TO MR. SYLVESTRE.
Washington, July 15, 1808.
Sir,—I had received from you on a former occasion the four first volumes of the Memoirs of the Agricultural Society of the Seine, and since that, your letter of September 19th, with the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th volumes, being for the years 1804 '5 '6 with some separate memoirs. These I have read with great avidity and satisfaction, and now return you my thanks for them. But I owe particular acknowledgments for the valuable present of the Theatre de De Serres, which I consider as a prodigy for the age in which it was composed, and shows an advancement in the science of agriculture which I had never suspected to have belonged to that time. Brought down to the present day by the very valuable notes added, it is really such a treasure of agricultural knowledge, as has not before been offered to the world in a single work.
It is not merely for myself, but for my country, that I must do homage to the philanthropy of the Society, which has dictated their destination for me of their newly-improved plough. I shall certainly so use it as to answer their liberal views, by making the opportunities of profiting by it as general as possible.
I have just received information that a plough addressed to me has arrived at New York, from England, but unaccompanied by any letter or other explanation. As I have had no intimation of such an article to be forwarded to me from that country, I presume it is the one sent by the Society of the Seine, that it has been carried into England under their orders of council, and permitted to come on from thence. This I shall know within a short time. I shall with great pleasure attend to the construction and transmission to the Society of a plough with my mould board. This is the only part of that useful instrument to which I have paid any particular attention. But knowing how much the perfection of the plough must depend, 1st, on the line of traction; 2d, on the direction of the share; 3d, on the angle of the wing; 4th, on the form of the mould-board; and persuaded that I shall find the three first advantages eminently exemplified in that which the Society sends me, I am anxious to see combined with these a mould-board of my form, in the hope it will still advance the perfection of that machine. But for this I must ask time till I am relieved from the cares which have now a right to all my time, that is to say, till the next Spring. Then giving, in the leisure of retirement, all the time and attention this construction merits and requires, I will certainly render to the Society the result in a plough of the best form I shall be able to have executed. In the meantime, accept for them and yourself the assurances of my high respect and consideration.
TO MR. LASTEYRIE.
Washington, July 15, 1808.
Sir,—I have duly received your favor of March 28th, and with it your treatises on the culture of the sugar cane and cotton plant in France. The introduction of new cultures, and especially of objects of leading importance to our comfort, is certainly worthy the attention of every government, and nothing short of the actual experiment should discourage an essay of which any hope can be entertained. Till that is made, the result is open to conjecture; and I should certainly conjecture that the sugar cane could never become an article of profitable culture in France. We have within the ancient limits of the United States, a great extent of country which brings the orange to advantage, but not a foot in which the sugar cane can be matured. France, within its former limits, has but two small spots, (Olivreles and Hieres) which brings the orange in open air, and à fortiori, therefore, none proper for the cane. I should think the sugar-maple more worthy of experiment. There is no part of France of which the climate would not admit this tree. I have never seen a reason why every farmer should not have a sugar orchard, as well as an apple orchard. The supply of sugar for his family would require as little ground, and the process of making it as easy as that of cider. Mr. Micheaux, your botanist here, could send you plants as well as seeds, in any quantity from the United States. I have no doubt the cotton plant will succeed in some of the southern parts of France. Whether its culture will be as advantageous as those they are now engaged in, remains to be tried. We could, in the United States, make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good. Yet I have ever observed to my countrymen, who think its introduction important, that a laborer cultivating wheat, rice, tobacco, or cotton here, will be able with the proceeds, to purchase double the quantity of the wine he could make. Possibly the same quantity of land and labor in France employed on the rich produce of your Southern counties, would purchase double the quantity of the cotton they would yield there. This however may prove otherwise on trial, and therefore it is worthy the trial. In general, it is a truth that if every nation will employ itself in what it is fittest to produce, a greater quantity will be raised of the things contributing to human happiness, than if every nation attempts to raise everything it wants within itself. The limits within which the cotton plant is worth cultivating in the United States, are the Rappahanock river to the north, and the first mountains to the west. And even from the Rappahanock to the Roanoke, we only cultivate for family use, as it cannot there be afforded at market in competition with that of the more Southern region. The Mississippi country, also within the same latitudes, admits the culture of cotton.
The superficial view I have yet had time to take of your treatise on the cotton plant, induces a belief that it is rich and correct in its matter, and contains a great fund of learning on that plant. When retired to rural occupations, as I shall be ere long, I shall profit of its contents practically, in the culture of that plant merely for household manufacture. In that situation, too, I shall devote myself to occupations much more congenial with my inclinations, than those to which I have been called by the character of the times into which my lot was cast. About to be relieved from this corvée by age and the fulfilment of the quadragena stipendia, what remains to me of physical activity will chiefly be employed in the amusements of agriculture. Having little practical skill, I count more on the pleasures than the profits of that occupation. They will give me, too, the leisure which my present situation nearly denies, of rendering such services as may be within my means, to the Institute, the Agricultural Society of the Seine, to yourself, and such other worthy individuals as may find any convenience in a correspondence here. I shall then be able particularly to fulfil the wishes expressed, of my sending to the Society of Agriculture a plough with my mould-board. Perhaps I may be able to add some other implements, peculiar to us, to the collection which I perceive that the Society is making. I salute you, Sir, with assurances of great esteem and respect.