Thomas Jefferson to Charles Clay, 14 December 1812
To Charles Clay
Poplar Forest Dec. 14. 12.
Dear Sir
I go certainly tomorrow, wind & weather permitting, and both have abated considerably. I promised you some sprout Kale seed, which I now send. I do not remember to have seen Salsafia in your garden, & yet it is one of the best roots for the Winter. some call it the oyster plant because fried in batter it can scarcely be distinguished from a fried oyster. I send you some seed. it is to be sowed and managed as carrots & to be taken up at the same time & put away for winter use.
A supplement to your method of weighing Eng. & Portugal gold.
for French & Spanish gold, weigh & calculate as for English, and then deduct a cent & an half from every Dollar.
To calculate interest on Dollars at 6. per cent
Call them cents & multiply by 6. for a years interest.
halve the cents for a month’s interest.
third that half, & call them mills for a day’s interest. for example
Y M D | ||||||
required the interest of | 246 | . D. for | 1–1–1. | |||
say | 246 | cents | ||||
Multiply by | 6 | D | C | |||
gives | 14.76 | say | 14. | 76 | for 1. year | |
halve them | 123 | or | 1. | 23 | for 1 month | |
third that half | 41 | or | 41. | mills for 1 day | Y M D | |
16. | 0311 | or 16.2 D. 3 Cents 1 mill for | 1–1–1 |
Th: Jefferson
PoC (DLC); adjacent to signature: “Mr Clay”; endorsed by TJ.
1. Manuscript: “15.031”; at foot of text TJ later added the notation: “Error. should be 16.03” and keyed it to this point with a “※” symbol.
2. Manuscript: “15.”
Index Entries
- Clay, Charles; letters to search
- Clay, Charles; TJ sends gold calculations to search
- Clay, Charles; TJ sends seed to search
- food; kale, sprout search
- food; salsify search
- gold; TJ’s calculations for search
- interest; TJ’s calculations for search
- kale; sprout search
- salsify search
- seeds; sent by TJ search