George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Lund Washington, 22 March 1767

From Lund Washington

Mount Vernon March 22d—1767.

Sir

The Day after you left home I began to tread out the Doeg Run Wheat & got it done that Week, but did not get it all clean & brought down till Thursday last.1 it was so very mean that we were oblige’d to run it through the Fan 4 & 5 times one woud Scarcly believe that the Quantity of Wheat sew’d at that Plantn shoud produce so little the whole amt of it is only 505½ Bushels. Cleveland finish’d his wheat the week you left home he says he has something more than 1500 Bushels. Bishup’s Crop is 533½—I got the schooner loaded on Thursday last but Fryday & Saturday being two very Rainy Days prevented its being diliver’d shall diliver it tomorrow & the rest immediately after.2 The Earth has been Either hard Froze or very Wet ever since you left home so that the Flax cou’d not be sew’d3 (the last summers cowpens excepted which was sew’d last tuesday).

The Doeg Run plantn is at this time as wet as it has been any time this Winter, tho. I am determined to begin plowing as soon as the horses can walk without mireing.

Mr Adam will not agree to take £50 for his Negroe he is a likely fellow & I believe never was a slave in the West India’s.4 Am Sir Your Sincere Friend & Humble servt

Lund Washington

P.S. we cut corn Stocks when the ground was froze.5

ALS, ViMtvL. In the margin of the letter are figures in GW’s hand, some of them dealing with bushels of wheat.

1GW left Mount Vernon for Williamsburg on 12 Mar. to attend the session of the assembly scheduled to begin that day but delayed until 16 Mar. for lack of a quorum. GW departed from the capital to return home either on the day the session ended, 11 April, or on the next day. See Cash Accounts, March and April 1767.

2Before his departure for Williamsburg, GW had 1,403 bushels of wheat delivered to Carlyle & Adam. Lund Washington on 23 Mar. delivered 436 bushels, on 27 Mar. 452½ bushels, and on 10 April 40 bushels. See General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 180.

3For GW’s inquiries in 1765 about the cultivation of flax, see GW to Robert Cary & Co., to Capel and Osgood Hanbury, and to James Gildart, all 20 Sept. 1765.

4This may be Robert Adam, the merchant in Alexandria.

5“Corn Stocks” are corn stalks.

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