Show J american agriculture owes debt to jefferson for pioneer work in conserving soil restoring its fertility and other modern farm methods by E ahio SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper Newa paper union A LANKY horseman rode A 1 steadily through the virginia hills under a bleak march sky ills his le lean ad face brightening as he recognized familiar landmarks ho he was muscular and vigorous despite ills his 66 years with tanned skin clear hazel eyes a kindly expression and abundant gray hair that still showed traces of its original brick red the r rider der urged his sorrel faster aster u up the slopes of a tree crowne crowned hill that towered over the rolling countryside spurring to the top lie ho throw the reins to a colored groom dismounted lightly and greeted a family group waiting for him near a stately house thomas jefferson had come home to monticello the year was nas 1809 but a few days before he had bid farewell to the whito white house wished his friend james madison godspeed in the presidency and rode out of washington as a private citizen since his birth april 13 1743 jet ferson erson had raveled graveled rave led an eventful route ile he had experienced some do feats and many triumphs virtually every high office within the gift of his fellow citizens had been his he had been state legislator and congressman governor and minister secretary of bojc state vice president band and president for two terms he h had doubled the territory of tho the united states and built a powerful political party his ideals of liberty were engraved in tho the law of the tha land and now in tho the fullness of his honors honor sho ho was to spend nathe the next 17 years in serene retirement as the sago sage of monticello busy amidst his farms A famous epitaph visitors to monticello always pause to study the epitaph chiseled on the gray granite shaft over jet ter fer sons grave written by the great statesman himself before his death on july 4 IBM 1823 it reads hero billere was burled buried thomas jefferson author of the declaration of independence 0 f the tha statute of virginia tor for religious nen lous freedom and father of the university of virginia most americans are fa familiar with these achievements of the many sided elded Je jefferson derson few citizens perhaps are aware of another of hla his contributions his work for the tha development of modern scientific farming arming so on tho the birthday of this great former statesman it to Is appropriate to tell the story of hit his encouragement of agriculture for farming was one of the consuming interests of 0 jeffersons life ills his roots were bedded in the earth in many ways hajwas he was generations ahead of his time he clearly saw the future possibilities of american agriculture and strove to mako make them a reality jefferson inherited an estate of acres ha added constantly to 0 that farm and by the time he mar ried 21 year old martha wayles skelton on new years day 1772 his holdings exceeded acres A year later tho the death of his father inlaw in law brought tho the famil ylan additional fial acres situated in western virginia Virgini ae As a practical farmer jefferson was constantly on I 1 the alert for now nen ideas ile he mado made monticello into intha a progressive experimental form farm where new machinery new meth improved stock breeding now new crops and tests in restoring soil fertility were tried out over a period of years he grew as many its as 32 different vegetables on his farm and he attempted to adapt adap tand and do acres s of plants shrubs and trees from distant countries ills land impoverished the sago sage of monticello Mon had much huchto to contend with during hla absence on public business over seers who farmed the land ravaged it he said to a n degree of degradation tar far beyond what I 1 had bad expected 11 no attempts at diversification had been made unlike the farmer of today who can get advice from his county agents agricultural college agronomists or experiment stations on whether his soil poll Is deficient in nitrogen phosphorus and potash and then obtain the correct analysis of mixed fertilizer jefferson had to depend on talks with his neighbors and his reading of farm papers and arid books published in england so ho he corresponded frequently 1 I with george washington james I 1 TIM t T X A IN a it monticello Virg lala home of thomas thomaa jefferson madison john adams tho the marquis do lar lafayette LaFayet aletto tc and arthur young tho the famous british agricultural scientist when ho he learned something new about agriculture ho he recorded it in a farmbrook Farm Book he kept in his own li handwriting nd writing ono account tells tell how to lay out experimental plots to test the effects of fertilizer in these tests his plant foods were manure and gypsum unfortunately tor for him fertilizers as we know them today were not in existence like a modern scientific farmer jefferson learned that clover and other legumes would help heal the wounds of his soil and give his land land a breathing spell ile iio discovered that legumes had a valuable soil enriching power but did not understand that this lay in their ability to impart nitrogen to the land crop rotation was another practical measure ho he championed thus ho he divided some of his lands udder cultivation into four largo large farms these were in turn tan subdivided into six fields of 40 acres each this permitted a six year period of rotation for example the first held field would be planted