ARLINGTON AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. While building his house, Custis inaugurated an annual fair designed to improve agricultural practices in general, and particularly the breeding of fine-wooled sheep. Beginning in 1803, Custis invited the local gentry each spring to exhibit their best sheep and homespun cloth at Arlington Spring, near the edge of the river. After prizes had been awarded, the fair would close with patriotic speeches and a great dinner under the tent which had been used by Washington during the Revolution. [Illustration: “ARLINGTON HOUSE,” AS IT APPEARED FROM ABOUT 1804-1816] By breeding the native stock on his farms with the imported stock he had acquired from Mount Vernon, Custis himself developed a hardy race of fine-wooled sheep, known as the “Arlington Improved.” Because the wool of this breed could be woven into finer cloth than hitherto possible, the Arlington sheep were widely diffused throughout the country. Custis also sought to correct the primitive agricultural methods which had already caused much land in his State to be abandoned because of soil erosion. He advocated the establishment of a National Board of Agriculture with functions like those of the Department of Agriculture today, and he offered one of his outlying properties for use as an experimental breeding station. So popular was the Arlington Sheepshearing, as it was commonly called, that the idea was quickly adopted elsewhere. Though economic conditions forced Custis to discontinue the event after 1812, it was one of the primary sources of the great program of agricultural improvement in effect today. BIRTH OF MARY ANNA RANDOLPH CUSTIS. Mary Anna Randolph Custis, born in 1808, was the only one of the four Custis children to survive the first year of infancy. Upon her the parents centered their affections and hopes. The mother’s natural piety and devotion to her family were deepened by the loss of her other children, while the father’s warm and generous nature was such that in later years she could not recall ever having received an unkind word from him. CUSTIS AND THE WAR OF 1812. During the War of 1812, the British blockade of the Chesapeake deprived Custis of much of the income from his other estates, so it is doubtful if any building was done at Arlington at this time. Convinced that Napoleon threatened the liberties of mankind more than England, Custis strongly opposed the war. For this reason he was chosen to deliver the funeral oration for General Lingan, a veteran of the Revolution who was murdered by the same Baltimore mob which almost killed Robert E. Lee’s father, “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. Nevertheless, Custis followed the example set by George Washington during the American Revolution by forbidding the managers of his plantations to furnish supplies to the British; and when British troops approached the National Capital in 1814, Custis fought in the ranks at the battle of Bladensburg.