The Code of Agriculture: Including Observations on Gardens, Orchards, Woods, and Plantations. First American Edition with Notes

Hartford: Printed for Hudson and Co., and Cooke and Hale, 1818. 8vo. 220 x 135 mm., [8 ½ x 5 ¼ inches]. viii, [3]-424 pp. Illustrated with eight full-page plates. Contemporary tree calf, red leather label; binding lightly rubbed, but in excellent condition. First American edition published immediately after the London edition which appeared the previous year. It was edited for the American farmer and agricultural scientists. It includes information on how a farmer is to determine whether to establish a farm on a particular parcel of land, how to study the soil, knowledge of the location of water supply, and very importantly, how to evaluate the size of (truncated) parcel of land and his ability to both cultivate and maintain it. In addition to agricultural methods there is a good deal of information on the economics of farming and how the business works regarding rents, labor, live stock etc. The Honorable John Sinclair was educated in the law in Edinburgh, a member of the Faculty of Advocates, and founder of the Board of Agriculture in 1793. He was the author of a number of important statistical studies on the efficacy of farming in the North of England and Scotland and an enlightened thinker on the relationship between farm workers and land owners. Sinclair was a frequent correspondent of Jefferson and a check of Sowerby's 5 volumes Catalogue of Library of Thomas Jefferson, there are a number of Sinclair's titles in the collection at the Library of Congress, but not this title. Rink 1198. Shaw & Shoemaker 45720. See biographical information in the Dictionary of National Biography. (Inventory #: 477)