John ^Beale ^Bordley and the Sarly Years of the ^Agricultural Society *

i PON a number of counts, John Beale Bordley is an important member of the group of American agriculturists who, stimu- U lated by the progress of the Agricultural Revolution in England and spurred by local needs, brought about during the last three decades of the eighteenth century what were at least the early stages of an agricultural revolution in America. As early as the decade of the sixties Bordley was keeping in touch with English agricultural literature1 and from that time on was a remarkably thorough student of Arthur Young, Coke of Norfolk, Bakewell of Dishley, and of English agricultural periodicals, as well as of con- tinental writings upon agriculture.2 He published a valuable treatise on Qrop-%otations in 1784, followed it with a number of essays and short articles upon that and other subjects, and in 1799 published an important book of nearly six hundred pages, entitled Essays and th(ptes on Husbandry and %ural oAffairs, a second edition of which was issued in 1801. A founder and vice-president of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture (1785), he had numerous con- tacts among the chief agriculturists of his time. His interests in agriculture and those of Washington touched at many points.3 The study of crop rotation he shared in friendly association with Dr. George Logan for over fifteen years.4 Richard Peters, who later held the presidency of the Philadelphia Society for twenty-three years,5

* This article, to which several minor additions have been made, was written in 1932 as a Master's essay for Columbia University.—EDITOR. 1 E. B. Gibson, Sketches of the Bordley Family (Philadelphia, 1865), 91. 2 J. B. Bordley, Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs (Philadelphia, 1799), 1-250, passim. 3 W. C. Ford, ed., The Writings of Washington (New York, 1889-1893), XI, 302-307, XII, 442, XIII, 416.

4 Gibson, op. cit.y 123. 5 R. H. Gabriel, Toilers on Land and Sea (Pageant of America Series, New Haven, 1926), 100.

410 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 4II and , its vice-president for nearly a decade,6 were but two of the large and influential group of Philadelphia agriculturists with whom he was associated; while John Taylor of Caroline7 and Thomas Jefferson8 were friends and associates of a southern group. Bordley's farm on Wye Island on the Eastern Shore of presents an especially interesting study of a large estate which, hav- ing experienced the transition from tobacco to wheat9 typical of its time in tidewater and piedmont Maryland and Virginia, and having developed a wide range of handicraft manufacturing,10 was handled with a careful regard both for financial returns and for progressive agricultural principles. Bordley was born February n, 1727, at Annapolis, Maryland, the posthumous son of Thomas Bordley, formerly of England, and of his second wife, Ariana Vanderheyden Frisby, the granddaughter of Augustine Hermann of Bohemia Manor.11 Thomas Bordley, who was of a substantial Yorkshire family, had come to Maryland in 1697, soon after the death of his father, the Reverend Mr. Stephen Bordley, rector of St. Mary's at Newington, Surrey, and a prebend of St. Paul's Cathedral. Thomas was then a boy of fourteen in the care of an older brother, Stephen, a young clergyman of the Church of England sent to the province by the Bishop of London in response to a request from Governor Nicholson. Thomas lived with his brother for a time in the Eastern Shore county of Kent. At the age of seventeen, he went to Annapolis, studied law, and achieved in early manhood a position of prominence in the profession.12 He was elected to the lower house of the Maryland Assembly in 1709, and from 1716 until his untimely death in London in 1726 was a legisla- tive leader of marked distinction. Two years after the death of her husband, Ariana Bordley mar- ried Edmund Jennings, secretary of the province, and later went

6 Memoirs ofthe Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture', 1808-1826 (Philadelphia, 1855), III, lxxv-lxxvii. Hereafter cited as Memoirs. 7 Minutes of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture (Philadelphia, 1854), 77. Hereafter cited as Minutes. 8 to John Beale Bordley. Private collection, Vol. 8. 9 Gibson, op. cit., 95. 10 Ibid., 98-102. n Ibid., 11-21, 6$. 12 Ibid., 13-14,4, 15- 412 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October with him to England, leaving John Beale, then a boy of ten, in the care of her sister, Mrs. Charles Hynson of Chestertown.13 Mrs. Jennings died several years after her arrival in England and John Beale remained through his boyhood under the care of Colonel and Mrs. Hynson. He received at Chestertown a common-school educa- tion, studying under the Reverend Mr. Charles Peale, father of . Going to Annapolis when seventeen, he read law with his half-brother Stephen Bordley, who shortly before had returned from nine years' study in London.14 The period in which John Beale Bordley came to maturity and was admitted to the bar was distinguished in the Maryland capital by the services of Daniel Dulany, the younger, described as the ablest lawyer in America; and by those of Stephen Bordley, whose career as lawyer, attorney general and councillor is well known.15 During the score of years that followed the Maryland bar carried on its noteworthy tradition for lawyers of ability and sound legal training. Thomas Johnson, Samuel Chase and Thomas Stone emerged from their studies in the colonies and Charles Carroll of Carrollton and returned from the Inns of Court.16 Bordley, however, seems never to have felt the keen interest in law evinced by his father and half-brother. For a short time he experimented as a merchant, and although he continued in the legal profession, he never attained distinction as an attorney.17 He married, October 13, 1751, Margaret Chew, "an agreeable well accomplished young lady, with a good fortune/'18 and a member of a family which had held a position of prominence in Maryland for a century. Among its distinguished members during Bordley's life- time were Dr. Samuel Chew, who, after leaving Annapolis, was ap- pointed in 1741 chief justice of the three "lower counties" of Dela- ware; and his son, Benjamin Chew, who in 1774 was made chief justice of . Mary Chew, a sister of Margaret, became the wife of William Paca and the two families were thereafter closely associated. 13 Ibid., 25, 66. 14 Ibid., 25, 66-67, 27. 15 Maryland Gazette, December 13, 1764. 16 E. A. Jones, American Members ofthe Inns of Court (London, 1924), 39-40, 16$-66. 17 Gibson, op. cit., 46. 18 Maryland Gazette, October 16, 1751; Gibson, op. cit., 71. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 4I3 In 1753 Bordley was appointed clerk of County, an office which he carried on by deputy, holding it until 1769.19 It will be remembered that the years 1760 and 1768 witnessed the work of the joint boundary commission of Maryland and Pennsylvania in determining the eastern boundary between Maryland and the " three lower counties/' In 1763, Stephen Bordley relinquished his place on the commission because of illness, and John Beale Bordley was appointed by Governor Sharpe in his stead. Occasional demands were made upon his time and effort until the completion of the difficult task in 1768.20 In 1766, shortly after moving his residence from Joppa, the county seat of Baltimore County, to Baltimore, Bordley was appointed by Governor Sharpe judge of the provincial court, and the following year he was made judge of the admiralty court. He held both judge- ships until the breakdown of the proprietary government.21 On May 24, 1768, Bordley was seated in the Maryland Council. He continued to serve as councillor during the tumultuous years that marked Sir Robert Eden's administration.22 During this period the local interest in a long contest between the Assembly and Council over the payment of officers' fees gave way to the national move- ment which resulted in the establishment of a provisional govern- ment in Annapolis, June 24, 1774, and the ultimate destruction of the proprietary government several days after the last meeting of the Council, which took place on June 12, 1776. After 1770 Bordley entered seriously upon his thirty-years' work as an agriculturist, becoming, as he said, "enthusiastically fond of husbandry" and gradually withdrawing from public affairs. In that year, upon the death of Philemon Lloyd Chew, brother of Margaret Bordley and Mary Paca, Wye Island came into the possession of the John Beale Bordleys and the William Pacas.23 The island lies

