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go in the course of a tour through the seaport towns of this country. 

 At Marseilles, however, they differed as much in account of the 

 machines, as at Paris they had differed about other circumstances. 

 Some said it v/as 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 de- 

 scription 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 hooked 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 with- 

 out 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 county 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 



