American Fruit Trees, Nut Trees, Berry Plants, Grapevines, And Native Plants Promoted By Thomas Jefferson

American Fruit Trees, Nut Trees, Berry Plants, Grapevines, And Native Plants Promoted By Thomas Jefferson
by Pat Malcolm

Thomas Jefferson was the United States minister to France following the great American, Benjamin Franklin in 1785. While acting as the French minister to the United States, Jefferson surveyed crops of agriculture in France searching for fruit trees, nut trees, grape vines, berry plants, and many other potentially useful crops that might be commercially grown in the United States. Many of these seed plants and trees were exported to the American colonists and planters for experimental growing on United States farms and plantations. In exchange to the French, many native plants of the United States were exported to France and Europe for testing. Plants and trees such as red, and black raspberries, scuppernong grapevines, muscadine grape vines, pecan tree seed, Citrus seed, and plants such as mutated cultivars of orange, lime, grapefruit, kumquat, lemon, and tangerine, that centuries before had been introduced by the Spanish colonists into Florida from Europe and Africa. Grains such as corn and the famous American tobacco products were also favorite imports to Europe. The Indian Blood peach tree produced exceptional fruit, even from planted seed, and American grapevines, wild plum and cherry trees were used as root stock for grafting fruit trees and grapevines. Mulberry trees, pawpaw trees, and strawberry plants were also exciting new plant introductions into Europe. American native nut trees such as the American chestnut, Castanea dentata, and the Chinquapin nut, Castanea pumila, as well as many species of Hickory trees, Pecan trees (Carya illinoinenis), several species of walnut trees including Juglans nigra, and the American filbert, Corylus americana (Hazlenut) were all received for commercial agricultural testing in European countries.

Thomas Jefferson made a note on his plant interests to the State of Virginia in the year 1787 #VI, "A notice of the mines and other subterranean riches, its trees, plants, fruits, etc." with his interests in "the orchards produce apples, pears, cherries, quinces, peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, and plumbs." Thomas Jefferson was also a learned botanist who could intelligently discuss the fruit trees, berry plants, grapevines, and nut trees in the Latinzed, scientific language with the agricultural elite authorities of his time. In his writing to the state of Virginia, he wrote: "Scarlet strawberries, Fragaria Virginiana of Millar; Whortleberries, Vaccinium uliginosum; Wild gooseberies, Ribes grossularia; Cranberries, Vaccinium oxycoccus; Black raspberries, Rubus occidentalis; Blackberries, Rubus fruticosus; Dewberries, Rubus caesius; Cloud-berries, Rubus chamaemorus."

About native wild and escaped plants, trees, and vines, Jefferson reported on wild fruits like Elderberry, Elder, Sambucus nigra; Papaw, Annona triloba" and the mulberry, proper for its food, grows kindly, pomegranates and figs. Wild cherry, Prunus Virginiana, Cherokee plumb, Punus sylvestris fructu majori, Wild plumb, Prunus sylvestris fructu minori, Clayton, Wild crab-apple, Pyrus coronaria; red mulberry, Morus rubra; Persimmon, Diospyros Virginiana.

Thomas Jefferson had a great interest in timber trees from which lumber was made into dwellings, furniture, tools, fuel, etc. He reported: "Black birch, Betula nigra; White birch, Betula alba; Beach, Fagus sylvatica; Ash, Fraxinus Americana; Fraxinus Novae Angliae, Millar; Elm, Ulmus Americana, Willow, Salix Query species?; Sweet Gum, Liquidamber styaciflua. Plane-tree, Platanus cooidentalis; Poplar liriodendron tulipifera; Populus heterophylla; Black poplar, Populus nigra; Aspen, Populus tremulus; Linden or lime, Tilia Americana; Red flowering maple, Acer rubrum; Horse-chestnut, or Buck's-eye, Aesculus pavia; Catalpa, Bignonia catalpa; Umbrella, Magnolia tripetala; Swamp laurel, Magnolia glauca; Cucumber-tree, Magnolia acuminata; Portugal bay, Laurus indica; Red Bay, Laurus borbonia; Dwarf-rose bay, Rhododendron maxiumum; Laurel of the Western country, Qu. species?"

