The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-04-08

wheat per day. He found this machine
very beneficial in destroying the white
weevil by early threshing. The crop
was sometimes destroyed after it was
harvested. He used GRAIN DRILL in
vented in his neighborhood, which was
said to work excellently and to be SUI
perior to anything in England or Scot
land at that time. Ode Leacourt's
Journal.)
HIS FARMS.
AIr. Jefferson was princely farmer.
His estate in Albermarle county, around
Monticello, consisted of 6, 59l acres ;and
Poplar Forest estate, in Bedford and
Campbell counties, had 5,036 acres
l0,647 acres in all. He had about 1000
acres under cultivation, and divided
these into four farms, and each farm
into seven fields of forty acres. He
effected this separation into fields by
rows of peach trees. He set !, l5l peach
trees in December, 1874.
He appears to have used q herdsman
for his animals in the day, and folded
them in enclosures at night. His stock
was like Abraham's, "upon thousand
hills" This using a herdsman to look
after cattle, instead of fencing, showed
great practical sagacity. 1t is much the
more economical where large numbers
of animals are kept. In 1895 he had "a
horses g for the saddle,) Z mules, 249
cattle, 800 hogs and a few sheep. His
fields were many of them so steep as to-
render in difficult to carry the produce
to a central barn, and therefore he built
a barn in each field to house his crops.
His
ROTATION
was seven years, and this was his reason
for seven fields one wheat, two corn,
three peas or potatoes, four vetches, five
wheat, six and seven clover.
1t would appear by this rotation that
he was successful with vetches; but, If
so, his experience was more favorable
than that of Washington, who wrote
j Jefferson that he had often tried it with
out success. We are not now aware that
it has been raised as a successful crop for
a series of years in any part of this
country. Mr.. Jefferson practiced rails
ing buckwheat as a green crop to pillow
under, and thought well of it. He was
opposed to the bare fdlLOac, entertaining
the idea that exposing the soil to the eX-
hailed its fertility into the air, and there
fore did not practice this method of til
lage, but always kept his soil shaded
with a green crop. He cut his clover
but twice, so that there might be plenty
left to shade and mulch the soil.
But the defective tillage over most of
his estate, in consequence of devolving
the management upon careless or indif-
ferent overseers, resulted in a low aver
age production. His average of wheat
was only eight bushels per acre; corn,
Is bushels /; clover, one tun; but after
particular fields, the yield.was
three times this.
MONTICELLO.
The favorite residence of Jefferson
had grand situation, quite suited to
his taste. It was placed on the summit
of little mountain, one of the south
west range of the Blue Ridge. 1t COM
great prospect of the sur
country, overlooked all the
nights to the Chesapeake,
and even the Atlantic might be seen, if
within eye range. On both sides of the
Rivanna and on the mountains, he had
J, 200 acres of land, which could all be
swept with the eye. Ode Lancourt's
Journal.) "On the east the eye sweeps
to the limits of its vision over that
great plain which constitutes the
New England to Mexico. From this |
vast somber sea of verdure there rises |
but one eminence high enough to break |
the level of half the entire horizon seen |
from Monticello, and that is Willis's |
40 miles distant, although no |
larger than the greater Egyptian pyra-
mid, yet it sometimes presents the curl |
ous appearance of looming in an i'm |
mense column to the clouds. The house |
is long, brick structure of lofty ball |
single story, the central por-
ion surmounted by fine dome. There |
Ire spacious porticoes in front and rear"
,Randall.J
VIRGINIA HOSPITALITY.
We have often heard of the generous
of the Virginia planter or
gentleman. This seems to have found |
its most extravagant and ideal represen-
.ation at the home of jefferson. After |
his retirement from the Presidential Of |
fee, Monticello seemed to attract pill |
grims from all America and other lands. |
Here, as the American is wont to say, |
the ''latch string always hung out" The |
great part Mr.. Jefferson had taken in |
and carrying out our expert |
ment of self-goyernment had rendered |
him parsonage of great interest to the |
foreign traveller; and he deemed his Wis |
It to the New World incomplete with |
out an interview with the great apostle |
of Democracy. 1t was not then uncom-
mon for visitors to make a stay of three |
His aged servant, Wormley, |
told Mr.. Randall that the three carriage |
houses were filled every night in sum-
mer with horses and carriages of guests, |
and sometimes two or three extra car
riages were placed under large tree.
1t consumed the whole extra produce |
of the Monticello estate of 5000 acres |
TO feed his guests. His daughter, Mrs. |
said she had provided beds |
for so guests. This was hospitality run |
mad. There is, probably. no other in
stance of such oppressive attention on
the part of the people to any retired
gentlemen. This great curiosity of the
people to see him sometimes caused
much annoyance. Strange visitors
would sometimes remain in the hall for
hours, in hope of seeing him as he chan
ced TO pass from one room to another.
Thus did his great celebrity bring upon
him most impertinent curiosity, and his
was so expensive thS8 &
greatly assisted in those pecuniary eNis1
that embittered his latter
days.
HIS INVENTIONS.
Jefferson possessed rare originality,
and inventive ability He
had a passion for mechanics, and to
crafty his taste in this line had work
shop with ali necessary tools adjoining