particularly in this capital, was very great, I thought it my duty
to inform myself from what markets they draw their supplies, in what
proportion from ours, and whether it might not be practicable to
increase that proportion. This city being little concerned in foreign
commerce, it is difficult to obtain information on particular branches
of it in the detail. I addressed myself to the retailers of rice, and
from them received a mixture of truth and error, which I was unable to
sift apart in the first moment. Continuing, however, my inquiries, they
produced at length this result; that the dealers here, were in the habit
of selling two qualities of rice, that of Carolina, with which they were
supplied chiefly from England, and that of Piedmont: that the Carolina
rice was long, slender, white, and transparent, answers well when
prepared with milk, sugar, &ic. but not so well when prepared _au gras_;
that that of Piedmont was shorter, thicker, and less white, but that it
presented its form better when dressed _au gras_, was better tasted,
and therefore preferred by good judges for those purposes: that the
consumption of rice, in this form, was much the most considerable, but
that the superior beauty of the Carolina rice, seducing the eye of those
purchasers who are attached to appearances, the demand for it was
upon the whole as great as for that of Piedmont. They supposed this
difference of quality to proceed from a difference of management; that
the Carolina rice was husked with an instrument which broke it more,
and that less pains were taken to separate the broken from the unbroken
grains; imagining that it was the broken grains which dissolved in oily
preparations: that the Carolina rice costs somewhat less than that
of Piedmont; but that being obliged to sort the whole grains from the
broken, in order to satisfy the taste of their customers, they ask and
receive as much for the first quality of Carolina, when sorted, as for
the rice of Piedmont; but the second and third qualities, obtained by
sorting, are sold much cheaper. The objection to the Carolina rice
then, being, that it crumbles in certain forms of preparation, and
this supposed to be the effect of a less perfect machine for husking, I
flattered myself I should be able to learn what might be the machine of
Piedmont, when I should arrive at Marseilles, to which place I was to
go in the course of a tour through the seaport towns of this country.
At Marseilles, however, they differed as much in the account of the
machine, as at Paris they had differed about other circumstances. Some
said it was husked between mill-stones, others between rubbers of wood
in the form of mill-stones, others of cork. They concurred in one fact,
however, that the machine might be seen by me, immediately on crossing
the Alps. This would be an affair of three weeks. I crossed them, and
went through the rice country from Vercelli to Pavia, about sixty
miles. I found the machine to be absolutely the same with that used
in Carolina, as well as I could recollect a description which Mr. E.
Rutledge had given me of it. It is on the plan of a powder-mill. In some
of them, indeed, they arm each pestle with an iron tooth, consisting of
nine spikes hooped together, which I do not remember in the description
of Mr. Rutledge. I therefore had a tooth made, which I have the honor
of forwarding you with this letter; observing, at the same time, that
as many of their machines are without teeth as with them, and of course,
that the advantage is not very palpable. It seems to follow, then, that
the rice of Lombardy (for though called Piedmont rice, it does not grow
in that country, but in Lombardy) is of a different species from that of
Carolina; different in form, in color, and in quality. We know that in
Asia they have several distinct species of this grain. Monsieur Poivre,
a former Governor of the Isle of France, in travelling through several
countries of Asia, observed with particular attention the objects of
their agriculture, and he tells us, that in Cochin-China they cultivate
six several kinds of rice, which he describes, three of them requiring
water, and three growing on highlands. The rice of Carolina is said to
have come from Madagascar, and De Poivre tells us, it is the white rice
which is cultivated there. This favors the probability of its being of a
different species originally, from that of Piedmont; and time, culture,
and climate may have made it still more different. Under this idea, I
thought it would be well to furnish you with some of the Piedmont rice,
unhusked, but was told it was contrary to the laws to export it in
that form. I took such measures as I could, however, to have a quantity
brought out, and lest these should fail, I brought, myself, a few
pounds. A part of this I have addressed to you by the way of London;
a part comes with this letter; and I shall send another parcel by some
other conveyance, to prevent the danger of miscarriage. Any one of them
arriving safe, may serve to put in seed, should the society think it
an object. This seed, too, coming from Vercelli, where the best rice is
supposed to grow, is more to be depended on, than what may be sent me
hereafter. There is a rice from the Levant, which is considered as of a
quality still different, and some think it superior to that of Piedmont.
