1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



229 



ter, to preserve the life and vigor of the potato. 

 The juice or nutriment of the potato is necessary 

 to the support of the young plant. This the plas- 

 ter absorbs and preserves as it exudes from the 

 cut potatoes. I afterwards throw upon each hill a 

 handful of ashes ; and, at the time of hoeing, I 

 throw upon the vines of each hill another spoon- 

 ful of plaster. And without using any manure, I 

 never fail to have good potatoes, and perfectly free 

 from the rot, when I plant early enough. AH the 

 earlier kinds of potatoes escape the rot entirely, 

 because the tops are all dead before the season of 

 the rot arrives. John Goldsbury. 



Warwick, Feb., 1862. 



For the New Ensland Fanner. 

 JEFFEESON AT MONTICELLO. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



A book of 138 octavo pages, with the above ti- 

 tle, has just been published, under the authorship 

 of Rev. Mr. Pierson, President of Cumberland 

 College, Kentucky. His materials, which are said 

 to be entirely new, are derived mainly from Cap- 

 tain Bacon, who was Mr. Jefferson's "overseer" 

 for about twenty years of the latter part of his 

 life. Mr. Bacon's duty as "overseer" seems to 

 have been that of a sort of steward, or general 

 manager, to whom instructions were given as to 

 the conduct of all the affairs of the establishment. 

 We get from the volume an insight into Presi- 

 dent Jefferson's agricultural tastes and opinions, 

 which we find very interesting. He gave to his 

 farm affairs that minute and systematic attention 

 which is essential to any satisfactory results, and 

 which enabled him to accomplish so much in so 

 many and various departments of business and 

 science. "He always knew," says Mr. Bacon, 

 "everything, in every part of his gi'ounds and gar- 

 den. He knew the name of every tree, and just 

 where one was dead or missing." He wrote from 

 Washington, while he was President, particular 

 directions hoAV every servant should be employed, 

 and when he sent trees and shrubs, as he often 

 did, to be planted about his place, he wrote in- 

 structions where each one should be set. 



In a letter of November, 1807, he directs where 

 to plant a great variety of trees. His heart was 

 evidently a', his home, and every part of the land- 

 scape Wiis pictured in his mind. He writes thus : 

 "Four purple beeches. In the clumps which are 

 in the south-west and north-west angles of the 

 house. There were four of those trees planted 

 last spring, two in each clump. They all died, but 

 the places will be known by the remains of the 

 trees, or by the sticks marked No. IV. in the 

 places. I wish those now sent, to be planted in 

 the same places." "Six Spitzenberg apple trees. 

 Plant them in the south-east orchard, in any place 

 ■where apples have been planted and are dead." 



The r)un:)lc beech, let us say, is one of the most 



beautiful of trees, and why it is not more common, 

 seeing that 55 years ago it was known and appre- 

 ciated by Mr. Jefferson, is somewhat strange. We 

 have seen them in England, from one to two feet 

 in diameter, and much of the proportions of the 

 common beech. It has, in localities near Boston, 

 a somewhat peculiar habit of putting out its leaves 

 irregularly, some branches being in full leaf, while 

 others remain in the bud. If the tree is healthful, 

 as we presume it to be, it is worthy of a place in 

 all ornamental grounds. 



MONTICELLO. 



Capt. Bacon says, "Monticello is quite a high 

 mountain, in the shape of a sugar loaf. A winding 

 road led up to the mansion. On the very top of 

 the mountain, the forest trees were cut down, and 

 ten acres were cleared and levelled off." 



The house stood on the very top. The grounds 

 about it were beautifully ornamented with flowers 

 and shrubberj', and laid out in walks. Back of 

 the house was a lawn of two or three acres. The 

 garden was on the hill-side, and full of all sorts of 

 fruits, including grapes and figs. There were 

 about 300 acres inclosed with the house, from 

 which Mr. Jefferson never allowed a tree to be cut 

 for use. Roads and walks were laid out winding 

 through it, where the family amused themselves at 

 pleasure. The whole estate comprised some ten 

 thousand acres of land, too rough and uneven to 

 be very profitable for cultivation, though finely 

 adapted to fruit. 



Among other things, he had a flouring-mill four 

 stories high, and built of stone, with four run of 

 stones, to which water was carried in a canal three- 

 fourths of a mile. He had also a nail factory, 

 where he worked ten hands to good profit, at two 

 fires, supplying all the neighborhood with nails. 

 The flouring-mill was unprofitable, but a great ac- 

 commodation to the country around. He had also 

 a factory for making cotton cloth, in which were 

 three spinning machines, running in all sixty 

 spindles, where he manufactured much more cloth 

 than was used by his family. 



Jefferson was enterprising in all directions. 

 When he wanted a new carriage, he set his men 

 to work, and built it on the place, from a model 

 that he planned himself. "The woodwork, black- 

 smithing and painting were all done by his own 

 workmen. He had the plating done in Richmond." 

 It is a pity the drawings are not preserved, for this 

 carriage must have been a curiosity, or would be 

 now, certainly. "When he travelled in this car- 

 riage," says Bacon, "he always had five horses, 

 four in the carriage, and the fifth for Burwell, (a 

 slave,) who always rode behind him. These five 

 horses were Dioraede, Brimmer, Tecumseh, Wel- 

 lington and Eagle." Mr. Bacon says tlje new 

 carriage and the fine blood-horses, with elegnnt 



