1830 · Cincinnati, (OH)
Cincinnati, (OH): Robinson and Fairbank, 1830. First edition. 12mo. xii, [13]-367 pp. Three wood engraved plates, one folding, two engraved by W. Woodruff, a Philadelphia engraver who moved to Cincinnati after 1824 (Stauffer). Includes the chapter "Blooded Horses in the West," by Daniel Gano, pp. 345-362, the first history of the thoroughbred in Kentucky and Ohio; also includes "The Horse" (pp. 70-104), "Diseases of Animals" (pp. 320-339), illustrated with a folding plate showing the anatomy of a horse, and "The Grape and Manufacture of Wine" (pp. 292-309), among many sections. A second edition was published in 1832 under the title "The Farmer's Guide and Western Agriculturalist." Sabin 102962 ("4 plates, 3 folding"). American Imprints 5411. Henderson "Early American Sport," p. 41. Rink "Technical Americana" 1360. Morgan "Ohio Imprints" 2086. Not in Thomson or Coleman. NUC ("4 plates, part folding"). Text block foxed, but an attractive copy in a lovely western binding. Contemporary flame calf, spine richly gilt with title and ornaments, all edges yellow. (#6091). OCLC presently records 37 institutions holding a copy of "The Western Agriculturist" and we have found several others from other sources. Surveying those libraries (31 responses), we found multiple copies in several for a total of 35, but twelve copies were reported as being defective (i.e., lacking plates or portions of plates or text), nine copies were reported as actually being either microfilm versions or photocopies, and seven others were reported to be ghosts (i.e., the institution's copy was either lost or had never actually been in the collection). Of the seven copies reported as being complete, four reported four plates, a frontispiece memorializing the Hamilton County Public Library, plates of an Improved Durham Short Horn cow, the horse "Consul Cox's Arab," and a plate illustrating the anatomy of the horse (Library of Congess, Kentucky, Transylvania, Cincinnati/Hamilton County Public) and three (Columbia, Western Reserve, Cincinnati/Hamilton County Public) reported three plates, the Durham cow and anatomy plates as described above and a frontispiece portrait of the horse Wyandot. This choice copy, in a lovely contemporary binding, collates as the second version, with the three plates bound in at the same pages as the other three copies reported. Responses from the various holding institutions will be included with the book, if requested.
(Inventory #: 59120)