The troubles which have existed in that country for several years back,
have intercepted it from the European market, so that it is become
almost unknown. I procured a bag of it, however, at Marseilles, and
another of the best rice of Lombardy, which are on their way to
this place, and when arrived, I will forward you a quantity of each,
sufficient to enable you to judge of their qualities when prepared for
the table. I have also taken measures to have a quantity of it brought
from the Levant, unhusked. If I succeed, it shall be forwarded in
like manner. I should think it certainly advantageous to cultivate, in
Carolina and Georgia, the two qualities demanded at market; because the
progress of culture, with us, may soon get beyond the demand for the
white rice; and because, too, there is often a brisk demand for the one
quality, when the market is glutted with the other. I should hope there
would be no danger of losing the species of white rice, by a confusion
with the other. This would be a real misfortune, as I should not
hesitate to pronounce the white, upon the whole, the most precious of
the two, for us.
The dry rice of Cochin-China has the reputation of being the whitest to
the eye, best flavored to the taste, and most productive. It seems then
to unite the good qualities of both the others known to us. Could it
supplant them, it would be a great happiness, as it would enable us to
get rid of those ponds of stagnant water, so fatal to human health and
life. But such is the force of habit, and caprice of taste, that
we could not be sure beforehand, it would produce this effect. The
experiment, however, is worth trying, should it only end in producing
a third quality, and increasing the demand. I will endeavor to procure
some to be brought from Cochin-China. The event, however, will be
uncertain and distant.
I was induced, in the course of my journey through the south of France,
to pay very particular attention to the objects of their culture,
because the resemblance of their climate to that of the southern parts
of the United States authorizes us to presume we may adopt any of their
articles of culture, which we would wish for. We should not wish for
their wines, though they are good and abundant. The culture of the vine
is not desirable in lands capable of producing any thing else. It is a
species of gambling, and of desperate gambling too, wherein, whether you
make much or nothing, you are equally ruined. The middling crop alone is
the saving point, and that the seasons seldom hit. Accordingly, we see
much wretchedness among this class of cultivators. Wine, too, is so
cheap in these countries, that a laborer with us, employed in the
culture of any other article, may exchange it for wine, more and better
than he could raise himself. It is a resource for a country, the whole
of whose good soil is otherwise employed, and which still has some
barren spots, and a surplus of population to employ on them. There the
vine is good, because it is something in the place of nothing. It may
become a resource to us at a still earlier period: when the increase of
population shall increase our productions beyond the demand for them,
both at home and abroad. Instead of going on to make an useless surplus
of them, we may employ our supernumerary hands on the vine. But that
period is not yet arrived.
The almond tree is also so precarious, that none can depend for
subsistence on its produce, but persons of capital.
The caper, though a more tender plant, is more certain in its produce,
because a mound of earth of the size of a cucumber hill, thrown over the
plant in the fall, protects it effectually against the cold of winter.
When the danger of frost is over in the spring, they uncover it, and
begin its culture. There is a great deal of this in the neighborhood of
Toulon. The plants are set about eight feet apart, and yield, one year
with another, about two pounds of caper each, worth on the spot six
pence sterling the pound. They require little culture, and this may
be performed either with the plough or hoe. The principal work is the
gathering of the fruit as it forms. Every plant must be picked every
other day, from the last of June till the middle of October. But this is
the work of women and children. This plant does well in any kind of soil
which is dry, or even in walls where there is no soil, and it lasts the
life of a man. Toulon would be the proper port to apply for them. I must
observe, that the preceding details cannot be relied on with the fullest
certainty, because, in the canton where this plant is cultivated, the
inhabitants speak no written language, but a medley, which I could
understand but very imperfectly.
