RANDALL (Joseph). (Pursuant to the notice thrown out by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce.) The Construction and Extensive use of a Newly Invented Universal Seed-Furrow Plough (from time to time expos'd to the public view of abundance of people.) Upon an easy, steady principle, suited to all soils, stiff or light, level or ridg'd; and capable of sowing all sorts of seeds, in three rows, thicker or thinner, deeper or shallower, and the furrows or rows nearer or further asunder, just as the owner pleases. Also, by the invitation of the Society, the construction of a draining plough, upon a very simple principle. Both published with a view, that the ingenious may, within the Society's limited time, see what is wanting to put the finishing hand to a seed-furrow, and also to a draining plough. With the construction and use of a potatoe-drill machine, pointing out the benefit arising from this wholesale culture, to the land, and to some the live-stock. To which is added, an essay on the theory of a common plough, in order to find, by geometrical construction, the angles which give the share exact land and earth at all depths, and which ballance the motions of the plough.1764

London: Sold by John Wilkie, First and only edition, 4to (250 x 200 mm), xi, [2], xiii-xiv, [2], 12-97, [1]pp., (pp. xiv-xv misnumbered xiii-xiv), 7 engraved folding plates, occasional foxing or light browning, offsetting, plate 3 repaired at head (not affecting image), recent green cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Here Randall is continuing the Tullian debate. He highlights the advantages of the Tullian system, especially when carried out with the aid of the 'ingenious' implements he has designed. His seed-furrow plough, along the lines of Tull's drill, was criticised as being too complicated and his system of husbandry was described by a fellow agricultural writer John Wynne Baker as 'founded on the labours of others'. Provenance: The Lawes Agriculture Library, Rothamsted Research Institute. Fussell II, pp. 58-59; Rothamsted Library, p. 124.