The American Gardener (Cambridge Library Collection - Botany and Horticulture) - Softcover

Cobbett, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1108077668 ISBN 13: 9781108077668

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015

Synopsis

The political writer William Cobbett (1763-1835) was also a farmer 'bred at the plough's tail', who took a keen and observant interest in agriculture and gardening throughout his life. (His Cottage Economy and Rural Rides, among other works, are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.) In 1792 he left England, where his views made him very unpopular, for France and then America, where he lived until 1800; in 1817 he fled to America again, leasing a farm on Long Island for two years. This 1821 book is written in Cobbett's characteristically robust style: his purpose is 'to cause the art of gardening to be better understood and practised than it now is in America'. Cobbett starts by explaining how to establish a garden, discusses soil improvement and the building of hot-beds and greenhouses, and gives instruction on the propagation and cultivation of vegetables, fruit trees, and ornamental plants.

About this title

Book Description

This 1821 book is written in William Cobbett's characteristically robust style: he starts by explaining how to establish a garden, discusses soil improvement and the building of hot-beds and greenhouses, and gives instruction on the propagation and cultivation of vegetables, fruit trees, and ornamental plants.

From the Inside Flap

Back in print after 150 years
Out of print since 1856, "The American Gardener is perhaps the first classic work of American gardening literature. In it, William Cobbett, Victorian England's greatest and most gifted journalist, draws upon his experiences during a two-year exile on a Long Island, New York, farm to lay out the rudiments of gardening for American farmers and, ultimately, to tailor principles developed in wet, drippy, weed-prone British gardens to their fine, sun-drenched counterparts in America. Full of practical knowledge memorably imparted with Cobbett's gift for the indelible phrase, "The American Gardener offers advice still useful today on all aspects of gardening, with special attention to those plants successful in the New World, including the artichoke ("indeed, a thistle upon a gigantic scale") and the increasingly ubiquitous potato. Rediscovered 180 years after its composition, "The American Gardener is evidence of a great mind and pen at work in the earliest days of American gardens.
This Modern Library edition is published with a new Introduction by Verlyn Klinkenborg, a "New York Times editorialist and the author of "The Rural Life, "Making Hay, and "The Last Fine Time.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1108077668
• ISBN 13: 9781108077668
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 268