19 Gibson, op. cit.y 72. The statement made by Mrs. Gibson (p. 82), and followed in part by- Professor W. C. True in his account of Bordley in the Dictionary of American Biography, that Bordley resigned his office in 1765 because of unwillingness to serve under the Stamp Act, is in error. 20 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe (Archives of Maryland, Baltimore, 1888-1890), III, 126; Gibson, op. cit.y 80; J. T. Scharf, History of Maryland (Baltimore, 1879), I, 407. 21 N. D. Mereness, Maryland as a Proprietary Province (New York, 1901), 253; Gibson, op. cit.y 75. 22 Archives of Maryland, XXXII, 232, 256-385, passim. 23 Gibson, op. cit., 82. 4I4 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October near the mouth of the Wye River, on the southern boundary of Queen Anne's County. It is an irregular area, approximately five and three-quarters miles in length and a mile and a half in breadth at its widest point. Its soil was then noted for its fertility.24 The Bordley inheritance amounted to sixteen hundred acres. Here Bord- ley established a farm known as "The Vineyards/' and except for "occasional residences in Annapolis" made it his home and the seat of his principal experiments in agriculture until his removal to Philadelphia in 1791.25 Bordley's wife, Margaret Chew, died on November 11, 1773.26 He married, October 8, 1776, Mrs. Sarah Fishbourne Mifflin,27 of Phila- delphia, one of whose stepsons was Thomas Mifflin, president of Congress and later governor of Pennsylvania (1790-1799). Bordley's contacts in Philadelphia grew more numerous after his second mar- riage. In 1783 he was made a member of the Philosophical Society28 and in 1785 he was instrumental in bringing about the formation of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture29 and continued active in its affairs for a number of years. In spite of Bordley's devotion to agriculture, his interest in the development of trade and manufacture and in establishing a sound financial system in the was distinctly Hamiltonian in character. His essay in 1789 on Moneys Qoins Weights and Measures was an early paper on decimal coinage in the United States. Another essay relating to the subject of national finance, entitled Rational Qredtt and Character, followed in 1790.30 He was appointed by Wash- ington as a commissioner to receive subscriptions to the United States Bank in 1791, and possibly as a result of this appointment moved his residence from Wye Island to Philadelphia. He seems, however, to have attended but a few meetings of the commissioners.31 The remaining years of Bordley's life were spent in Philadelphia 24 Robert Wilson, "Wye Island," Lippincoti's Magazine, April, 1877.

25 Gibson, op. cit.y 91-102, 131-33. At this time Bordley owned farms in Kent, Harford and Cecil counties in addition to Pool's Island near Joppa.

26 Gibson, op. cit.y 105. 27 Ibid.y 107-108. 28 Ibid., 112. 29 Ibid., 113-16. 30 Ibid.y I2O. ' 31 Alexander Hamilton to J. B. Bordley, March 23, 1791; J. B. Bordley to Alexander

Hamilton, March 25, 1791. Private Collection, I, 19-20; Gibson, op. cit.y 135-36. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 4I5 or at his country place near by. Agriculture continued to be an im- portant interest and in 1797 he published a brochure, Sketches on Isolations oj CroPs> following it in 1799 with his most important book, Essays and J\(otes on Husbandry and T^ural oAffairs, a collection of essays which included many of his earlier writings and covered a wide range of subjects connected with farming and agricultural economy. His death, on January 26,1804, at the age of seventy-six,32 brought to a close a life of interest in its association with the Mary- land provincial government and in its course among a circle of ac- quaintances centering about Maryland and Pennsylvania during the complex and vigorous period of the Confederation and the establish- ment of the national government.

II The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, according to the testimony of Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, the daughter of John Beale Bordley, was the outcome of a project initiated by Bordley from his home on Wye Island and carried out with the co-operation of a circle of influential Philadelphians. Intensely interested in the improvement of agriculture, conversant with the work of agricul- tural societies in Europe, and aware of the results which might be gained from a similar agency in the states, Bordley, we are told by Mrs. Gibson, communicated freely with Marylanders concerning the organization of a society upon the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but was discouraged by existing conditions. The men of large agricul- tural interests were spread over widely scattered areas which con- tained no central meeting place. Many Maryland farmers seemed indifferent to the plan.33 The superior advantages offered by Phila- delphia as a meeting place for influential agriculturists of the whole Atlantic seaboard were apparent. Philadelphia, then the national capital, might well serve as a center for a society of more than local importance. And the fact that Philadelphia, already exhibiting her penchant for societies, supported more organizations than any other American city, need not prove a deterrent.34 An added stimulus was

32 Dictionary of American Biography, II, 460-61. Hereafter cited as D, A. B. 33 Gibson, op. cit.y 113. 34 J. B. McMaster, History oj the People oj the United States (New York, 1885-1913), I, 296. 416 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October doubtless given the plan by Bordley's election to the Philosophical Society in 1783. Its Committee of Husbandry and Rural Affairs was not especially active, but within the membership of the Philosophical Society were a group of men whose public spirit and whose interest in agriculture made probable their support of an agricultural society. Bordley in a letter to his stepson, John Mifflin, asked for a list of names representing "men of property and education, not tied down by professional engagements or local prejudice, and prone to feel an interest, either general or particular, in the suggested institution."36 Upon visiting Philadelphia in the winter of 1784-1785, he introduced the project among a small circle of acquaintances, where it was well received. A meeting was scheduled for February 11, 1785, and on that date, "in a conversation on the subject of agriculture and the promoting improvements therein, within the states of America," it was decided to form a society for that purpose. A list of the twenty- three charter members selected vouches for the nice discrimination of the men engaged in that February conversation, though unfor- tunately no traces of their identity are included in the brief state- ment in the Minutes.™ Among the members were John Beale Bordley, last on the original list;37 , who had been the city's mayor in 1775;38 his brother-in-law, , who had in 1763 preceded him to that office and was then senior member of the important mercantile firm, Willing and Morris;39 Willing's junior associate, Robert Morris; and Colonel John Nixon, a connection by marriage of Morris and an organizer of the Bank of North America.40 In addition to Willing, Morris and Nixon, the Revolutionary group included George Clymer, Signer of the Declaration and member of the Philadelphia Commit- tee during the period Congress spent in Baltimore;41 his wealthy brother-in-law, General Samuel Meredith, who like Clymer had given generous financial support to the Revolutionary army;42 young Henry

35 Gibson, op. cit.y 114. 3G Minutes, 1. 37 Ibid. 38 Samuel Powel, in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York, 1888), V, 94. Hereafter cited as Appletorfs. 39 Thomas Willing, Appleton's, VI, 538-39. 40 John Nixon, Appleton's, IV, 525-26. 41 George Clymer, D. A. B.t IV, 234-35. 42 Samuel Meredith, Appleton's, IV, 303. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 4I7

