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To Wrchard Peters* Esq. President, Willmm Tilghman, 

 Esq. Vice President, and the Memhers of the Philadel- 

 phia Society for promoting agriculture. 



Gentlemen, 



One of the first and most desirable objects of inquiry 

 which called my attention on my retiring to the country 

 some years go, was, how shall the scarcity of timber 

 for building, fencing and fuel in the vicinity of our city 

 be most effectm lly remedied for the present generation, 

 and prevented in future: the present prices being four 

 fold more than they were within my recollection of 

 them. For fuel, we must look to our coal mines ere 

 long, or contrive some mode j of warming our houses 

 in the country with a less quantity of wood, than any 

 mode in present use, with which I am acquainted will 

 perform. I have under experiment locusts (Robiniaps( udo- 

 Ac-ciL.) for Posts; Chesnuts (native and Sicilian or Spa- 

 nish) for posts and rails; button wood (Platanus occi- 

 d< ntalis) and common black cherry, both good for fuel 

 and of very quick growth ; of which I may perhaps at 

 some future, not distant day, address the result to this 

 respectable society ; but casualty has furnished me with 

 the knowledge of a tree which seems to promise much 

 usefulness. Among the ornamental trees which I select- 

 ed for clumps of shade near my dwelling house, were two 

 suckers of the morns papyrifera from Clermont, then 

 the seat ol Thomas Buckley, Esq. now of Jacob Ridg- 

 way Esq, I think in 1808. These were planted in the 



