a
horse race or played a game of cards with his friends, and he had few
things to trouble him seriously. But fussy kings and ministers overseas
were meddling with the liberties of subjects and were creating a
situation out of which was to come a mighty burden--a burden so
Atalantean that it would have frightened most men, but one that he was
brave enough and strong enough to shoulder and with it march down to
immortality.

CHAPTER VIII

CONSERVING THE SOIL

The Revolution rudely interrupted Washington's farming experiments, and
for eight long years he was so actively engaged in the grim business of
checkmating Howe and Clinton and Cornwallis that he could give little
time or thought to agriculture. For more than six years, in fact, he did
not once set foot upon his beloved fields and heard of his crops, his
servants and his live stock only from family visitors to his camps or
through the pages of his manager's letters.

Peace at last brought him release. He had left Mount Vernon a simple
country gentleman; he came back to it one of the most famous men in the
world. He wasted no time in contemplating his laurels, but at once threw
himself with renewed enthusiasm into his old occupation. His observation
of northern agriculture and conversations with other farmers had
broadened his views and he was more than ever progressive. He was now
thoroughly convinced of the great desirability of grass and stock for
conserving the soil and he was also wide awake to the need of better
tools and methods and wished to make his estate beautiful as well
as useful.

Much of his energy in 1784-85 was devoted to rebuilding his house and
improving his grounds, and to his trip to his Ohio lands--all of which
are described elsewhere. No diary exists for 1784 except that of the
trip to the Ohio, but from the diary of 1785 we learn that he found time
to experiment with plaster of Paris and powdered stone as fertilizers,
to sow clover, orchard grass, guinea grass and peas and to borrow a scow
with which to raise rich mud from the bed of the Potomac.

The growing poverty of his soil, in fact, was a subject to which he gave
much attention. He made use of manure when possible, but the supply of
this was limited and commercial fertilizers were unknown. As already
indicated, he was beginning the use of clover and other grasses, but he
was anxious to build up the soil more rapidly and the Potomac muck
seemed to him a possible answer to