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 JEFFERSON TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, FROM WASHINGTON, JUNE 30, 1803 



The follov/ing letter relates to the experiments of John Binns 

 of Loudoun with gypsum and to the progress of agricul- 

 tural societies in the early nineteenth century. 



Dear Sir, — It is so long since I have had the pleasure of writing 

 to you, that it would be vain to look back to dates to connect the old 

 and the new. Yet I ought not to pass over my acknowledgments to you 

 for various publications received from time to time, and with great 

 satisfaction and thankfulness. I send you a small one in return, 

 the work of a very unlettered farmer, yet valuable, as it relates 

 plain facts of importance to farmers. You will discover that Mr. 

 Binns is an enthusiast for the use of gypsum. But there are two facts 

 which prove he has a right to be so: 1. He began poor, and has made 

 himself tolerably rich by his farming alone. 2. The county of 

 Loudon, in which he lives, had been so exhausted and wasted by bad hus- 

 bandry, that it began to depopulate, the inhabitants going Southwardly 

 in quest of better lands. Binns' success has stopped that emigration. 

 It is now becoming one of the most productive counties of the State 

 of Virginia, and the price given for the lands is multiplied mani- 

 fold 



I hope your agricultural institution goes on with success. I 

 consider you as the author of all the good it shall do. A better 

 idea has never been carried into practice. Our agricultural society 

 has at length formed itself. Like our American Philoscphical Society, 

 it is voluntary, and unconnected with the public, and is precisely an 

 execution of the plan I formerly sketched to you. Some State socie- 

 ties have been formed heretofore; the others will do the same. Each 

 State society names two of its members of Congress to be their members 

 in the Central society, which is of course together during the sessions 

 of Congress. They are to select matter from the proceedings of the 

 State societies, and to publish it; so that their publications may be 

 called 1 'esprit des societes d' agriculture , &c. The Central society 

 was formed the last winter only, so that it will be some time before 

 they get under way. Mr. Madison, the Secretary of State, was elected 

 their President. 



Recollecting with great satisfaction our friendly intercourse while 

 I was in Europe, I nourish the hope it still preserves a place in your 

 mind; and with my salutations, I pray you to accept assurances of my 

 constant attachment and high respect. -H. A. Washington, ed.. The w ritings 

 of Thomas Jefferson . 4:490-492 (Washington, D. C, Taylor & Maury, 1854). 



