Rural Oeconomy: or, Essays on the practical parts of Husbandry... To which is added, the Rural Socrates: being memoirs of a Country Philosopher.

London: Printed for T. Becket,, 1770. First edition of the agricultural reformer's second book, including the first appearance in English of Hans Casper Hirzel's work on farming, in Young's translation. Hirzel's Die Wirthschaft eines philosophischen Bauers was published in Berne in 1761 and describes the agriculture of a Swiss farmer popularly known as Kliogg, many of whose practices and principles resembled Young's. "Arthur Young, like Jethro Tull, was a great agricultural reformer whose influence reached far beyond his own country. England, however, with its increased acreage of cultivated land resulting from the enclosure system, and the consequent rise of great landowners and farmers in the eighteenth century, especially welcomed innovations in agricultural methods. Arthur Young applied statistical methods to the study of agriculture, investigating both the statistics of production and the costs of this particular industry. He obtained his information from a series of extensive tours in England, Ireland and France, where he studied the state of agriculture at first hand. These journeys resulted in the publication of about two hundred and fifty books and pamphlets setting out his ideas and theories" (PMM). Octavo (202 x 126 mm). Contemporary calf, twin red and green morocco labels, leather shelflabel at foot, red speckled edges. Light rubbing, scattered light foxing: an attractive copy. Einaudi 6095; ESTC T131650; Goldsmiths' 10638; Higgs 4872; Kress 6766; Perkins 1995; Rothamsted, p. 163.