under rent, except the estate called Mount Vernon. This, hitherto, I have kept in my own hands; but, from my present situation, from my advanced time of life, from a wish to live free from care, and as much at my ease as possible, during the remainder of it, and from other causes, which are not necessary to detail, I have latterly entertained serious thoughts of letting this estate also, reserving the Mansion-House Farm for my own residence, occupation, and amusement in agriculture; provided I can obtain what is, in my own judgment, and in the opinion of others whom I have consulted, the low rent which I shall mention hereafter; and provided also I can settle it with good farmers.

The quantity of ploughable land (including meadow), the relative situation of the farms to one another, and the division of these farms into separate enclosures, with the quantity and situation of the woodland appertaining to the tract, will be better delineated by the sketch herewith sent (which is made from actual surveys, subject nevertheless to revision and correction), than by a volume of words.

No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this. It lies in a high, dry, and healthy country, three hundred miles by water from the sea, and, as you will see by the plan, on one of the finest rivers in the world. Its margin is washed by more than ten miles of tide-water; from the bed of which, and the innumerable coves, inlets, and small marshes, with which it abounds, an inexhaustible fund of rich mud may be drawn, as a manure, either to be used separately, or in a compost, according to the judgment of the farmer. It is situated in a latitude between the extremes of heat and cold, and is the same distance by land and water, with good roads and the best navigation, to and from the Federal City, Alexandria, and Georgetown; distant from the first, twelve, from the second, nine, and from the last, sixteen miles. The Federal City, in the year 1800, will become the seat of the general government of the United States. It is increasing fast in buildings, and rising into consequence; and will, I have no doubt, from the advantages given to it by nature, and its proximity to a rich interior country, and the Western territory, become the emporium of the United States.

The soil of the tract, of which I am speaking, is a good loam, more inclined however to clay than sand. From use, and I might add, abuse, it is become more and more consolidated, and of course heavier to work. The greater part is a greyish clay; some part is a dark mould; a very little is inclined to sand; and

scarcely any to stone. A husbandman's wish would not lay the farms more level than they are; and yet some of the fields, but in no great degree, are washed into gullies, from which all of them have not as yet been recovered.

This river, which encompasses the land the distance abovementioned, is well supplied with various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year; and, in the spring, with the greatest profusion of shad, herrings, bass, carp, perch, sturgeon, &c. Several valuable fisheries appertain to the estate; the whole shore, in short, is one entire fishery.

There are, as you will perceive by the plan, four farms besides that at the mansion-house; these four contain three thousand two hundred and sixty acres of cultivable land, to which some hundreds more adjoining, as may be seen, might be added, if a greater quantity should be required; but as they were never designed for, so neither can it be said they are calculated to suit, tenants of either the first, or of the lower class; because those, who have the strength and resources proportioned to farms of from five hundred to twelve hundred acres (which these contain), would hardly be contented to live in such houses as are thereon; and, if they were to be divided and subdivided, so as to accommodate tenants of small means, say from fifty to one or two hundred acres, there would be none, except on the lots which might happen to include the present dwelling-houses of my overlookers (called bailiffs with you), barns, and negro-cabins; nor would I choose to have the woodland (already too much pillaged of its timber) ransacked, for the purpose of building many more. The soil, however, is excellent for bricks, or for mud-walls; and to the building of such houses there would be no limitation, nor to that of thatch for the cover of them.

The towns already mentioned, to those who might incline to encounter the expense, are able to furnish scantling, plank, and shingles, to any amount, and on reasonable terms; and they afford a ready market also for the produce of the land.

On what is called Union Farm (containing nine hundred and twenty-eight acres of arable and meadow), there is a newly-erected brick barn, equal perhaps to any in America, and for conveniences of all sorts, particularly for sheltering and feeding horses, cattle, &c., scarcely to be exceeded anywhere. A new house is now building in a central position, not far from the barn, for the overlooker; which will have two rooms, sixteen by eighteen feet, below, and one or two above, nearly of the same size. Convenient

thereto is sufficient accommodation for fifty-odd negroes, old and young; but these buildings might not be thought good enough for the workmen or day-laborers of your country.

Besides these, a little without the limits of the farm, as marked in the plan, are one or two other houses, very pleasantly situated, and which, in case this farm should be divided into two, as it formerly was, would answer well for the eastern division. The buildings thus enumerated are all that stand on the premises.

Dogue-Run Farm (six hundred and fifty acres) has a small, but new building for the overlooker; one room only below, and the same above, sixteen by twenty each; decent and comfortable for its size. It has also covering for forty-odd negroes, similar to what is mentioned on Union Farm. It has a new circular barn, now finishing, on a new construction; well calculated, it is conceived, for getting grain out of the straw more expeditiously than in the usual mode of threshing. There are good sheds also erecting, sufficient to cover thirty work-horses and oxen.

Muddy-Hole Farm (four hundred and seventy-six acres) has a house for the overlooker in size and appearance nearly like that at Dogue Run, but older; the same kind of covering for about thirty negroes, and a tolerably good barn, with stables for the work-horses.

