The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Note.
• The Writings of George Washington.
• 1798.
• To James Anderson.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To Jeremy Belknap.
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Lloyd.
• To James Lloyd.
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Sir John Sinclair.
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To Alexander Hamilton. [private and Confidential.]
• To Henry Knox.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To James Anderson.
• To James Mchenry. [private.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Henry Knox.
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private and Confidential.]
• To William Vans Murray.
• To Jonathan Boucher.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• To — Mcdowell. 1
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Alexander Spotswood.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private and Confidential.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private and Confidential.]
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To James Mchenry.
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State.
• To Henry Knox.
• To James Mchenry. [private and Confidential.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To G. W. Snyder. 1
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of War.
• To Alexander Spotswood.
• To General Lafayette.
• To William Vans Murray. 1
• To David Stuart.
• To Bushrod Washington.
• 1799.
• To Patrick Henry. [confidential]
• To Bryan, Lord Fairfax.
• To James Washington.
• To David Stuart.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private].
• To Timothy Pickering.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Major General. [private.]
• To Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State. [confidential.]
• To John Adams, President of the United States.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Charles C. Pinckney, Major-general.
• To James Welch.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private.]
• To John Marshall.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Major-general.
• To Archibald Blair. 2
• To John Trumbull.
• To Governor Jonathan Trumbull.
• To James Mchenry.
• To Robert Lewis.
• To Governor Jonathan Trumbull.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private.]
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War.
• To Alexander Hamilton, Major-general.
• To Lawrence Lewis.
• To Burges Ball.
• To William Vans Murray.
• To James Mchenry, Secretary of War. [private.]
• To James Anderson.
• River Farm
• To Alexander Hamilton.
• Extract From a Diary.
• Last Illness and Death. 1
• Particular Account of the Late Illness and Death of George Washington.
• Tobias Lear to William Augustine Washington.
• Tobias Lear to Col. Burges Ball.
• In Congress.
• Mrs. Washington to President Adams.
• Mrs. Washington to Governor Trumbull.
• The Will of George Washington. 1
• Appendix.
• To Lund Washington.
• The Washington Family.
• Washington’s Aides-de-camp.

RIVER FARM

CROPS FOR AND OPERATIONS THEREON, FOR THE YEAR 1800.

Field No 1 Is now partly in Wheat Part thereof is to be sown with Oats another part may be sown with Pease, broad cast.—Part is in meadow, and will remain so; the most broken, washed, and indifferent part is to remain uncultivated, but to be harrowed and smoothed in the Spring, and the worst parts thereof (if practicable,) to be covered with litter, straw, weeds, or any kind of vegetable Rubbish, to prevent them from running into gullies.

No 2 One fourth is to be in Corn, and to be sown with wheat; another fourth in Buckwheat and Pease, half of it in the one, and half of it in the other, sown in April, to be ploughed in as a green dressing, and by actual experiment to ascertain which is best. The whole of this fourth is to be sown with Wheat also; another fourth part is to be naked fallow for wheat; and the other and last quarter to be appropriated for Pumpkins, Cymlins, Turnips, Yateman Pease, (in hills,) and such other things of this kind as may be required; and to be sown likewise with Rye, after they are taken off, for seed.

No 3 Is now in wheat, to be harvested in the year 1800; the stubble of which, immediately after Harvest, is to be ploughed in and sown thin with Rye; and such parts thereof as are low, or produces a luxuriant growth of grain, is to have grass-seeds sprinkled over them. The whole for sheep to run on in the day (but housed at night) during the winter and Spring months. If it should be found expedient, part thereof in the spring might be reserved for the purpose of seed.

No 4 Will be in Corn, and is to be sown in the autumn of that year with wheat, to be harvested in 1801—and to be treated in all respects as has been directed for No 3 the preceding year. It is to be manured as much as the means will permit, with such aids as can be procured during the present Winter and ensuing Spring.

