Author: [BOSWELL (George)]:
Title: A Treatise on Watering Meadows: A Treatise on Watering Meadows: Wherein are shewn Some of the Many Advantages arising from That Mode of Practice, particularly on Coarse, Boggy, or Barren Lands; and the Method of performing the Work. Also Remarks on a late Pamphlet upon that Subject. Illustrated with Five Copper-Plates. Fourth Edition, With Many Additions.
Description: London: Printed for J. Debrett..., 1801. 8vo, 227 x 143 mms., pp. [viii], 134 [ 135 - 136], six plans on five folding engraved leaves at pages 34, 42, 55, 79, and 125, original wrappers, uncut; spine somewhat perished, and the binding a bit knocked about, but a good copy of a book as originally issued. Boswell first publshed this work himself in 1779, with a second edition appearing in 1790, followed by a third in 1792. The Monthly Review noticed the work in 1780: "One circumstance, which may possibly have regarded its progress [of making meadows] has been the want of some intelligent guide to direct the process.... Whatever information may be necessary in this business, seems to be amply supplied in the work before us. The Author, Mr. George Boswell, seems to be a sensible understanding man, who writes...with what he is really acquainted with. Whoever has land capable of being converted into water-meadows, though it were but a single acre, will do well to read the present treatise." In a recent monograph, "George Boswell of Puddletown (1735–1815): progressive farmer and author," Joseph Betty asserts, "George Boswell deserves to be remembered, not just as the author of an informative account of the techniques of watering meadows, but as a remarkable example of a practical farmer eager to embrace the latest farming advances, and as the respected correspondent and informant of some of the leading agricultural innovators of the time. His contributions to the early publications of the Bath and West of England Society and his experiments with ploughs, drills, threshing machines, new crops and improved methods make him of national rather than purely local importance."

Keywords: agriculture irrigation prose


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