To what extent he endeavored to improve the breed of his cattle I am unable to say, but I have found that as early as 1770 he owned an English bull, which in July he killed and sold to the crew of the British frigate _Boston_, which lay in the Potomac off his estate.

In 1797 he made inquiries looking toward the purchase of an improved bull calf from a cattle breeder named Gough, but upon learning that the price was two hundred dollars he decided not to invest.

Gough, however, heard of Washington's interest in his animals, and being an admirer of the General, gave him a calf.

An English farmer, Parkinson, who saw the animal in 1798, describes him in terms the reverse of enthusiastic, and of this more hereafter.
A large part of the heavy work on all the farms was done by oxen.

In November, 1785, there were thirteen yoke of these beasts on the Mount Vernon estate and the number was sometimes still larger.