Bye, Abe, George and Diane!
-
@Aqua-Letifer said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
He didn't grow cabbages. He grew tobacco, then converted to wheat. Just sayin'.
“During the 1780s, with agricultural prices depressed, Washington found it hard to make any headway as a farmer. In November 1785 he told George William Fairfax that he never viewed his plantations “without seeing something which makes me regret having [continued] so long in the ruinous mode of farming which we are in.”24 The following year, perplexed by what to do, he launched an important correspondence with a renowned English agronomist, Arthur Young, who sent him his four-volume Annals of Agriculture. Candid about his own inadequacies as a farmer, Washington asked for advice about more than just the ruinous practices and backward farm implements at Mount Vernon. Rather, he saw the agricultural system of the whole country as bogged down in outdated methods and was especially critical of Virginia planters who exhausted their soil with endless rounds of tobacco, Indian corn, and wheat. Deciding to conserve his soil through crop rotation, Washington ordered a variety of new seeds from Young—including cabbage, turnips, rye, and hop clover—and under Young’s tutelage eventually planted sixty different crops at Mount Vernon. A severe drought and a boll weevil infestation drastically cut his wheat yield in 1787. Nonetheless, determined to rotate his crops, he had by 1789 planted wheat, barley, oats, rye, clover, timothy, buckwheat, Indian corn, pumpkins, potatoes, turnips, peas, and flax. As president, he lent the prestige of his office to espousing a national board of agriculture that could diffuse scientific information to farmers.”
Excerpt From: Chernow, Ron. “Washington.” Apple Books. ”
That's the only reference I could find to GW growing cabbage. Ellis's biography doesn't mention it at all.
The Mt. Vernon site
HISTORY
George Washington had cabbage planted between his rows of corn at several of his farms.On 6 Aug. 1786 Washington sent him a grateful response. "Agriculture has never been amongst the most favorite amusements of my life, though I never possessed much skill in art, and nine years' total inattention to it, has added nothing to a knowledge which is best understood from practice; but with the means you have been so obliging as to furnish me, I shall return to it (though rather late in the day) with hope & confidence" (Rosenbach Foundation, Philadelphia). Washington ask Young to sent him two plows with extra shares and coulters and the best varieties of cabbage, turnip, sainfoin, winter vetch, and ryegrass seeds, as well as any other grasses which might seem valuable.
One of Washington's great preoccupations, during his whole career in agriculture, was finding the right crops for the soil, climate, and practical needs of his Mount Vernon establishment. His determination to throw off the bondage of single-crop farming seemed at times almost too dogged. The number of field crops he raised, attempted to raise, or at least experimented with on a small scale is well above sixty. In a set of "Notes & Observations" he kept for 1785-86 (George Washington Papers, Library of Congress) he mentions planting barley, clover, corn, carrots, cabbage, flax, millet, oats, orchard grass, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, rye, spelt, turnips, timothy, and wheat.
-
Literally the first words that appear in my google search:
Initially growing tobacco as his cash crop, Washington soon realized that tobacco was not sustainable and he switched to grains, particularly wheat as a cash crop in 1766.
My point is that the joke would make much more sense picking one of Washington's more major crops.
That's like making up an Elon Musk quote saying, "whatever, I'm going to go back to making my city guides." Yes, technically Musk had a business for that in the past, but that's not at all what he was known for so it's weird and falls flat.
"I'm going back to my wheat harvest."
"I'm going back to work on my gout problem."
"I'm going to go back to wearing dead people's teeth."Y'know, something more immediately relevant.
Please love yourself.
-
@Aqua-Letifer Gotcha. My thinking was that the joke was that Washington found that even growing something as unexciting as cabbages would be preferable to dealing with idiots. Wheat or tobacco just didn't have the same punch.
Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. – Mike Ditka
-
-
@Catseye3 said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
@Aqua-Letifer Gotcha. My thinking was that the joke was that Washington found that even growing something as unexciting as cabbages would be preferable to dealing with idiots. Wheat or tobacco just didn't have the same punch.
Fair thought process!
-
@Doctor-Phibes said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
I met my high school english teacher at my parents' yard sale, when they were selling their house. I hated english in high school, so I thought he'd find it surprising I got a master's in poetry.
He said, "that's actually not surprising at all."
I asked him why that was.
"You couldn't just do an assignment, you never just did your work. You had to add some stupid shit to it that made it funny and interesting to you. So creative writing makes a lot of sense. In fact when other kids cut up in class, you would actually insult them if you felt they weren't being funny, and told them what they should've said instead."
"Really?"
"All the time."
So yeah, apparently it's a problem. But I'm better now! I mean, right?
Please love yourself.
-
-
@Doctor-Phibes said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
Bro I have long hair, a frivolous Master's, ride a singlespeed, do film photography and buy vinyl gear. It's been a bit grim for awhile now.
But I don't eat no fucking avocado toast. I have no problem dying on that hill.
Skinny jeans can go to hell, too.
-
You know it's just now occurred to me that my buddy does screen printing and we design and make our own graphic tees.
My God.
-
@Aqua-Letifer said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
@Catseye3 said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
I'm imagining what would have happened if this ilk had lived in General Washington's day.
He'd have said, "To hell with it. Let the Brits keep 'em. Ima go back to the farm and grow cabbages."
He didn't grow cabbages. He grew tobacco, then converted to wheat. Just sayin'.
Whiskey.
-
@Aqua-Letifer said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
@Doctor-Phibes said in Bye, Abe, George and Diane!:
I met my high school english teacher at my parents' yard sale, when they were selling their house. I hated english in high school, so I thought he'd find it surprising I got a master's in poetry.
He said, "that's actually not surprising at all."
I asked him why that was.
"You couldn't just do an assignment, you never just did your work. You had to add some stupid shit to it that made it funny and interesting to you. So creative writing makes a lot of sense. In fact when other kids cut up in class, you would actually insult them if you felt they weren't being funny, and told them what they should've said instead."
"Really?"
"All the time."
So yeah, apparently it's a problem. But I'm better now! I mean, right?
Don't quit therapy....