The fig and mulberry are so well known in America, that nothing need
be said of them. Their culture, too, is by women and children, and
therefore earnestly to be desired in countries where there are
slaves. In these, the women and children are often employed in labors
disproportioned to their sex and age. By presenting to the master
objects of culture, easier and equally beneficial, all temptation to
misemploy them would be removed, and the lot of this tender part of our
species be much softened. By varying too the articles of culture, we
multiply the chances for making something, and disarm the seasons, in a
proportionable degree, of their calamitous effects.
The olive is a tree the least known in America, and yet the most worthy
of being known. Of all the gifts of heaven to man, it is next to the
most precious, if it be not the most precious. Perhaps it may claim
a preference even to bread; because there is such an infinitude of
vegetables, which it renders a proper and comfortable nourishment. In
passing the Alps at the Col de Tende, where they are mere masses of
rock, wherever there happens to be a little soil, there are a number of
olive trees, and a village supported by them. Take away these trees, and
the same ground, in corn, would not support a single family. A pound of
oil, which can be bought for three or four pence sterling, is equivalent
to many pounds of flesh, by the quantity of vegetables it will prepare,
and render fit and comfortable food. Without this tree, the country of
Provence and territory of Genoa, would not support one half, perhaps
not one third, their present inhabitants. The nature of the soil is of
little consequence, if it be dry. The trees are planted from fifteen to
twenty feet apart, and when tolerably good, will yield fifteen or twenty
pounds of oil yearly, one with another. There are trees which yield much
more. They begin to render good crops at twenty years old, and last till
killed by cold, which happens at some time or other, even in their best
positions in France. But they put out again from their roots. In Italy,
I am told, they have trees of two hundred years old. They afford an
easy but constant employment through the year, and require so little
nourishment, that if the soil be fit for any other production, it may
be cultivated among the olive trees, without injuring them. The northern
limits of this tree, are the mountains of the Cevennes, from about the
meridian of Carcassonne to the Rhone, and from thence, the Alps and
Apennines as far as Genoa, I know, and how much farther I am not
informed. The shelter of these mountains may be considered as equivalent
to a degree and a half of latitude, at least; because westward of the
commencement of the Cevennes, there are no olive trees in 43 1/2°
or even 43° of latitude, whereas, we find them now on the Rhone at
Pierrelatte, in 44 1/2°, and formerly they were at Tains, above the
mouth of the Isere, in 45°, sheltered by the near approach of the
Cevennes and Alps, which only leave there a passage for the Rhone.
Whether such a shelter exists or not, in the States of South Carolina
and Georgia, I know not. But this we may say, either that it exists, or
that it is not necessary there; because we know that they produce
the orange in open air; and wherever the orange will stand at all,
experience shows that the olive will stand well; being a hardier tree.
Notwithstanding the great quantities of oil made in France, they have
not enough for their own consumption, and therefore import from other
countries. This is an article, the consumption of which will always keep
pace with its production. Raise it; and it begets its own demand. Little
is carried to America, because Europe has it not to spare. We therefore
have not learned the use of it. But cover the southern States with it,
and every man will become a consumer of oil, within whose reach it can
be brought, in point of price. If the memory of those persons is held
in great respect in South Carolina, who introduced there the culture
of rice, a plant which sows life and death with almost equal hand, what
obligations would be due to him who should introduce the olive tree, and
set the example of its culture! Were the owner of slaves to view it
only as the means of bettering their condition, how much would he better
that, by planting one of those trees for every slave he possessed!
Having been myself an eye-witness to the blessings which this tree sheds
on the poor, I never had my wishes so kindled for the introduction of
any article of new culture into our own country. South Carolina and
Georgia appear to me to be the States, wherein its success, in favorable
positions at least, could not be doubted, and I flattered myself, it
would come within the views of the society for agriculture, to begin the
experiments which are to prove its practicability. Carcassonne is the
place from which the plants may be most certainly and cheaply obtained.
They can be sent from thence by water to Bordeaux, where they may be
embarked on vessels bound to Charleston. There is too little intercourse
between Charleston and Marseilles, to propose this as the port of
exportation. I offer my services to the society, for the obtaining and
forwarding any number of plants which may be desired.