Nos 5 6 7 and 8 Are to remain as they are, but nothing suffered to run upon them; as ground will be allotted for the sole purpose of Pasturage, and invariably used as such.

CLOVER-LOTS.

No 1, Counting from the Spring Branch is to be planted in potatoes.

No 2, That part thereof which is now in Turnips is to be sown with oats and clover; the other part, being now in clover, is to remain so until it comes into potatoes by rotation.

No 3 Is also in clover at present, and is to remain so, as just mentioned, for No. 2.

No 4 Is partly in clover and partly in timothy, and so to be until its turn for potatoes.

THE ROTATION FOR THESE LOTS.

Invariably is to be, 1st. Potatoes, highly manured; 2d. Oats, and clover sown therewith; 3d. Clover; 4th. Clover. Then to begin again with Potatoes, and proceed as before. The present clover lots must be plastered.

All green sward, rough ground, or that wch. is heavily covered with weeds, bottle-brush grass, and such things as by being turned in will ferment, putrefy, and ameliorate the soil, should be ploughed in autumn and at such times in winter as it can be done while the ground is dry, and in condition for it.

PASTURE-GROUNDS.

The large lot adjoining the negro houses and orchd. is to have oats sown on the potato and pumpkin ground; with which, and on the rye also in that lot, and on the melon part, orchard grass-seeds are to be sown; and thereafter to be kept as a standing calf pasture, and for ewes (which may require extra care) at yeaning, or after they have yeaned.

The other large lot, northeast of the Barn lane, is to be appropriated always as a pasture for the milch cows, and probably working oxen during the summer season.

The Woodland, and the old field commonly called Johnston’s, are designed for common pasture, and to be so applied always. To which, if it should be found inadequate to the stock of the farm, field No. 8, and the woodland therein, may be added.

MEADOWS.

Those already established and in train must continue, and the next to be added to them is the arm of the creek, which runs up to the spring-house, and forks, both prongs of which must be grubbed, and wrought upon at every convenient moment when the weather will permit, down to the line of the Ditch, which encloses the lots for clover, &c.

And, as the fields come into cultivation, or as labour can be spared from other work, and circumstances will permit, the heads of all the inlets in them must be reclaimed, and laid to grass, whether they be large or small. Forasmuch as nothing will run on, or can trespass upon, or injure the grass, no fencing being reqd.

MUD FOR COMPOST.

The season is now too far advanced, and too cold, to be engaged in a work, that will expose the hands to wet; but it is of such essential importance, that it should be set about seriously and with spirit next year, for the summer’s sun and winter’s frost to prepare it for the corn and other crops of 1801. That all the hands of the farm, not indispensably engaged in the crops, should, so soon as corn-planting is completed in the spring, be uninterruptedly employed in raising mud from the pocosons and from the bed of the creek, into the scow; and the carts, so soon as the manure for the corn and potatoes in 1800 is carried out, is to be incessantly drawing it to compost heaps in the fields which are to be manured by it. What number of hands can be set apart for this all-important work, remains to be considered and decided upon.

PENNING CATTLE AND FOLDING SHEEP.

On the fields intended for wheat, from the first of May, when the former should be turned out to pasture, until the first of November, when they ought to be housed, must be practised invariably; and to do it with regularity and propriety, the pen for the first, and the fold for the latter, should be proportioned to the number of each kind of stock; and both these to as much ground as they will manure sufficiently in the space of a week for wheat, beyond which they are not to remain in a place, except on the poorest spots; and even these had better be aided by litter or something else, than to depart from an established rule, of removing the pens on a certain day in every week. For in this, as in every thing else, system is essential to carry on business well, and with ease.

FEEDING.

The work-horses and mules are always to be in their stalls, and well littered and cleaned, when they are out of harness; and they are to be plenteously fed with cut straw, and as much chopped Grain, meal, or Bran, with a little salt mixed therewith, as will keep them always in good condition for work; seeing also, that they are watered as regularly as they are fed; this is their winter feed. For spring, summer, and autumn, it is expected, that soiling of them on green food, first with Rye, then with lucerne, and next with clover, with very little grain, will enable them to perform their work.

