The lack of tobacco and tobacco processing equipment suggests that the Mosses had abandoned this crop for production of cereal grains—wheat, oats, rye, and corn—and possession of a mechanical wheat fan (for blowing chaff away from the grain during threshing) indicates use of some of the most advanced labor-saving equipment of the day.[32] The number of horses, plows, and other farm machinery seems large for the size of the farm and suggests that its cultivation must have prospered over a period of time. Particularly significant is the number of livestock in the inventory and the types of animals—horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and bees. These, plus other entries, indicate that the farm must have regularly produced beef, bacon, lard, wool, soap, honey, and beeswax, all in quantities sufficient to provide market income. Mention of quantities of hay, oats, and corn in the inventory suggest that in addition to cultivating cereal grains the Mosses had a major interest in raising meat animals and in dairying.
Strong evidence of dairying comes from the presence of a spring house at the farm and mention of tubs, churns, jars, crocks, strainers, and the like. They point to active dairying, with the sale of milk, cheese, and butter in the nearby neighborhood, in Alexandria, and possibly even points beyond.[33]
The listing of hogsheads and barrels of vinegar in the sale inventory suggests still another facet of Green Spring Farm’s diversification. Both apple and peach orchards existed at the time and apparently produced well.[34]
The will of John Moss and the inventories of William Moss and Thomas Moss give the impression of a farming family which was successful in more than ordinary measure as compared with most other Northern Virginia farmers. Their farm was described in the notice advertising the court sale in 1839 as follows:
Brick dwelling house, 8 rooms, brick kitchen, meat house, servant’s house, new barn and stables and other convenient outbuildings. Apple orchard, peach orchard, also, stone spring house.[35]
More revealing, perhaps, is the affidavit of Alfred Moss and Thomas Love (son and son-in-law, respectively, of Thomas Moss) offered in connection with the court proceedings to sell the farm as part of the settlement of Thomas Moss’s estate. They said:
This tract of land is naturally a thin soil, but from a careful course of husbandry for a number of years is now in a good state of cultivation, the fields well enclosed by good and substantial fencing, the land not in cultivation well taken with grass (clover and timothy), and that in cultivation just sown down in winter grain, and the buildings in a good state of repair, the barn and stables having been erected in the last two or three years.[36]
Although the history of Green Spring Farm during its ownership by the Moss family does not contain evidence of agricultural experimentation and leadership in scientific farming, it seems clear, on the other hand, that John Moss and his descendants advanced with the progress of their times and, indeed, may have been among the most progressive husbandmen of their day. They had broken away from the pattern of farming that typified the colonial tobacco era, and they exemplified a new and successful type of agriculture based on careful management of the land and production for a diversified market. They were certainly aware of the new developments and new philosophy which were growing out of the search for the principles of scientific farming, and they accepted and used some of those that applied to their situation.[37]