Jefferson’s collections of reports and publications from the London Board of Agriculture, of which in June, 1797, he was made
a Foreign Honorary Member, were sent to him at various times by Sir John Sinclair, the President of the Board. Letters dated
from Whitehall July 15, 1795, May 28, 1796, September 10, 1796, July 15, 1797, and others, all mention that reports from the Board of Agriculture are being forwarded.
On March 23, 1798, in sending Sinclair a full description of his “
mouldboard of least resistance,” Jefferson wrote: “
I have to acknolege the reciept of your two favors of June 21. & July 15, & of several separate parcels of the Agricultural
reports. these now form a great mass of information on a subject of all in the world the most interesting to man; for none
but the husbandman makes any thing for him to eat, & he who can double his food, as your exertions bid fair to do, deserves
to rank among his benefactors, next after his creator. among so many reports of transcendent merit, one is unwilling to distinguish
particulars, yet-
[
sic
--
Ed.
]
the application of the new chemistry to the subject of manures, the discussion of the question on the size of farms, the treatise
on the potatoe, from their universality, have an advantage in other countries over those which are topographical. the work
which shall be formed as the result of the whole we shall expect with impatience.
"
Permit me, through you, to make here my acknolegements to the board of Agriculture for the honor they have been pleased to
confer on me, by associating me to their institution. in love for the art which gives bread to man, & virtue to him who makes
it, I am truly their associate; but events have controlled my predilection for it’s practice, and denied to me that uninterrupted
attention which alone can enable us to advance in it with a sure step. perhaps I may find opportunities of being useful to
you as a centinel at an outpost, by conveying intelligence of whatever may occur here new and interesting to agriculture.
this duty I shall perform with pleasure, as well in respectful return for the notice of the board as from a zeal for improving
the condition of human life, by an interchange of it’s comforts, & of the information which may increase them . . .
”
[767]
41
Transactions of Agricultural society of N. York.
4
to.
1815 Catalogue, page 33. no. 67, as above.
1831 Catalogue, page 79. no. J. 89, Transactions of the Society, instituted in the State of New York, for the promotion of
Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, 4to; part 1; New York, 1792.
Transactions of the Society, instituted in the State of New-York, for the promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures.
Part I. Published by order of the Society.
New-York: Printed by
Childs and Swaine,
1792.
First Edition. 4to. 69 leaves, 2 plates.
Jefferson owned more of the volumes, gifts of Robert R. Livingston, one of the organizers of the Society in 1791 and its President
from that date until his death in 1813.
On April 30, 1800, Jefferson wrote to Livingston to thank him for a volume and to send a model of his mouldboard: “
. . . I thank you for the volume of your agricultural transactions: and as I percieve you take a great interest in whatever
relates to this first & most precious of all the arts, I have packed in a small box, model of a mouldboard of a plough, of
my invention, if that term may be used for a mere change of form . . .
”
On December 20, 1807, Livingston sent the third volume: “Knowing that you find leisure amidst the bustle of politicks to amuse yourself with less important, but more pleasing studies,
I have taken the liberty to send you the 3d vol: of the proceedings of the society for agriculture & useful arts in this State.
The first parts, I believe I have had the honor to send you some years ago, if not, be so obliging as to let me know, & they
shall be forwarded . . .”