Before I quit the subject of climates, and the plants adapted to them,
I will add, as a matter of curiosity, and of some utility too, that
my journey through the southern parts of France, and the territory of
Genoa, but still more the crossing of the Alps, enabled me to form a
scale of the tenderer plants, and to arrange them according to their
different powers of resisting cold. In passing the Alps at the Col de
Tende, we cross three very high mountains, successively. In ascending,
we lose these plants, one after another, as we rise, and find them again
in the contrary order, as we descend on the other side; and this is
repeated three times. Their order, proceeding from the tenderest to the
hardiest, is as follows. Caper, orange, palm, aloe, olive, pomegranate,
walnut, fig, almond. But this must be understood of the plant only;
for as to the fruit, the order is somewhat different. The caper, for
example, is the tenderest plant; yet, being so easily protected, it is
among the most certain in its fruit. The almond, the hardiest plant,
loses its fruit the oftenest, on account of its forwardness. The palm,
hardier than the caper and orange, never produces perfect fruit here.
I had the honor of sending you, the last year, some seeds of the sulla
of Malta, or Spanish saintfoin. Lest they should have miscarried, I
now pack with the rice a canister of the same kind of seed, raised
by myself. By Colonel Franks, in the month of February last, I sent a
parcel of acorns of the cork-oak, which I desired him to ask the favor
of the Delegates of South Carolina in Congress, to forward to you.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and
respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXV.--TO JAMES MADISON, August 2, 1787
TO JAMES MADISON.
Paris, August 2, 1787.
Dear Sir,
My last was of June the 20th. Yours, received since that date, are of
May the 15th, and June the 6th. In mine, I acknowledged the receipt of
the paccan nuts which came sealed up. I have reason to believe those in
the box have arrived at L’Orient. By the Mary, Captain Howland, lately
sailed from Havre to New York, I shipped three boxes of books, one
marked J. M. for yourself, one marked B. F. for Dr. Franklin, and one
marked W. H. for William Hay in Richmond. I have taken the liberty of
addressing them all to you, as you will see by the enclosed bill of
lading, in hopes you will be so good as to forward the other two. You
will have opportunities of calling on the gentlemen for the freight,
&c. In yours, you will find the books, noted in the account enclosed
herewith. You have now Mably’s works complete, except that on Poland,
which I have never been able to get, but shall not cease to search
for. Some other volumes are wanting too, to complete your collection of
Chronologies. The fourth volume of D’Albon was lost by the bookbinder,
and I have not yet been able to get one to replace it. I shall continue
to try. The _Memoires sur les Droits et Impositions en Europe_ (cited by
Smith) was a scarce and excessively dear book. They are now reprinting
it. I think it will be in three or four quartos, of from nine to twelve
livres a volume. When it is finished, I shall take a copy for you.
Amelot’s Travels into China, I can learn nothing of. I put among the
books sent you, two somewhat voluminous, and the object of which
will need explanation; these are the _Tableau de Paris_ and _L’Espion
Anglois_. The former is truly a picture of private manners in Paris, but
presented on the dark side, and a little darkened moreover. But there
is so much truth in its groundwork, that it will be well worth your
reading. You will then know Paris (and probably the other large cities
of Europe) as well as if you had been there for years. _L’Espion
Anglois_ is no caricature. It will give you a just idea of the wheels by
which the machine of government is worked here. There are in it, also,
many interesting details of the last war, which, in general, may be
relied on. It may be considered as the small history of great events.
I am in hopes, when you shall have read them, you will not think I have
misspent your money for them. My method for making out this assortment
was, to revise the list of my own purchases since the invoice of 1785,
and to select such as I had found worth your having. Besides this,
I have casually met with, and purchased, some few curious and cheap
things.
I must trouble you on behalf of a Mr. Thomas Burke, at Loughburke near
Loughrea in Ireland, whose brother, James Burke, is supposed to have
died, in 1785, on his passage from Jamaica, or St. Eustatius, to New
York. His property on board the vessel is understood to have come to the
hands of Alderman Groom at New York. The enclosed copy of a letter
to him will more fully explain it. A particular friend of mine here,
applies to me for information, which I must ask the favor of you to
procure, and forward to me.
