It was the custom of the Hermitage household, when shipping the cotton crop to Captain White each year, to send along a list of groceries needed for the year. When sending this year’s supply of groceries back to the Hermitage it was Captain White’s custom to send along some kind of a present to General Jackson—a barrel of oranges, or sugar or molasses. It was Captain White’s custom to say jokingly that the present was sent to sweeten General Jackson’s tooth; so in 1842 when the General had his sole remaining molar extracted he notified his New Orleans friend that it would no longer be necessary to sweeten his tooth as his last tooth was gone. The passing of the Jacksonian teeth, by the way, had an amusing aftermath. Learning of his toothless condition, a celebrated dentist asked the privilege of making him a set of false teeth, seeing in it an opportunity to gain some publicity for himself. The General consented and the teeth were produced after careful measurements had been made. False teeth of that day were still of rather crude design, the upper and lower plates being hinged together at the back and the opening and closing facilitated by means of a spring. General Jackson gave his new teeth their first try-out on the occasion of a public dinner in Nashville; but while partaking of the first course he had the misfortune to have the spring get stuck in such a way that he could not close his mouth. He managed to remove the offending apparatus behind the cover of his napkin, but he was much embarrassed by the episode and returned the teeth to the dentist who made them with the suggestion that they might be generously presented to some “poor widow woman in need of the like.” Andrew Jackson was a progressive farmer and was prompt to adopt new methods and devices. The cotton gin was first introduced into Tennessee in 1803; and the state of Tennessee purchased from the inventor, Eli Whitney, the patent rights for the state, enacting legislation which placed a tax on all gins. There being some dispute about the legal title to the machine, the arrangement was not perfected until late in 1806, at which time a model gin was set up in Knoxville and one in Nashville, these models to serve as patterns for the citizens who wanted to build gins. Jackson was among the first to install a gin in his part of the state, and the minutes of the Davidson County court show that he made bond of $5,000 and subscribed to the following oath: “I, Andrew Jackson, do solemnly swear that I will well and truly inspect or cause to be inspected all bales of cotton that shall pass through my press, marking the bales according to the goodness thereof, agreeable to the directions of the act of the Assembly in such cases made and provided; so help me God.”