announcer: watch the program tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv. thomas jefferson and his love of gardening. he talks about his methods, experiments and the people who attended and maintained his gardens. he recounts how he learned about new plants from his travels and how he introduced plants to americans. this video is curtis and -- courtesy of monticello, virginia. >> good afternoon, my friends. what a pleasure to greet you once again. pleasure to be here

amongst the wonders of nature, particulate that we can stand next to the fishpond to welcome the bloom of the snowball behind me. we have the beautiful purple iris, and of course the digitalis, and the foxglove about to bloom. what a pleasant occasion. without any further comments, as i have a few moments before i continued my walk to the garden, and i think gardens is a most pleasant subject to a most pleasant subject to attend to today. i ask for the first question. ofwe do have a number questions for you relating to gardening. the first is, have you always left gardening?

. thomas jefferson: you asked me if i have always loved gardening? i assure you that you cannot be born in the wilderness and the forest primeval without an early love of all of nature's wonders, the great abundance our creator has provided us, and to realize we merely have to cut out what pleases us and plant accordingly. i served 40 years in public service, and yet i have often thought, if heaven had given me a position, to my great delight, it would have been on a small spot of ground well watered and near a good market for the produce. gardening is one of my greatest delights. in the cultivation of the soil, i think the most noble vocation of man. your next question. >> we have been told you keep some detailed records about your gardening adventures.

thomas jefferson: so you know about some of my jottings. yes, i do have a number of journals and diaries and a garden book, a farm book, and an account of rainfall. i was looking at them the other day. i realized i commenced these jottings when i was only 23 years of age. i was not yet here living on our little mountain. i was living about 2.5 miles to the northeast. in 1776, i first recorded at the end of march the bloom of the purple hyacinth. and a short time later, the first few weeks of april, near to my birthday, the bloom of the narcissus. this is what we used to call blood root. it is so beautiful.

i continued to take the observations of the weather to provide for the temperature at least three times a day. i take the temperature first at the coolest time of day, that is just before sunrise. then i take the temperature at the meridian, at the sun's height during the day. and usually at the warmest time of the day. of late, that has become arguable. some consider it 3:00, others consider it 4:00. i asked them why and they tell me it is because of daylight savings. i have no idea what they are referring to. either 3:00 or 4:00 is the about the warmest time of the day. a few moments ago, i recorded the temperature at 54 degrees on the fahrenheit scale. early this morning before sunrise, it was 41. so i shall wait until later in the afternoon to see where the day will lead us. your next question. >> we had a question from benjamin asking what your

favorite plant was. thomas jefferson: my favorite plant. oh, you asked me, benjamin, something i do not think i can give an immediate or ready answer. so much of nature's wonders are my favorite plants and flowers. i continue to enjoy the hollyhock. i enjoy the snowball bush behind me. the digitalis i think is properly named one of my favorite flowers, the foxglove, properly named as it may be used medicinally to slow down rapid heartbeats. you know, benjamin, i wish i had known that during my younger years when i was first courting. your next question. >> we have a question from lynn asking if there's anything you tried to grow at monticello but you could not because of the

environment. thomas jefferson: you are asking me of my many failures in the garden. i say, yes, many. but know this. i always try to plant an overabundance, a great variety of flowers and plants. the reason is because i know there will be a failure. but rest assured, we will always have successes. i am afraid i have failed, if you will, with the pear. i have failed with the plum, almonds, apricots, i have never oliveuccessful with trees. and then of course there is wine. i speak of the foreign vines. that has remained a great failure. we need not pursue that any further. >> well, actually, mr. president, we have people wondering about your attempts to make wine. jefferson: we need not

pursue my attempts of cultivating wine. now, mr. light, if you ask me about my efforts, i can assure you this. i continue to cultivate wine. it has been the foreign wines that have been the failure. our native vines, they continue to flourish as they have from time in memoriam, and they are the ones i refer to as the muscat grapes. i spent five delightful years in effort but my earliest at this began in 1774, when a met an italian noble one -- nobleman.

he had come to virginia with letters of introduction from dr. benjamin franklin. he was accompanied by his own countrymen, 10 of them. they referred to themselves as the one company to sell shares for the cultivation of cabernet and pinot noir. i went further. i invited a man to come and visit in the realms of albemarle, and as my daughter says, we started out before sunrise, but i might introduce him to the terrain, and by the time we returned near sunset, she said that the two of us had great smiles upon our face and a great sense of jocularity. she was certain that a deal had been made, and it was. i gifted him with about 150 acres nearby which he proceeded to a small hill.

