General View of the Agriculture of the Country of Suffolk; drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. By the Secretary to the Board

Finely handcolored engraved frontis. map & two folding engraved plates (one with some foxing). [3]-15, 314 pp. 8vo, cont. polished half-cal & marbled boards, flat spine gilt, blue morocco lettering piece on spine. London: B. Macmillan for G. Nicol et al., 1797.

Second and fullest edition; a preliminary version had been published as a 92-page quarto in 1794. The first of six contributions by Young to the extraordinary series of county agricultural surveys inaugurated by Sir John Sinclair, when he became the first president of the new Board of Agriculture in 1793. Young in fact had misgivings about the vast project, and complained privately of Sinclair’s “incessant printing.”

In this work, Young found much to praise: the rich tenant farmers, the practice of hollow draining, the system of crop rotations, and the excellent roads. However, there is a long section near the end on the impoverished inhabitants of the county.

A very fine copy, lacking the half-title and, as usual, the final leaf with directions to the binder.