Sole edition of this treatise on construction with one of the earliest dissertations on American wine making and vine planting.
A vine planter himself, Johnson was the first person to plant the Alexander grape in New Jersey. This work is largely devoted to the hybrid varietals and how best to vinify them. The forty-three page section on wine is particularly important as Johnson draws on local sources whom he identifies. The vignerons in this case include Miles Smith in New Jersey, and Peter LeGaux at Mount Joy, Spring Mills (north of Philadelphia) who produced the first post-revolutionary vintage of wine in 1793 and on whose published works Johnson drew. A Mr Garnett, Mr Anthill, and Mr Klady are also mentioned.
Johnson was a correspondent of Thomas Jefferson and, like many other works published during his presidency, Rural Economy … is dedicated to him. Jefferson famously loved wine and so the dedication would’ve been welcome.
Pisé, or rammed earth, building is a method of construction that makes use of compacted soil to form load bearing walls for structures. Johnson was the major exponent of this method of construction in the United States and this work was his opus on the subject. One of the plates in the book illustrates a building that was constructed by Johnson using this method.
Felcone, 813; Hitchcock, 652; O’Neal, Jefferson’s Fine Arts Library, 58; Rink, 2508; Westrich, S., New Jersey Wine … (Charleston, 2012).