The oxen, and other horned cattle, are to be housed from the first of November until the first of May; and to be fed as well as the means on the farm will admit. The first (oxen) must always be kept in good condition, housed in the Stalls designed for them; and the cows (so many of them as can find places), on the opposite side. The rest, with the other cattle, must be in the newly-erected sheds; and the whole carefully watered every day; the ice, in frozen weather, being broken, so as to admit them to clean water.

With respect to the sheep, they must receive the best protection that can be given them this winter; against the next, I hope they will be better provided for.

And with regard to the hogs, the plan must be, to raise a given number of good ones, instead of an indiscriminate number of indifferent ones, half of which die or are stolen before the period arrives for putting them up as porkers. To accomplish this, a sufficient number of the best sows should be appropriate to the purpose; and so many pigs raised from them as will insure the quantity of pork, the farm ought to furnish.

Whether it will be most advisable to restrain these hogs from running at large or not, can be decided with more precision after the result of those now in close pens is better known.

The exact quantity of corn used by those, which are now in pens, should be ascertained and regularly reported, in order to learn the result.

STABLES AND FARM PENS.

These ought to be kept well littered, and the stalls clean; as well for the comfort of the creatures that are contained in them, as for the purpose of manure; but, as straw cannot be afforded for this purpose, leaves and such spoiled straw or weeds as will not do for food, must serve for the stables; and the first, that is leaves, and Cornstalks is all that can be applied to the pens. To do this work effectually, let the cornstalks be cut down by a few careful people with sharp hoes, so low as never to be in the way of scythes at harvest; and, whenever the wheat will admit carts to run on it without injury, let them be brought off and stacked near the farm pens. In like manner, let the people, with their blankets, go every evening, or as often as occasion may require, to the nearest wood, and fill them with leaves for the purposes above mentioned; bottoming the beds with cornstalks, and covering them thick with leaves. A measure of this sort will be, if strictly attended to, and punctually performed, of great utility in every point of view. It will save food, make the cattle lay warm and comfortable, and produce much manure. The hogs also in pens must be well bedded in leaves.

FENCING.

As stock of no kind, according to this plan, will be suffered to run on the arable field or clover lots, (except sheep in the day on the Rye field, as has been mentioned before,) partition fences between the fields, until they can be raised of quicks, may be dispen’d with. But it is of great importance, that all the exterior or outer fences should be substantially good; and those also, wch. divide the common or woodland pasture from the fields and clover Lots, are to be very respectable.

To accomplish this desirable object in as short a time as possible, and with the smallest expense of timber, the post-and-rail fence which runs from the negro quarters, or rather from the corner of the lot enclosing them, up to the division between fields Nos. 7 and 8, may be placed on the bank (which must be raised higher) that runs from thence (where it was burnt) to the Creek. In like manner, the fence from the gate, which opens into No. 2, quite down to the River, along the Cedar Hedge-row, as also those rails which are between No. 1 and 2, and between No. 2 and 3, may all be taken away, and applied to the outer fences, and the fences of the lanes from the Barn into the Woodland Pasture, and from the former (the barn) into No. 5; for the fences of all these lanes must be good, as the stock must have a free and uninterrupted passage along them at all times, from the barn-yard to the woodland pasture.

One of the gates near the Fodder house may be moved up to the range of the lane, by the gate, near that which leads into field No. 2; and the other may be placed at the other end of the lane, by the negroe quarters:—and so long as Mr. Mason’s old field remains uninclosed the other gate in the Field No. 8 wd. stand better in the Fence which runs from the division between fields No. 7 and 8 to the creek than where it now is.

