From George Washington to John Beale Bordley, 13 April 1795
To John Beale Bordley
Philada April 13th 1795
Dr Sir,
A double sett of Youngs Annals was sent to me sometime ago, by that Gentleman, without his mentioning for whom the dupli[c]ates were intended.1 taking it for granted however that they were meant to be presented to the Agricultural Society of this City, and understanding that you are Vice-President thereof2—I take the liberty of committing them to your care for the use of the said Society.
I also send for the information, and such other uses as the Society may think proper to make of it Maunsell’s experimts on the culture of Potatoes from the shoots.3 With very great esteem & regd I am—Dr Sir yrs &c. &ca
ADf, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. A purported ALS was offered for sale by Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., Important Americana (25 and 26 Nov. 1952), item 373.
1. Arthur Young, an English agriculturalist, published forty-six volumes of Annals of Agriculture, and Other Useful Arts between 1784 and 1815. He had sent volumes to GW since 1786. According to GW’s letter to Young of 9 Nov. 1794, two copies of volumes 19, 20, and 21 arrived with Young’s letter to him of 2 June 1794.
2. Bordley was a founding member of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture and had served as the society’s vice president since its organization in February 1785. GW’s membership also dated to 1785 (see Samuel Powel’s second letter to GW of 5 July 1785, in 3:106).
3. GW enclosed William Maunsell’s Letters to the Right Honourable … Dublin Society, on the Culture of the Potatoes from the Shoots (Dublin, 1794), which Maunsell had sent to the president the previous year (see Maunsell to GW, 19 March 1794).