America's Crop Heritage


 Eight bushels of what you call velvet wheat, of which I perceive you are
 an admirer
 Four bushels of beans, of the kind you most approve for the purposes of a
 farm
 Eight bushels of the best kind of spring barley
 Eight bushels of the best kind of oats and eight bushels of sainfoin seed.

 The first shipment of seeds arrived in a damaged condition.
Apparently the captain of the vessel did not have the space or
the desire to share his cabin with the twenty-one bushels of seeds
Washington had ordered.
 The Board of Agriculture of London sent Washington seeds
of the perennial succory brought over from France by Arthur
Young. In the winter of 1789, Washington received gooseberry
plants from William Persse of Ireland. He thanked Persse for
these, and acknowledged his obligation for Persse's offer to send
"other natural Productions" of Ireland. Five thousand white thorn
plants sent from England in 1794 for planting hedges arrived in
late spring. Only a few survived, and they were not thrifty. The
same year, Washington ordered thirty-nine varieties of tropical
plants, including the breadfruit tree (an economical food in the
West Indies for feeding slaves) from the trustees of the Botanical
Garden of Jamaica. Washington's third misfortune in his efforts
to procure seeds and plants from overseas occurred when the ves-
sel carrying this order was lost at sea. His interest in these plants
had been that they would "combine utility, ornament, and amuse-
ment."
 Washington, and other persons of ample means, used green-
houses to protect tropical plants for botanical and experimental
purposes. Since the glass structures maintained sufficiently uni-
form conditions of heat and moisture, they were used to grow
grapes for wine. "The orangery" was a name often given to glass
structures used to protect citrus fruits before they became avail-
able on the market at popular prices.

 THOMAS JEFFERSON
 Jefferson's interest in agriculture was more profound and prac-
tical, more extended and continuous in time than either Frank-
lin's or Washington's. In Jefferson's philosophy, the agrarian way
of life was the basis of national economic and political sanity.
Long residence on the estates of Shadwell and Monticello gave
him the opportunity to practice and experiment with various