All the feng. from the last-mentioned place, (between me and Mr. Mason,) until it joins Mr. Lear’s Farm, and thence with the line between him and me, until it comes to the river, will require to be substantially good; at its termination on the river, dependence must be placed in a water fence; for if made of common Rails, they would be carried off by boatmen for firewood. The fences separating fields No 1 and No 8 from the woodland pasture must also be made good, to prevent depredations on the fields by my own stock.

CROPS, &C. FOR 1801.

No 5 is to be in Corn, and to be invariably in that article. It is to be planted (if drills are thought to be ineligible until the ground is much improved) in Rows 6 feet by 4, or 7 feet by 3½, the wide part open to the south. These fields are to be manured as highly as the means will admit; and the corn planted every year in the middle of the rows of the preceding year; by doing which, and mixing the manure and Earth by the plough and other workings, the whole in time will be enriched.

The washed and gullied parts of this field should be levelled, and as much improved as possible, or left uncultivated. Although it is more broken than some of the other fields, it has its advantages. 1st, It has several Inlets extending into it, with easy assents therefrom; 2d, it is convenient to the mud in the bed of the creek, whensoever (by means of the scow) resort is had thereto, and good landing-places; and, thirdly, it is as near to the Barn as any other, when a bridge and causeway is made over the Spring Branch. To these may be added, that it is more remote from Squirrels than any other.

No. 6 and 7, or such part thereof as is not so much washed and gullied, as to render ploughing ineligible, are to be fallowed for wheat. One of which, if both cannot, is to have the stubble ploughed in and sown with rye, and the low and strong parts to have timothy or orchard grass seeds, perhaps both, in different places, sprinkled over them, for the purpose of raising seed. On the rye pasture the sheep are to be fed in winter and spring, and treated in all respects as directed in the case of No. 3 in 1800.

IN THE YEARS 1802, 1803, AND SO ON.

The corn ground remaining the same, two fields, in following numbers, will be fallowed for wheat, and treated in all respects as mentioned above; and if Pumpkins, cymlins, turnips, pease, and such like growths, are found beneficial to the land, or useful and profitable for stock, ground may readily be found for them.

These are the great outlines of a Plan, and the operations of it, for the next year, and for years to come for River Farm. The necessary arrangements and all the preparatory measures for carrying it into effect ought to be adopted without delay, and invariably pursued. Smaller matters may, and undoubtedly will, occur occasionally; but none, it is presumed, that can militate against it materially. To carry it into effect advantageously, it becomes the indispensable duty of him, who is employed to overlook and conduct the operations, to take a prospective and comprehensive view of the whole business, which is laid before him, that the several parts thereof may be so ordered and arranged, as that one sort of work may follow another sort in proper succession, and without loss of labour or of time; for nothing is a greater waste of the latter, and consequently of the former, (time producing labour, and labour money,) than shifting from one thing to another before it is finished, as if chance or the impulse of the moment, not judgmt. and foresight, directed the measure. It will be acknowledged, that weather and other circumstances may at times interrupt a regular course of proceedings; but, if a plan is well digested beforehand, they cannot interfere long, with a man who is acquainted with the nature of the business, and the crops he is to attend to.

Every attentive and discerning person, who has the whole business of the year laid before him, and is acquainted with the nature of the work, can be at no loss to lay it out to advantage. He will know that there are many things wch. can be accomplished in winter as well as in summer—Others, that Spring, Summer and Autumn are fit for. In a word, to use the wise man’s saying “That there is a time and a season for all things, and that unless they are embraced, nothing will thrive; or go on smoothly. There are many sorts of in-doors work, which can be executed in Hail, Rain, or Snow, as well as in sunshine; and if they are set about in fair weather (unless there be a necessity for it), there will be nothing to do in foul weather; the people therefore must be idle. The man of prudence and foresight will always keep these things in view, and order his work accordingly, so as to suffer no waste of time, or idleness. The same observations apply with equal force to frozen ground, and grounds too wet to work in, or if worked, will be injured thereby.

