ADVERTISEMENT. 
THE Society requested me to arrange, for republica- 
tion in their memoirs, the contents of my little compilation 
on PLAISTER OF PARIS, in 1797. I have endeavoured to col- 
lect from various quarters of our country a series of facts oc- 
curring since that period. I should have combined them with, 
or engrafted them on, the facts then drawn together; and 
thus have formed a compendious account of all we now know 
on the subject. But although I have been favoured by a few to 
whom I had written, I have been generally unsuccessful. I 
shall persevere in my endeavours; and either wait till my 
object is fully attained, or communicate, as I receive them, 
the results of my inquiries. 
There is a most unfortunate indisposition in our fellow 
citizens, to reduce to writing the necessary information re- 
quired on agricultural subjects. Some are too busy, and some 
too indolent. Dread of criticism operates on some ;.and false 
and reprehensible diffidence on others. There are few land- 
holders who cultivate their own soil (as do most in this coun- 
try) who cannot express their knowledge of facts sufficiently 
clear in writing, on a subject to which they are more compe- 
tent than literary theorists. No farmer is remote from some 
well educated neighbour, who can write down and commu- 
nicate the facts recited to him: It is therefore the more to 
be lamented that any want of information on practical hus- 
