An Essay on Ways and Means for Inclosing, Fallowing, Planting, &c. Scotland; And that in Sixteen Years at farthest. By a Lover of his Country.

FIRST EDITION, uniformly a little toned and occasionally spotted, folding plate with a small marginal tear, no loss; pp. lii, [4], 355 (i.e. 335), [1, errata], 1 folding plate; contemporary full panelled calf, alternately speckled and plain, spine on raised bands, red label; scratch to the upper cover, corners and spine ends bumped with some small loss to the foot of the spine, withal an attractive copy. As Scottish husbandry was dominated by reliably unchanging methods and hereditary wisdom, meaning that Scottish agricultural writing was relatively sparse until the 1720s. In this decade various farming boards and co-operatives were established on both a national and a local level, and these groups began to communicate with one another and the wider agricultural world. Here, in one of the earliest works on this topic, William Mackintosh of Borlum 'recommends that the recently convened Honourable Society in Flax should interest itself in farming, encourage enclosure, supply proper flax seed to growers and demonstrate correct methods of cultivation growers and demonstrate correct methods of cultivation. Its other object of improving the fisheries would, he thought be achieved by creating a demand for fish by making the people prosperous through agriculture. He recommended leases and the abolition of feudal dues and the importation of hedgers and ploughmen from England to teach the Scottish workers' (Fussell and Fyrth). An attractive copy of this early treatise. See: G. E. Fussell and H. Fyrth, 'Eighteenth-century Scottish Agriultural Writings.' History, vol. 35, no. 123/124, 1950, pp. 4963. (ESTC: T33425; Gilbert A13).…