is that not rather quaint, next to monticello, a small mountain, and that is where he began to cultivate the foreign wine, but unfortunately, my fellow citizens, they never rooted properly. there appears to be something in the soil here that prohibits that. and i think that is sad because i think the composition of our soil, the climate, the altitude, the precipitation is just as good as anything you can find throughout the kingdoms of europe to cultivate this fine wine. but unfortunately only until wine becomes a necessity in our nation, i doubt it will be successful. here in virginia, the efforts must be put forth for three cash crops, and you know what they

are tobacco, tobacco, tobacco, , in that order, so until we relieve ourselves from that, i doubt we will be successful in cultivating wine. asks what plants did lewis and clark bring back during their great expedition? thomas jefferson: oh, my. i gave instructions to them about the waterways into great missouri, not only to be attended and make friends with the many natives, but also to about thengs composition of the soil, the degree of climate, and the flora and fauna that they encountered. they encountered over 150 varieties, over 175 varieties of animal life, as well. they sent me some wonders.

delighted in receiving the e flower, which i sent to a horticulturalist in germantown, pennsylvania, nearby the city of philadelphia. he almost immediately put it to sale. i enjoy the sweet and scented cranberries that were sent and also, as well, the prairie flower. i sent out to a man who quickly as clarksia, on behalf of my good friend and co-commander of that expedition, lieutenant william clark, so these are but a few of the many, many plants. now, mind you, lewis and clark

also sent me many, many dried plants that they had sewn into pages of books, and i immediately sent those plants and seeds to a professor of horticulture and botany at the university of pennsylvania. captain lewis had studied with him before he embarked on that expedition, and so it was that those plants became most useful for further study. i have always believed that botany is foremost among the sciences. your next question, mr. light? >> well, mr. jefferson, it is quite clear you have extensive gardens here. how many plants do you have in the garden? thomas jefferson: i would reckon to say if you're speaking of flowers, upwards of 330

varieties. of vegetables, much near the same. the vegetables, i cultivate 1000 foot of garden divided into 24 sections in which i cultivate various vegetables, so to state them precisely, i daresay we would be here at the same spot through next week. next question. >> with such extensive flower and vegetable gardens, who maintains and creates the gardens here? thomas jefferson: you asked me who maintains all of this beauty that surrounds us. i know distinctly and properly. my people, the enslaved. all of what you see could not have been accomplished without their attentions, without their aid, without their artistry. i may have come up with some ideas, and many of them, of course, came to mind when i was

in france and went through england and visited gardens, but no, to be able to plant them and manifest them has been accomplished by my gardeners, such as john, veteran aids, such as george granger, the elder, and his son, george granger, the younger, and wormley hughes. george granger came to me when i was younger. i purchased him that he might provide a family part of , my wife's property, and so it was the grangers had several who became artisans, and one became a tinsmith here. they were of great help for the longest time, a good 25 years in preparing our gardens at monticello, but lamentedly,

all three, passed away. wormley was born just before the he grewcame here, and up to marry ursula granger, a granddaughter of the grangers i just referred to, and it was the grangers and, as well, the hughes that provided not only my gardens here but the vegetable gardens below, and mr. hughes came up to washington city along with his wife ursula. she was a cook at the president's house, and it was there that they began their family.

did you know that they had 13 children? and the very first of their children, a young boy, was born in the president's house during my first administration, the first child born in the president's house was a hughes, wormley and his wife's. he is the most trustful of my servants. i do not know what i would do without them. your next question. >> we have a question asking if you brought seeds back. thomas jefferson: did i bring seeds back from europe? i certainly did. i brought many seeds i thought would be useful here, especially kale. sea

i became familiar with it along the shores of the ocean in great britain. it is the most tasty leaf and vegetable, likened unto the asparagus. i brought seeds back that i could send to mr. bernard mcmahon, and a horticulturalist in new york, and as well to be distributed to the agricultural society in south carolina. i think of one particular seed, and that is the rice. i became aware of the the agricultural society in south carolina to pursue an upland rice. they had heard about this as being a great product, and so during my five years as minister to france, i found an opportunity to venture into the italys. i went into the riviera, south

of france. i traveled across and then took three days to travel and came up to finally milan, and there i discovered the upland rice that was of interest to south carolina, the great product of milan. i also understood that contracts for purchase or further negotiations would be necessary before we could ever procure it. well, i was not the minister to milan. i was ambassador to france. and so i realized a necessity to satisfy south carolina that i would have to resort to walking into the rice fields and grabbing handfuls of that upland

rice and then sewing it up into my coattails. and so i left milan, went to genoa and act ii france and finally sent that rice to south carolina. if i have been caught, the sentence would have been death by hanging. i apologize for sharing that story with you, but i will go to any end to satisfy our countrymen with a new plant. i think it is the most important thing that people can do is to introduce a new plant. your next question. we had a number of questions about things you like to eat. in fact, we had a question about whether or not it was all vegetables on your plate and other questions asking if you like tomatoes.

