CHAPTAL (Jean-Antoine). Chemistry applied to agriculture. Pa - Lot 133

CHAPTAL (Jean-Antoine). Chemistry applied to agriculture. Paris, Mme Huzard, 1823. 2 volumes in-8, contemporary green half-basane. (2) ff., VI, LVI, 298 pp.; (2) ff., 484 pp. Slight rubbing to spines, scattered foxing. First edition of this landmark treatise in which Chaptal systematically applies the principles of chemistry to all agricultural practices, extending the work that had already revolutionized winemaking in L'Art de faire le vin. The author studies the chemical composition of soils, fertilizers and soil improvers, plant nutrition, plant physiology and crop rotation, as well as ways of improving yields through a better understanding of chemical phenomena. The second volume contains chapters on food and drink (the preservation of animal and vegetable substances, milk and its products, fermentation, distillation, the means of preparing healthy drinks for country people, the cultivation of woad and the extraction of its indigo, the cultivation of beet and the extraction of its sugar...).