The Utility of Agricultural Knowledge To The Sons of the Landed Proprietors of England, and To Young Men Intended for Estate-Agents:

Book. Illustrated by What Has Taken Place in Scotland. With an Account of an Institution Formed for Agricultural Pupils in Oxfordshire. By A Scotch Farmer, and Land-Agent, Resident in That County. London: J. Harding, 1809. 8vo, removed. Pp. 27, (1). A very good copy. First edition of one of Loudon's scarcest publications. His enthusiasm for Scottish farming methods caused Loudon to open a residential school for hands-on training of young gentry, on a farm 18 miles from Oxford. In the present proposal, Loudon argues for the need for such a school and describes (truncated) in some detail the plan by which it is to be run. Two appendices offer hints on buying and selling land. It was just previous to this that Loudon had endured the bout of rheumatic fever that affected him for life, severely curtailing his more active duties. In a poignant passage, he alludes to the disease and acknowledges he has "incurred deformity and lameness." The school was a great financial success, but in 1812 Loudon abruptly ceased operation. In the same year he published an account of his exerience in Observations of Laying Out Farms, In the Scotch Style, and with his wife embarked on an extensive agricultural tour of the continent. Perkins Catalogue 1056; R.A.S. Catalogue, p. 198. No copy of this work on RLIN.. (Inventory #: 1270)