A GENERAL fatisfaction has been expreffed, not only by the Members, but by the Publick at large, at the annual appearance of a Volume of the Tranfactions of this Society; and the utility of such a publication has been fully evinced by the honorable and large increase of members elected within the three last years; a carcumftance highly pleafing to every wellwisher to the Arts, the Manufactures, and Commerce of thefe kingdoms, and which may reasonably be confidered as arifing, in fome degree, from the circulation of thefe volumes, whereby the nature of the inftitution has become more generally known, and the whole nation informed of their proceedings, and acquainted with the general utility arifing from their labours, which are, and, agreeably to the principles of the Society, ever have been exerted in encouraging and promoting those inventions that tend to the improvement of the useful Arts. The following sheets will be found to contain, under the head of Agriculture, accounts of planting Timber, efpecially in the northern part of the island, in such great numbers as reflect the highest honour on the owner of the foil, and will ferve, it is hoped, to ftimulate the poffeffors of large tracts of barren and uncultivated lands to adopt the same practice, by which not only their eftates will in time become. much more valuable, but will in a few years improve in beauty, and render the inhabitants more comfortable and happy; under this head are also inferted some judicious obfervations on the culture of different kinds of Wheat, and of the Howard or Clustered Potatoe, whofe great increase is well known, and which has been long talked of for feeding Hogs, &c. but no decifive experiments on the excellency of this fpecies for fuch purpose has till now publicly appeared. In the clafs of Polite Arts, the account given of the pictures which ornament the room in which the meetings of the Society are held, it is prefumed, will prove entertaining and inftructive, and ferve at the fame time to make known the eminent. abilities of the Artist who executed them, and prove that the finer Arts ftill continue objects of the attention and encouragement of the Society. The far greater part of the account now printed, is extracted from a work published by Mr. Barry, at the time of the exhibitions; but those parts which do not immediately relate to the subject of the several Pictures are omitted, and a fhort hiftorical account of the procedings of the Society on the subject of the Paintings introduced in its ftead. Under the head of Manufactures will appear a Letter on the preparing Cloth from the the stalks or binds of Hops, which was written to the Society many years fince, in confequence of a premium then offered on that fubject. When it is recollected what vast quantities of ftalks or binds of Hops are every year cut down and thrown on dunghills, it furely merits the attention of the Society in particular, and of the publick at large, to discover if poffible a mode of applying them advantageoufly to use in fome manufactures of this country; and it has been judged proper to reftore in another form the premium formerly offered for making cloth from them, in hopes they may be employed in that manner: but if that should fail, the hint given of converting them to use, may perhaps lead ingenious men to turn their thoughts to the discovery of fome other purposes, to which they may be more adapted. In the clafs of Mechanicks is inferted an account and print of a Crane, which, under |