A Six Months Tour Through the North of England, Containing an Account of the State of Agriculture Manufactures and population in Several Counties.. by Young, Arthur, 1741-1820 - 1770

London: For W. Strahan and W. Nicholl, 1770. First Edition. Octavo. 4 volume set. 28 engraved plates (14 folding) and six folding printed tables. Arthur Young (1741-1820) was the most important agricultural writer of the 18th Century. His careful detailed notes with exact statistical notes were considered by those with vast agricultural holdings as well as the new tools used in America. He traveled over 2500 miles to the northern boundary of the country collecting statistical data from farms of all sizes. Young includes statistics regarding crop rotations, the implements used, cost of labor and provisions, size of farms, number of men, oxen, and horses employed. He does not, however, provide detailed analysis, allowing farmers to use the information for their own individual situations. "The best way of learning about farming was to go out into the countryside and see how it was done by the men who were doing it. A record of the different methods used in various parts of the country and of their practical results in yields, in cash, and in profit, could not but be helpful to any working farmer who would take the trouble to read about them and compare them with his own." An Edinburgh edition appeared in 1771 though it has the date 1770. It was Arthur Young that George Washington read and applied his principles of agriculture while most early farmers in the Colonial period were careless who when their soils were depleted, they simply moved further to western Virginia. Bound in contemporary calf, raised bands, red and black contrasting morocco spine labels gilt, compartments stamped in gilt, Ex-Library (Augsburg College), on endpaper with bookplate of William Lynn Smart.; generally a very good copy. [ESTC T78100].