Working Plantation
Gardens
On the Grounds

Plantations were largely self-contained economies as well as money-making enterprises. Initially, Monroe found that only a small portion of Highland was cultivated, but by 1798 he estimated 20,000 pounds of tobacco could be grown. To increase production, he successfully planted cover crops, plowed plaster of Paris (gypsum) into the soil, and replaced tobacco with grain crops. Elsewhere on the estate, the miller ground the plantation's corn and wheat, the sawyer cut timber from Monroe's 2,000 acres of forest, and the smith hammered ironware and shod horses. Other workers were kept busy spinning and weaving wool and flax, one of the most important activities in the service yard. Since foreign cloth was extremely costly, Monroe imported Spanish Merino sheep to Highland, where he cross-bred them with his domestic sheep.