To George Washington from Robert R. Livingston, 4 February 1795
From Robert R. Livingston
NewYork 4th Feby 1795.
Dear Sir
The favourable reception you were pleased to give to the first part of the transactions of the incorporated society for promoting agriculture arts & manufactures induces me to beg your acceptance of a vol: containing that & the second part.1 In this you may find some new ideas on agriculture & on the subject of luzerne more experiments than have before been published in America or Great Britain.2 As I am fully persuaded that this grass will be an important acquisition to the southern States I take the liberty to recommend these experiments to your consideration when the recess of Congress shall afford you an opportunity of examining them with some degree of leeasure amidst the shades of Mount Vernon.
permit me Sir to offer my sincerest wishes for your health & happiness whether in that peaceful & pleasing retreat you meditate on rural improvements, or in the busy world sacrafice that enjoyment to the nobler pleasure of succesfully serving a grateful country. I have the honor to be Dear Sir with the greatest respect & the sincerest attatchment Your Most Obt hum: Servt
Robt R. Livingston
ALS, DLC:GW; ADfS, NHi: Robert R. Livingston Papers.
1. For Livingston’s transmission of part 1 of the Transactions of the Society, Instituted in the State of New-York, for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures (New York, 1792) and GW’s favorable response, see Livingston to GW, 10 Jan. 1793, and n.2 to that letter. The second part of the Transactions was printed at New York in 1794. With this letter, Livingston sent an edition that included both parts in one volume, inscribed on the flyleaf: “To the President of the U.S. Humbly presented by Rob. R. Livingston president of the Society for the promotion of agriculture, arts, & manufactures in the State of New-York.” The volume remained in GW’s library until his death (, 149).
2. Livingston wrote two papers on lucerne that appeared in part two of the Transactions. The first, “Experiments and Observations on Lucerne,” described and commented on seven experiments in growing lucerne that he had conducted from 1791 to 1793 (pp. 65–80). The second, “Experiments on Lucerne,” was a continuation of the first paper, discussing seven more experiments that he conducted in 1793 and 1794 (pp. 81–91).