– A Photo Essay.

Mount Vernon, First American President George Washington’s historic home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, includes a 4-acre working farm. Washington used Mount Vernon as a laboratory for testing and implementing progressive farming practices and the Pioneer Farm represents the more than 3,000 acres he cultivated during the second half of the 18th century. It also offers visitors a chance to learn more about the lives of some 100 Mount Vernon field slaves who put Washington’s agrarian ideas into practice. “I shall always be happy to give and receive communications on improvement in farming and the various branches of agriculture. This is in my opinion, an object of infinite importance to the country. I consider it to be the proper source of American wealth and happiness.” http://www.mountvernon.org/the-estate-gardens/pioneer-farm/.

Courtesy of Jeannette Beranger, Livestock Conservancy