Carolina rice did well enough as an export commodity to Britain and Europe, but its career was a complicated and somewhat checkered one. Perhaps its most famous benefactor was Thomas Jefferson, who was passionately interested in gardening and agriculture of all kinds and was constantly on the lookout for new plants as well as new export markets for his fledgeling country. When he was sent to Paris as the first Ambassador of the United States of America, he determined to find out why the French preferred Italian rice to American. Was it because American rice had too many broken grains? If so, it must be because the Italians had better machinery for dehusking and polishing the rice.