A group of smaller trees reported by Jefferson was "Holly, Ilex aquifolium, Cockspur hawthorn, Crataegus coccinea; Spindle-tree, Euronymus Europaeus; Evergreen spindle tree, Euonymus Americanus; Candleberry myrtle, Myrica cerifera."

Oak trees were valuable to the early colonists for use in building houses, furniture, tools and fuels, Jefferson listed these as: "Black Oak, Quercus nigra; White Oak, Quercus alba; Red oak, Quercus rubra; Willow Oak, Quercus phellos; Chestnut Oak, Quercus prinus; Black jack Oak, Quercus aquatica, Clayton, Query?; Ground Oak, Quercus pumila, Clayton; Live Oak, Quercus Virginiana, Millar;

Many flowering trees were planted in Thomas Jefferson's garden estate at Monticello, such as Dogwood trees, Grancy Greybeard, Redbud tree and Locust trees listed as: "Wild pimento, Laurus benzoin; Sassafras, Laurus sassafras; Locust, Robinia pseudo-acacia; Honey-locust, Gleiditsia la; Dogwood, Cornus florida; Fringe or snowdrop tree, Chionanthus virginica; Redbud, or Judas-tree, Cercis, canadensis."

The importance of evergreens was obvious to Thomas Jefferson, and he listed them as: "Black or pitch-pine, Pinus taeda; White pine, Pinus strobus; Yellow pine, Pinus Virgincia; Spruce pine, Pinus foliis singularibus, Clayton; Hemlock spruce fir, Pinus Canadensis; Aborvitae , Thuya occidentalis; Juniper, Juniperus virginica (called cedar with us) Cypress Cupressus disticha; White cedar, Cupressus Thyoides."

Jefferson reported that many cash agricultural crops of America were of native or mysterious origin that included: "Tobacco, Nicotiana; Maize, Zea Mays; Round potatoes, Solanum tuberosum; Pumpkins, (Squash) Cucurbita pepo; Cymlings, Cucurbita verrucosa; Squashes, Cucurbita melopepo"

Besides the production of crops from native plants, Jefferson wrote that American farms produced: "wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, broom corn, and Indian corn, rice, tobacco, hemp, flax, cotton and indigo."

Long and the round potatoes, "turnips, carrots, parsneps, pumpkins, ground nuts." Ground nuts were today's peanut, Arachis hypogaea.

Thomas Jefferson listed many grasses and grains in his report to include: "Lucerne, St. Foin, Burnet, Timothy, ray and orchard grass, red, white and yellow clover, greenswerd, blue grass, and crab grass, Panic, Panicum of many species; Indian millet, Holcus laxus; Holcus striosus; Wild oat, Zizania aquatica; Wild pea, Dolichas of Clayton; Lupine, Lupinus perennis; Wild hop, Humulus lupulus."

Thomas Jefferson reported that American gardens were producing in the year 1787; "Musk melons, water melons, tomatas, okra, pomegranates, figs, and the esculent plants of Europe, Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus; Long potatoes, Convolvulas batatas;"

Various ornamental plants such as flowering Sweetshrub, Poke Weed Salad, Passion Flower, Jerusalem Artichoke and Tuckshoe were: "Upright honeysuckle, Azalea nudiflora; Calycanthus floridus; American aloe, Agave Virginica; Sumach Rhus, Qu species?; Poke, Phytolacca decandra; Itea Virginica; Granadillas, Maycocks, Maracocks, Passiflora incarnata; Tuchahoe, Lycoperdon tuber."

