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Show (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) 'First Business Man' EORGE WASHINGTON tn-dustrialist tn-dustrialist and business man is a distinction that might well be added to the traditional title of 'Father of His Country" in describing describ-ing our first President, whose 210th birthday anniversary is being celebrated cele-brated by his fellow Americans throughout the nation Washington is remembered best as a soldier and statesman. Yet his entire life from his early days as a journeyman surveyor to his last years as a farmer, represent the career of a shrewd, hard-headed, successful business man. Were he alive today there is no doubt that he would be in the thick of the war production effort. The machines, the munitions and the magnitude of the job might dwarf what he was accustomed to in 1776. But the mind and ability that made him No. 1 man of his era would make him right at home in the mammoth task of producing the guns, the planes, the tanks, the ships and foodstuffs needed to beat the Axis. Matter-of-fact entries in Washington's Washing-ton's many-volumed diaries testify to the profitable success of his numerous numer-ous business enterprises. Washington Washing-ton was a large-scale manufacturer. He was the foremost producer and exporter of flour in the Colonies, operating op-erating three mills at one time. Mount Vernon carried on an extensive exten-sive weaving trade that produced a variety of cloth, much of which was sold Washington's employees operated op-erated a tannery. He engaged in a fishing business on the Potomac. Washington was an expert on water transportation and helped sponsor the construction of canals running inward in-ward from the Virginia and Maryland Mary-land seaboard. He was a capitalist, placing his loans chiefly on landed security He was a road builder. o&. .asm GEORGE WASHINGTON He was eminent as a professional engineer. He was a canny dealer in land. A phase of Washington's career frequently overlooked was the business-like methods he used in organizing organ-izing the Continental army. His military leadership rested not so much on strategy, as on his dogged ability to keep an army everlastingly everlasting-ly in the field, in spite of nearly fatal shortages of food and supplies. He won the Revolutionary war as much by his ability to recruit soldiers, sol-diers, feed, clothe and supply them, handle his officers shrewdly, deal effectively ef-fectively with governors and the Continental congress and secure loans from patriotic citizens, as by his feats as commander-in-chief of the Continental army. But of all of Washington's business enterprises, he showed perhaps the greatest ability as a scientific farmer. farm-er. Moreover, he made contributions to agriculture's development that are followed by farmers everywhere today The list of things he pioneered pio-neered is surprising. Washington practiced crop rotation rota-tion before anyone else in the colonies col-onies tried it. He was the first American to grow alfalfa He was the first to carry on experiments with clover as a soil-building crop He introduced timothy hay to North America Three-quarters of a century cen-tury before soil chemistry was discovered dis-covered he carried on experiments with fertilizers in an attempt to restore re-store exhausted fields These experiments ex-periments helped pave the way for soil improvement as it is carried out today. The reason for Washington's continued con-tinued study of crops and farming methods was because much of his Mount Vernon lands were not very fertile, and he was the first Virginian to see that tobacco culture was sucking suck-ing fertility out of the soil and not restoring it to the owner's pocket In those days there were no means for testing the soil and determining its need for nitrogen, phosphorus and potash Modern fertilizers were not in existence, there were no state agricultural colleges, no department of agriculture and no county agents to assist the farmer as there are today Washington had to rely on personal investigation Thus Mount Vernon became a veritable agricultural agricul-tural experiment station. Washington's Washing-ton's efforts to put back into the soil plant foods removed by growing crops are reminiscent of what intelligent in-telligent farmers accomplish today. |