MARSHALL [William]. Minutes of Agriculture, Made on A Farm of 300 Acres of Various Soils, Near Croydon, Surrey. To Which is Added, a Digest, Wherein The Minutes are Systemized and Amplified; and Elucidated by Drawings of New Implements, a Farm-Yard, &c. The Whole being published as A Sketch of the Actual Business of a Farm; As Hints to the Inexperienced Agriculturist; As A Check to the Present False Spirit of Farming; And as an Overture to Scientific Agriculture.1778

London: Printed for J. Dodsley, First edition, thick 4to (230 x 170 mm), [314], 151, [1]pp., contemporary interleaved throughout, 4 engraved plates to rear, offset and a little foxed, contemporary calf, rubbed, neatly rebacked, contrasting spine leather labels, gilt lettered. William Marshall (1745-1818) a native of Yorkshire, he was for some years in the West Indies, as a planter, returned about 1775, and took a farm in Surrey. These Minutes were the result of his resolve to be his own farm manger and learn from his mistakes, "to learn to-morrow's management from to-day's experience and next year's process from this year's miscarriages, so he had to keep a written account of his proceedings; and naturally enough when he had it he found that he wanted to publish it."—Fussell. Provenance: Early ownership signature in ink to head of title "George Birch" and "James A. Caird 1858". Rothamsted, p.110; Perkins, 1140; Fussell II, p.114-116.