Hill, who had married Anne Meredith;43 General John Cadwalader, friend and supporter of Washington and until his untimely death in February, 1786,44 intimate friend of John Beale Bordley; his brother Lambert, captain of an aristocratic or "silk-stocking" regi- ment of Philadelphia;45 their brother-in-law and cousin, General Philemon Dickinson, who shared with the Cadwaladers an Eastern Shore background;46 and Richard Peters, a well-known member of the Philadelphia bar who had given long and faithful service on the Continental Board of War.47 The medical profession was represented by Dr. Adam Kuhn, Pro- fessor of Materia Medica at the College of Philadelphia,48 and Dr. , Professor of Chemistry at that institution,49 both graduates of the University of Edinburgh; the highly esteemed Dr. John Jones, Professor of Surgery at King's College before the British occupation of New York, Franklin's personal friend;50 and Dr. George Logan, likewise a graduate of the University of Edin- burgh and a friend of Franklin,51 a Quaker and pacifist. Among the remaining charter members were , then judge of the court of appeals of Pennsylvania, later associate justice of the supreme court (1791-1799) and chief justice (1799- 1805)52 of the state, perhaps better remembered as father of Peggy Shippen; his brother-in-law Tench Francis, formerly agent and lawyer for the Penn estates, then cashier of the Bank of North America;53 Charles Thomson, secretary of Congress during the period of the Revolution and the Articles of Confederation;54 Samuel Vaughan of Jamaica and Philadelphia;55 and Richard Wells,56 a mem-

43 Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of (Boston, 1856), II, 381. 44 John Cadwalader, D. A. B., Ill, 398. 45 Lambert Cadwalader, D. A. B.y III, 399-400. 46 Philemon Dickinson, D. A. B.3 V, 302-303. y 47 Richard Peters, Appleton sy IV, 734-44. 48 Adam Kuhn, Applet'on'sy III, 577. 49 Benjamin Rush, Appleton's> V, 359-60. 60 John Jones, Appleton's, III, 466-67. 51 Deborah Norris Logan, Memoir of Dr. George Logan of Stenton (Philadelphia, 1899), 36-37. 52 Edward Shippen, Appleton's, V, 512-13. y 53 Tench Francis, Appleton sy II, 524-25. 54 O. Pickering and C. Upham, Life of Timothy Pickering (Boston, 1873), II, 436. 55 J. C. Fitzpatrick, ed., Diaries, 1748-1799 (Boston, 1925), II, 357; Minutes, 122. 56 Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, 1779-1799), I, xii. 418 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October ber of the Philosophical Society and resident of Burlington, . The charter members were drawn almost exclusively from Philadel- phia and the surrounding region. " If already of the elect/' Jefferson wrote years after to Robert Livingston in telling him of his nomina- tion by Jefferson to the Society, and referring to Livingston's pos- sible membership, "If already of the elect, you are now doubly so."57 Possibly some influential Philadelphians were included for political reasons, but most of the charter members were landowners and agri- culturists and at least half of them became actively interested in the Society's affairs. On March i, 1785, in response to a printed notice, eight men came together at Patrick Byrne's tavern, the Sign of the Cock, on Front Street, to hold a meeting of the Society.58 Three of the eight were to become officers: Samuel Powel, president until his death in 1793; John Beale Bordley, vice-president until the lapse of meetings in 1794; and Tench Francis, treasurer until the same year.59 Edward Shippen, possibly because of his close association with Bordley and Tench Francis, was present at the meeting, as was Samuel Vaughan, then vice-president of the American Philosophical Society. With this substantial quintet, whose progressivism was likely to be some- what tempered by conservatism, were three younger men: George Clymer, then in the prime of life, who while not a farmer became a tireless worker in the Society and was made its vice-president on its reorganization in 1805;60 the versatile Dr. Benjamin Rush, at that time about forty and welcome in every Philadelphia group; and the impetuous young Dr. George Logan, a little past thirty, who five years earlier had returned from his studies in Edinburgh and his as- sociation with Franklin at Passy.61 Samuel Powel was made chair- man, and after the group had considered the general nature of the Society, George Clymer and John Beale Bordley were designated to draft a body of laws for its government.62 At the next meeting on

57 p. L. Ford, ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1896), VII, 492. Robert Livingston became a member of the Society in April, 1785. 58 Gabriel, op. cit., 101; Minutes, 1. 59 Ibid., 1-78, passim. 60 Ibid., 1-78, passim; Memoirs, III, lxxv-lxxvii. 61 Logan, Memoir of Dr. George Logan, 36-37. 62 Minutes, 1. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 4I9 March 8, Clymer being indisposed, Bordley produced a sketch of the "laws" which was read and delivered to the chairman for further consideration. On March 15, after discussion and amendment, the laws were enacted. With slight revisions these regulations guided the Society until 1810.63 The opening paragraph of this brief constitution indicated the broad scope of the Society's interest. The general field was to be "Agriculture and Rural Affairs/' its more especial concern, "the promoting a greater increase of the products of land within the American states." From this statement as well as from a study of the future activities of the Society, it will be seen that, notwithstand- ing the choice of charter members from the Philadelphia area, its sphere of influence was conceived of as national.64 Provision was made for the election of the usual administrative officers. In its clas- sification of members, the constitution followed the pattern set by the Philosophical Society. Active or resident members were chosen from farmers living within easy riding distance of Philadelphia, namely, within a radius of ten miles on either side of the . Honorary members were elected from "any nation of the world." All members of agricultural societies in other states or countries with whom the Society might correspond were designated as honorary members (later, as corresponding members). Papers were to be printed upon appropriate subjects; yearly prizes awarded for actual experiments and improvements and the establishment of agricultural societies to be encouraged.65 On April 5, 1785, George Clymer produced from the Committee, "An Address from The Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agricul- ture, with a Summary of Its Laws, and Premiums offered." This paper the Society ordered printed in pamphlets, eight or ten hun- dred.66 The title page of the pamphlet was embellished by a cut showing the beneficent sun shining upon a field, its foreground oc-

