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crops

Washington was a progressive farmer who experimented with growing over 60 different crops at Mount Vernon. Through his experimentation with crops, he was instrumental in changing farming methods of his time. He was one of the first farmers to realize that tobacco depleted the soil, and in the mid-1760s, he switched to wheat as his primary cash crop. He did not believe in the common practice of the time of using land until the soil was worn and then moving on. He believed it was wasteful and that through careful land management and soil conservation, fields could and should remain productive. By the late 1760s, Washington’s main cash crop was wheat. He also grew corn to feed his workforce, family, and livestock. Other minor crops, called sundries, included potatoes, buckwheat, oats, barley, flax, peas, beans, turnips, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, cotton, and pumpkins.

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