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[crossed out] it is agreed [end crossed out] that ye members of ye Com. be assessed 12/ annually, except the Clergy (a very good [crossed out] necessary [end crossed out] exception indeed), & that ye Academy be requested to make a [crossed out] same [end crossed out] similar assessment on its members not of ye Com., for ye purpose of promoting agriculture ## # As they have not yet appeared, I will [crossed out] end [end crossed out] give you some account of yours as yours came up in ye vortex of memory for I can not give them in order - It is agreed that u # # That any [crossed out] Gentleman [end crossed out] Person [inserted] not of ye Com. [end inserted] who shall subscribe a sum not less than 12/ per annum -- shall have a right to attend all ye stated meetings of ye Com. to give his opinion, & vote in all matters relating to agriculture, & shall have a voice in the decision of all monies & to be continued members so long as it was found a very difficult matter to construct this article so as not probably answer the purpose of Com. to be a very important one, as the success of the plan must greatly depend on ye aid of those who were without ye Academy. There must be a union of two bodies not perfectly homogenous. Gentlemen invited to join ye Com. must come in so as to stand on nearly ye same ground with ye Members of ye Com. or they would not come in at all. Some abroad are warm for a new Society - some much opposed to ye [present plan (interpolated) members admitted, who are not of ye [Com?], it was supposed, ?] would not be admitted to every invitation? with those who are. Ye Com. found themselves embarrassed & much time was taken up in debate before ye article passed, & some finally were not fully satisfied, but were at a loss how to mend it. That there should be six stated meetings in a year on ye last Wednesdays in Ap., June, Aug., Oct., Dec., Feb. After ye articles were agreed upon, Gen Lincoln was chosen chairman for ye present year. Major Ewing Recording S. Dr. Howard, corresponding sec. Wm South Jackson Treasurer. Farmers & other Gentlemen are to be solicited to communicate to ye Com. otservs [ations?] or experiments &[improvements?] to extracts from the most approved [acct] of various tranches of Agriculture, such communications as ye Com. may judge may be of immediate utility are to be published in two of ye Boston papers Independent Chronicle (on Thursday). & Massachusetts Gazette on Monday. It is hoped then ye Com. will be furnished with materials sufficient to give something to ye Public in each paper weekly. Major Ewing has begun to publish in ye Independent Chronicale His signature is E.M. This Gentleman has lately returned from England - has spent more than 20 years in that country & principle in the interior parts of it. He is curious - has been very particular in [examing] into the present british mode of husbandry & is now improving a farm himself - in addition to this, he has a large fortune & is warmly engaged in promoting ye present plan. There appears to me no doubt but that the Com. will chearfully [sic] assist you in ye publication of your book, & had there been opportunity I should have suggested
cutler-letters_commonplace-book_nodate_02
it at ye last meeting. I think it will be well to lay before [the Com?] some part of your work. This will tend to envite greater attention to ye publications, may be the means of your being furnished with further materials, as well as direct them, in some degree, in their choice of pieces for ye papers. If you should think proper to forward any part of it to me, I will, with pleasure, lay it before them. It is not in my power to give you much information with respect to ye cause of ye ascent of sap in vegetables neither am I acquainted with any Gentleman that (I have, for some time been very [solicitous]? to see ye modern theory (of ye structure of plants, & principles of vegetation) but have not been able to find any author who has wrote [profusely?] has to my knowledge attended to this subject. on this subject. Since Dr. Gales, several authors have appeared, particular Dr. Hill, from whose writings I have seen some abstracts. But what he has wrote is contained in a voluminous work of 30 fol. Vols. & have never heard of it in any part of America except in a public Library in N. York.) There have been lately considerable improve[ment] in ye knowledge of ye structure of plants & principles - 2 -•* of vegetation, but I have seen only quotations, and some of what has been write [sic] You have dobless [sic] seen Dr. Hales' Vegetable Statics. Dr. Hill has wrote on ye subject. It is said there is it seems that the organs of plants are in a great measure analigous to those of animals. The exterior surface is a cuticle almost entirely similar to that of animals. Within ye cuticle is the bark. There seems to be a general & in many particulars a very near analigy [sic] between ye organs of plants & vegetables. plants have a proper cuticle, within which is ye cutis or skin, composed of numerous fibres. Among these fibres, & between ye bark 8s ye wood are sorces of longitudinal vessels of three kinds, a vessel in which ye juice rises 8c[descends?] there being no valves to impede its 1. motion 2 an air vessel. The action of ye air, as it is affected by heat or cold, produces the motion of ye juice in ye sap vessel 3rd a vessel ye use of which was for a long time unknown, but, I have somewhere met with some acct. of ye use of this vessel, which has lately been discovered & if I am not mistaken, it is somewhat analigus [sic] to that of the lacteals in animals, in which a fluid ascends & descends different in its nature from that of ye sap; These three different kinds of vessels are connected together & placed in sets, the external surface of their coats closely adherring & ye three inclosed within in a fine membraneous coat, which seperates [sic] the sets. Similar vessels are found in ye wood of a smaller size, having a separation of every years growth made by a series of longitudinal tendinous fibres. Besides these longitudinal vessels there are numerous transverse vessels extending from the surface to ye pith or Some of these vessels are supposed anastomine, but ye longitudinal do not. They are of different kinds 8s serve the purposes of absorption, excretion & perspiraThe whole of these vessels are supposed to be [in pencil at end, in a different hand: "(on circulation of sap.)"]