63 Ibid., 2. 64 This was in contrast with the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, incor- porated in 1792, whose primary aim was the communication and organization of agricultural knowledge "scattered throughout the State." See the Laws and Regulations of the Massa- chusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture (Boston, 1793), iv; ibid. (1796), 4. 65 "An Address from the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, with a Summary of Its Laws and Premiums Offered," in the Pennsylvania Gazette, April 27, 1785; Minutes, 2-4. 66 Minutes, 6. 42.O OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October cupied by a plow at rest. Beneath the cut was Swift's pronounce- ment, "He who can make two ears of corn grow where only one grew before, ranks as a benefactor to society before all the heroes that ever existed.'' Wide circulation was given this initial publication. In addition to the edition printed in 1785, a thousand copies of a revised form with current premiums and the names of members were printed in 1788.67 The "Address" was also published by permission of the Society in the Pennsylvania Qazette and the Pennsylvania Mer- cury in April of that year, and in the Qolumbian Magazine the follow- ing year (1786). The editors of the last-named publication explained that,in spite of the previous appearance of the article in "most of the newspapers," its general interest was sufficient to justify its inclusion in " The Columbian."™ In the "Address," which served as an introduction to the laws, there appeared an excellent resume of agricultural conditions on both sides of the Atlantic. The progress of English husbandry during the half century preceding was contrasted with the "nearly stationary" con- dition in the United States. A survey of the English system of crop rotation, tillage, arrangement and management of farmyards, breed- ing and care of live stock, threw into dark relief American practice. The service rendered abroad by the activities of agricultural societies was emphasized and the design of the Philadelphia Society expressed, namely, "to tread in their steps."69 In listing the experiments for which premiums were offered, atten- tion was centered on some vital problems of agriculturists of the period. For example, the first premium of two hundred dollars and a second of one hundred were to be awarded for the best experiments in the rotation of crops according to "The principles of the English mode of farming." First and second premiums of gold and silver medals, respectively, were offered for the best experiments or plans in the following: a design for farm or fold yards for sheltering and folding cattle and securing manure; for recovering worn-out fields "without dear or far-fetched manures"; for trench plowing not less than ten inches deep; for counteracting the injurious effects of frost

67 Ibid., 40. 68 Pennsylvania Gazette, April 27, 1785; Pennsylvania Mercury, April 1 and May 6, 1785; Columbian Magazine (1786). 69 "An Address . . . ," Pennsylvania Gazette, April 27, 1785. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 4II in exposing the roots of wheat; for comparative experiments in sow- ing wheat broadcast, drilling it or setting it with a machine; for preventing damage to crops by insects, especially by the Hessian fly; for a field of clover ten acres in size, "quality and quantity to be considered with the quantity arable of the whole farm"; for raising hogs in pens or styes; for a vegetable food to increase milk in cows and ewes in March and April; for raising thorns and young locusts from seed to use for hedges and fences.70 Meetings of the embryo society were held on each Tuesday during March. At the first election, March 29, Samuel Powel was duly elected president, John Beale Bordley vice-president, Tench Francis treasurer, and Timothy Pickering secretary. Dues of seven shillings and six pence per quarter were fixed.71 Weekly meetings continued throughout April, but in May monthly meetings became the rule and so continued for the first half-dozen years. After June 6, 1785, Car- penters' Hall became the regular meeting place of the Society.72 During the year 1785, in addition to the officers, six members, Gen- eral John Cadwalader, George Clymer, Dr. John Jones, Dr. George Logan, General Samuel Meredith and Samuel Vaughan, attended regularly. Usually the number at meetings ranged from seven to fourteen. An increasing local interest brought the attendance to twenty-four in January, 1786, and established a record.73 It is difficult to estimate the amount of attention the Society at- tracted during this formative period. General Washington became an honorary member (July-August, 1785) and the following autumn wrote favorably to James Warren concerning the possibilities of the

70 Ibid. To the thirteen premiums offered in 1785, there were added four additional in 1786: for the ten best essays on the breeding, feeding and management of cattle; for experiments with oxen as draft animals; for the recovery of old, gullied fields; for the production of cheese comparable to several specified varieties of English cheese. Finally, in 1788, a premium was offered for the cultivation of hemp within ten miles of the city of Philadelphia. Thirty years later the Albemarle Agricultural Society, in phrases which suggest the influence of the Phila- delphia Society, attempted to encourage experiments in the recovery of worn-out lands, in planning farm buildings, in breeding farm animals, and in substituting the use of oxen for horses as draft animals. This society encouraged, also, the raising of hemp as a staple, and the improvement of ploughing. See Minutes, 20-21, 36-38; R. H. True, ed., "Minute Book of the Agricultural Society of Albemarle," Annual Report of the American Historical Association (1918), I, 264-65, 286-87, 298. 71 Minutes, 5. 72 Ibid., 1-78, passim. Klbid. 4^2 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October organization.74 In a caustic but amusing letter touching some of Philadelphia's honored citizens and treasured institutions, Jeremy Belknap, an honorary member, wrote to Manasseh Cutler in No- vember of that year that in spite of a recent visit to the city, he knew "but little of the Agricultural Society" and believed little was known of it, "for it is yet in an infantile state." He added that Colonel Pickering had told him the Society was "endeavouring to form con- nexions and correspondence and . . . were in hopes by and by of doing something in the way of encouraging experiments by pre- miums, but to speak in the sea phrase, they are not 'yet under way/ "75 Philadelphia naturally contributed a substantial number of the residential and honorary members elected as the Society became ac- tive, but honorary members were chosen from Vermont and New Hampshire southward to South Carolina. A hundred and seventy- six resident and a hundred and fifty honorary members were elected during the period covered in the present study.76 The lists of both honorary and resident members are suggestive of the notable achieve- ments of the members and of the wide diversity of their special in- terests, ranging far beyond the field of agriculture. These lists serve as a rudimentary "Who's Who" of the period. Even a partial survey of the diverse agricultural interests of the large national group77 calls to mind such distinct geographic regions and such varying local conditions that the task confronting a society hoping to exert something of a national influence seems herculean.78 The scope of the enterprise and the partial success of the Society's efforts remain significant, despite the nominal memberships and passive interest sure to be found in so large an organization. The Society's accomplishments betoken the abounding energy charac- teristic of the period, the optimism and effort of the Society's leaders, and a vigorous interest in agriculture.

74 Ford, ed., Writings of Washington, XI, 3. 75 Jeremy Belknap to Manasseh Cutler, November 18, 1785, PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, XXXVII (1913), 491-98. 76 Minutes, 1-78, passim, and 121-24. 77 Foreign members constituted a small group, not rivalling in numbers those belonging to the Philosophical Society at the same period. See Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, I, ix-xiii, II, xxiii-xxvi, III, xxviii-xxxii, IV, xiv-xv. • 78 p. C. Bidwell, "Rural Economy in New England at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century," Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Science, XX (1916), 3, 45 f. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 423 Provision was made in the laws for the establishment of additional societies or offices of correspondence in the principal parts of the country.79 Information concerning experiments was requested from "the friends of Agriculture" and members of agricultural societies were invited to attend the Philadelphia Society when visiting the city.80 At a meeting on April 27, 1785, a committee of correspond- ence, composed of Samuel Powel, Tench Francis, George Clymer and Timothy Pickering, was chosen.81 This committee also selected and edited material for publication and awarded premiums. Their corre- spondence, ranging among societies and individuals in the Middle States, New England, South Carolina and occasionally in England, prepared the way for the Society's flowering after its reorganization in 1805. The minutes record an exchange of letters or constitutions with the South Carolina Society of Agriculture,82 the Connecticut Society for Promoting Arts, Manufactures and Agriculture,83 the Bahama Society for Agriculture, and the Agricultural Society of New Brunswick.84 In addition, the New York Agricultural Society was consulted for advice on the Hessian fly,85 a correspondence was initi- ated with the Philadelphia County Society for Promoting Agricul- ture and Domestic Manufactures,86 and twelve copies of The Farm- er s Magazine, a projected periodical, were ordered subscribed from the Burlington County Society.87 Moreover, the Blockley and Merion Society for Promoting Agriculture and Rural Economy of which Richard Peters was long president was doubtless a sturdy offshoot of the Philadelphia Society.88 Among individual correspondents were several well-known agri- culturists. Arthur Young wrote from his home in Suffolk, December

