Page:The Bloom of Monticello (1926).pdf/22

 the spring, a busy man. Zeal for gardening, however, did not overrun discretion, and careful garden books, begun in 1766 and continued to old age, contained records of his plantings, gave drawings and diagrams of plots, and set forth the time of sprouting and of coming to the table. Plantings at Monticello in those days were no mean affair, and it will be observed that the master took some of his learning into the garden with him.

Sowing-time came for early peas and marrowfats in early March, and the end of the month generally found them well above ground. In the middle of the month (1774) Jefferson sowed and marked, "by sticking numbered sticks in the ground," Anglia de Terra, set down as garlic, radishes de Postoria, Cochleana, de Pisa, horseradish and peppergrass, and made ready for larger ventures. No vegetable was too commonplace, nor too difficult, for this adventurer beneath the soil. Succory, endive, Spanish onions, Savoys, salsify, turnips, beans of various colors, sugar beans, white and red beets, were all given a place at one time or another, with rice, raisins and fine figs.

The last week of the month meant a half dozen busy days. First, carrots from Pisa went in the ground, then Salmon radishes, Lattuga lettuce, Windsor beans, cluster peas, spinach and vetch. The next day earlier and later peas were sowed. The day following, green lentils and black-eye peas—yielding, we are told, ten crops; the next, Grano Estivo from Tuscany (in seven rows), celery, radishes, cress, and nasturtium in twenty-five little hills. No planting recorded, the next day meant, we will presume, observance of the Sabbath at Monticello; but the work went