again by running twice in the middle of them,
both times in the same furrow; 5. after which the ridges were harrowed;
and, 6. where the ground was lumpy, run a spiked roller with a harrow at
the tail of it, which was found very efficacious in breaking the clods
and pulverizing the earth, and would have done it perfectly, if there
had not been too much moisture remaining from the late rains. After
this, harrowing and rolling were necessary, the wheat was sown with the
drill plough on the reduced ridges eight feet apart, as above mentioned,
and harrowed in with the small harrow belonging to the plough. But it
should have been observed, that, after the ridges were split by the
middle double furrows, and before they were closed again by the harrow,
a little manure was sprinkled in."

No man better understood the value of good clean seed than did he, but
he had much trouble in satisfying his desires in this respect. Often the
seed he bought was foul with weed seeds, and at other times it would not
grow at all. Once he mentions having set the women and "weak hands" to
work picking wild onions out of some Eastern Shore oats that he
had bought.

He advocated planting the largest and finest potatoes instead of the
little ones, as some farmers out of false ideas of economy still make
the mistake of doing, and he followed the same principle that "the best
will produce the best" in selecting all seed.

He also appreciated the importance of getting just the right stand of
grain--not too many plants and not too few--upon his fields and
conducted investigations along this line. He laboriously calculated the
number of seed in a pound Troy of various seeds and ascertained, for
example, that the number of red clover was 71,000, of timothy 298,000,
of "New River Grass" 844,800 and of barley 8,925. Knowing these facts,
he was able to calculate how much ought to be sowed of a given seed
to the acre.

The spectacle of the former Commander of the Armies of a Continent
engaging in such minute labor is ridiculous or sublime, according to the
viewpoint!

In the spring of the year that he helped to frame the Federal
Constitution he "Sowed the squares No. 2 & 4 at this place [Dogue Run]
with oats in the following manner--viz--the East half of No. 2 with
half a Bushel of Oats from George Town--and the west half with a Bushel
of Poland Oats--The east half of No. 4 with half a bushel of the Poland
Oats and the west half with a bushel of the Geo