A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF HUSBANDRY: WHEREIN ARE CONTAINED, MANY USEFUL AND VALUABLE EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE NEW HUSBANDRY, Collected during a Series of Years, by the Celebrated M. Duhamel du Monceau, Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, Fellow of the Royal Society, London, etc. Also the most approved Practice of the best English Farmers in the Old Method of Husbandry. With Copper-Plates of several new and useful Instruments.

FIRST EDITION. 4to. 8.75 x 10.35 inches. xxiv + 491 pp.+ [1] + [8] index and publisher's advertisements. Title page in red and black. Bound in original half calf over marbled boards; spine partly rebacked head and tail, providing new hinges, in compartments with raised bands and gilt lines, preserving original contrasting morocco title label, gilt. The remaining hinges are cracked but sound; extremities a little worn and occasional foxing, otherwise a very good copy. Ink library press mark at top right edge of title. 1944 Cambridge signature on first free endpaper. Illustrated by 6 copper engraved plates, including 4 folding and by one folding table. Decorated by head and tailpiece vignettes and by initials. A composite work, featuring a translation of the Traité de la Culture des Terres (Paris, 1750, augmented six volume edition, 1753-61) by Duhamel du Monceau, which also included the lengthy observations sent to him by correspondents. John Mills, FRS (c.1717-after 1786), who also translated several other titles on agriculture, included his own observations and commentary. Duhamel du Monceau (1700-82), physician, botanist, and naval engineer, expanded his father's estate into a model farm, contributed many research papers on crop growth and physiology and developed an interest in meteorology (see his Observations on the Weather at the end). The work is in four parts: The general principles of husbandry, following the old husbandry, Wheat culture according to the new husbandry with many experimental results, The new husbandry as applied to other crops (including a section on vine culture and vineyards in England), and a fourth part on on the implements of the new husbandry. Du Monceau subtitled his expanded edition, 'suivant les principes de M. Tull,' and, in effect, his work, through Mills his intermediary, reintroduced the principles of Tull's cultivation back into its homeland. (The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry by Jethro Tull (1674-1741) was first published in 1731). The six copperplates illustrate a good selection of the ploughs, drills, and hoes required for Tullian husbandry, as adapted by Duhamel and other French agriculturists, and also including the earlier English drill-plough of John Worlidge. Mills dedicated the volume to Jacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone (1694-1761), first president of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (later Royal Society of Arts) and to other officers of the first public body in Britain to offer sponsorship and support for agricultural improvement. AGRICULTURE HUSBANDRY AGRICULTURE- HUSBANDRY FRENCH 18TH CENTURY AGRICULTURE.…