he follows what may be supposed to be the example of his late Royal
Master, who can not, tho' past his grand climacteric, perform seldomer or
with more majestic solemnity than he does. However I am not without hope
that when he becomes a little better acquainted with republican enjoyment,
he will amend his manners, and fall into a better and more expeditious
mode of doing business." This fortunately proved to be the case, and his
master not merely secured such mules as he needed for his own use, but
gained from him considerable profit by covering mares in the neighborhood.
He even sent him on a tour through the South, and Royal Gift passed a
whole winter in Charleston, South Carolina, with a resulting profit of six
hundred and seventy-eight dollars to his owner. In 1799 there were on the
estate "2 Covering Jacks & 3 young ones, 10 she asses, 42 working mules
and 15 younger ones."

Of cattle there were in 1793 a total of three hundred and seventeen head,
including "a sufficiency of oxen broke to the yoke," and a dairy was
operated separate from the farms, and some butter was made, but Washington
had occasion to say, "It is hoped, and will be expected, that more
effectual measures will be pursued to make butter another year; for it is
almost beyond belief, that from 101 cows actually reported on a late
enumeration of the cattle, that I am obliged to _buy butter_ for the use
of my family."

Sheep were an unusual adjunct of a Virginia plantation, and of his flock
Washington wrote, "From the beginning of the year 1784 when I returned
from the army, until shearing time of 1788, I improved the breed of my
sheep so much by buying and selecting the best formed and most promising
Rams, and putting them to my best ewes, by keeping them always well culled
and clean, and by other attentions, that they averaged me ... rather over
than under five pounds of washed wool each." In another letter he said,