eorge Washington dug his hand into the newly tilled earth and let the hard dry clay crumble through his long
tanding a head taller than his field hands George scanned the distant landscape imagining how much tobacco corn and wheat it would produce He had always loved Mount Vernon even before his half brother Lawrence named the estate after Admiral Edward Vernon a great British naval officer George remembered living there as a boy running after chickens and following Lawrence as he inspected the fields In 1759 at the age of twenty seven George was master of the estate He had just returned home from four years of fighting in the French and Indian War Being commander in chief of Virginia's troops was difficult but young George learned to lead and make decisions with confidence Now that he was home he had his lovely wife Martha and two stepchildren to care for and a busy plantation to run How would this poor soil grow the crops he needed to feed his family and slaves and earn money at market too George had learned a lot watching Lawrence but he needed to know more to make his
plantation
o he penned a letter to England ordering the best books on agriculture including Batty Langley's New Principles of Gardening These books would not have all the answers George needed They were based on what worked for British farmers George would need to see for himself which seeds would grow well in Mount Vernon's hard clay soil and warm Virginia climate O ne blustery day in March George watched as the field hands planted crops One guided a wheeled plow turning over clods of dirt A second slave walked behind scattering handfuls of barley seed A third field hand covered the seeds with soil using a sharp harrow There had to be a better way George thought Later he wrote in his diary Spent the greatest
