THE PRESIDENTS' GARDENS 151 



bloom from early spring to late fall — or indeed, to 

 late winter, according to his superintendent. Un- 

 doubtedly the collection was exceptionally fine, for he 

 had exceptional opportunities for collecting. During 

 bis residences abroad, the thought of Monticello and 

 his garden was ever in his mind; and plants and 

 agriculture were ever his hobby, although he was 

 usually more utilitarian than esthetic in his taste, as 

 a matter of fact. "The greatest service which can be 

 rendered to any country," said he, "is to add a useful 

 plant to its culture." And again, "Cultivators of the 

 earth are the most valuable citizens." "Wherefore he 

 imported olive plants from Marseilles to South Caro- 

 lina and Georgia, and heavy upland rice from Africa, 

 hoping that it might take the place of the wet rice so 

 difficult and unhealthy to cultivate in the hot summer. 

 And he worked and cultivated industriously. 



Quantities of shrubbery were purchased by him from 

 a nursery in George Town, and of every specimen in 

 every part of his grounds he kept a close trace. Direc- 

 tions which he sent, along with one shipment, are char- 

 acteristic of his interest, and his knowledge of his trees. 

 ■ "If weather is not open and soft when Davy arrives," 

 he writes — it is November twenty-fourth — "put the 

 box of thorns into the cellar where they may be free 

 from the influence of cold until weather becomes soft 

 when they must be planted in the places of those dead 



