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Front Page  Titles (by Subject) TO JOHN TAYLOR J. MSS. - The Works, vol. 8 (Correspondence 1793-1798)
TO JOHN TAYLOR J. MSS. - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 8 (Correspondence 1793-1798) [1905]Edition used:The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 8
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TO JOHN TAYLORJ. MSS.
Monticello May 1, 1794. Dear Sir,—
In my new occupation of a farmer I find a good drilling machine indispensably necessary. I remember your recommendation of one invented by one of your neighbors; & your recommendation suffices to satisfy me with it. I must therefore beg of you to desire one to be made for me, & if you will give me some idea of it’s bulk, & whether it could travel here on it’s own legs, I will decide whether to send express for it, or get it sent around by Richmond. Mention at the same time the price of it & I will have it put in your hands.—I remember I showed you, for your advice, a plan of a rotation of crops which I had contemplated to introduce into my own lands. On a more minute examination of my lands than I had before been able to take since my return from Europe, I find their degradation by ill-usage much beyond what I had expected, & at the same time much more open land than I had calculated on. One of these circumstances forces a milder course of cropping on me, & the other enables me to adopt it. I drop therefore two crops in my rotation, & instead of 5. crops in 8. years take 3. in 6. years, in the following order. 1. wheat. 2. corn & potatoes in the strongest moiety, potatoes alone or peas alone in the other moiety according to it’s strength. 3. wheat or rye. 4. clover. 5. clover. 6. folding & buckwheat dressing. In such of my fields as are too much worn for clover, I propose to try Stfoin, which I know will grow in the poorest land, bring plentiful crops, & is a great ameliorator. It is for this chiefly I want the drilling machine as well as for Lucerne. My neighbors to whom I had distributed some seed of the Succory critybus, bro’t from France by Young, & sent to the President, are much pleased with it. I am trying a patch of it this year.—This drops from the tip of Lazarus’ finger to cool your tongue. I have thought even father Abraham would approve. He refused it to Dives in the common hall, but in yours he could not do it. Pray let me have a copy of the pamphlet published on the subject of the bank. Not even the title of it has ever been seen by my neighbors. My best affections to the sound part of our representation in both houses, which I calculate to be 19/20th. Adieu. Your’s affectionately.
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