He must either rent them, trust them to a manager, or allow them to lie idle.

Even the Mount Vernon land was distant from a good market, and the cost of transportation was so great that he must produce for selling purposes articles of little bulk compared with value.

Finally, he had an increasing number of slaves for whom food and clothing must be provided.
His answer to the problem of a money crop was for some years the old Virginia answer--tobacco.

His far western lands he left for the most part untenanted.

Those plantations in settled regions but remote from his home he generally rented for a share of the crop or for cash.