1. Peters had written GW on this date: “R. Peters presents his Compliments to The President & sends him one of his Books on Plaister, which he has taken the Freedom to inscribe to him, from Motives of the purest Esteem & Respect.

“R.P. will, if the Presidt wishes to distribute some among his Friends, send a few next Week for that Purpose having no more new bound” (AL, DLC:GW).

Peters sent GW his Agricultural Enquiries on Plaister of Paris. Also, Facts, Observations and Conjectures on that Substance, When Applied as Manure … (Philadelphia, 1797). A copy of this work, with GW’s signature on the title page, was in GW’s library at the time of his death (see Griffin, Catalogue of the Washington Collection description begins Appleton P. C. Griffin, comp. A Catalogue of the Washington Collection in the Boston Athenæum. Cambridge, Mass., 1897. description ends , 161). Peters’s publication contains a dedication in the format of a letter to GW, dated 3 Jan. 1797, that describes the work as a “collection, on the subject of the agricultural properties and uses of the Gypsum, having been undetaken by me at your desire.” Peters added that those sections “which contain practical results … will be useful.” The dedication continues: “I have had frequent occasions of knowing, that the encouragement of agricultural improvement and information, is among the favourite wishes of your heart. It is on this account, and not with a design to give it an undue importance, by placing it under your notice, that I have been induced to inscribe to you this publication.

“It is peculiarly consolatory, when we can draw any portion of our comfort from our misfortunes. Your retirement from public life, will afford you leisure and opportunities, by your patronage and example, to promote the interests of agriculture. Some compensation will be thereby afforded us for the loss we shall sustain, by your resigning the helm at which you have so long, so wisely, and so safely steered our political barque.

“Long may uninterrupted health, that first of blessings, enable you to enjoy the splendid evening of a life, so much devoted to your country, as to have been but little dedicated to yourself.—And that you may be happy as you have been eminently instrumental in making millions of your fellow-citizens, is my sincere and ardent prayer.”

Written in the format of correspondence, the Agricultural Enquiries presents responses from farmers to a series of Peters’s questions on gypsum and manure. The work also includes Peters’s own responses and remarks on the subject, followed by miscellaneous observations on plaster of Paris. With his letter to GW of 12 May 1796, Peters had enclosed a manuscript version of his queries, replies, and miscellaneous remarks (see n.4 to that document). The queries, answers, and remarks also appeared in volume 29 of Arthur Young’s Annals of Agriculture (London, 1797), which was in GW’s library at the time of his death.

2. Peters sent additional copies of his Agricultural Enquiries with his letter to GW of 26 January. GW transmitted a copy of the work to John Sinclair on 6 March 1797 (see GW to Sinclair, that date, and n.2, in Papers, Retirement Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series. 4 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1998–99. description ends 1:13–15).