CIRCULAR LETTER

OF

THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY,

OF NEW-YORK,

ON THE BUBJECT OF

SIR,

A STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK.

NEW-YORK, February 15, 1815.

THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF NEW-YORK, (which was incorporated at the last Session of the Legislature, and which was instituted to cultivate the most useful branches of knowledge, to stimulate into activity the literature and talents of the community, and to obtain a mass of information, which may have a tendency to elevate the literary character, and subserve the best interests of our country,) are desirous of collecting materials for a statistical account of the United States, and more particularly of the State of New-York. With this view, they respectfully solicit your prompt and pointed attention to the following subjects, or to such of them as you are conversant with, or as may fall within the range of your obser

vation.

1. The name, (and its origin,) of the town or county in which you reside; its situation, extent, and number of acres; the history of its settlement; the number, general character, and condition of the first settlers, and from what part of the world; the circumstances and causes of the settlement; the time of their arrival; the encouragement and authority under which they came; by what means the lands were

obtained from the Indians, whether by conquest or purchase; and the nature of the grants or patents of land; the government from whence they proceeded; the latitude and longitude of any remarkable place in your county.

2. The Indians that formerly inhabited your town or county; their number, condition, customs, manners, language, mythology, battles, burying places, monuments, forts, weapons, utensils, and any other traces of their settlement; their history, migrations, traditions, character, trade, controversies, wars, and treaties; their names of places, and the signification, and their present state.

3. Nature of the soil, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, caverns, rocks, lakes, ponds, rivers, islands, streams, cataracts, mineral and medicinal springs, aqueducts; the changes in mountains, lakes, rivers, and streams; the quality of water; the nature and composition of rocks, and their position; whether in strata or otherwise; inclined, or horizontal; the strata observed in digging wells; petrifications, shells.

4. Mines, minerals, fossils, quarries of stone, and particularly flint, slate, soap-stone, marble, lime-stone, marl, gypsum, sulphur, iron, copper, lead, silver, plumbago, salt, nitre, and ochres of various kinds; their distance from navigable water.

5. Trees of different kinds, and their uses for ornament, fuel, fences, house and ship building; the original growth of wood, and the variations on successive cuttings; whether plenty or scarce, increasing or decreasing, and the causes; the best means of increasing the quantity, and improving the quality.

6. Beside wood, other fuel, such as coal, turf or peat; the quantity and quality of each; distance from navigable water; increase or decrease, and price of the different kinds.

7. The state of agriculture; the price of land, of provisions, and of labour; the kinds of grain produced, quantity on an acre, and total

quantity in each year; the quantity of grain, meal, and flour exported; the quantity of flax and hemp raised and exported; the most approved and profitable mode of cultivating those productions; value of articles consumed at home; quantity and value of the whole produce.

8. The native and imported grasses; the quantity of each kind produced on an acre; the proportion of meadow to arable lands; the improvement of the country by irrigation, draining and diking.

9. Manures; the different kinds, and their effects; the best time and mode of applying and increasing them, and of preparing them for particular crops.

10. The best seed time, and harvest time; the best time and mode of preparing lands for seed; of extirpating weeds, and of preserving grains from insects; the effects of a change of seeds; the most approved rotation of crops; remarkable instances of good and bad seasons; unusual failure of crops; the known or supposed causes, and the temperature of the seasons at the time.

11. Fences; the materials and modes of erecting them; the best modes of improving them, and the introduction of substitutes for those used; modes of cultivation; implements of husbandry; teams.

12. Number of sheep, swine, neat cattle, and horses; and the best mode of multiplying and improving them, and of preventing their destruction from disease or other causes.

13. Fruit trees, and esculent vegetables; the best kinds, and best modes of improving, cultivating, and preserving them; the state of gardening; the quantity and quality of cider, beer, wine, and spirits made, and how made.

14. The state of manufactures; the kinds, quantity, and quality made in families, and manufactories; the history of any useful manufacture, including its increase and decline, and the causes; the quantity, quality, and value of articles manufactured for domestic use, and for

sale abroad; useful machines for abridging labour, and improving manufactures.

15. The state of the highways; common and turnpike roads, and bridges; harbours, ferries, banks, villages, towns and cities, and their police.

16. Trade and commerce; quantity, and kinds of foreign articles consumed; amount of exports and imports; the history and state of boat and ship building; the number of boat-men and seamen, and of ships and vessels of different kinds.

17. Fisheries: the kinds, quantity, and value of fish; the mode of curing and taking them, and the market; an account of the different species of fishes in streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and salt water.

18. Wild animals now, or hereafter known; their increase or decrease, and the cause; serpents, tortoises, and other amphibious animals; quadrupeds, insects, or bones of the animal called the mammoth, or of any other unknown animals.

19. An account of birds, whether migrating or resident; the periods of their arrival and departure; their habitudes and uses.

20. Natural history of plants, and their kinds, whether noxious or useful, native or naturalized; time of introduction ; their progress, qualities, and diseases, and the best mode of extirpating those which are injurious.

21. Climate: the effect of clearing and cultivation on climate; meteorological observations; marriages and births; bills of mortality; longevity; histories of epidemic maladies; diseases among men and other animals; crimes, suicide.

22. The state of the learned professions; of morals; of religion, and of learning; the number of academies and schools, how supported, and the mode of instruction; charitable institutions; humane and literary associations; improvements in arts and sciences; inventors of