79 "An Address . . . ," Pennsylvania Gazette, April 27, 1785. 80 Ibid. 81 The committee later numbered five members. Minutes, 8. 82 Ibid., 13. 83 Ibid., 26. 84 Ibid., 65-66. 85 Ibid., 32. SQIbid., 51, SS- 87 Ibid., 75. 88 "Address of Richard Peters to the Blockley and Merion Society for Promoting Agricul- ture," The Columbian Magazine, January, 1791; Samuel Breck, Address before the Blockley and Merion Agriculture Society on January 20, 1828, on the death of their late president, the Hon. Richard Peters (Philadelphia, 1828). 4^4 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October 21, 1787, in reply to a letter from the president of the Society, to recommend the study of crop rotation and to ask the current prices of agricultural provisions in the United States.89 Young also sent to the Society yearly copies of The zAnnals, forwarding them usually in the care of Washington.90 John Beale Bordley wrote regularly to the Society in the years preceding his removal to Philadelphia in 1791.91 Many of his communications were published. In a letter of March 7, 1786, proposed the establishment of cattle fairs—unfortunately this suggestion died in committee.92 However, a series of letters followed from Morgan, including a number on the Hessian fly,93 the ravages of which constituted a major concern to the Society in the years 1787, 1788, and thereafter. An interesting bit of official correspondence refers to this subject. The Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, disturbed by the English King's prohibition, June 25, 1788, of the entry of wheat from the United States, delegated the vice-president of Pennsylvania, Peter Muhlen- berg, to request the Society to investigate and report on the manner of propagation of the Hessian fly, its effect on crops, and means of combating the insect. The Society replied that "every communica- tion" received indicated that the plant alone was injured by the insect, and that the pest was not transmitted by seed which had been exposed to its ravages. The Supreme Executive Council was referred to publications of the Society in the Mercury and "Packet in 1787 and 1788.94 The minutes of the Society's meeting on November 8, 1791, illus- trate the range of the Society's influence. Recorded are: a request from Colonel Alexander Anderson, a resident member, that the So- ciety examine a mill of his invention for threshing and cleaning wheat; a letter from Dr. John Coakley Lettsome, dated from London,

89 Minutes, 39. 90 Ibid., 32, 72,75. Qllbid., 10, 22, 25, 28,31. 92 Ibid., 22. 93 Ibid., 31, 33, 78. The letters dealing with the Hessian fly are the following: George Morgan to Washington, July 31, 1788 (Memoirs, VI, 150-53); George Morgan to Sir John Temple, August 26, 1788 (Ibid., 153-57); Elias Boudinot to Philadelphia Society, August 22, 1787 (Ibid., 144-46); Henry Wynkoop to Samuel Powel, August 13, 1787 (Ibid., 141-42); Robert R. Livingston to Samuel Powel, November 4,1788 (Ibid., 159-62); Charles H. Wharton to Samuel Powel, June 12, 1792 (Ibid., 167-69). 94 Minutes, 42-43, 44-45. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 425 March 22, 1791, and accompanying some Chinese hemp seed;95 one from Landon Carter, written March 14, 1791, to William Fitzhugh of Chatham, on a new method of threshing wheat; a communication from Robert R. Livingston, president of the New York Agricultural Society, requesting information concerning plaster of Paris; and a report from the president of the Society stating that he had received, "through the hands of the President of the United States," The zAnnals of ^Agriculture, a gift from the author, Arthur Young.96 When the Society was in its seventh year, the committee of corre- spondence, with the aid of Colonel Pickering, was asked to examine the communications received by the organization and to decide whether their publication seemed advisable.97 Difficulties were met by the committee in assembling the papers and completing the rec- ords. Bordley was added to the group and after several extensions of time the project apparently was abandoned. As a result, no volume was issued by the Society until after its reorganization in 98 1805. The Pennsylvania Qazette and the Pennsylvania Mercuryy chosen for their excellent standing and wide rural circulation,99 served, however, as official organs for the current publications of the Society.100 In addition, the Columbian Magazine regularly included articles from the Society in its delightful miscellany. Of these, the papers of John Beale Bordley form something of a series. Bordley wrote on raising, harvesting and marketing wheat, usually adding an illus- tration. Carefully registered experiments in 1785 and 1786 on sowing wheat in clusters were reported from his Wye Island farm and the Talbot County farm of his English neighbor, John Singleton. These were accompanied by a descriptive plate showing plans of a small horse-drawn drill invented by Bordley.101 There followed an account 95 Dr. Lettsome was an honorary member of both the Philadelphia Society and the Massa- chusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, Dictionary of National Biography, XI, 1013-1015. 96 Minutes, 71-72. 97 Ibid., 72. 98 Ibid., 73, 75. The five volumes of the Memoirs published between 1808 and 1826 include but little of the Society's correspondence of this period. However, a substantial amount of the correspondence is contained in Volume VI of the Memoirs, published in 1939. 99 Minutes, 5. The large amount of advertising from Delaware, Maryland and Virginia in addition to that from Pennsylvania indicates a general circulation in Delaware and at least the eastern parts of the three larger states. 100 See the files of the Pennsylvania Gazette, 1785 and 1786. !0i Columbian Magazine, December, 1787. 4^6 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October of a Talbot County farmer's method of reaping wheat. To this ac- count was added a meticulous drawing showing men, women, and boys lined up at strategic points, each carrying on a carefully as- signed task.102 A design for a threshing floor, in accordance with country usage,103 was given, and, finally, a descrip- tion and an illustrative plate of a threshing machine called the Winlaw.™ In view of the disapproval of the use of spirituous liquors by farm- ers, farm laborers, and harvest hands, voiced by Dr. George Logan105 and Dr. Benjamin Rush, the substitute proposed by Bordley in a letter to the Society, and published both in the (gazette and in the Columbian Magazine^ is of interest.106 It outlined plans for building county malthouses to supply private families with malt in order that they might brew beer as a substitute for rum or other spirituous liquors. In spite of his enthusiasm over the success of a similar ex- periment on his Wye Island farm, where a brew house supplied beer for his laborers, the proposed enterprise was not undertaken. By September, 1785, the Society took steps to have its medal in readiness for award to successful applicants. Disregarding Bordley's suggestion that the die be ordered from London,107 arrangements were made to have the medal designed and executed in Philadelphia, though not, it seems, without difficulty and considerable expense. The cost mounted to some forty pounds and nearly three years ensued before the medal was satisfactorily completed.108 As it finally evolved, the obverse showed beneath the motto,"Venerate the plow,"a plow- man with his team of oxen; the reverse showed a group of agricul- tural implements at rest and carried a space for suitable engraving.109 Interest in awarding premiums was sustained. The lists of pro- posed premiums were published yearly in the Qazette^ Mercury and (Columbian Magazine and in occasional pamphlets. While the lists remained substantially the same, the wording of conditions under

