[29] _Ibid._, p. 156. See also "Status of Virginia Agriculture in 1870" in _Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1870_ (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1871), pp. 267-268. [30] Davis, _Intellectual Life_, p. 151. [31] _Ibid._, pp. 154-156. [32] Dr. John Schlebecker, Curator, Division of Agriculture and Mining, Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., interview. Dr. Schlebecker was of the opinion that the price which this blower brought suggested it might be animal-powered by a treadmill or overhead sweep. Wheat fans were relatively new types of equipment in 1835, but not uncommon among successful farmers. [33] _Ibid._ Schlebecker discussed the possibility of dairying as follows: "It's very likely he was in the business. Now whether it was butter or cheese--butter would pay better, and he is pretty close to Alexandria and Washington, and, for that matter, by sea to Baltimore. Butter would have been the more attractive of the commodities; cheese would keep better, could be shipped farther and find a greater variety of markets, but wouldn't pay quite as well. But I don't see evidence he was in the cheese business, and I'd be happier if I saw more churns on the list, or if the churn were better described. One churn would be enough if it were big enough. And it could very well be run by a sheep or a dog. You see, he's certainty got enough cows to be in the dairy business, willy nilly." (Transcription of tape-recorded interview with John Schlebecker, February 26, 1969, p. 6.) [34] _Ibid._ See also inventory in appendix B. [35] _Alexandria Gazette_, November 6, 1839, notice of sale. [36] Alfred Moss and Thomas Love, affidavit of October 29, 1839, in proceedings to sell the farm owned by Thomas Moss, deceased. [37] The wills and property inventories of members of the Moss family reveal much information that helps reconstruct the activity on their farm. Considering the equipment used, the products grown and processed, and the number of slaves reported, it is possible that between the 1820's and 1850's the farm was also engaged in breeding slaves for export to the rice and indigo plantations of South Carolina and the cotton plantations of Alabama and Mississippi. A certain amount of this traffic was also carried on locally. U.S. Census population records compiled from 1810 through 1850 show that slaveholding continued at a high level relative to other changing circumstances in agriculture and in the Moss family. See census records for Fairfax County in National Archives, Microfilm Division, Microcopy Roll 68 (1810), 137 (1820), 201 (1830), 558 (1840), 942 (1850).