James Hutton's 'Elements of Agriculture' (1797)

the Science and Art of Farming
Erscheinungsjahr 2027
ISBN: 978-1-914967-41-2
Verlag: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 592 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

This landmark edition recovers Hutton's lost agricultural vision in which the practice of farming is informed by the latest scientific insights with the potential to transform Scotland's rural landscape, society and economy.

James Hutton, author of Theory of the Earth and a leading figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, is usually remembered as the 'Founder of Modern Geology.' Yet his unpublished Elements of Agriculture reveals a wider intellectual project, rooted in farming, natural philosophy and the improvement of land and society.

Transcribed and edited by Alan Werritty, this major late work reveals Hutton agricultural thinking in terms of soil, climate, plant propagation, crop succession and rural economy, and asking how practical husbandry might be placed on firmer theoretical foundations. Drawing on his travels in East Anglia and the Flanders, followed by a decade transforming the family farm, Hutton connects field observation with broader questions about nature and practical knowledge. In so doing he provides a valuable contribution to the debates on agricultural improvement in eighteenth-century Scotland.

His most original contribution was the concept of degree days - the number of days above a threshold temperature needed to bring a crop to fruition - a concept still used in agronomy. Read alongside writers such as Arthur Young, John Sinclair and Lord Kames, Hutton's Elements of Agriculture opens a fresh route into Enlightenment science, environmental history, agricultural history and the culture of 'improvement' in eighteenth-century Scotland.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Werritty, Alan

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Sachkultur, Materielle Kultur
• Naturwissenschaften Agrarwissenschaften Tierhaltung
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften: Ernährung & Gesellschaft
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Ökotrophologie (Ernährungs- und Haushaltswissenschaften)
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik

Über Autor(innen)

Werritty, Alan
ALAN WERRITTY is Professor Emeritus of Physical Geography at the University of Dundee and former Research Director of the UNESCO Centre for Water Law, Policy and Science. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, the British Society for Geomorphology and former Vice President of the Royal Geographical Society. He has published extensively on how rivers shape the physical landscape and how, via flooding, they impact on human society. His interest in the history of science is currently focused on James Hutton.