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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, un- 

 husked. 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 be- 

 cause 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 cul- 

 ture, 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 anything 

 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 other- 

 wise employed, and which still has some barren spots, and 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 



