Wheat and Other Grains Grown at Monticello
In the 1790s, Jefferson transformed plantation agriculture at Monticello, shifting from tobacco to grain crops, primarily wheat.
Culpepper [i.e., Culpeper], Va.--Stacking wheat; pencil drawing by Edwin Forbes, September 26, 1863; image courtesy Library of Congress; public domain.
Jefferson raised tobacco for sale to European markets until the early 1790s. Then, market forces and an interest in agricultural reform led him to diversify, with the cultivation of grain, primarily wheat, as a cash crop.
The cultivation of grain transformed plantation agriculture, resulting in permanent, plowed fields, manuring and crop rotation, husbandry of draft animals, blacksmithing, wagoning, and erecting mills to grind flour.
