Having made his fortune as a goldsmith and silversmith, John Leacock (1729-1802) became one of Philadelphia's most energetic entrepreneurs in viticulture and a playwright and parodist in the cause of American Independence. Despite bearing the title, "Observations, Experiments etc. extracted from the Philosophical Transactions respecting farming, gardening, etc.," the notebook kept by the silversmith, viticulturist, and writer, John Leacock, is actually a combination of commonplace book, notebook, and receipt book. Consisting of 58 folio pages, the book contains a hodgepodge of entries reflecting Leacock's varied interests from 1768 through at least 1781, including not only material copied from other sources on viticulture, agriculture, engraving and etching, but medicinal and culinary receipts and two original poems, a "Song [of] the Stamp Act" and "A parody on the Tempest, by R. H. Esq." It also mentions diet drinks made by James Logan and Cadwallader Evans.

There are notes on the colonial history of Pennsylvania, with emphasis on William Penn and his family, the Society of Friends, James Logan, and the charters granted by Penn, with some notes on the study of languages and definition of words.