These observations might be spun to a greater length, but they are sufficient to produce reflection; and reflection, with Industry and proper attention, will produce the end that is to be wished.

There is one thing, however, I cannot forbear to add, and in strong terms; it is, that whenever I order a thing to be done, it must be done, or a reason given at the time, or as soon as the impracticability is discovered, why it cannot be done, which will produce a countermand or change. But it is not for the person receiving the order to suspend, or dispense with, its execution; and, after it has been supposed to have gone into effect, for me to be told, that nothing has been done in it, that it will be done, or that it could not be done; either of these is unpleasant and disagreeable to me, having been accustomed all my life to more regularity and punctuality. And know that nothing but system and method is required to accomplish all reasonable requests.

Mount Vernon, December 10th, 1799.

UNION FARM

CROPS FOR AND OPERATIONS THEREON, IN 1800.

Field No 1 Is now sown with wheat, to be harvested in 1800.—the stubble of which is to be immediately ploughed in, and rye sowed thereon for a sheep pasture. Grass-seeds must be sown therewith, on such parts as will yield grass for seed, to supply my own wants, and the market, so far as it can be spared. This field, after the rye has been eaten off by the sheep, is to be reined from stock of all kinds, and nothing suffered to run thereon, until it comes, in course, to be cultivated, in the regular routine of crops.

No 2 Will be in corn, and, although but an indifferent field, washed in some places, gullied in others, and rich in none, is, all things considered, best to be appropriated constantly for this crop. 1st, and primarily, because it is most contiguous to the barn, and the corn therein more easily secured and attended to. 2ndly, because it is as handy to the mud from the pocoson and the bed of the creek as any other, to mix in a compost, and more convenient to the manure from the farm-yard and stables. 3dly, because it is entirely out of the reach of squirrels. And, 4thly, because it is hoped and expected, from the manner of treating it, that it will be so much amended as to become more and more productive every year, and the impoverished places, if not restored to some degree of fertility, prevented from getting worse, and becoming such eye-sores as they now are.

The corn will be planted in rows, 6 feet by 4, or 7 by 3½; the wide part open to the south. And must be as highly manured in the hill as the means on the farm (respect being had to other species of crops) will admit. The rows of the succeeding year will be in the middle of the last, and alternately shifted; by which, and the workings the field will yearly receive, the whole will be enriched, and, it is hoped, restored.

No 3 As No 2 is to be appropriated as a standing field for corn, and of course cannot be sown with wheat in the autumn of 1800, this field, that is, No 3, ought, if it be practicable, to be fallowed, and sown with that article; otherwise the farm will produce no wheat the following year, and the stock must suffer for want of the straw; and is to be treated in every respect as has been directed for No 1, that is, the stubble to be ploughed in immediately after harvest, and rye sowed thereon, with grass-seeds where the soil is strong enough to rear them, for the purpose of producing seed again.

No 4 The part thereof which lyes No. Et. of the meadow, (commonly called Manley’s Field,) is to remain well enclosed, and no stock suffered to run thereon until it comes in rotation to be fallowed for wheat in 1801. The other part of the same No 4 is to be equally well enclosed, and reined up from stock; and, except the part along Muddy-Hole Branch (that is to be added to No. 5, in order to supply the deficiency occasioned by taking clover lot No. 2 from it), is to be planted with Peach trees, at 16½ asunder, except so much of it as lays flat, by the gate on the Mill road, which, if properly prepared, it is supposed would bring grass, and on that account is to be planted at double that distance, viz., at 33 feet apart. What is here meant by enclosing this part of No. 4 well, is, that the outer fence shall be secure, for it will remain as now undivided from No. 3, otherwise than by the Branch.

No 5 Is also to be kept from stock; and, when it comes in course to be fallowed for wheat, is to have the addition above mentioned, (along the Branch,) added thereto, and sown in this article.

