Letter from his Pruffian Majefty, @&c. gor 
fubjeéts, and to offer for the beft paper on either a prize of 
~ a hundred dollars, to. be adjudged in the year 1800. 
«x, As it isa certain fact that the bafe of carben contained 
in the ufual animal and vegetable manures is one of the 
principal articles of nourifhment to plants, what other fub- 
ftances are there which may be fubftituted in agriculture for 
common manure, and may be employed with the like eflen- 
tial advantage for promoting vegetation ? 
< It is requefted thatthofe perfons who propofe anfwering 
this queftion, of fo niuch importance to agriculture, will 
ground their proofs not merely on theory alone, but in par- 
ticular on experiments properly made and accurately ob- 
ferved. 
“<2. By what procefs, and from what feeds, fuch as thofe 
of flax, poppies, the fun-flower, or other oily feeds, which 
can be procured without great expence, or be cultivated in 
abundance, can an oil be extracted, to fupply with advan- 
tage the place of clive oil, and which can be preferved a fuf- 
ficient length of time in a good condition?—The goodnefs 
and quality of oil procured by expreffion, depends, without 
doubt, not only on the nature of the feeds, but alfo on the: 
procefs employed to obtain it. The phyfical clafs withes, 
therefore, that thofe defirous to anfwer this queftion will 
attend to two circumftances, viz. to the feed, that it may be 
of a kind fit for yielding good oil, and alfo to the procefs beft 
calculated to produce it as pure as poffible.” 
Letter from his Pruffian Majefty to the Academy of Sciences 
at Berlin. Read in the Sitting of the 19th of April. 
AFTER procuring the neceflary information refpeéting 
the prefent ftate of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, it ap- 
pears to me requifite to make fome changes, calculated to 
enfure to that inftitution an exiftence equally honourable 
and ufeful for the public good. 
I cannot conceal from the academy, that its labours, 
gaken in the aggregate, have always appeared to me too little 
H3 direfied 