would you care to comment? thomason -- thomas jefferson: you ask me amongst all things in the gardens, what are my favorite vegetables, whether i am fond of tomatoes. i would like to say i am very much in favor of fruits and roots and leaves. the fruits, i do consider the , and yes, i beans enjoyed the tomatoes a course , that i serve at the table at monticello. i understand it is called a salad course. when i grew up, we knew nothing of a salad course. it was in france that i learned of it. i have enjoyed ever since i returned here to provide stuffs of the garden as a meal here, and yes, tomatoes are used extensively.

of the roots, i enjoy carrots and beets, and of the leaves, i enjoy lettuce and cabbages. in fact, i purchased most of my cabbages from the enslaved on my farms. they enjoy and cultivate it in their own gardens, and i procure it from them for a price. your next question. >> one last question, president jefferson. robin asks if you ever had contests about growing vegetables with your neighbors? thomas jefferson: you ask if i have contests amongst my neighbors as to who might grow what vegetable before the other or to introduce one to another, and i can assure you this. it has become well-known in the this entity of charlottesville that we have contests as to who may cultivate the first batch of peas.

the note they often may rise before the first of march. it is known throughout the community that they have the first batch at the table and , everyone is welcome to come and enjoy those peas at that particularly home. and thisoy a meal, year, i was happy to see the very first peas rise up at the end of february. this has been the most magnificent spring, and i was about to let it be known until my daughter informed me that george said he had just witnessed the first patch of peas to sprout, and i thought for a moment and decided no, i will not make any statements publicly, because we can rest

assured of having a very delicious meal at farmington. well, i thank you, mr. light, and i think all of you for this opportunity. lamentedly short that we could gather on our mountain. i will continue to walk and look forward to when all of you can accompany me and all of us can be together again soon. i continue to grow an older man, but i know i will forever remain a young gardener. what a great hope that is to become better acquainted with the beauty of nature. until the next time we meet, perhaps next week, i remain your humble and obedient service, thomas jefferson. godspeed.

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>> this sunday, a tour marking the 70th anniversary of the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki. here is a preview. ducky -- >> these were famous japanese artists who came to hiroshima three days after the bombing and decided torors and do a series of panels that would depict here shema. called ghost,is

the images afterwards. people who experienced it said they felt like they were walking through hell with fires everywhere, people naked, usually walking with her arms held in front of them to lessen the pain. were mostly walking in this possession of naked people, and some city could not tell the men from the women pretty see this image here, the shock, the bombing. after the panel is called fire, and it shows, the fire was everywhere and spreading rapidly.

but thatied to escape, meant, and this is the reality for so many of the survivors, it meant they would have to leave others behind. they would have to ignore the cries for help from people who were trapped in their houses, injured in, who were order to escape. there are so many tragic stories about children leaving their parents behind her parents leaving their children behind in order to escape the flames. the focus -- the folks at this gallery told me i could choose any of the panels i wanted, and i decided to complicate the narrative, not just portrayed the victims, but to put it in a different context and show that

it was possible for the japanese to be victim of the atomic bomb but also victimizers at the same time. close.st panel is called you have to realize they were 43,000 soldiers and 45,000 slave laborers, and the koreans were badly treated by the japanese. againste discriminated in japan and also discriminated against after the bombing. they got almost no medical treatment, and many of them just died in the streets. crows coming down and plucking out the eyes of the dead koreans here. it is controversial inside japan

still. theee more of the exhibit sunday here on american history tv. have you watched lectures in history lately. every saturday on c-span3 go inside a different classroom about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights. >> thank you for your patience. >> with most college campuses closed because of the pandemic, professors engage with their students. reagan that gorbachev halfway and encouraged him and supported him. mentioned, just madison called this the freedom

of the use of the press, not what we refer to in solution -- institutionally. lectures in history is available as announcer: between 1892 and 1954, about 12 million immigrants seeking a new life in america were taken to ellis island for questioning and processing. today, millions of americans take ferryboats each year to visit ellis island and the statue of liberty. up next on american history tv's artifacts," we visit the ellis island museum. we learn about the immigrant experience. peter: good morning. my name is peter urban. i am a park ranger for the national park service at ellis island.