Rural Economy: Containing a Treatise on Pisé Building; As recommended by the Board of Agriculture in Great Britain, with Improvements by the Author; On Buildings in general; Particularly on the Arrangement of those belonging to Farms by Johnson, S.W. (Stephen William) - 1806

New Brunswick, N.J.: Printed by William Elliot, for I. Riley & Co., New York, 1806. Hardcover. Very Good. Title continued: "On the Culture of the Vine; and On Turnpike Roads." viii, 246, [6] p., 8 leaves of plates: table; 24 cm. Dark green 20th-century buckram with gilt-stamped spine title: "Pisé Building etc." Small binder's stamp on front fixed endpaper: "Bound by Alfred Smith & Co." Pages are untrimmed. Lacking first two leaves (title page and dedication to Thomas Jefferson). Early American Imprints, Series 2 (Shaw-Shoemaker), 10644. Hitchcock, 652. Contents: On Pisé Building -- On Mud-Walling -- On Farm Houses, Out-Offices, etc. -- On the Cultivation of the Vine -- On Turnpike Roads. The author, Stephen William Johnson, was a British attorney who came to the United States about 1795, settling in New Brunswick, N.J. He dedicated this book, the first American work on rammed-earth construction, to Thomas Jefferson. In the first section, he drew heavily from work published in the 1790s by Francois Cointeraux (1740-1830). This book helped to popularize the use of rammed earth in the United States. The group of pise de terre (rammed earth) buildings that make up the Borough House Plantation in South Carolina were built in 1821 following the techniques described in Johnson's book. Very scarce. Lacking first two leaves (title page and dedication to Thomas Jefferson); otherwise in Very Good Condition: old stain along lower edge of a few pages of text and 4 leaves of plates, where it just touches the lower edge of the illustration; otherwise, clean and tight.