to wheat tho the second to corn tho the third to ryo rye or wheat the fou fourth i rth and fifth to clover and the sixth to buckwheat rotation and legumes helped save his land from exhaustion and wastage pioneered in contour plowing in still another modern method of tillage jefferson pioneered that was contour plowing which Is so et to today ay in saving soil and wa 4 0 thomas jefferson tho the farmer 1 tor ter from costly runoffs run offs ons jefferson aided by his son in law thomas mann randolph the brilliant and high tempered husband of martha jefferson introduced tho the system of plowing horizon horizontally tilly around hills A further phase of jeffersons Jetter sona farm improvement program concerned experiments in livestock breeding which he carried out in cooperation with his friend and neighbor james madison the sage saga of monticello brought system into management and invention into work each farm was an i independent unit directed by a steward and worked by four male slaves tour four female slaves tour four oxen and four horses jefferson hated the institution of slavery and did everything lie he could to raise the phy physical and moral level of his slaves the cons considerate iterate tre treatment a tm ent of the colored folk on the plantation surprised many a visitor to stimulate the slaves initiative jefferson praised them when they did something well and rewarded them when they achieved something out of the ordinary the slaves responded to their kind master with great devotion an AU all plow but slaves and oxen were wars not the only means used to cultivate jeffersons fer sons lands with a lively sense of inventiveness ho he was ono one of the first americans to use farm machinery hall half a century before the steel plow was invented jefferson designed an all metal plow with a moldboard that turned the tha soil of et fictively shaped according to mathematical computations the moldboard mot met the least possible resistance from the earth jefferson also devised a seed drill and a hemp brake on oil the jefferson plantation there was a threshing machine which was carried on a wagon and weighed about a ton it was capable of threshing as much as bushels of grain a dayl day there was also a drilling machine invented by one of jeffersons fer sons neighbors the instrument had a sharp iron thai tha opened tho the furrows and a small trough containing the sowing grain behind it jeffersons e enlightened efforts at soil conservation and the bettering of farming methods entitle him to foremost rank among great amerlean american agriculturists said an of tho the middle west soil improvement committee he had art an instinctive feeling that man should be a careful clisto custodian dlan of the soil entrusted to his care ills his work in soil improvement however primitive it was helped pave the way for modern arn coir science were he alive today he would bo be a crusader tor for soil conservation for sounder farming methods tor for playing fair with the land returning by to it fertilizer elements removed by growing crops and the effects of the elements artist and architect in his own words the business of farming kept jefferson busy as a bee in a molasses barrel he was often either drawing or designing or sketching now it was a plow pow now a carriage now a buit building cling now a fence and now a garden A lover of flowers hs he laid out a garden and planted rare specimens an architect who learned the art by independent study he drew blueprints tor for many buildings many of which still stand as a monument to the many sided genius of their creator in addition to monticello the best examples of his architecture are the capitol at richmond and the university of virginia aside from his agricultural inventiveness ti veness jefferson designed a unique multi writing machine to produce stereotyped letters somewhat after the fashion of tho the modern mimeograph ile he designed an ingenious dumbwaiter dumb waiter and built rim mm self a handy weather vane because of the fact that his farm and those of his neighbors were located far from big cities jeffer jefferson son built a number of industrial establishments lish ments to make himself and his friends reasonably self suM sufficient clent ills most ambitious projects were a flour mill and a nail factory ills own flour mill the flour mill was a stone building tour four stories high A canal three fourths of a mils mile long led to the dam above the mill and cost several thousand dollars the nail factory employed ten workers who drew 2 a day it supplied nearby stores as well as neighbors including james monroe with nails it closed in 1812 when it wag was unable to obtain rods there was also a small cotton mill which manufactured horpe homespun spun from cotton obtained in Richi richmond nond three spinning machines wove cloth for all jeffersons slaves Wagon loads so of homespun were also sod sold to merchants like other plantations of the time monticello Mon had a smithy where wrought iron work for the tha plantation was made although debt acquired during his public life and a 2 depression in farm prices following the napoleonic wars brought financial crisis to his later years jefferson was eminently satisfied with farming as a career and u way of life cultivators of the earth ho he ones once wrote to john jay aro are tho the moat valuable citizens they are the most vigorous tho the most independent the most virtuous and they are tied to their country and wedded to its interests and liber tyby the most lasting ties |