uncultivated; but ought, if it be practicable, to be levelled, harrowed, and such trash of some kind to be thrown thereon, as will keep them from growing worse.

No. 7. Some parts 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 lying 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 which will follow.

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

The rotation for these lots is uniformly to be, 1. Potatoes, highly manured; 2. oats, and clover sown therewith; 3. clover; 4. 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 in the autumn be ploughed in, and at such time in winter as it 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; and this will be provided by a fence extending from the southwest corner of Muddy-Hole field No. 2, to the southeast cor

ner 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 must be made to strengthen, and render substantially good, the whole of the exterior or outer fence of the farm. To do this, 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 No. 2, and No. 2 from No. 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. 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 until that intercourse between the Barn and Mill is effectually barred, which would be the cheapest and most convenient mode, there would be no security for any crop growing in fields Nos. 1, 2, and 3, as 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 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 hesitate 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 some 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 by 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 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 already directed 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 No. 4, it is presumed, would 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 aid 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, and be sown with rye for the benefit of sheep in the day, during winter and spring, but which are 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.

Nos. 4 and 5.- That part of No. 4, which lies 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 forty acres, of woodland adjoining No. 6, and the upper meadow below the plank bridge, are 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. They are to be treated in all other respects as has been directed for No. 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.

VOL. XII.

FF

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 has 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 Composts,

Penning Cattle and Folding Sheep,

Feeding,

Stables and Farm Pens,

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

ROTATION OF CROPS.

To understand the tables of Rotation of Crops which follow, it should be observed, that they all apply to one and the same farm, which contained 525 acres, and was divided into seven fields. The first part of each table indicates the kind of products destined for each field, under the respective years. Then follow the times for ploughing the different fields, and the number of days it will take; next, an estimate of the probable quantity and value of the products; lastly, remarks on the plan of the table, and on the results of the rotation.

In a note attached to these tables, Washington says, "The ploughing is calculated at three fourths of an acre per day. If, then, one plough will go over a seventy-five acre field in one hundred days, five ploughs will do it in twenty days. In some ground, according to the state of it, and the seasons, an acre at least ought to be ploughed per day by each team; but the estimate is made at three fourths of an acre, in order to reduce it to more certainty. The fields are all estimated at seventy-five acres each (although they run a little more or less), for the sake of more easy calculation of the crops, and to show their comparative yield."