No. 144.] 389 



bale, we always have seed to make oil out of to the enormous 

 amount of twelve hundred millions of pounds weight, or six 

 hundred thousand tons. Now, if the seed yields 25 per cent of 

 its weight in oil, then we may have per annum 150,000 tons of 

 oil, an immense supply for lighting up all our houses. We have 

 heretofore adverted to the use of cotton seed oil centuries ago by 

 the Chinese ; and it must be observed that for cattle feeding the 

 ■cake left from the oil presses is excellent, or as the Chinese used 

 it as a manure for cotton itself. 



FIRST AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY AFTER THE PEACE 

 OF 1783. 



The Secretary read the following extracts made by him : 



Minutes of the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Jigricul- 

 ture, from its Institutions m 1785 ^o 1810. 



[Presented to the Farmers' Club of the American Institute by the Philadelphia Society, for 

 promoting agriculture. From their Recording Secretary, Alfred L. Kennedy, M.D., Dec, 

 1854. Extracts by Henry Meigs.] 



City of Philadelphia, February 11, 1785. 

 It was proposed to form a society in Philadelphia for the pro- 

 motion of agriculture, and accordingly, Messrs. George Morgan, 

 George Clymer, Robert Morris, John Cadwalader, Henry Hill, 

 Philip Dickinson, James Wilson, Thomas Willing, Samuel Pow- 

 ell, Edward Shippen, Samuel Vaughan, Tench Francis, Benja- 

 min Rush, Samuel Meredith, John Nixon, Charles Thompson, 

 Richard Wells, Dr. John Jones. Dr. Adam Kuhn, Lambert Cad- 

 walader, Richard Peters, Dr. George Logan, and John D. Bordley 

 —23 in all ; agreed to create an agricultural society. 



They met accordingly at the house of Patrick Byrne, in Front 

 street, Philadelphia, on Tuesday, March 1, 1785. 



Present — Messrs. Clymer, Powell, Shippen, Vaughan, Francis, 

 Rush, Logan and Bordley. 



They chose Mr. Powell chairman. They appointed Messrs, 

 Clymer and Bordley to sketch out a form of laws to be presented 

 next Tuesday. Then only five appeared. The sketch of the 

 laws was read and referred to the meeting on the next Tuesday. 



