E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
By permission of the Mount Vernon Ladies' AssociationMount Vernon Stable Built in 1733 Showing also the PowellCoach.
GEORGE WASHINGTON:
FARMER
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS HOME LIFE AND AGRICULTURALACTIVITIES
By
PAUL LELAND HAWORTH
Author of
THE PATH OF GLORY, RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION AMERICA IN FERMENT,ETC.
WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS FACSIMILIES OF PRIVATE PAPERS,
AND A MAP OF WASHINGTON'S ESTATE DRAWN BY HIMSELF
1915
"The aim of the farmers in this country (if they can be calledfarmers) is, not to make the most they can from the land, which isor has been cheap, but the most of the labour, which is dear; theconsequence of which has been, much ground has beenscratched over and none cultivated or improved as it oughtto have been: whereas a farmer in England, where land is dear, andlabour cheap, finds it his interest to improve and cultivatehighly, that he may reap large crops from a small quantity ofground."
Washington to Arthur Young, December 5, 1791.
PREFACE
The story of George Washington's public career has been manytimes told in books of varying worth, but there is one importantaspect of his private life that has never received the attention itdeserves. The present book is an attempt to supply thisdeficiency.
I desire to acknowledge gratefully the assistance I havereceived from Messrs. Gaillard Hunt and John C. Fitzpatrick of theLibrary of Congress, Mr. Hubert B. Fuller lately of Washington andnow of Cleveland, Colonel Harrison H. Dodge and other officials ofthe Mount Vernon Association, and from the work of Paul LeicesterFord, Worthington C. Ford and John M. Toner.
Above all, in common with my countrymen, I am indebted to heroicAnn Pamelia Cunningham, to whose devoted labor, despite ill healthand manifold discouragements, the preservation of Mount Vernon isdue. To her we should be grateful for a shrine that has not itscounterpart in the world--a holy place that no man can visitwithout experiencing an uplift of heart and soul that makes him abetter American.
PAUL LELAND HAWORTH.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
II. BUILDING AN ESTATE.
III. VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN WASHINGTON'SDAY.
IV. WASHINGTON'S PROBLEM.
V. THE STUDENT OF AGRICULTURE.
VI. A FARMER'S RECORDS AND OTHERPAPERS.
VII. AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS AND EXPERIMENTSBEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
VIII. CONSERVING THE SOIL.
IX. THE STOCKMAN.
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