RC (DLC); at foot of text: “His Excellency Thomas Jefferson &ca. &ca. &ca.”; endorsed by TJ as received 9 Jan. 1798 and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: Sir John Sinclair’s Address to the Board of Agriculture, on Tuesday the Twentieth of June, 1797: Stating the Progress That Had Been Made by the Board, During the Fourth Session Since Its Establishment [London, 1797]. For other enclosures, see note below.

For a description of the original surveys sent by Sinclair, see William Strickland to TJ, 20 May 1796. At Sinclair’s urging, Washington had included in his annual message to Congress of 7 Dec. 1796 a recommendation to establish boards of agriculture in the United States “composed of proper characters, charged with collecting and diffusing information, and enabled by premiums, and small pecuniary aids, to encourage and assist a spirit of discovery and improvement” (Syrett, Hamilton, description begins Harold C. Syrett and others, eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, New York, 1961–87, 27 vols. description ends xx, 364; Fitzpatrick, Writings, description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, Washington, D.C., 1931–44, 39 vols. description ends xxxv, 315–16, 322). In correspondence in July 1797, Washington acknowledged that he had tried “in vain” to establish agricultural boards comparable to the one in Great Britain (Fitzpatrick, Writings, description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, Washington, D.C., 1931–44, 39 vols. description ends xxxv, 501).