No 6 Will receive such an addition to its size from No. 7, as will make it, exclusive of the lot for clover, lucerne, &c., of equal size thereto. Part of this field is now sown with, and will be in wheat in 1800. Part will be in oats, particularly where the pease grew; and all that part of it, and No. 7 also, which lyes low, from the meadow fence by the overseer’s house, quite up to the head springs of the Branch, (reclaimed in the spring,) is to be planted with rare-ripe corn; and in the fall to be treated in every respect as the great meadow at this Farm (but at an earlier period) has been this year. For, although I am not sanguine enough to expect, that it will make good mowing meadow, I shall be much disappointed if it does not produce grass, yielding a good deal of seed, which, until the fields come into cultivation, in regular rotation, and afterwards, if it answer expectation, will be an annual profit without any other labour than gathering of it. The other part of No. 6, which will be taken from No. 7, laying south of this low ground between it and No. 1, might, if it does not involve too much ploughing, be put in corn also; but this is a measure, which will require consideration, and probably must depend upon circumstances. The poor and washed parts of No. 6 must remain uncultivated; but ought, [if] it be practicable, to be levelled, Harrowed, and trash of some kind to be thrown thereon, as will keep them from growing worse.

No. 7 Some part of this field may be sown with Buckwheat, in no great quantity, and a part may be planted with the Yateman pease, in hills, both for a crop; some of the other kind of pease may be sown broad-cast, and mowed at a proper season for the stock. The rest of the ground, by laying uncultivated, and nothing running thereon, will be increasing in strength while idle.

CLOVER LOTS.

No 1 Next the overseer’s house, same side of the lane, (excepting the ground now in and designed for lucerne, south of the slash by the Barn, and two acres where the turnips grew, or at the other end for experiments) is to be in oats, and to be sown with clover seed.

No 2 Opposite thereto, and at present part of No. 5, is to be well manured and planted with potatoes; whether in Hills, or Drills, may be considered.

No 3 May receive pumpkins, cymlins, turnips, and melons, there being no sown grass remaining on it; and the manure for, and shade occasioned by, these vines, together with the working the lot will get, will be of service instead of a detriment to the potato crop wch. will follow.

No 4 Is to remain in clover, until, by rotation, it comes into potatoes again.

THE ROTATION FOR THESE LOTS

Are uniformly to be, 1st. Potatoes, highly manured; 2d. Oats, and Clover sown therewith; 3d. clover; 4th. Clover. Then to begin again with Potatoes, and proceed as before.

The present clover lots must be plastered.

All green sward, rough ground, or that which is heavily covered with weeds, bottle-brush grass, and such things as by being turned in will ferment, putrefy, and ameliorate the soil, should be ploughed in autumn, and at such time in winter as can be done while the ground is dry and in condition for working.

PASTURE-GROUND.

As stock of all sorts, except sheep upon the rye, are to be excluded from the arable fields and clover lots, resort must be had to the woodland and unreclaimed swamps therein for Pasture for them; (the Lane up to the Barn will serve for calves) and this will be provided by a fence extending from the So. west corner of Muddy-Hole field (No. 2,) to the So. Et. corner of Dogue-run field (No. 4,) leaving all South of it for this Farm; as the north part will be for Muddy-Hole Farm; and, as it will be for the mutual benefit of both Farms, the fence must be erected at the joint expense of both.

FENCING.

The one just mentioned must be completed in the course of the winter; and every possible exertion to strengthen, and render substantially good, the whole of the exterior or outer fence of the Farm. To do which, and to avoid all unnecessary consumption of timber, the partition fence between the fields No. 6 and No. 7, as it now stands, quite up to the woods, and thence to the fence leading from the Ferry to the Mill road (from the Mansion-House,) may be taken away and applied to that fence, and to the trunnel-fence on the Mill road, where they unite, until it comes to the meadow fence at the bridge; leaving the fields No. 6 and No. 7, and the woodland adjoining, under one enclosure. In like manner, the fences dividing No 1 from 2, and No. 2 from 3, may be used for a fence around the creek, until it unites with that opposite to the Mill house; without which neither of those fields will be secure, as hogs have been taught, or of themselves have learnt, to cross the creek in pursuit of food; and for strengthening effectually the fence from the plank bridge by the Barn lane to the Branch opposite to the Mill house, new rails must be got in the nearest wood between the Mill road and the road leading to the Gum Spring.