Writing news to others, much pressed in time, and making this letter one
of private business, I did not intend to have said any thing to you on
political subjects. But I must press one subject. Mr. Adams informs me
he has borrowed money in Holland, which, if confirmed by Congress,
will enable them to pay, not only the interest due here to the foreign
officers, but the principal. Let me beseech you to reflect on the
expediency of transferring this debt to Holland. All our other debts
in Europe do not injure our reputation so much as this. These gentlemen
have connections both in and out of office, and these again their
connections, so that our default on this article is further known,
more blamed, and excites worse dispositions against us, than you can
conceive. If you think as I do, pray try to procure an order for paying
off their capital. Mr. Adams adds, that if any certain tax is provided
for the payment of interest, Congress may borrow enough in Holland to
pay off their whole debts in France, both public and private, to the
crown, to the Farmers, and to Beaumarchais. Surely it will be better
to transfer these debts to Holland. So critical is the state of that
country, that I imagine the monied men of it, would be glad to place
their money in foreign countries, and that Mr. Adams could borrow there
for us, without a certain tax for the interest, and saving our faith
too, by previous explanations on that subject. This country is really
supposed on the eve of a * * * *. Such a spirit has risen within a few
weeks, as could not have been believed. They see the great deficit in
their revenues, and the hopes of economy lessen daily. The parliament
refuse to register any act for a new tax, and require an Assembly of
the States. The object of this Assembly is evidently to give law to the
King, to fix a constitution, to limit expenses. These views are said to
gain upon the nation.*
*****
[ * The parts of this letter marked by asterisks, are in
cipher, and unintelligible.]
A final decision of some sort, should be made on Beaumarchais’ affairs.
I am, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem, Dear Sir, your friend
and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXVI.--TO THOMAS BARCLAY, August 3, 1787
TO THOMAS BARCLAY.
Paris, August 3, 1787,
Dear Sir,
I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your several favors of June the
29th, and July the 6th and 8th.
I am of opinion that the affair of Geraud and Roland in Holland, had
better be committed to Mr. Dumas in Holland, as lawsuits must always
be attended to by some person on the spot. For the same reason, I
think that of La Vayse and Puchilberg should be managed by the agent at
L’Orient, and Gruel’s by the agent at Nantes. I shall always be ready
to assist the agents of L’Orient and Nantes, in any way in my power; but
were the details to be left to me, they would languish, necessarily, on
account, of my distance from the place, and perhaps suffer too, for want
of verbal consultations with the lawyers entrusted with them. You are
now with Congress, and can take their orders on the subject. I shall
therefore, do nothing in these matters, in reliance that you will
put them into such channel as they direct, furnishing the necessary
documents and explanations.
*****
With respect to French’s affair, being perfectly satisfied myself, I
have not ceased, nor shall I ‘cease, endeavoring to satisfy others, that
your conduct has been that of an honest and honorable debtor, and
theirs the counterpart of Shylock in the play. I enclose you a letter
containing my testimony on your general conduct, which I have written to
relieve a debt of justice pressing on my mind, well knowing at the same
time, you will not stand in need of it in America. Your conduct is too
well known to Congress, your character to all the world, to need any
testimonials.
The moment I close my despatches for the packet, which will be the
9th instant, I shall with great pleasure go to pay my respects to
Mrs. Barclay at St. Germain, to satisfy her on the subject of your
transactions, and to assure her that my resources shall be hers, as long
as I have any. A multitude of letters to write, prevents my entering
into the field of public news, further than to observe, that it is
extremely doubtful whether the affairs of Holland will, or will not
produce a war between France, on one side, and England and Prussia, on.
the other.
I beg you to accept assurances of the sincere esteem and respect, with
which I have the honor to be, Dear Sir, your friend
and servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LXXVII.--TO E. CARRINGTON, August 4,1787
TO E. CARRINGTON.
Paris, August 4,1787.
Dear Sir,