Author: YOUNG (David), of Perth:
Title: National Improvements upon Agriculture, in Twenty-Seven Essays.
Description: Edinburgh: Printed for, and Sold by the Author, and by John Bell..., 1785. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo (in 4s), 217 x 137 mms., pp. xx, 403 [404 blank, 405 - 412 lists of subscribers], 3 engraved plates (one folding), contemporary polished sheepskin, gilt spine; lacks label, slight wear to joints, but a very good copy. Young (about whom little seems to be known) dedicates his book to the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Fisheries, Manufactures, and Improvements in Scotland. The essays cover historical, practical, and theoretical matters, including a retrospective of agricultural developments over the preceding four centuries. One essay takes up the methods of preventing emigration, while another consider whether large or small towns are better for the general good of the public. The Monthly Review commented, "We have seldom read a performance that assumes a more uninviting appearance than that now before us. The language is vulgar, and abounding in Scotticisms so as to be scarcely intelligible; the syle prolix and embarrassed, full of digressions that have no connection with the subject and repetitions without end. The Author is evidently unacquainted with the first principles of philosophy..." After several more lines of similar severity, the reviewer adds that "the intelligent reader, who can pass over its imperfections will discover that some fundamental principles of agriculture are laid down in this work, and frequently inculcated with great and laudable zeal...." Goldsmiths 12848.

Keywords: agriculture economics prose Scottish Enlightenment


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