The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
MONTICELLO / AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
I have been long endeavoring to procure the Cork tree from Europe,
but without success. A plant which I brought with me from Paris died
after languishing some time, and of several parcels of acorns received
from a correspondent at Marseilles, not one has ever vegetated. I
shall continue my endeavors, although disheartened by the nonchalance
of our Southern fellow citizens, with whom alone they can thrive. It
is now twenty-five years since I sent them two shipments (about 500
plants) of the Olive tree of Aix, the finest Olives in the world. If
any of them still exist, it is merely as a curiosity in their gardens;
not a single orchard of them has been planted. I sent them also the
celebrated species of Sainfoin [Sulia], from Malta, which yields good
crops without a drop of rain through the season. It was lost. The
upland rice which I procured fresh from Africa and sent them, has been
preserved and spread in the upper parts of Georgia, and I believe in
Kentucky. But we must acknowledge their services in furnishing us an
abundance of cotton, a substitute for silk, flax and hemp. The ease
with which it is spun will occasion it to supplant the two last, and
its cleanliness the first. Household manufacture is taking deep root
with us. I have a carding machine, two spinning machines, and looms
with the flying shuttle in full operation for clothing my own family;
and I verily believe that by the next winter this State will not need
a yard of imported coarse or middling clothing. I think we have
already a sheep for every inhabitant, which will suffice for clothing,
and one-third more, which a single year will add, will furnish
blanketing.
to James Ronaldson,12 January 1813
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