A COMPOSITION FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES, WHICH IS NOT ONLY OF THE GREATEST VALUE AS, A MANUÉE, BUT IS ALSO EXTREMELY EFFICACIOUS IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FLY IN TURNIPS, SNAILS, SLUGS, ANTS, AND THE MAJORITY OF THOSE OTHER INSECTS WHICH ARE DETRI- MENTAL TO VEGETABLES, WHICH COMPOSITION I USUALLY, DENOMINATE PREPARED GYPSUM
Year: 1806

page_text: FLETCHER'S SPECIFICATION
.11
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FLETCHER, of Cecil Street, in the Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
send greeting.
5.
"
237
03
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
October, in the forty-sixth year of His reign, did give, and grant unto me,
the said John Fletcher, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His said,
Majesty's especial licence that I, the said John Fletcher, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A COMPOSITION FOR
AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES, WHICH IS NOT ONLY OF THE GREATEST VALUE AS, A MANUÉE,
BUT IS ALSO EXTREMELY EFFICACIOUS IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FLY IN TURNIPS,
SNAILS, SLUGS, ANTS, AND THE MAJORITY OF THOSE OTHER INSECTS WHICH ARE DETRI-
MENTAL TO VEGETABLES, WHICH COMPOSITION I USUALLY, DENOMINATE PREPARED
GYPSUM;
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Fletcher, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within three calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and
by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may and will more
fully end at large annear
יו

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Fletcher, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described and the
said composition is manufactured, composed, and produced in manner following,
that is to say,
Take any quantity of gypsum, selenite, or natural sulphate of lime, of which
that kind which is usually denominated "fibrous gypsum" is the best. Take
also any quantity of those oyster shells which are found between high and low
water marks on every part of the sea shore in the vicinity of oyster beds, and
which have, by the long continued.action of the water and attrition against the
sand, become deprived of their dark-coloured exterior crust; or in lieu thereof,
take fresh oyster shells, and clean off the dark-coloured exterior crust with a
rasp or other convenient instrument. Take also any quantity of common
heavy spar baroselenite, or natural sulphate of barytes, of which the purest
specimens are the best. Reduce each of the three before mentioned ingre.
dients separately to powder, by grinding, pounding, or any other ordinary or
convenient mode of pulverization. The powder of the two first mentioned
ingredients should be of such a degree of fineness as to pass through a wire
sieve, the meshes of which are from one twenty-fourth part of an inch to one-
twentieth part of an inch square; that is, of such dimensions that from four
hundred to five hundred and seventy-six of the meshes are contained in every
square inch of the wire-work, but it is better that the baroselinite be powdered
considerably finer. The meshes of the sieves generally used for this last men-
tioned powder are from one sixty-fourth part of an inch to one-fiftieth part of
an inch square, that is, of such dimensions that from two thousand five hun-
dred to four thousand and ninety-six of them are contained in every square inch
of the wire-work. Lastly, mix the three before-mentioned powders in the
following proportion, that is to say, to one thousand bushels of the pulverized
gypsum add one hundred bushels of the pulverized oyster shells, and five
hundred weight of the pulverized baroselenite, and the composition is made.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
first day of January, in the forty-seventh year of the reign of our
Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the Grace of God of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seven.
Sealed and delivered in the pre-
sence of
DAVID EVANS.
JOHN DELL.
J. FLETCHER. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of January, in
the forty-seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, the
said John Fletcher came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the forty-
fourth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of January, in the-year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seven.