The Chemistry of Soils and Fertilizers [Howard B. Grubb's copy]

Easton, Pa.: The Chemical Publishing Company, 1899. Illustrated with just a few line drawings in the text, 12mo, pp x, 277 + 3 page publisher's catalogue, very clean internally but becoming a little weak at the inner margins, blue cloth just slightly worn. A duplicate from East malling Research Station with their stamp on the front endpaper and a shelf number on the spine. SCARCE. [Presented to the library by Mr N.H. Grubb, and with the earlier signayure of Howard B. Grubb. Could this be Howard B. Dunnington-Grubb, "the father of landscape architecture in Canada" ? Almost certainly, as the "Dunnington" was only added after his marriage. Born in 1881, he emigrated from Yorkshire, date unknown, but had earned his Agriculture degree from Cornell University by 1908. This would have made him 18 by the publication date of this book. Determined to land a job with Thomas A. Mawson, one of England’s best known landscape architects, he worked his way back to England on a cattle boat. Within two years he was in charge of the London office and, with Mawson, fortuitously attended a lecture given by a "rising lady landscape architect", Lorrie Alfreda Dunington. The two married, combined their surnames and emigrated to Canada where, after a cross-Canada honeymoon, they opened a Toronto office, H.B. & L.A. Dunington-Grubb, Landscape Architects. The Dunington-Grubbs created some of the most notable gardens of the period, designing scores of private estates (Parkwood in Oshawa, Uplands and Caruthers Estates in Toronto), major residential projects (Garden Court Apartments and Lawrence Park in Toronto), and working on legendary public gardens (Hamilton’s Gage Park and McMaster University’s Entrance Park and Sunken Garden.) Their style, said fellow CSLA founder Humphrey Carver, was classic and aristocratic, with broad terraces and steps, topiary hedges, sculptures, vistas, and an Art Deco sensibility.]. First Edition. Cloth. Good.