He drew up elaborate plans for the rotation of crops on his different farms.  Not content with one plan, he often drew up several alternatives; calculated the probable financial returns from each, allowing for the cost of seed, cultivation and other expenses, and commented upon the respective advantages from every point of view of the various plans.  The labor involved in such work was very great, but Washington was no shirker.  He was always up before sunrise, both in winter and summer, and seems to have been so constituted that he was most contented when he had something to do.  Perhaps if he had had to engage in hard manual toil every day he would have had less inclination for such employment, but he worked with his own hands only intermittently, devoting his time mostly to planning and oversight.

One such plan for Dogue Run Farm is given on the next page.  To understand it the reader should bear in mind that the farm contained five hundred twenty-five arable acres divided into seven fields, each of which contained about seventy-five acres.

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No. of |        |        |        |        |        |        |        |
Fields |  1793  |  1794  |  1795  |  1796  |  1797  |  1798  |  1799  |
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|  Corn  |        |Buckwheat        | Clover | Clover | Clover |
3    |   and  |  Wheat |   for  |  Wheat |   or   |   or   |   or   |
|Potatoes|        | Manure |        |  Grass |  Grass |  Grass |
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| Clover |  Corn  |        |Buckwheat        | Clover | Clover |
4    |   or   |   and  |  Wheat |   for  |  Wheat |   or   |   or   |
|  Grass |Potatoes|        | Manure |        |  Grass |  Grass |
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| Clover | Clover |  Corn  |        |Buckwheat        | Clover |
5    |   or   |   or   |   and  |  Wheat |   for  |  Wheat |   or   |
|  Grass |  Grass |Potatoes|        | Manure |        |  Grass |
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| Clover | Clover | Clover |  Corn  |        |Buckwheat        |
6    |   or   |   or   |   or   |   and  |  Wheat |   for  |  Wheat |
|  Grass |  Grass |  Grass |Potatoes|        | Manure |        |
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|        | Clover | Clover | Clover |  Corn  |        |Buckwheat
7    |  Wheat |   or   |   or   |   or   |   and  |  Wheat |   for  |
|        |  Grass |  Grass |  Grass |Potatoes|        | Manure |
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|Buckwheat        | Clover | Clover | Clover |  Corn  |        |
1    |   for  |  Wheat |   or   |   or   |   or   |   and  |  Wheat |
| Manure |        |  Grass |  Grass |  Grass |Potatoes|        |
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