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 
