Report of the Committee of the Board of Agriculture, appointed to extract Information from the Country Reports, and other Authorities, concerning the Culture and Use of Potatoes

Seven engraved plates (several folding). viii, 177 pp. Large 4to, early 19th-cent. half-calf & marbled boards (some scuffing), flat spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: Printed by W. Bulmer for G. Nicol et al., 1795. First edition of the Board of Agriculture's famous report on the potato. During the final four decades of the 18th century Britain experienced a number of corn harvest failures with a resulting rise in the price of wheat. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, the Board of Agriculture, and various private individuals advocated the adoption of the potato as a substitute for wheat, and great efforts were made to popularize the cultivation of this crop. "This work, illustrated with seven plates, is outstanding for its series of well-informed articles on the subject concerned. Potatoes are here considered for their use in feeding cattle, and also as a food for human consumption."-Henrey, II, pp. 613-14 & no. 461. Nice copy, lacking leaf with table of contents (clearly never bound in). Inscribed on the half-title: "Presented by Joseph Sabine Esq. 22d February 1820." Sabine (1770-1837), natural historian and F.R.S., was one of the original fellows of the Linnean Society, honorary secretary of the Horticultural Society, and active in the work of the Zoological Society. Stamp of the Lawes Agricultural Trust on front and rear paste-downs.