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GEORGE WASHINGTON: FARMER
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS HOME LIFE AND AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES
By
PAUL LELAND HAWORTH
Author of THE PATH OF GLORY, RECONSTRUCTION AND UNION,
AMERICA IN FERMENT, ETC.
WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS, FACSIMILIES OF PRIVATE PAPERS, AND A MAP OF
WASHINGTON'S ESTATE DRAWN BY HIMSELF
1915
[Illustration: _By permission of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association_
Mount Vernon Stable Built in 1733 Showing also the Powell Coach]
"The aim of the farmers in this country (if they can be called farmers)
is, not to make the most they can from the land, which is or has been
cheap, but the most of the labour, which is dear; the consequence of
which has been, much ground has been _scratched_ over and none
cultivated or improved as it ought to have been: whereas a farmer in
England, where land is dear, and labour cheap, finds it his interest to
improve and cultivate highly, that he may reap large crops from a small
quantity of ground."
Washington to Arthur Young, December 5, 1791.
PREFACE
The story of George Washington's public career has been many times told
in books of varying worth, but there is one important aspect of his
private life that has never received the attention it deserves. The
present book is an attempt to supply this deficiency.
I desire to acknowledge gratefully the assistance I have received from
Messrs. Gaillard Hunt and John C. Fitzpatrick of the Library of
Congress, Mr. Hubert B. Fuller lately of Washington and now of
Cleveland, Colonel Harrison H. Dodge and other officials of the Mount
Vernon Association, and from the work of Paul Leicester Ford,
Worthington C. Ford and John M. Toner.
Above all, in common with my countrymen, I am indebted to heroic Ann
Pamelia Cunningham, to whose devoted labor, despite ill health and
manifold discouragements, the preservation of Mount Vernon is due. To
her we should be grateful for a shrine that has not its counterpart in
the world--a holy place that no man can visit without experiencing an
uplift of heart and soul that makes him a better American.
PAUL LELAND HAWORTH.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
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.
"The more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs," such were the
words that flowed from the writer's pen, "the better I am pleased with
them; insomuch, that I can no where find so great satisfaction as in
those innocent and useful pursuits. In indulging these feelings I am led
to reflect how much more delightful to an undebauched mind is the task
of making improvements on the earth than all the vain glory which can be
acquired from ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of
conquests."
Thus wrote George Washington in the fulness of years, honors and
experience. Surely in this age of crimson mists we can echo his
correspondent that it was a "noble sentiment, which does honor to the
heart of this truly great man." Happy America to have had such a
philosopher as a father!
"I think with you that the life of a husbandman is the most delectable,"
he wrote on another occasion to the same friend. "It is honorable, it is
amusing, and, with judicious management, it is profitable. To see
plants rise from the earth and flourish by the superior skill and bounty
of the laborer fills a contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy
to be conceived than expressed."
The earliest Washington arms had blazoned upon it "3 Cinque foiles,"
which was the herald's way of saying that the bearer owned land and was
a farmer. When Washington made a book-plate he added to the old design
spears of wheat to indicate what he once called "the most favorite
amusement of my life." Evidently he had no fear of being-called a
"clodhopper" or a "hayseed!"
Nor was his enthusiasm for agriculture the evanescent enthusiasm of the
man who in middle age buys a farm as a plaything and tries for the first
time the costly experiment of cultivating the soil. He was born on a
plantation, was brought up in the country and until manhood he had never
even seen a town of five thousand people. First he was a surveyor, and
so careful and painstaking was he that his work still stands the test.
Later he became a soldier, and there is evidence to show that at first
he enjoyed the life and for a time had military ambitions. When
Braddock's expedition was preparing he chafed at the prospect of
inaction and welcomed the offer to join the general's staff, but the
bitter experiences of the next few years, when he had charge of the
herculean task of protecting the settlers upon the "cold and Barren
Frontiers ... from the cruel Incursions of a crafty Savage Enemy,"
destroyed his illusions about war. After the capture of Fort Duquesne
had freed Virginia from danger he resigned his commission, married and
made a home. Soon after he wrote to an English kinsman who had invited
him to visit London: "I am now I believe fixed at this seat with an
agreeable Consort for Life. And hope to find more happiness in
retirement than I ever experienced amidst a wide bustling world."
Thereafter he quitted the quiet life always with reluctance. Amid long
and trying years he constantly looked forward to the day when he could
lay down his burden and retire to the peace and freedom of Mount Vernon,
there to take up again the task of farming. As Commander-in-Chief of the
Armies of the Revolution and as first President of the Republic he gave
the best that was in him--and it was always good enough--but more from a
sense of duty than because of any real enthusiasm for the rôle of
either soldier or statesman. We can well believe that it was with
heartfelt satisfaction that soon after independence was at last assured
he wrote to his old comrade-in-arms the Marquis de Chastellux: "I am at
length become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, where under
my own vine and fig-tree free from the bustle of a camp and the
intrigues of a court, I shall view the busy world with calm
indifference, and with serenity of mind, which the soldier in pursuit of
glory, and the statesman of a name, have not leisure to enjoy."
Years before as a boy he had copied into a wonderful copy-book that is
still preserved in the Library of Congress some verses that set forth
pretty accurately his ideal of life--an ideal influenced, may we not
believe, in those impressionable years by these very lines. These are
the verses--one can not call them poetry--just as I copied them after
the clear boyish hand from the time-yellowed page:
TRUE HAPPINESS
These are the things, which once possess'd
Will make a life that's truly bless'd
A good Estate on healthy Soil,
Not Got by Vice nor yet by toil;
Round a warm Fire, a pleasant Joke,
With Chimney ever free from Smoke:
A strength entire, a Sparkling Bowl,
A quiet Wife, a quiet Soul,
A Mind, as well as body, whole
Prudent Simplicity, constant Friend,
A Diet which no art Commends;
A Merry Night without much Drinking
A happy Thought without much Thinking;
Each Night by Quiet Sleep made Short
A Will to be but what thou art:
Possess'd of these, all else defy
And neither wish nor fear to Die
These are things, which once Possess'd
Will make a life that's truly bless'd.
George Washington did not affect the rôle of a Cincinnatus; he took it
in all sincerity and simpleness of heart because he loved it.
Nor was he the type of farmer--of whom we have too many--content to
vegetate like a lower organism, making scarcely more mental effort than
one of his own potatoes, parsnips or pumpkins. As the pages that follow
will reveal, he was one of the first American experimental
agriculturists, always alert for better methods, willing to take any
amount of pains to find the best fertilizer, the best way to avoid
plant diseases, the best methods of cultivation, and he once declared
that he had little patience with those content to tread the ruts their
fathers trod. If he were alive to-day, we may be sure that he would be
an active worker in farmers' institutes, an eager visitor to
agricultural colleges, a reader of scientific reports and an
enthusiastic promoter of anything tending to better American farming and
farm life.