230 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Mat 



harnesses, made a splendid appearance. His horses 

 were not driven with reins, but a postillion rode 

 one of each pair, as the fashion now is in state car- 

 riages abroad, 



LIVE STOCK. 



Beside indulging, like most Virginia gentlemen, 

 in a taste for fine horses. President Jefferson gave 

 great attention to improvement in the breeds of 

 cattle, sheep and swine. Mr. Bacon says the first 

 full blood Merino sheep in all that country were 

 imported by Mr. Jefferson, for himself and Mr. 

 Madison, while the former was President. They 

 were sent by water to Fredericksburg, but where 

 they came from, we are not informed. Mr. Ba- 

 con's plan for getting up a flock would be worthy 

 the genius of a Connecticut Yankee. He put a 

 notice in a newspaper, that persons who wished to 

 improve their stock, might send two ewes, which 

 would be kept until their lambs were ready to 

 wean, and then the owner might come and take 

 one lamb, leaving the ewes and the other lamb. 

 In this way, he says, "We got the greatest lot of 

 sheep — more than we wanted — two or three hun- 

 dred, I think — and in a few years we had an im- 

 mense flock. People came long distances to buy 

 our full blood sheep. At first we sold them for 

 fifty dollars, but they soon fell to thirty and twen- 

 ty, and before I left Mr. Jefferson, Merino sheep 

 were so numerous, that they sold about as cheap 

 as common ones." Mr. Jefferson imported from 

 Barbary four broad tailed sheep ; but although 

 they made good mutton, they were not liked, and 

 ran out in a few years. 



He and Mr. Madison imported also some swine, 

 called by the name of Calcutta hogs, which Mr. 

 Bacon describes as being black on the head and 

 rump, and white listed round the body. They 

 were very long bodied, with short legs ; would live 

 on grazing. He says, "They would not root much 

 more than an ox. With common pasturage, they 

 would weigh 200 at a year old, and fed with corn, 

 and well treated, they would weigh 300 or 400." 

 The object of Mr. Jefferson was to scatter his im- 

 proved breeds for the benefit of the country ; but 

 his "overseer" seems to have wisely judged, that 

 what is lightly won is lightly prized, and he de- 

 vised a plan by which he increased his herds of 

 swine as well as his flocks of sheep. "I told the 

 people," he says, "to bring three sows, and when 

 they came for them, they might take two and leave 

 one. In this way, we soon got a large number of 

 hogs, and the stock was scattered over that whole 

 country." 



Jefferson never imported any cattle during the 

 twenty years included in this account, but "could 

 always procm-e remarkably fine cattle from West- 

 ern Virginia." In one of his letters from Wash- 

 ington, he speaks of divers valuables in the way 



of plants, &c., sent by his servant Davy, and adds, 

 "He brings a couple of Guinea pigs, which I wish 

 you to take great care of, as I propose to get this 

 kind into the place of those we have now, as I 

 greatly prefer their size and form." The animal 

 now known as the Guinea pig is not of the swine 

 genus, and whether Mr. Jefferson referred to it, 

 or to something else, or was under a misappre- 

 hension as to what a Guinea pig is, is not quite 

 certain. 



Jefferson was very particular in making his cid- 

 er. In one of his letters, he speaks of his apples. 

 "They are now mellow and beginning to rot. Let 

 them be made clean, one by one, and all the rot- 

 ten ones thrown away, or the rot cut out. Noth- 

 ing else can ensure good cider." 



HIS SLAVES. 



Mr. Bacon says, "No servants ever had a kind- 

 er master than Mr, Jefferson's. He did not like 

 slavery. I have heard him talk a great deal about 

 it. He thought it a bad system. I have heard 

 him prophesy that we should have just such trou- 

 ble with it, as we are having now." Capt. Bacon 

 is a stanch Union man, utterly opposed to the 

 whole secession movement, and seems to see, as 

 many of us farther North do, the true origin of 

 the rebellion. Some of the necessary fruits of 

 the system of slavery, appear in this narrative. 

 Gov. Thomas M. Randolph, who married one oi 

 Jefferson's daughters, was much embarrassed for 

 money, at times, and in order to raise what he re- 

 quired, "when he must have it, and could get it 

 in no other way, he would be obliged to sell some 

 of his negroes." On the 16th of May, 1819, he 

 sold to this same Mr. Bacon a little girl four years 

 old, described as "Edy, daughter of Fennel," for 

 $200, in order to meet a payment of $150, to the 

 United States Bank. Mr. Jefferson, while Presi- 

 dent, sent for Mr. Bacon to come to the White 

 House and take two of his servants, husband and 

 wife, who were quarrelsome, to Alexandria, and 

 sell them, but they begged and promised so hard, 

 that the President relented and kept them. He 

 gave several of his favorite slaves their freedom 

 by liis will, and would have freed them all, but 

 was so embarrassed by a loss of $20,000, as sure- 

 ty for a friend, and by the imposition of every- 

 body upon his hospitality, that he could not well 

 do it. On the whole, we find our favorable im- 

 pression of Jefferson, as a large-hearted, progres- 

 sive, considerate, unselfish, kindly natured man, 

 confirmed by this volume. It has nothing to do 

 with his opinions, political or religious, but gives 

 us an agreeable sketch of the philosopher and 

 statesman at home, most beloved and revered by 

 those who knew him best. There is no position 

 where a great man appears more truly noble, than 

 at the head of his family, on his own homestead. 