Thomas Jefferson reported useful vines: "Ivy, Hedera quinquefolia, Trumpet honeysuckle, Yellow jasmine, Bignonia sempervirens." and the seemingly insignificant "Long Moss, Tillandsia Usneoides"

Medicinal herbs such as Datura, Marshmallow, Ginseng and Jimson Weed were reported along with: "Senna, Cassia Ligustrina; Arsmart, Polygonum Sagittatum; Clivers, or goose-grass, Galium spurium; Lobelia of several species; Palma Christi, Ricinus; James-town weed, Datura Stramonium; Mallow, Mallow rotundifolia; Syrian mallow, Hibiscus moschentos; Hibiscus virginicus; Indian mallow, Sida rhombifolia; Sida abutilon; Virginia Marshmallow, Napaea hermaphrodita; Napaea dioica; Indian physic, Spiraea trifoliata; Euphoria Ipecacuanhae; Pleurisy root, Asclepias decumbens, Virginia snake-root, Aristolochia serpentaria, Black snake-root, Actaea racemosa; Seneca rattlesnake-root, Polygala Senega; Valerian, Valeriana locusta radiata; Gentiana Saponaria, Villosa and Centaurium; Ginseng, Panax quinquefolium; Angelica, Angelica sylvestris; Casava, Jatropha urens."

Thomas Jefferson was an amazing man with a genius and intelligence that helped to make the United States a great nation, not only because of his political contribution as a formulator of the United States Constitution, as a great United States minister to France and the third President of the United States, but Jefferson also was an accomplished writer and farmer.

About the Author

Visit TyTy Nursery to purchase the trees mentioned in this article, or many others that you may be looking for!

Choose Dark Chocolate For Heart Health

Choose Dark Chocolate For Heart Health
by Martin Applebaum

Have you heard of the saying - 'A dark chocolate a day keeps the doctor away?' if not, you need to gain a lot of knowledge about dark chocolate. Take a dark chocolate daily is good for the heart as these chocolates are fully loaded with many flavaniods. All you require to do to keep your heart in a healthy state is to eat a small 1.6-ounce bar of dark chocolate for heart health each day. Mary Engler of the University of California, San Francisco, has done the research.

Remember that not every chocolate is created equal. You must know that any standard manufacturing process for chocolate tends to destroy more than half of the flavaniods. However, fortunately, most companies have now learned the art of preparing dark chocolate that would preserve up to 95 per cent of its flavaniods. This is no scam. It is 100% true that you can benefit a lot by eating chocolate now.

This does not mean that you overload yourself with chocolate. Remember that chocolate tends to possess many calories and you definitely need to cut down on somewhere else if you are having a lot of dark chocolate.

There are several benefits of eating dark chocolate. Here are some of these benefits:

* Lowers blood pressure: One of the main benefits of eating dark chocolate is that it tends to lower your blood pressure if it is too high. This has been proved as confirmed by a report by Dirk Jaubert, MD, phd at the University of Cologne in Germany. The report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. However, make sure this report does not give you a reason to binge on, as these are many calories in chocolate.

* Presence of antioxidants: When dark chocolate is taken in sufficient quantity, it proves to be a strong antioxidant to the body. This is proved by a report produced by Mauro Serafini, Phd and colleagues of Italy's National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome. The issue of Nature published this report. Antioxidants are powerful enough to eat up many free radials, hazardous molecules implicated in heart disease or other health conditions. Remember that in order to benefit from antioxidants you need to eat dark chocolate without milk. People who have dark chocolate daily have higher levels of epicatechin. It is a real healthy compound found commonly in dark chocolate.

* Good heart: As discussed earlier, dark chocolate is rich in flavaniods. This compound's healthy for the heart. It has also other healthy compounds that help in keeping the heart of individuals who eat dark chocolate in a healthy state.

With so many benefits of dark chocolate, there is no reason that you should stay away from it. All you require to do is to remember that a healthy diet balance is what keeps the heart fit and fine. Binging in will never help you achieve the desired goals. Choose dark chocolate for heart health.