102 Ibid., September, 1788. 103 Minutes, December 4, 1786. 104 Columbian Magazine, October, 1788. 105 Minutes, 32. 106 Pennsylvania Gazette, June, 1786; Columbian Magazine, April, 1787. 107 Minutes, 10. K&Ibid., 11,41. 109 Memoirs, vols. I-IV, passim, VI, ii4f. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 427 which premiums were offered underwent revision, resulting in in- creased clarity and precision.110 The condition of the award rested in some cases upon actual achievement, in others, clearly defined experiments were required.111 Usually applications were made in the form of written reports vouched for by creditable witnesses, the identity of the candidate remaining hidden until after a decision was reached. This procedure may have been copied from the practice of the Philosophical Society. The Society was not inclined to grant premiums carelessly. In reporting unfavorably on an essay which attempted to show the comparative value or profit of draught horses and oxen, a committee made up of Timothy Pickering, Samuel Miles and Jacob Hiltz- heimer remarked, "But the essay exhibits only the actual practice of the essayist; supported indeed by the opinions of four practical farmers, his neighbors; but not by experiments of different modes to determine which was the best/' Where an essay possessed merit, the refusal of the premium was softened by a request for permission to publish the document. Occasionally the reply of the committee was pointed, for example, "That the claims of the person who sub- scribes his paper S. A. for the second and twelfth premiums are wholly inadmissable"; "That the plan of a farmyard . . . and the mode of managing the same, for which Premium No. 2 is claimed, has no peculiar merit."112 The award of the Society's gold medal thus became a mark of some distinction. One of the first to receive this honor was Colonel George Morgan. On February 7, 1786, at a meeting of eighteen members, he was awarded the medal for his essay on a farmyard system.113 The first premium offered on the Society's list, two hundred dol- lars for the best experiment in crop rotation, stimulated the writing of a well-known treatise upon crop rotations. In the Columbian Magazine for March, 1791, there appeared, under the title "Result

HO Minutes, 19-21, 36-38, 45-57, 66-68. in Ibid. 112 Minutes, 74, 57. 113 Ibid., 17; Memoirs, VI, 114. Jacob Hiltzheimer wrote in his diary, "We agreed that a gold medal be given to Col. George Morgan of New Jersey for having the best farmyard the Society has information of. This will be the first medal given by the Society." "Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer, of Philadelphia, 1768-1798," PENNSYLVANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, XVI (1892), 171. 4^8 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October of a Course of Agricultural Experiments to Discover the Best Rota- tions of Crops/' a lengthy article by Dr. George Logan.114 In a brief introduction to the president and members of the Society, addressed here merely as "Citizens," Dr. Logan submitted for consideration the results of experiments undertaken in reply to the question raised by the Society in its first proposal for a premium.115 The accompany- ing article listed in an elaborate table fourteen crop rotations based, the author affirmed, directly on English systems of rotation and employed between the years 1784 and 1791 on his farm. A discussion of each rotation followed, accompanied by general remarks on the use of manure and gypsum, emphasis being laid on the necessity of fertilizing the soil in any system of rotation. This essay had ap- parently been the occasion of the report of a committee—composed of Bordley, Hiltzheimer, Hill and Clymer—noted on the minutes of the Society for February, 1791. The report stated the committee "are of the opinion that the experiments made do not altogether come up to the object of the Society, which is to procure a set of ex- periments of a course of crops agreeable to the English method of farming. They however esteem the piece to have considerable merit . . . and . . . recommend to the Society to obtain the author's permission to publish it."116

Ill Early in 1794 the Society set on foot a venture which entitles it to an important place in the history of agricultural education. At a special meeting on January 21, a committee composed of Bordley, Clymer, Peters and Pickering was instructed to prepare the outlines of a plan for establishing a state society of agriculture, and petition the state assembly for an act of incorporation.117 Plans and petition were brought before the Society on January 28, and after its endorse- ment, were presented to the legislature. 114 George Logan, "Result of a Course of Experiments . . . , Columbian Magazine, March, 1791. "5/#

122 ibid. 123 , D. A. B., V, 299-300. Samuel Powel died September 9, 1793. 124 Pickering and Upham, op. cit.y I, 524-25. 125 Ibid., I, 529-30. 126 Ibid., I, 531-32. 432 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October setts Agricultural Society.127 This he had placed before the Philadel- phia Society. Reporting its adoption, "perhaps with improvements/' Pickering enclosed a copy of the improved plan, namely, the "Out- lines" of 1794.128 The origin of the proposal for a pattern farm has been attributed to Arthur Young's description of the national farm established by the French government in 1783.129 However, as early as January 10, 1787, George Clymer had moved that a skillful English farmer ac- quainted with the improved methods of husbandry of his country be brought to the States and employed to experiment for a term of years on a farm to be rented by the Society in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. The motion, referred to a committee of George Clymer, Henry Hill, Dr. George Logan, Samuel Meredith and Godfrey Twells,130 was reported favorably and the suggestion made that the Society borrow money to defray the expenses of the experiment.131 No further attention was given this ambitious project and on No- vember 8, 1791, an applicant for the proposed position was told that while the Society "highly approved of the plan of the experimental farm" it was not convenient at the time to put it into operation.132 Apparently however, the idea was revived, adapted, and embodied in the "Outlines," with the hope that a state agricultural society would find it possible to meet the necessary expense. At this point an abrupt break occurs in the minutes of the Society. There are no further records until April 8, 1805. On that date, at a meeting at the City Coffee House, the reorganization of the Society was undertaken.133 The heritage from the older regime came to the new through the hands of Bordley's stepson and executor, J. F.

127 The "plan" of the Massachusetts Society probably refers to the act of incorporation passed in 1792 and the rules and regulations of the Society, all of which were published in 1793. The proposals of the Pennsylvania State Society of Agriculture were more compre- hensive and more ambitious than those of the Massachusetts group. Laws and Regulations of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture (Boston, 1793), 7-12. 128 Memoirs, VI, 169-71. 129 Ibid., I, xxv-xxvi. J. C. Fitzpatrick credits Baron Poellnitz with originating the idea of an experimental farm. It is not clear, however, that the Baron's suggestion antedated the plan of Mr. Clymer. See the Washington Diaries, IV, 72m 130 Minutes, 17. 131 Ibid., 13. 132/£/

