GENERAL FARM MANAGEMENT. 
305 
home. By adopting this plan, Washington was enabled, from 
the camp, not only to give orders to his agent at Mount Vernon 
concerning the general management of his estate, but to enter 
into minute details about tlie treatment of particular fields. 
The ar • i o. each field should also be accurately ascertained, in 
order better to apportion the seed to the ground, as well as to 
determine exactly the yield of it. This would effectually ex¬ 
clude that habit of wild guessing so fashionable among western 
farmers, and which prevents alike themselves from knowing the 
true yield of their own acres, and the State from collecting 
any reliable statistics of its own agricultural products. 
With respect to the piece of woodland, mentioned as form¬ 
ing one of the divisions of the farm, it should be broken, cul¬ 
tivated, and seeded down to grass, and be ever afterwards 
allowed to remain in that state ; by which three important ends 
will be answered—the trees will be saved, the land can be 
profitably made use of, and the appearance of the farm will be 
improved ; and, surely, no sensible farmer will neglect to com¬ 
bine beauty with utility, when it may be done, not only with¬ 
out loss, but with positive benefit. But were the farm all 
prairie, the preceding plan would not have to be altered, for 
though no woodland would be there, it would nave to be made; 
and consequently land would have to be reserved for that pur¬ 
pose, for farmers that have trees should be sparing of them, 
and those that have them not should plant them. 
Fences and Gates. —In order to protect the crops, and to 
keep the stock within proper limits, good fences become abso¬ 
lutely necessary; economy dictates that they should in all cases 
be substantially built, as they will last longer, and answer more 
effectually all the purposes of a fence. The wire-fence and 
the osage-orange have been proposed and tried, but the former 
of these is much too frail, while the latter is much too uncer¬ 
tain. I think a board fence is as good as any I have seen ; it 
is cheaper, and takes up less land than the common rail fence, 
besides being much more elegant in appearance. The posts 
should be put in, upright or inverted, no matter which, fully 
