From Thomas Jefferson to Edmund Bacon, 24 November 1807
Washington Nov. 24. 1807.
Sir
Davy has been detained till now, the earth having been so frozen that the plants could not be dug up. on the next leaf are directions what to do with them, in addition to which I inclose mr Maine’s directions as to the thorns. he brings a couple of Guinea pigs, which I wish you to take great care of, as I propose to get this kind into the place of those we have now, as I greatly prefer their size & form. I think you had better keep them in some inclosure near your house till spring. I hope my sheep are driven up every night & carefully attended to. the finishing every thing about the mill is what I wish always to have a preference to every kind of work. next to that my heart is most set on finishing the garden. I have promised mr Craven that nothing shall run next year in the meadow inclosure where his clearing will be, this is necessary for ourselves that we may mow the clover & feed it green. I have hired the same negroes for another year, & am promised them as long as I want them. Stewart must be immediately dismissed. If he will do those jobs I mentioned before he goes, he may stay to do them, & have provisions while about them. Joe may work in the way you proposed, so that the whole concern may be together. I place here the statement of debts & remittances.
| £ | s | d | D | C | D | ||||
| Jacob Cooper | 8- | 1- | 6= | 26. | 92 | Oct. 12. | remitted | 101. | |
| John Peyton | 21- | 12- | 3= | 72. | 04 | ||||
| Dr. Jamieson | 7- | 10- | 0= | 35. | Nov. 9. | 110. | |||
| James Carr. corn | 35. | Dec. 6. | by mr. Craven | 200. | |||||
| Thos. Burras 18. hogs | 20. | 75 | to the order of Kelly | 33. | 33 | ||||
| Richd. Anderson flour | 13. | Jan. | I shall remit | 260 | |||||
| John Rogers beef & corn | 117. | Feb. | do. | 103. | 71 | ||||
| James Butler. flour | 10. | 808. | 04 | ||||||
| beeves | 85. | ||||||||
| Rob. Burras 20. bar. corn | 35. | ||||||||
| Rob. Terril 100 do. | 175. | ||||||||
| 10,000 ℔ fodder | 50. | ||||||||
| your own balance | 133. | 33 | |||||||
| 808. | 04 | ||||||||
by these remittances & paiments made and to be made you will percieve that the whole will be paid off by the 1st. week in February. Mr. Craven called on me on the 19th. with your order to pay him 100. Dollrs. the 1st. week in Dec. but he said you would recieve 200. D. of his money and that he should be extremely distressed if he could not get the whole sum here. on that I gave him my note to pay 200. D. to his order the 1st week of next month, and you are to use his 200. D. instead of that I intended to remit you at that time. last night I recieved from mr Kelly your order to pay him 133⅓ D. To reconcile these two transactions, you can use 100. D. of Craven’s money towards paying the debts, pay mr Kelly 100. D. of it in part of your order on me, and I will remit 33⅓ D. according to his order, by which means every thing will be brought to rights. I shall write to him on this subject & shall be glad to learn that this arrangement is made & is satisfactory. I tender you my best wishes.
Th: Jefferson
P.S. I have forgot to mention that in the box of Paccans there are 3. papers of seeds, to wit, Cucumber tree, Mountain Laurel, & Pitch pine. the 2 former Wormley must plant in the Nursery and he must plant the Pitch pine in the woods along the new road leading from the house to the river, on both sides of the road. he is just to lay the seed on the ground & scratch half an inch of earth over it.
Directions for mr Bacon.
If the weather is not open & soft when Davy arrives, put the box of thorns into the cellar where they may be entirely free from the influence of cold, untill the weather becomes soft, when they must be planted in the places of those dead through the whole of the hedges which inclose the two orchards, so that the old & the new shall be compleat at 6. I. distance for every plant. if any remain, plant them in the Nursery of thorns. there are 2000. I send mr. Maine’s written instructions about them, which must be followed most minutely. the other trees he brings are to be planted as follows.
4. Purple beaches. in the clumps which are in the South West & Northwest angles of the house (which Wormly knows) there were 4. of these trees planted last spring, 2. in each clump. they all died, but the places will be known by the remains of the trees, or by the sticks marked No. IV. in the places. I wish these now sent to be planted in the same places.
4. Robineas, or red locusts. in the clumps in the N.E. & S.E. angles of the house, there were 2. of these planted last spring, to wit, 1. in each. they are dead, and 2. of these are to be planted in the same places, which may be found by the remains of the trees, or by sticks marked V. the other 2. may be planted in any vacant places in the S.W. & N.W. angles.
4. Prickly Ash. in the S.W. angle of the house there was planted 1. of these trees last spring, & in the N.W. angle 2. others. they are dead. 3. of these now sent are to be planted in their places which may be found by the remains of the trees, or by sticks marked VII. the 4th. may be planted in some vacant space of the S.W. angle.
6. Spitzenberg apple trees. plant them in the S.E. orchard in any places where apples have been planted & are dead.
5. Peachtrees. Plant in S.E. orchard wherever Peach trees have died.
| 500. October Peach stones a box of Paccan nuts |
⎬ | the Nursery must be enlarged, & these planted in the new parts, & mr Perry must immediately extend the paling so as to include these, & make the whole secure against hares. |
Some turfs of a particular grass. Wormly must plant these in some safe place of the orchard where he will know them & keep other grass from the place.
NN.