One is astonished at the amount that has never been cleared at all.

Only by the most careful husbandry could such an estate be kept productive.

It never could be made to yield bumper crops.
The situation confronting "Farmer Washington" was this: He had a great abundance of land, but most of it on his home estate was mediocre in quality.

Some of that lying at a distance was more fertile, but much of it was uncleared and that on the Ohio was hopelessly distant from a market.

With the exception of Mount Vernon even those plantations in Virginia east of the Blue Ridge could not be looked after in person.