The West Fence of No. 5 must, next year, or as soon as it can be accomplished, be removed across the Branch, and placed in a line with the new ditch fence of the lower meadow, until it comes in range with the south line of the said field; and, until a fence is run from the end thereof to the nearest part of the outer fence opposite to the Mill, and a second gate established thereat, or that that intercourse between the Barn and the Mill is effectually barred, (which would be the cheapest and by odds the most convenient mode,) there would be no security for any Crop growing in fields Nos. 1, 2, and 3, as the leaving the gate by the Mill run open only five minutes might deluge the whole with the hogs at that place; and they might be in there a night or two, perhaps more, before they were discovered, and do irreparable damage. Indeed, the latter mode has so much the advantage of the former, especially as my intercourse with the Mill will in a great measure cease, that I see no cause to hestitate a moment in adopting it; and, to prevent opening the fence where the gate now is, a deep ditch and high bank would be necessary, from a distance below to the foot of the hill above, (if not quite up to the meadow). One among other advantages resulting from this measure would be, that the west and even south fence of No. 5 might, if occasion required it, be applied, instead of new rails, in making the fence from the meadow towards the Mill, and around the creek, more substantial; for it must be repeated again, that, as there will be few or no inner fences, the outer ones must be unassailable to the most vicious stock.

The fences that are already around the meadows may remain, but there is no occasion for their being formidable. To guard them against hogs, if any should by chance get through the outer fence, is all that would be necessary.

MEADOWS.

The large meadow below the Barn lane, and half of that above the lane, have had every thing done for them that is requisite, except manuring when necessary and the means are to be had. The remaining part of the last-mentioned meadow above must receive a complete summer fallow, to cleanse it of rubbish of all sorts, and be sown in proper season with timothy, with a protecting crop of rye for soiling the working mules, etc., in the spring.

Although I may find myself mistaken, I am inclined to put the other prong of this swamp, running through No. 6 and heading in No. 7, into meadow; and I have for this reason directed already the mode to be pursued for accomplishing it. Next to this, let as much of the inlet in No. 2 as can be laid dry enough for corn, be planted therewith, in order to eradicate the wild growth. When this is effected, lay it to grass. As the fields come round, the unreclaimed Inlets may be prepared for Grass, if circumstances and the force of the Farm will admit of it. Of these there is one, besides a swamp in No. 3, which is susceptible of being converted into good grass ground; and the flat and low ground (in West) No. 4, it is presumed, wd. bring grass also. Whether the part proposed to be added to field No. 5 had better be retained for arable uses, or laid to meadow, can be determined better after it is cleared, and cleansed of the wild growth, than now. But the Inlets at the Ferry, between the dwelling, and Fish houses, might, by a small change of the fence from the gate of No. 1, be thrown into that field and brought into excellent meadow at very little expense, whensoever time and labor can be afforded for this purpose. To dwell on the advantages of meadow would be a mere waste of time, as the produce is always in demand in the market and for my purposes, and obtained at no other expense, than that of cutting the grass and making it into hay.

CROPS, &C. FOR 1801.

No 2 Being the field appropriated for Corn, will be planted with this article accordingly, as already directed for 1800. The poor and washed parts continuing to receive all the aids that can be given to them.

No 3 Supposing it to have been fallowed and sown the year before, will this year produce a crop of wheat, the stubble of which, immediately after harvest, is to be turned in, sown with rye for the benefit of sheep in the day, during winter and spring, but to be housed at night. All the low and rich spots, capable of producing grass, must be sown with Timothy or orchard-grass seeds, for the purpose of supplying seeds again; and a part of the field may be reserved for a rye crop, or the sheep taken off early enough for the whole to yield enough of this grain to pay for the harvesting of it.

