidly ad¬ 
hered. Having arrived at some conception 
of the topographical and other advantages 
possessed by the Mount Vernon ©state it 
cannot fail to interest this assembly to know 
how it was stocked at the date above men¬ 
tioned. In t.lie letter already quoted he says 
ou the four farms there are 15 draft horses, 
12 mules, 317 cattle, oxen included, 634 sheep, 
and “ many hogs;” but. says he. us these run 
large or small | JHHWH_ 
bis judicious s.vstem. Rut on tills point let, 
the great, farmer speak in his own language : 
“A system,” he ?ays, “as ;/stem closely pur¬ 
sued. although it may not in all its parts lie the 
best that could be devised, is attended with 
innumerable advantages. The conductor of 
the business in this case can never be iu any 
dilemma.” 
He also writes r “Nothing can so effectually 
obviate the evil of misdirected labor, or lost 
time, as an established system made known 
to all who are actors in it.” And in illustra¬ 
tion of this 1 may mention that when absent 
from home lie had weekly statements sent to 
him from his plantation und lie held two 
cardinal points : 
1st. .System and method 01113 - ore required 
to accomplish «uy reasonable results; and, 
2dly. And that whenever he ordered a 
tiling to he done it should l ie done. For, says 
the General, “it is not for the person receiv¬ 
ing an order to suspend or dispense with its 
execution : and after it has been supposed to 
have gone into effect to tell me that nothing 
has been done in it, that it will be done, or 
that it. could not be done.” From the quota¬ 
tions i have made it is easy to see that Gen. 
Washington was a careful farmer. We doubt 
if Virginia ever boasted one more accurate— 
and in illustration of this, I will now give 
you farther extracts from hi* agricultural 
papers. In ordering ihe ©Obstruction of a 
barn at Dogue Run, a barn said to have been 
the best in America, lie issued this order; 
“Make the bricks at the place, and in the 
manner directed, and let there be no salmon 
bricks in that budding.” Thus you see from 
great questions of statesmanship and the 
growth of the largest tobacco crops—crops 
give instructions how to use his 
Bone Dust.” 
I will relate an experience of a piece which 
I planted in the garden eight rods long by 
one wide. Planted this piece hi hills, half of 
it to Peach Blows and half with Early Rose, 
putting of this “ Crescent Bone” in each hill 
a smaJ l clam shell full, two ounces perhaps, 
and mixed up thoroughly with my hand. 
Now for the results. Never a Peach Blow 
came up ; seed all rotted as in field culture. 
Of the Early Rose in the garden four plants 
came up on the four square rods. (Rows 3 ft. 
(I in. apart ; hills 2 ft. apart in rows. 
In dry weather the ground above where 
this bone dusr. lay would be white, as with 
an incrustation of salt. I wrote Mr. Ralston 
(170 Front St., N. Y.) in regard to my experi¬ 
ences with liis hone dust and said it was 
largely adult crated with salt eake. He v#ote, 
he was sorry I had such a failure, calling the 
salt cake, bisulpliate of soda ; said it was not 
an adulteration, but a benefit. Ralston also 
acknowledged that a few tons “had acci¬ 
dentally got. out from the factory, which was 
not properly made.” Ou a one-half acre of 
corn 1 tried this same stuff in the hill this 
spring ; it killed all except a spear in a 100 
hills or so. These are facts, I can make affi¬ 
davit to if necessary. Have an 3 ' of my Rural 
brothers suffered by the use of this stuff. 
Xslip, L. I. Joseph Kiuley. 
