Well, I am surprised that 'she who knows everything about growing', aka Annette, has not been here. I seem to remember something about this, way back in the deep recesses of my brain - very scary. lol. I need a clue Cyn, though Seed Drill comes to mind.....

Nancy.

LOL, I can't remember if it was George or one of the other presidents without looking it up, something about a unique building and horses seems to be drifting through the grey matter this morning. Hmmm, seed drill, some sort of mechanical seeding device? I need clues too.

Annette

Annette, building with horses and seeds makes me think of horses walking on grain to dislodge the seeds. Was it a thrashing building? I remember seeing photos of horses walking in a circle on grain but they were outside.

On a trip back east we went to Mount Vernon but arrived just as they were closing so didn't get to tour the grounds and wasn't able to return. It is still on my list of places to visit.

OK, wait a minute - I just re-read the question. It's not something that he invented, but an 'innovation that he introduced'. Huh. What about crop rotation, guys??

Nancy.

Severely pruning cherry trees?

No?

I'm going to guess that he was the first farmer to accept government subsidies for NOT growing crops.

No?

Well, let me cogitate on this.

TM

Nancy, crop rotation is a good thought. I know he was one of the first in the area to go from cotton to wheat. Which would explain the need for some kind of thrashing.

Ha,ha, TM. As a farmer's kid, we grew wheat and corn, I was bewildered by the need to dig up an "overplanted" area of a field after the gov'ment man came out to inspect.

mnwsgal, yes that's what came to mind, the horses stomped, the grain fell through the cracks between the floor boards to the floor below.

Annette

Interesting guesses, but not quite right. It does have to do with horses, but not the the stomping of the grain. Funny about the pruning of the cherry trees! I would tell you now, but I know how stubborn you all are about trying to solve these on your own.

I'll check back later. Have been cleaning all day, so I want to kick back for a little before bed-school night-ugh.

An innovation that has to do with horses.....hmmmm. Could it be as simple as using horses to plow, instead of oxen?

Nancy.

Getting there, but not quite. There are a couple of hints in my previous post-may be too subtle...

I'll give you the answer in the morning during my planning period at school!

I went back and searched your previous post for clues. Stubborn, kick, how about using mules instead of horses?

OK, clues in the previous post....stubborn. I thought that was an odd thing to say. Huh! How does that work - if you breed horses with donkeys, you get mules? Or vice-versa?? But you use them for farm work, strong, and one is easier to work with? I am lost here, but my answer is in there somewhere - Annette, Bobbi, TM - help!!!

Nancy.

Hmmmmm, could it be GW replaced his work horses with mules.

Annette

No help here. Mules sound as good as anything.

Woohoo! You are all right! The King of Spain sent him two mules (one died on the way over) and George introduced the use of mules for farming. They are bred from a female horse and a male donkey. They were stronger than horses for a lot of the farm work that horses had done before that.

Five stars for everyone! So sorry I haven't yet figured out how to actually award the stars here. I will wortk on that! Enjoy your Monday, friends. TM, glad you are home safe and sound after a wonderful vacation!

Great question, Cynthia, and the stubborn hint was excellent. Too bad I wasn't swift enough to pick up on it. I don't really deserve a single star as I was totally just repeating mnwsgal, Nancy, and Annette.

Thanks a lot, Cynthia and Nancy, for giving us some super-good trivia this weekend. Would you like to take over this gig every weekend? :)

TM

NOOO!!!!