Robert Adams of Alexandria to sell to them all the wheat he would have
to dispose of in the next seven years. The price was to be three
shillings and nine pence per bushel, that is, about ninety-one cents.
This would not be far from the average price of wheat to-day, but, on
the one side, we should bear in mind that ninety-one cents then had much
greater purchasing power than now, so that the price was really much
greater, and, on the other, that the cost of raising wheat was larger
then, owing to lack of self-binders, threshing machines and other
labor-saving devices.

The wheat thus sold by Washington was to be delivered at the wharf at
Alexandria or beside a boat or flat on Four Mile Run Creek. The delivery
for 1764 was 257-1/2 bushels; for 1765, 1,112-3/4 bushels; for 1766,
2,331-1/2 bushels; for 1767--a bad year--1,293-1/2 bushels; for 1768,
4,994-1/2 bushels of wheat and 4,304-1/2 bushels of corn; for 1769,
6,241-1/2 bushels of wheat.

Thereafter he ground a good part of his wheat and sold the flour. He
owned three mills, one in western Pennsylvania, already referred to, a
second on Four Mile Run near Alexandria, and a third on the Mount Vernon
estate. This last mill had been in operation since his father's day. It
was situated near the mouth of the stream known as Dogue Run, which was
not very well suited for the purpose as it ran from the extreme of low
water in summer to violent floods in winter and spring. Thus his miller,
William A. Poole, in a letter that wins the sweepstakes in phonetic
spelling, complains in 1757 that he has been able to grind but little
because "She fails by want of Water." At other times the Master sallies
out in the rain with rescue crews to save the mill from floods and more
than once the "tumbling dam" goes by the board in spite of all efforts.
The lack of water was partly remedied in 1771 by turning the water of
Piney Branch into the Run, and about the same time a new and better mill
was erected, while in 1797 further improvements were made. During the
whole period flatboats and small schooners could come to the wharf to
take away the flour. Corn and other grains were ground, as well as
wheat, and the mill had considerable neighborhood custom, the toll
exacted being one-eighth. Only a few stones sticking in a bank now
remain of the mill.

Washington divided his flour into superfine, fine, middlings and ship
stuff. It was put into barrels manufactured by the plantation coopers
and