About the Author

Making chocolate has been around for hundreds of years. Dark chocolate for heart health is not very well known. Our site provides information on the benefits of chocolate to your health. Visit our site today for more information. http://www.mymakingchocolatesite.com/
By M. Applebaum

Cake Decorating Ideas for Fantastic Looking Cakes

Cake Decorating Ideas for Fantastic Looking Cakes
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Cristy_Smith]Cristy Smith

You don't have to be an expert cake decorator in order to make fantastic looking birthday cakes. Here are some cake decorating ideas to help you to make your cakes extra special that do not require exceptional cake decorating skills.

First, determine a theme for your cake. If the cake is for an adult, what are the likes, hobbies or interests of the birthday person? For example, if the person likes to fish, make a fishing theme cake. If the person likes to golf, make a golf theme cake. If they like to play the guitar, make a guitar cake.

You could also make the cake theme match their profession as well. For example, for a mail carrier make a mail theme cake or for a carpenter, make a carpenter theme cake.

If you are making a cake for a child, have it match the theme of the party or the child's favorite character, interest or even sport.

You get the idea, just try to make the cake extra special for the birthday person by making it match their hobbies or interests.

A really easy cake decorating idea for making these theme cakes is to purchase cake toppers that match your theme to place on top of your cake. These come in many different varieties. However, if you happen to want to make a certain theme cake for which you cannot find a cake topper to match, try the miniature section of any hobby or craft store.

For the examples above, you can purchase things such as a miniature fishing rod and net for the fishing cake, a miniature golf bag and golf clubs for the golf theme cake and a miniature guitar for the guitar cake. You can then place them on top of your cake. For a mail theme cake, purchase miniature mail boxes and make little letters out of card stock that you laminate and place them on the top and sides of your cake. For the carpenter theme cake, put miniature saws and other tools on the top of or on the sides of the cake.

These are just a few examples. The ideas really are endless, but hopefully this has helped to get you started thinking of different and unique cake decorating ideas that will make the next cake that you make extra special.

Cristy Smith is co-creator of a birthday cake decorating website that is packed full of creative and fantastic looking cakes and explains how each one was made. Visit http://www.easy-birthday-cakes.com for lots of great [http://www.easy-birthday-cakes.com/cake-decorating-ideas.html ]cake decorating ideas that adults and children will love.

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Baking Cookies

Baking Cookies
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ann_Krause]Ann Krause

So you’re thinking of baking cookies on your own but don’t know where to start, well you have come to the right place, I can tell you what to do.
First you will need the proper tools, a five quart mixes, or even a four quart mixer will do, a small ice-cream scoop, measuring spoons, bowl scraper, a good rolling pin, some table spoons, baking sheets, parchment paper, which you can purchase at a local grocery store in the baking section, and of course a good recipe.

When preparing to make your cookies read and understand your recipe, make sure your eggs are at room temperature, weigh and measure all your ingredients before you start, baking cookies is as easy as you make it or as hard as you make it, once you get the general idea of baking cookies you will love it.

Make sure that your oven is preheated to the proper temperature, some people think that you can start baking in a cold oven or an oven just as they turned it on, well it won’t work. Prepare your cookie dough according to your recipe, roll out your cookie dough then cut into shapes and place on cookie pans with parchment papers, or they may be drop cookies, in this case drop your cookies on the pans far enough apart so they have room enough to bake.
Decorating your cookies before or after baking is important for eye appeal, the better they look the better they will taste. You can decorate your cookies with colored sugar, colored jimmies, colored icings and so on, whatever you decide to do, do it well, baking cookies is an art.

Ann Marie Krause has been making cookies for over 30 years, at persent I am retired, for over 23 years I owned a Gourmet Bakery called The Cheese Confectioner.You can visit my site at http://www.annsgoodies.com

NOTE: You are welcome to reprint this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the about the author info at the end).

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