Thomas Jefferson Papers
Documents filtered by: Date="1804-12-03"
sorted by: date (ascending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-45-02-0125

To Thomas Jefferson from Timothy Pickering, 3 December 1804

From Timothy Pickering

Decr. 3. 1804.

Agreeably to the conversation of last Saturday, Colo. Pickering presents for Mr. Jefferson’s perusal, Knight’s treatise on the culture of the Apple & Pear, and on the making of Cider & Perry; persuaded that he will derive some useful information from his facts and practical details, and much pleasure from his ingenious theories. The interesting fact (however to be accounted for) that the old celebrated cider fruits can no longer be propagated in England, is stated by Marshall, in his Rural Economy of Herefordshire & Gloucestershire, written more than twenty years ago.

RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 3 Dec. Enclosure: see below.

Pickering attended dinner at the President’s House on Saturday, 1 Dec. (Appendix II).

Knight’s treatise: Pickering loaned TJ T. A. Knight’s A Treatise on the Culture of the Apple & Pear, and on the Manufacture of Cider & Perry, first published in 1797. The London publisher issued an enlarged second edition in 1801 and 1802. TJ later owned the 1801 edition (Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952-59, 5 vols. description ends No. 1211; TJ to Pickering, 6 Dec. 1805).

The interesting fact about loss of older fruit varieties was stated in William Marshall, The Rural Economy of Glocestershire; Including Its Dairy: Together with the Dairy Management of North Wiltshire; and the Management of Orchards and Fruit Liquor, in Herefordshire, 2 vols. (London, 1789), 2:246.

Conversation may have also turned to cider production at a dinner given by TJ on 17 Dec. Among the guests was John Condit, who had previously assisted TJ in obtaining New Jersey cider. Following the dinner, Condit wrote to Newark brewer John N. Cumming asking about methods for bottling and corking cider that prevented excessive bursting during storage. Condit passed Cumming’s response, written 21 Dec., along to TJ (RC in DLC; endorsed by TJ: “Condit. Dr. on bottling cyder”; Appendix II).

Index Entries