[Rarebooks] FS: Agrestis - 1863 Food & Class Reform in England

[Joslin Hall Rare Books, ABAA]

"Thoughts on Population and the Means of Comfortable Subsistence; with
Suggestions regarding an increased supply and lessened cost of food for
childhood and the industrial classes"  By Agrestis.  London; Longman,
Green, Longman, Roberts & Green: 1863.

A wide-ranging reformer’s view of what 1860s England needed to do to
improve the lives and productivity of the “laboring” classes, mostly
through efforts to improve their food and drink. Much time is spent on
milk and the problems with its production, adulteration and distribution
and how they might be improved. The author points out that not only are
milk and vegetables healthier to consume than meat, but that their
production takes fewer resources. He promotes brown bread over white and
the production of honey and cheese, and speaks at length about the use of
sewage as a fertilizer.

The author also explores social problems, and deplores what he terms
“suicidal” efforts by landlords and counties to remove farmers from their
lands and send them abroad so their large families will not be “burdens on
the parish rates”. He makes a plea for the education of the lower classes
and the removal of impediments to their marriage, and spends some time
describing and praising Britain’s overseas colonies in Australia. In an
addenda he mentions the need for pure water and recommends a system of
iron drinking fountains supplied by wells.

Hardcover.  5"x7.5", viii + 206 pages; errata slip; embossed green cloth
with gilt titles, as issued; covers lightly rubbed, a bit of wear and soil
here and there, but a very nice copy.  [06062]  $300.00

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