222 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
July 
The Estates of Gen. Washington. 
As the subject of the purchase of Mount Vernon by 
the general Government is attracting attention, it may 
interest some of our readers to read a brief description 
of the estates of Gen. Washington, written by his 
own hand. These estates comprised over eight thou¬ 
sand acres of land, lying in the state of Virginia; of 
which the Mount Vernon premises constituted more 
than one-half. The remainder was divided into four 
farms, of from six hundred and fifty to twelve hundred 
acres each. In the year 1793, Gen. W., in a letter to 
Arthur Young, proposed to lease the last mentioned 
farms to English or Scotch farmers, who might be dis¬ 
posed to emigrate to this country;' the leases to run 
from seven to ten years, and the rent to be, (in the 
language of the proposition,) 11 a Spanish milled dol¬ 
lar, or other money current at the time, in this coun¬ 
try, equivalent thereto, for every acre of plowable or 
mowable ground , within the enclosures of the respective 
farms.” 
The first part of the description, it will be seen, re¬ 
lates to the whole tract owned by Gen. W., including 
Mount Vernon, where he resided. The letter, from 
which we make the following extracts, is printed in 
the volume of “ Washington's Agricultural Corres¬ 
pondence ,” published by Franklin Knight. 
“ No estate in United America,” (writes Gen. W.,) 
il is more pleasantly situated than this. It lies in a 
high, dry and healthy country, three hundred miles by 
water from the sea, and on one of the finest rivers 
[the Potomac] in the world. Its margin is washed by 
more than ten miles of tide w r ater; from the bed of 
which, and the innumerable coves, inlets, and small 
marshes, with which it abounds, an inexhaustible fund 
of rich mud may be drawn, as a manure, either to be 
used separately, or in a compost, according to the 
judgment of the farmer. It is situated in a latitude 
between the extremes of heat and cold, and is the same 
distance by land and water, with good roads and the 
best navigation (to and) from the Federal City, Alex¬ 
andria and Georgetown; distant from the first, fifteen, 
from the second, nine, and from the last sixteen miles. 
The Federal City, in the year 1800, will become the 
seat of the General Government of the United States. 
It is increasing fast in buildings and consequence, and 
will, I have no doubt, from the advantages given to it 
by nature, and its proximity to a rich interior country, 
and the western territory, become the emporium of the 
United States. 
“ The soil of the tract of which I am speaking, is a 
good loam, more inclined, however, to clay than sand. 
From use, and I might add abuse, it is become more 
and more consolidated, and of course heavier to work. 
The greater part is a greyish clay; some part is a dark 
mould; a very little is inclined to sand, and scarcely 
any to stone. A husbandman would not wish to lay 
the farms more level than they are, and yet some of 
the fields, (but in no great degree,) are washed into 
gullies, from which all of them have not as yet been 
recovered. 
u This river, which encompasses the land the dis¬ 
tance above mentioned, is well supplied with various 
kinds of fish, at all seasons of the year; and in the 
spring with the greatest profusion of shad, herrings, 
bass, carp, perch, sturgeon, &c.; several valuable fish¬ 
eries appertain to the estate; the whole shore, in short, 
is one entire fishery. 
“ There are, as you will see by the plan accompa¬ 
nying, four farms besides that at the mansion house. 
These four contain three thousand two hundred and 
sixty acres of cultivable land, to which some hundreds 
more adjoining, as may be seen, might be added, if a 
greater number should be required; but as they were 
©ever designed for, so neither can it be said they are 
caculated to suit, tenants of either the first or of the 
lower class, because those who have the strength and 
resources proportioned to farms of from five hundred to 
twelve hundred acres, (which these contain,) would 
hardly be contented to live in such honses as are 
thereon. * * * * 
11 1 would let these four farms to four substantial far¬ 
mers, of wealth and strength sufficient' to cultivate 
them, and who would ensure to me the regular pay¬ 
ments of the rents; and I would give them leases for 
seven or ten years, at the rate of a Spanish milled dol¬ 
lar, or other money current at the time in this country, 
equivalent thereto, for every acre of plowable or mow¬ 
able ground, within the enclosures of the respective 
farms; and would allow the tenants, during that pe¬ 
riod, to take fuel and use timber from the woodland, to 
repair buildings, and to keep the fences in order until 
live fences could be substituted in place of dead ones; 
but in this case no sub-tenants would be allowed. * * 
“ Having said thus much, I am disposed to add fur¬ 
ther, that it would be in my power, and certainly it 
would be my inclination, (upon the principle above,) 
to accommodate the wealthy or the weak-handed far¬ 
mer, (and upon reasonable terms,) with draught hor¬ 
ses, and working mules and oxen; with cattle, sheep 
and hogs; and with such implements of husbandry, if 
they should not incline to bring them themselves, as 
are in use on the farms. On the four farms there are 
fifty-four draught-horses, twelve working mules, and a 
sufficiency of oxen broke to the yoke; the precise num¬ 
ber I am unable this moment to ascertain, as they are 
comprehended in the aggregate of the neat cattle; of 
the latter, there are three hundred and seventeen; of 
sheep, six hundred and thirty-four; of hogs, many; but 
as these run pretty much at large in the woodland, 
(which is all under fence,) the number is uncertain. 
Many of the negroes, male and female, might be hired 
by the year as laborers, if this should be preferred to 
the importation of that class of people, but it deserves 
consideration—how far the mixing of whites and blacks 
together is advisable; especially where the former are 
entirely unacquainted with the latter.” 
Effects of Special Manures. 
At a late meeting of the Council of the Royal Agri¬ 
cultural Society, Mr. Lawes made some interesting re¬ 
marks in regard to effects of various manures on grain 
crops. He cited the results of many experiments which 
he had made on this subject. The chief effect of ma¬ 
nure of any kind, he concludes, is to increase the quan¬ 
tity of grain and straw—the quality of the grain, or its 
weight per bushel, and the proportion of grain to straw 
having been about the same on the lots where manurer 
were used, and on those which had none. Great dif¬ 
ferences in the quality of the grain, and in the propor¬ 
tion of straw were, however, to be found in the produce 
of various years, and it was concluded that the effect of 
manure upon the quality of grain, and the proportion 
of grain to straw, was very small when compared to 
the effect of temperature and climate. 
Mr. L. referred to the opinion generally held by che¬ 
mists, that the nitrogen or nutritive elements of grain 
could be increased by supplying the soil with substan¬ 
ces rich in nitrogen. He exhibited samples of grain, 
some of which were grown by means of mineral ma¬ 
nures, and some by minerals with large quantities of 
ammoniacal salts. A sample, grown by superphosphate 
of lime, gave upon analysis 3.03 per cent of nitrogen; 
when ammonia was added, the per eentage ol nitrogen 
was only 2.65. Leibig’s wheat manure, composed of 
mineral matter, gave 1.81 per cent of nitrogen, when 
ammoniacal salts were added, only 1.69 per cent. A 
sample of wheat grown in Australia, of remarkable 
fine quality, gave 1.94 per cent of nitrogen. Another/ 
