Rare complete set of the enlarged edition of a pioneering work in the field of agriculture, which helped reform agricultural practices in France. The work especially discusses methods for improving the soil's fertility, including better ways to hoe. The folding plates illustrate the concepts in more detail. Complete sets are quite rare on the market, and especially the final volume is usually missing.
The work is an adaptation of Jethro Tull's (1680-1740) famous Horse-hoeing husbandry (1733), which transformed agriculture in England and Scotland, as it offered two new major innovations: horse-hoeing and the use of seed drills. The polymath Henri Louis Duhamel de Monceau (1700-1782) read it and saw its effects during a trip to England, which inspired him to publish a French version. His work "was an exposition rather than a translation, of Tull's writings. Moreover, he adapted Tull's system to France based on his own wide reading in French agronomy and on original experiments. Although a supporter and admirer of Tull's system, he was not a slavish disciple: not only was he critical of Tull's experiments and ideas, but he refused to accept one of Tull's central principles, a doctrinaire rejection of the use of manures" (DSB).
Duhamel published the first two volumes of his work in 1751 and 1752. However, these volumes were revised when he wrote the supplements after undertaking further research. As such, the first two volumes are here present in the second edition, but the other four are first editions. Duhamel's adaptation of Tull's work can be found in the first volume. The other five contain clarifications, additions, and case histories from farmers who successfully adapted the new system.
The spines are slightly discoloured, the boards are slightly rubbed, the corners of the third volume are bumped, the edges and corners of the boards of some of the volumes are somewhat scuffed. The front pastedown is either slightly damaged or patched in each volume, likely from a removed bookplate, some of the leaves are slightly foxed, the outer margin of page lxxxviii in volume 1 has been torn off, but is still present, a water stain on the first few leaves of volume 2. Otherwise in good condition. DSB IV, 223-225; Kress 5258; Quérard II, p. 656; not in De Ganay.