George Washington: Farmer: Being an Account of His Home Life and Agricultural ActivitiesHaworth, Paul Leland
History
George Washington: Farmer: Being an Account of His Home Life and Agricultural Activities
Haworth, Paul Leland
Mount Vernon (Va. : Estate); Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Homes and haunts -- Virginia -- Mount Vernon (Estate)
"Mixed my composts in a box with the apartments in the following
manner, viz. No. 1 is three pecks of earth brought from below the hill
out of the 46 acre field without any mixture. In No. 2 is two pecks of
sand earth and one of marle taken out of the said field, which marle
seemed a little inclined to sand. 3 has 2 pecks of sd. earth and 1 of
river sand.
"4 has a peck of Horse Dung
"5 has mud taken out of the creek
"6 has cow dung
"7 has marle from the Gulleys on the hillside, wch. seem'd to be purer
than the other
"8 sheep dung
"9 Black mould from the Gulleys on the hill side, wch. seem'd to be
purer than the other
"10 Clay got just below the garden
"All mixed with the same quantity and sort of earth in the most
effective manner by reducing the whole to a tolerable degree of fineness
and rubbing them well together on a cloth. In each of these divisions
were planted three grains of wheat, 3 of oats, and as many of barley,
all of equal distances in Rows and of equal depth done by a machine made
for the purpose. The wheat rows are next the numbered side, the oats in
the middle, and the barley on the side next the upper part of the
Garden. Two or three hours after sowing in this manner, and about an
hour before sunset I watered them all equally alike with water that had
been standing in a tub abt two hours exposed to the sun."
Three weeks later he inspected the boxes and concluded that Nos. 8 and 9
gave the best results.
The plows of the period were cumbersome and did their work poorly.
Consequently in March, 1760, Washington "Fitted a two Eyed Plow instead
of a Duck Bill Plow", and tried it out, using his carriage horses in the
work. But this new model proved upon the whole a failure and a little
later he "Spent the greater part of the day in making a new plow of my
own Invention." Next day he set the new plow to work "and found She
answerd very well."
A little later he "got a new harrow made of smaller and closer teethings
for harrowing in grain--the other being more proper for preparing the
ground for sowing."
Much of his attention in the next few years was devoted to wheat
growing, for, as already related, he soon decided gradually to
discontinue tobacco and it was imperative for him to discover some
other money crop to take its place. We find him steeping his seed wheat
in brine and alum to prevent smut and he also tried other experiments to
protect his grain from the Hessian fly and rust. Noticing how the
freezing and thawing of the ground in spring often injured the wheat by
lifting it out of the ground, he adopted the practice of running a heavy
roller over the wheat in order to get the roots back into the ground and
he was confident that when the operation was performed at the proper
time, that is when the ground was soft and the roots were still alive,
it was productive of good results.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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