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Directions left by a Gentleman to his Sonns: for the Improvement of barren and heathy Land, in England and Wales.

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First and only edition of Gabriel Reeve’s plagiarism of Sir Richard Weston’s Discours of Husbandrie used in Brabant and Flanders, which provided the first description in English of crop rotation using turnips and clover and was amongst the first books in English devoted to soil conservation.

‘Sir Richard’s account of Flemish husbandry was written about 1645, and addressed to his sons from abroad. This was circulated in manuscript, and there is no evidence that it was printed before 1650, when an imperfect copy was published by Samuel Hartlib, with a dedication to the council of state. Hartlib did not at this time know who the author was. The account is the first English description of the use of a farming rotation including turnips and clover to obtain maximum output from heathlands formerly considered of little agricultural value. Although it is not known to what extent Sir Richard emulated on his own estates what he saw in Flanders, he described a farming system that was to become the cornerstone of the English ‘agricultural revolution’ a century later’ (ODNB).

The advice Reeve (or rather, Weston) imparts is based on thirty years of experience in Brabant and Flanders. One must first ‘devonshire’ the land (an unfamiliar verb meaning to pare off and burn the turf and weeds), then add lime, plough, harrow, and plant, for example, flax seed, weed, water, dry, ‘swingle’ (flail) and beat the flax, and for labour of less than £10 you have a crop worth £40. Calculations follow for profits for the second to fifth year. As an afterthought there are instructions for planting walnuts. The dedication is signed Gabriel Reeve and dated from Hackney, 14 April 1670.

ESTC R33979; Wing R 671.