George Washington: Farmer

with shoulders a trifle stooped, enormously large hands and feet, sparse grayish-chestnut hair, a countenance somewhat marred by lines of care and marks of smallpox, withal benevolent and hones

y, editor of the Annals of Agriculture, author of many books, of which the best remembered is his Travels

no where find so great satisfaction as in those innocent and useful pursuits. In indulging these feelings I am led to reflect how much more delightful to an undebauch

of crimson mists we can echo his correspondent that it was a "noble sentiment, which does honor

onorable, it is amusing, and, with judicious management, it is profitable. To see plants rise from the earth and flourish by the s

ned land and was a farmer. When Washington made a book-plate he added to the old design spears of wheat to indicate what he

e became a soldier, and there is evidence to show that at first he enjoyed the life and for a time had military ambitions. When Braddock's expedition was preparing he chafed at the prospect of inaction and welcomed the offer to join the general's staff, but the bitter experiences of the next few years, when he had charge of the herculean task of protecting the settlers upon the "cold and Barren Frontiers ... from the cruel Incursion

blic he gave the best that was in him--and it was always good enough--but more from a sense of duty than because of any real enthusiasm for the r?le of either soldier or statesman. We can well believe that it was with heartfelt satisfaction that soon after independence was at last assured he wrote to his old comrade-in-arms the Marquis de Chaste

t forth pretty accurately his ideal of life--an ideal influenced, may we not believe, in those impressionable years by these very lin

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iculturists, always alert for better methods, willing to take any amount of pains to find the best fertilizer, the best way to avoid plant diseases, the best methods of cultivation, and he once declared that he had little patience with those content to tread the ruts their