Jefferson showed his interest in the work of the farm in another way.
While he was in France as American minister to the King he found that,
although the French ate a great deal of rice, especially during Lent, very
little of it came from the United States, because rice raised here was
thought to be of an inferior quality. The best rice came from Italy.
[Illustration: A Rice-Field in Louisiana.]
Wishing to help American rice-growers, Jefferson, therefore, went to Italy
to study the Italian method of growing it. He found that in both countries
the hulling and cleaning machine was the same. "Then," thought he, "the
seed of the Italian rice must be better."
So, doing up some small packages of the best seed rice he could find, he
sent them to Charleston. The seeds were carefully distributed among the
planters, who made good use of them, and from those seeds as a beginning
some of the finest rice in the world is now produced in our own States.
JEFFERSON'S GREATEST WORK AS A STATESMAN
But valuable as these services were to his countrymen, Jefferson's great
work in the world was that of a statesman. He first came into prominence
in the Second Continental Congress, when, you recall, the brave men
representing the several colonies decided that the time had come for the
American people to declare themselves free and independent of England.
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