On January 3, 1808, Jefferson wrote to Livingston: “
Your favor of Dec. 20. has been recieved. the copy of the late volume of agricultural proceedings is not yet at hand, but
will probably come safe. I had formerly recieved the preceding volumes from your kindness, as you supposed. writings on this
subject are peculiarly pleasing to me, for, as they tell us, we all sprung from the earth, so to that we naturally return.
it is now among my most fervent longings to be on my farm, which, with a garden & fruitery, will constitute my principal occupation
on retirement. I have lately recieved the proceedings of the Agricultural society of Paris. they are proceeding with enthusiasm
& understanding. I have been surprised to find that the Rotation of crops, substitution of some profitable growth preparatory
for grain, instead of the useless & expensive fallow, is yet only dawning among them. the society has lately republished Oliver
de Serres’
Theatre d’Agriculture in 2. vol. 4
to. altho written in the reign of H. IV. it is the finest body of Agriculture extant, & especially as improved by voluminous
notes which bring it’s processes to the present day . . .
” [See no. 693.]
Robert R. Livingston, 1746-1813, statesman, diplomat and agriculturalist. His political career closed in 1804 on his resignation of his position of Minister to France. Livingston was the founder and first President of the American Academy of Fine Arts. Robert R. Livingston was the brother of Edward Livingston, whom Jefferson fought in the Batture case; see no. 3501.
[768]
42
{
Memoirs of the Philadelphia society of agriculture.
2. v.
8
vo.
}
{
Istruzzione elementari Agricoltura dal Fabroni. in Tracts.
}
1815 Catalogue, page 32. no. 45, Memoirs of the Philadelphia society of agriculture, 2 v 8vo. and no. 45
a-45
b Ditto, 3 vols.
For Fabbroni’s
Istruzzione elementari di Agricoltura, called for above, see the next entry.
In the 1815 library catalogue the Fabbroni title has a separate entry; the
Memoirs of the Philadelphia Society of Agriculture has two entries, with 3 numbers, as above, calling for 5 volumes in all. The entry for no. 45 is marked
missing in an early hand; nos. 45
a and 45
b are not so marked, but they are not in the manuscript catalogue, and are not in the later Library of Congress catalogues.
The Philadelphia Society of Agriculture, the first society of its kind in the United States, was founded by John Beale Bordley
in 1793.
On September 15, 1808, James Mease wrote to Jefferson from Philadelphia: “Our Agricultural Soc: have published a volume of memoirs which we are anxious to distribute among similar Societies in France
and Britain. I beg leave therefore to ask, whether we may send a box by the public ship which will sail from this port in
a few days. The Memoirs are printed at the expence of the Society. No individual has the least concern in the work.”
Jefferson wrote giving permission on September 23: “
Your favor of the 15
th. did not come to my hand till yesterday. I fear therefore that the vessel will have sailed before this reaches you. should
it however get to you before her departure, you are perfectly free to send by her the volumes of Agricultural memoirs for
France & England which you desire. the production of this letter to the Collector & Captain will be sufficient evidence of
the permission to them . . .
”
[769]
43
Istruzzione elementari da Agricoltura dal Fabroni. in Tracts.
1815 Catalogue, page 32. no. 35, as above, with the reading
del for dal, and omitting “in Tracts.”
FABBRONI,
Adamo.
Istruzzioni elementari di Agricoltura . . .
Perugia: dai torchi di
C. Baduel [
1786.]
