er of years is now in a good state
of cultivation, the fields well enclosed by good and substantial
fencing, the land not in cultivation well taken with grass (clover
and timothy), and that in cultivation just sown down in winter
grain, and the buildings in a good state of repair, the barn and
stables having been erected in the last two or three years.[36]

Although the history of Green Spring Farm during its ownership by the
Moss family does not contain evidence of agricultural experimentation
and leadership in scientific farming, it seems clear, on the other
hand, that John Moss and his descendants advanced with the progress of
their times and, indeed, may have been among the most progressive
husbandmen of their day. They had broken away from the pattern of
farming that typified the colonial tobacco era, and they exemplified a
new and successful type of agriculture based on careful management of
the land and production for a diversified market. They were certainly
aware of the new developments and new philosophy which were growing
out of the search for the principles of scientific farming, and they
accepted and used some of those that applied to their situation.[37]

GREEN SPRING FARM AND THE TURNPIKE ROAD. The successful operation of
Green Spring Farm, like the success of numerous other farms in
Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, was closely linked to the
transportation system of these areas. Tidewater Virginia in the
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries relied mainly on coastal
waterways and rivers as avenues of commerce and travel. When roads
appeared on maps of Virginia in this period, they followed trails laid
down by Indians who, in turn, had taken over the game trails along the
ridges of the land. Therefore, by 1750 there was only a basic network
of roadways running east-west to the passes in the Blue Ridge and
north-south to the colonial capital of Williamsburg along the
Tidewater and to the Carolinas through the Piedmont. The eighteenth
century development of roads in Northern Virginia emphasized east-west
travel for the obvious reason that residents of this area saw their
future prosperity more closely linked to the rich resources and
fertile lands of the Shenandoah Valley (and through it, perhaps, to
the Ohio River) than through connection with the political capitals of
the state or the great plantations of the James and York Rivers.[38]

[Illustration: Figure 2. Survey Map, Jo