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 JEFFERSON TO PRESIDENT MADISON, FROM MONTICELLO, MAY 13, 1810 



Jefferson was interested in improving American livestock, and 



the following letter affords an interesting proposal with 



reference to the early importations of Merino sheep. 



Dear Sir, — I thank you for your promised attention to my portion 

 of the Merinos, and if there be any expenses of transportation, &c., 

 and you v/ill be so good as to advance my portion of them with yours 

 and notify the amount, it shall be promptly remitted. What shall we 

 do v/ith them? I have been so disgusted with the scandalous extortions 

 lately practised in the sale of these animals, and with the descrip- 

 tion of patriotism and praise to the sellers, as if the thousands of 

 dollars apiece they have not been ashamed to receive were not reward 

 enough, that I am disposed to consider as right, whatever is the re- 

 verse of what they have done. Since fortune has put the occasion upon 

 us, is it not incumbent upon us so to dispense this benefit to the 

 farmers of our country, as to put to shame those who, forgetting their 

 own wealth and the honest simplicity of the farmers, have thought them 

 fit objects of the shaving art, and to excite, by a better example, 

 the condemnation due to theirs? No sentiment is more acknowledged 

 in the family of Agriculturists than that the few who can afford it 

 should incur the risk and expense of all new improvements, and give 

 the benefit freely to the many of more restricted circumstances. The 

 question then recurs. What are we to do with them? I shall be willing 

 to concur with you in any plan you shall approve, and in order that 

 we may have some proposition to begin upon, I will throw out a first 

 idea, to be modified or postponed to whatever you shall think better. 



Give all the full-blooded males we can raise to the different 

 counties of our State, one to each, as fast as we can furnish them. 

 And as there must be some rule of priority for the distribution, let 

 us begin with our own counties, which are contiguous and nearly central 

 to the State, and proceed, circle after circle, till we have given a 

 ram to every county. This will take about seven years, if we add to 

 the full descendants those v/hich will have past to the fourth genera- 

 tion from common ewes, to make the benefit of a single male as general 

 as practicable to the county, we may ask some known character in each 

 county to have a small society formed which shall receive the animal 

 and prescribe rules for his care and government. We should retain 

 ourselves all the full-blooded ewes, that they may enable us the sooner 

 to furnish a male to every county. When all shall have been provided 

 with rams, we may, in a year or two more, be in a condition to give 

 an ewe also to every county, if it be thought necessary. But I suppose 



