I A MAN IN LOVE WITH THE SOIL. II BUILDING AN ESTATE. III VIRGINIA AGRICULTURE IN WASHINGTON'S DAY. IV WASHINGTON'S PROBLEM. V THE STUDENT OF AGRICULTURE. VI A FARMER'S RECORDS AND OTHER PAPERS. VII AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. VIII CONSERVING THE SOIL. IX THE STOCKMAN. X THE HORTICULTURIST AND LANDSCAPE GARDENER. XI WHITE SERVANTS AND OVERSEERS. XII BLACK SLAVES. XIII THE FARMER'S WIFE. XIV A FARMER'S AMUSEMENTS. XV A CRITICAL VISITOR AT MOUNT VERNON. XVI PROFIT AND LOSS. XVII ODDS AND ENDS. XVIII THE VALE OF SUNSET. INDEX. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Mount Vernon Stable, Built in 1733, Showing also the Powell Coach. Mount Vernon, Showing Kitchen to the Left and Covered Way Leading to It. The Washington Family. Driveway from the Lodge Gate. The Porter's Lodge. One of the Artificial Mounds. The Tree Upon It Was Set Out by Mrs. Grover Cleveland. The Seed House. Beyond Lay the Vegetable Garden. The Mount Vernon Kitchen (restored). Map of Mount Vernon Drawn by Washington and Sent by Him to Arthur Young in 1793. Gully on a Field of Union Farm, Showing Susceptibility to Erosion. Looking Across Part of Dogue Run Farm to "Woodlawn," the Home of Nelly Custis Lewis. First Page of Washington's Digest of Duhamel's Husbandry. Dogue Run Below the Site of the Mill. On the Road to the Mill and Pohick Church. Part of Washington's Plan for His Sixteen-Sided Barn. Bill of Lading for "Royal Gift". Experimental Plot, with Servants' Quarters (restored) in Background. West Front of Mansion House, Showing Bowling Green and Part of Serpentine Drive. First Page of the Diary for 1760. Part of a Manager's Weekly Report. The Butler's House and Magnolia Set Out by Washington the Year of His Death. Spinning House--Last Building to the Right. Weekly Report on the Work of the Spinners. The Flower Garden. A Page from a Cash Memorandum Book. One of Washington's Tavern Bills. CHAPTER I A MAN IN LOVE WITH THE SOIL One December day in the year 1788 a Virginia gentleman sat before his desk in his mansion beside the Potomac writing a letter. He was a man of fifty-six, evidently tall and of strong figure, but with shoulders a trifle stooped, enormously large hands and feet, sparse grayish-chestnut hair, a countenance somewhat marred by lines of care and marks of smallpox, withal benevolent and honest-looking--the kind of man to whom one could intrust the inheritance of a child with the certainty that it would be carefully administered and scrupulously accounted for to the very last sixpence. The letter was addressed to an Englishman, by name Arthur Young, the foremost scientific farmer of his day, editor of the _Annals of Agriculture_, author of many books, of which the best remembered is his _Travels in France_ on the eve of the French Revolution, which is still read by every student of that stirring era.