IV To the record of the Society's activities must be added a glimpse of the Philadelphia members who gave to the Society its character- istic setting. Within the widely distributed national membership the Philadelphia group was closely integrated, bound together by what seems a bewildering complexity of ties. Many of the members were related. The social life for which the city was noted, in part a product of an old, wealthy and aristocratic society, in part of per- sonal friendships grown from the soil of several generations' plant- ing, furnished a medium for easy exchanges. Even the simple neigh- borliness which at times transcends social lines in a stable and not- too-complex society added to the opportunity for contacts within the group. Aside from these local bonds, there was the host of asso- ciations arising from the progress and successful conclusion of the Revolutionary movement, the adoption of the Constitution and the establishment of the national government, with its temporary capital at Philadelphia. On a lesser plane, groupings arose also about the city and state governments. The societies for which Philadelphia was famed formed additional nuclei and smaller units centered closely in professional circles or were tied in common business ventures. Each of these congeries overlapped and each supplied a quota of members to the Society, bringing about a marked degree of solidarity. Omitting the intricacies of the maze of family ties, the relation- ships between Cadwaladers and Dickinsons; between Clymer, Mer- edith and Henry Hill; between Bordley, the Mifflins and Shippens; between Tench Francis, the Tilghmans and Edward Shippen, and that of Thomas Willing, Samuel Powel and his nephew, Dr. Samuel Powel Griffitts,will be recalled. The enduring friendship of Timothy Pickering and Richard Peters growing out of their services on the

134 Ibid., 79-80. 434 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October Board of War,135 the cordial relations between Pickering and Elias Boudinot, former commissary-general of prisoners, dating from the same period,136 as well as Pickering's years of association with Samuel Hodgdon as subordinate officer and business partner, furnish happy examples of personal relations which continued after the Revolution.137 No better contemporary impression of the Philadelphia group in its festive moments is available than the classic record in John Adams' diary. Members of the Agricultural Society were an inti- mate part of this circle, which he came to find so entrancing. Adams wrote of the elegant home of the Cadwaladers, the sumptuous feasts of Samuel Powel, of John Dickinson's gracious hospitality and hand- some library at Fair Hill, of dining out of town with "Mr. Hill and lady" and "old Mr. Meredith," Mrs. Hill's father, "Mr. Dickinson and his lady" and others, of dining in town with George Clymer, Dr. Morgan, young Dr. Rush, of delightfully "communicative" eve- nings and "large and agreeable companies," all of which so cheered that somewhat restrained gentleman, that he took his departure from the city in a burst of flattering adjectives not strictly in the Adams vein.138 In this circle and of these members the Agricultural Society had in part its being. In the diary of an active member of the Society, Jacob Hiltz- heimer, is found a record of another sort.139 Jacob Hiltzheimer was a German resident of the city who owned a farm in the vicinity, where grain and fine cattle were raised.140 He had won the respect of Robert Morris for his honesty in his attempt to manage the Continental stables in Philadelphia in 1776 and 1777.141 Later he served for eleven years as a representative of the city of Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania Assembly.142 He was an active participant in civic

135 Pickering and Upham, op. cit.y I, 183, II, 156, III, 13. 136 Elias Boudinot, D. A. B.y II, 477-78; Pickering and Upham, op. cit.y I, 200. 137 Ibid., II, 141. 138 Adams, ed., Works of John Adams, II, 358-502, passim, 139 "Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer, of Philadelphia, 1768-1798," PENNSYL- VANIA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, XVI (1892), 93-102, 160-77, 412-22, passim, 140 Hiltzheimer, loc. cit.y XVI, 93, 166. 141 Robert Morris to John Hancock, December 16, 1776; Letter of Committee in Phila- delphia, January 10, 1777. E. C. Burnett, Letters of Members of the (Washington, 1923), II, 176-77.

142 Hiltzheimer, loc. cit.y XVI, 93. 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 435 affairs and took a remarkably keen interest in events, in persons and in practical concerns, all of which he wrote about briefly in his diary. As a result of his Revolutionary acquaintances, of the interests men- tioned, and doubtless because of his highly respected character, his contacts were numerous. Hiltzheimer's record of social affairs dealt in the main with the less formal ones. His interest in feasts, espe- cially of beefsteak and fish, was that of a lesser Pepys. In his faithful attendance upon funerals he was second only to Sewall. Again and again, the names found in the Society's minutes appear in his diary, the men mingling because of practical concerns, or neighborly in- terests, in a simple setting.143 A sample entry, March 15, 1789, must serve to indicate# the casual character of some of these contacts. "On my way home from church George Clymer called me into his house where I met the following gentlemen sitting around the table with wine before them: James Wilson, Esq., Gen. Phil Dickinson; Dr. Jones, Col. Lambert Cadwalader."144 Another cycle of interest within the Society deserves notice. Phila- delphia was at the time the seat of medical learning in America and a notable group of physicians had membership in the Society. Young Dr. Samuel Powel Griffitts gave especially generous service. Return- ing in the autumn of 1784 from three years of medical study in Montpelier, London and Edinburgh,145 he was elected to the Society in March, 1785.146 On January 1, 1788, he was chosen secretary147 to succeed Timothy Pickering, who had left Philadelphia to carry on his venture of speculation in western lands.148 In spite of a growing practice and the demands made upon his time by the Philadelphia Dispensary, of which he was a founder,149 Dr. Griffitts attended regu- larly, carrying on his work of secretary until the close of 1791. Dr. Adam Kuhn, whose friendship with the young doctor dated from Griffitts' student days at the College of Philadelphia, also attended regularly during these years.150 A similar interest in the Society on 143 Ibid., XVI, 93 f, 160 f, 412 f. 144/^W., XVI, 412. 145 B. H. Coates, "Notice of the Life of Samuel Powel Griffitts," Memoirs of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1830), II, Pt. 2, p. 8. 146 Minutes, 6. 147 Minutes, 3$. 148 Timothy Pickering, Appleton's, V 2. 149 Coates, op. cit.y 9. 160 Ibid.. 7. 436 OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October the part of Dr. John Jones and Dr. George Logan has been cited. Occasionally Dr. John Redman, a graduate of the University of Leyden and president of the Philadelphia College of Physicians151 dropped in, as did his former student, Dr. John Morgan, who had returned to Philadelphia after his unhappy experience as physician- in-chief to the American Army.152 Dr. Benjamin Say, another well- known physician of the city, and Dr. Thomas Ruston also came regu- larly. Dr. James Tilton, an honorary member from Dover, corre- sponded153 with the Society. More than a score of active members of the Agricultural Society were members also of the Philosophical Society. At the time the Agricultural Society was organized its president, Samuel Powel, had been a member of the Philosophical Society for at least fifteen years;154 in 1783, as has been stated, John Beale Bordley was elected to that body. A dozen or more associates from the Philo- sophical Society came into the Agricultural Society during the early days. In this group were John and Lambert Cadwalader, John Dickinson, Henry Hill, Levi Hollingsworth, Dr. John Morgan and Colonel George Morgan, John Okley, Dr. John Redman, John Sel- lers, Edward Shippen, and Richard Wells. All of the physicians belonging to the Agricultural Society belonged also to the Philo- sophical Society. Kuhn, Jones, Rush and Griffitts served over a period of years as counselors of that body. Samuel Vaughan, vice- president of the Philosophical Society, and John Vaughan, treasurer, were active members of the Agricultural Society. Among the other members belonging to both groups were George Clymer, Tench Coxe, George Fox, John Lukens, John Mifflin, Timothy Pickering, Dr. James Tilton, Jonathan Williams, Anthony Wayne and Henry Wynkoop.155 Washington's connection with the Philadelphia Society for Pro- moting Agriculture, his contacts with the Philadelphia group and the Society's influence upon his agricultural theories and practice, point to a relation of interest and importance, and one worthy of 151 John Redman, Appletons, V, 208. 152 John Morgan, Appleton's, IV, 401; Minutes, 1-78, passim. 153 Minutes, 41. 154 Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, I, xii. l^ Ibid., I, ix-xiii, passim, II, xxiii-xxvi, passim, III, xxviii-xxxi, passim, IV, xiv-xv, passim; Minutes, 1-78, passim. I942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 437 more extended investigation than it is possible to include here. For example, Washington does not seem to have been acquainted with Arthur Young prior to his connection with the Philadelphia Society, his first letter to Young having been written in 1786.156 Moreover, his correspondence shows familiarity with topics of current interest discussed in the proceedings and publications of the Society, and his interchange of ideas on agricultural subjects with other members of the Society is well known. Although some of the connecting links of the story are missing, enough remains to suggest an interesting chap- ter in the history of Washington as an agriculturist, a chapter which parallels the history of the Society from his election to honorary membership on July 4, 1785, to the closing years of his life. Aside from the more formal exchanges which were a part of Wash- ington's public life, there existed personal associations which doubt- less increased his interest in the Society. Samuel Powel was long his friend.157 Washington wrote of sowing Cape of Good Hope wheat, which was a gift from Powel in the autumn of 1785.158 Instances of the hospitality accorded Washington in the summer of 1787 reveal his friendly acquaintance with members of the Society during this vigorous year of its existence. In order to view the result of Dr. George Logan's experiments in the use of gypsum, particularly as a preparation for clover and timothy, Washington spent a day, ac- companied by Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, at Stenton.159 He drank tea a half-dozen times with General Meredith; visited Judge Peters at Belmont; and on several occasions dined or drank tea with George Clymer. Among other members of the Society who entertained him were Tench Francis, uncle of his loyal aid Tench Tilghman; Dr. John Jones, his occasional physician; Dr. Benjamin Rush, "by particular invitation," and, less formally, General Philemon Dickinson, upon the occasion of a fishing trip to Trenton.160 Such names as Elias Boudinot, John Cadwalader, Thomas Mifflin, Richard Peters, Robert Morris and Timothy Pickering, all members of the Society, will serve to recall the importance and diversity of Washington's association with the Philadelphia group. He spent 156 Ford, ed., Writings of Washington. 157 Samuel Powel, Appletoris^ V, 94. 158 Fitzpatrick, ed., George Washington Diaries, II, 426. 159 Logan, Memoir of Dr. George Logan, 44-45. 160 Fitzpatrick, ed., George Washington Diaries, III, 218-37, passim. 43^ OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL October much of his time with them during the summer of the Constitutional Convention, and during his last visit to Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1798, they were again his hosts, either as personal friends or as officials of the United States. The warp and woof of the social fabric which lent color to Washington's stay in Philadelphia is woven almost entirely about these names.161 Perhaps this is merely evidence of the fact that the Philadelphia Society, like other early agricul- tural societies, was an aristocratic and influential organization which included the city's leaders, in this case a city which, in many respects, was a national center. The Society, nevertheless, grows in interest because of it. After a day in which Washington had given a sitting to Charles Willson Peale, and had attended the Constitutional Convention, he went with Mr. Powel, as his diary records, "to the Agricultural Society at Carpenter's Hall."162 In addition to Washington and Powel, there were present Gouverneur Morris, George Clymer, Dr. John Jones, Tench Francis, Major Samuel Hodgdon and John Sel- lers.163 Washington's attendance at this meeting of the Society on July 3, 1787, seems to have been unheralded. No increase occurred in the small summer attendance as had taken place at an autumn meeting in 1786 when the number attending increased from nine in October to nineteen in November, apparently because of the presence of Richard Penn and Edward Thornhill, "members of the British Parliament."164 Although Washington's actual attendance at meetings of the So- ciety seems to have been limited to this occasion, the continuance of his interest in the Society and evidences of occasional agricultural discussion with its members appear in his correspondence of the following years.165 And it is interesting to note that he had formed

