323, lxiii, [4] pp. 10 copper-engraved plates, one folding. (4to) 28.7x22.5 cm. (11¼x8¾"), contemporary boards, rebacked in early binders cloth. First Edition.

The beginning of scientific agriculture, and the first serious attempt to apply chemistry to agriculture. The work is based on the series of annual lectures Davy had given before the board of agriculture from 1802. Davy deals with soils and their analysis, on the germination of seeds, on manures of vegetable and animal origin, on the improvement of lands by burning, and on irrigation. He discusses the extraction of sugar from various plants including the beet, sugar maple and grape. The important appendix on the nutritive quality of grasses is based on experiments by George Sinclair, the Duke of Bedford's gardener. -Fullmer, p. 70; Kress B6111. Early 19th-century bookplate of Walter Wade, the Dublin physician and botanist, an important writer and lecturer on Irish flora.