River Farm, which is the largest of the four, and separated from the others by Little Hunting Creek, contains twelve hundred and seven acres of ploughable land, has an overlooker's house, of one large and two small rooms below, and one or two above; sufficient covering for fifty or sixty negroes, like those beforementioned; a large barn and stables, gone much to decay, but these will be replaced next year with new ones.

I have deemed it necessary to give this detail of the buildings, that a precise idea might be had of the conveniences and inconveniences of them; and I believe the recital is just in all its parts. The enclosures are precisely and accurately delineated in the plan; and the fences now are, or soon will be, in respectable order.

I would let these four farms to four substantial farmers, of wealth and strength sufficient to cultivate them, and who would insure to me the regular payment of the rents; and I would give them leases for seven or ten years, at the rate of a Spanish milled dollar, or other money current at the time in this country equivalent thereto, for every acre of ploughable and mowable ground, within the enclosures of the respective farms, as marked in the

plan; and would allow the tenants, during that period, to take fuel; and use timber from the woodland to repair the buildings, and to keep the fences in order until live fences could be substituted in place of dead ones; but in this case, no sub-tenants would be allowed.

Or, if these farms are adjudged too large, and the rents, of course, too heavy for such farmers as might incline to emigrate, I should have no insuperable objection against dividing each into as many small ones, as a society of them, formed for the purpose, could agree upon among themselves; even if it should be by the fields as they are now arranged (which the plan would enable them to do), provided such buildings, as they would be content with, should be erected at their own expense, in the manner already mentioned. In which case, as in the former, fuel, and timber for repairs, would be allowed; but, as an inducement to parcel out my grounds into such small tenements, and to compensate me at the same time for the greater consumption of fuel and timber, and for the trouble and expense of collecting small rents, I should expect a quarter of a dollar per acre, in addition to what I have already mentioned. But in order to make these small farms more valuable to the occupants, and by way of reimbursing them for the expense of their establishment thereon, I would grant them leases for fifteen or eighteen years; although I have weighty objections to the measure, founded on my own experience of the disadvantage it is to the lessor, in a country where lands are rising every year in value. As an instance in proof, about twenty years ago I gave leases for three lives, in land I held above the Blue Mountains, near the Shenandoah River, seventy miles from Alexandria, or any shipping-port, at a rent of one shilling per acre, no part being then cleared; and now land of similar quality in the vicinity, with very trifling improvements thereon, is renting currently at five and more shillings per acre, and even as high as eight.

My motives for letting this estate having been avowed, I will add, that the whole, except the Mansion-House Farm, or none, will be parted with, and that upon unequivocal terms; because my object is to fix my income, be it what it may, upon a solid basis in the hands of good farmers; because I am not inclined to make a medley of it; and, above all, because I could not relinquish my present course without a moral certainty of the substitute which is contemplated; for to break up these farms, remove 40

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my negroes, and dispose of the property on them upon terms short of this, would be ruinous.

Having said thus much, I am disposed to add further, that it would be in my power, and certainly it would be my inclination, upon the principle above, to accommodate the wealthy, or the weak-handed farmer, and upon reasonable terms, with draughthorses, and working mules and oxen; with cattle, sheep, and hogs; and with such implements of husbandry, if they should not incline to bring them themselves, as are in use on the farms. On the four farms there are fifty-four draft-horses, twelve working mules, and a sufficiency of oxen, broke to the yoke; the precise number I am unable this moment to ascertain, as they are comprehended in the aggregate of the black cattle. Of the latter, there are three hundred and seventeen; of sheep, six hundred and thirty-four; of hogs, many; but, as these run pretty much at large in the woodland, which is all under fence, the number is uncertain. Many of the negroes, male and female, might be hired by the year, as laborers, if this should be preferred to the importation of that class of people; but it deserves consideration, how far the mixing of whites and blacks together is advisable; especially where the former are entirely unacquainted with the latter.

If there be those who are disposed to take these farms in their undivided state, on the terms which have been mentioned, it is an object of sufficient magnitude for them, or one of them, in behalf of the rest, to come over and investigate the premises thoroughly, that there may be nothing to reproach themselves, or me with, if (though unintentionally) there should be defects in any part of the information herein given; or, if a society of farmers are disposed to adventure, it is still more incumbent on them to send over an agent, for the purposes abovementioned; for with me the measure must be so fixed as to preclude any cavil or discussion thereafter. And it may not be malapropos to observe in this place, that our overlookers are generally engaged, and all the arrangements for the ensuing crops are made, before the first of September in every year. It will readily be perceived, then, that if this period is suffered to pass away, it is not to be regained until the next year. Possession might be given to the new comers at the season just mentioned, to enable them to put in their grain for the next crop; but the final relinquishment could not take place until the crops are gathered, which of Indian corn (maize) seldom happens till towards Christmas, as it must endure hard frosts before it can be safely housed.