161 Fitzpatrick, ed., George Washington Diaries, IV, 288-90. 162 Ibid., Ill, 226. 163 Minutes, 32. 164 Ibid., 32, 26-27. 165 In a letter to Alexander Spotswood, February 13, 1788, Washington urged the estab- lishment of an agricultural society in Virginia, pointing out the advantages of the Fredericks- burg region. A letter of August 17, 1788, to John Beale Bordley, deals at length with agricul- tural subjects and in it Washington presents his thanks to Bordley for some white bearded wheat to be used as seed {Ibid., xi, 302-307). The friendship which developed between Bordley's daughter Elizabeth and Eleanor Parke Custis after Bordley removed to Philadel- phia in 1791, Washington's appointment, in that year, of Bordley as a commissioner to 1942 THE PHILADELPHIA AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 439 the conception of a national organization as an ultimate goal for the advancement of agriculture as early as 1794. On July 20 of that year he wrote to Sir John Sinclair on this topic and enclosed a copy of the ill-fated "Outlines for a State Plan for Agriculture." The paragraph on the subject is of so much interest that it is here given in full: It will be some time I fear before an Agricultural Society, with congressional aids, will be established in this country. We must walk as other countries have done before we can run. Smaller societies must prepare the way for greater; but with the lights before us I hope we shall not be so slow in maturation (sic) as older nations have been. An attempt as you will perceive by the enclosed outlines of a plan, is making to establish a State Society in Pennsylvania for agricultural im- provements. If it succeeds it will be a step in the ladder—at present it is too much in embryo to decide on the result.166 Ultimate faith in the province of the agricultural society is re- vealed in Washington's final message to Congress. The well-known reference to agriculture and agricultural societie§ is couched in words suggestive of his association with the Philadelphia society. After arguing the propriety of considering the development of agriculture as an object of public patronage and sketching the office of agricul- tural societies in "collecting and diffusing information" and in devel- oping "a spirit of discovery and improvement" he speaks of the contribution made by such societies in words strikingly reminiscent of those found in a passage within the fifth section of the "Outlines of a Plan for Establishing a State Society of Agriculture": This species of establishment contributes doubly to the increase of government by stimulating to enterprise and experiment and by drawing to a common centre the results everywhere of individual skill and observation and spreading them hence over the entire nation. Experience, accordingly, has shown that they are very cheap instruments of immense national benefits. "Baltimore OLIVE MOORE GAMBRILL

receive subscriptions to the United States Bank, and later letters from Washington to Bordley indicate the mutual interests of the two men. In this connection the final note written from Washington to Bordley, August 4, 1799, is noteworthy: Dear Sir: Through the medium of the Secretary of War, I have been honoured with your 'Essays and Notes on Husbandry, and Rural Affairs' and offer you my sincere thanks for your kindness in sending them to me. Persuading myself that I shall find both pleasure and edification in the perusal of them. (Private Collection, I, 13.) See also Nathanial Burd, Address on the Washing- ton Mansion in Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1875); Gibson, op. cit., 135-36; Ford, ed., Writings of Washington, xi, 225; xiii, 413. 166 Ford, ed., Writings of Washington, XII, 442.