No 4 and 5 That part of No. 4, which lays next to the Mill, is, as has been directed already, to be planted with peach trees; the other part, called Manley’s Field, with all that can be added to it, not exceeding 40 acres, of woodland adjoining No. 6, and the upper meadow below the plank bridge, is to be fallowed for wheat, as No. 5 also is to be, with the addition at the west end taken from No. 4; and both of them, if it can be accomplished, but one certainly, must have the stubble, when the wheat comes off, sowed with Rye (for the sheep), and with grass-seeds upon low and Rich places, for the purpose of raising seed, and to be treated in all other respects as has been directed for number 3.

The reason for preferring an addition to No. 4 from the woods East of the meadow, (although the land is of inferior quality), is, because it requires no additional fencing, for the same fence that encloses Nos. 6 and 7 encompasses this also; because it will be more convenient for supplying the Mansion with fire-wood; and because it will give a better form and appearance to the Farm, than breaking into the woodland on the north side of the Mill Road.

CROPS FOR 1802, 1803, AND SO ON.

The Corn ground remaining the same always, two fields, in following numbers, will every year be fallowed for wheat, and treated in all respects as hath been mentioned before. And, if pumpkins, cymlins, turnips, and such like growths are found beneficial to the land, or useful and profitable for stock, places enough may be found to raise them in.

All unnecessary wood is to be cut down, and removed from the fields, as they are cultivated in Rotation.

mud and rich earth for compost,

penning cattle and folding sheep,

feeding, stables and farm pens,

are all to be managed precisely as is directed for River Farm.

ROTATIONS OF CROPS FOR DOGUE RUN.

Remarks.—The above rotation favors the land very much; inasmuch as there are but three corn crops taken in seven years from any field, and the first wheat crop is followed by a buckwheat manure for the second wheat crop, wch is to succeed it, and which, by being laid to clover or Grass, and continued therein three years, will afford much mowing or Grazing, according as the seasons happen to be, besides being a restorative to the soil. But, then, the produce of the salable crops is small, unless increased by the improving state of the fields. Nor will the Grain for the use of the Farm be adequate to the consumption of it in this course, and this is an essential to attend to—and quere—whether the clover does not remain too long.

Remarks.—By the above Rotation, 900 bushls of b wheat, amounting to £25 is added to the proceeds of No. 1. at the expense of 200 days’ more ploughing; and no two Corn Crops follow in immediate succession. Wheat, in one instance, follows a Clover lay on a single Ploughing; the success of this, tho well ascertained in England, may not answer so well in this Country, where our lands, from the exhausted state of them, require more manure than the Farm can afford, and our Seasons are very precarious.

Remarks.—The above Rotation in point of produce and profit is precisely the same as No. 2, but differs in the succession of crops. It requires about the same plowings and these plowings are pretty regularly distributed through the Spring and Summer months. The Wheat field which follows the B. Wheat manure might have the stubble turned in immediately after harvest for manure and for Green food (proceeding from the shattered grain) for sheep, Calves, &c—in the Winter and Spring.—

Remarks.—This Rotation, for quantity of Grain and the profit arising from it is more productive than either of the preceding, and with no more plowing, excepting No. 1. No field gives more than three Corn crops in 7 years except the Crop of B. Wht.—The last of wch with the Indian Corn will be more than adequate for all the demands of the Farm.—The Cover is to be sown with the B. W in July and by being only one year in the grd. may be too expensive on acct. of the C— nor will the fields in this course receive any great manure.—And the advantages of sowing wheat on a Clover lay in this Country is not well ascertained—Again, preparg. 2 fields for B. Wht. may in practice be found difficult—Wheat Stubble may be placed in here for Green food.