DEANE, Samuel.

£950 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The New-England Farmer; or, Georgical Dictionary: First edition of the earliest agricultural encyclopaedia written and printed in America. This synthesis of English and American practices reflects the increased economic significance of agriculture following the Revolutionary War and was "no mere compendium... but was based on Deane's own experiences" (Hindle, p. 358). The Reverend Samuel Deane (1733-1814) conducted scientific and agricultural experiments at Pitchwood Hill, his farm in Goram, Maine. He rejected his election to the Massachusetts US Constitutional Convention in 1788, as his true interests lay in scientific agriculture. The nascent Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which Deane was a chartered member, encouraged him to publish The New-England Farmer. Furthermore, Deane considered that with "spirited attention to husbandry and manufactures" the newly independent United States "might reasonably hope ere long to become an opulent, respectable and very powerful nation" (pp. 7-8).

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