To James Madison from Charles Austin, 30 August 1824
From Charles Austin
Fredericksburg August 30th 1824
Dear Sir
Our mutual friend Doctr. William Shepherd will forward you a small Box of early White Wheat which I beg your acceptance. The seed from which this Wheat was rais’d was imported from Spain some 2 or 3 Seasons since & cultivated by a Farmer of Cayuga county New York, whom I met this Summer on the Erie Canal conveying 250 Bushels to a friend of mine in Troy and who obligeingly let me have one Barrell, although previously engaged for some Farmers of Maryland & other parts of our country. It is said to be a Solid Stock wheat & resists the ravages of the Fly & Bug. This Farmer inform’d me he sow’d only three pecks to the acre. Should it prove an acquisition to your Stock & to the growth of this section of Virginia it will afford me pleasure. With Sentiments of much respect I am your Obedt Servt.
Charles Austin1
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Charles Austin (ca. 1775–ca. 1839) was born in Philadelphia, lived for a time in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where he was one of the founders of the Tallahassee Rail Road Company, and territorial treasurer from 1832 until his death (Jim Carlin and Edith Austin Moore, Some Descendants of Richard Austin of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1638 [Baltimore, 1998], 116; Baltimore Patriot & Mercantile Advertiser, 2 Dec. 1830; Tallahassee Floridian, 14 Feb. 1832, 29 Mar. 1834, 16 Feb. 1839).