Description
The Devin-Adair Company, Published 1949. Hardcover, x, 242 pp.; 24 cm; eighth printing (January 1949) of the 1945 first edition; woodcut vignette on title page and a line diagram of a compost heap.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Good condition with a Poor dust jacket. Clay brown cloth boards with green lettering on front cover and spine. Mild shelf and edge wear, with some color loss along edges and at head and foot of spine, and light scuffing and spotting to both covers. Spine faded against the boards. Binding tight. Gift inscription in ink on front free endpaper, dated 1949, from a giver in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Tape residue at the corners of both pastedowns and free endpapers, with one patch across the inscription. Pages mildly toned, with occasional spotting and soiling. Otherwise unmarked. Illustrated dust jacket in tan and rust is retained for completeness rather than condition. Front panel is chipped along the spine edge with loss running through the author line and the publisher imprint at the foot. Back panel has heavy chipping and loss at the lower corner and along the bottom edge, and is grazed throughout by small insect holes. Moderate overall soiling and toning. Not price-clipped, front flap reading Eighth Printing, $3.00. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. The first American book devoted entirely to organic farming and composting, and the foundation of the Rodale publishing house. Rodale bought a worn-out Pennsylvania farm in 1940, applied Sir Albert Howard's Indore composting method, and launched Organic Gardening in 1942; Pay Dirt sets out the argument in book form. Howard supplies the introduction, dated Blackheath, London, 1 March 1945. Rodale builds his case against chemical fertilizers on the 1938 USDA finding that 61 percent of American cropland had been wholly or partly destroyed, then carries it into human health, animal disease, poison sprays and orchard practice. Bibliography of magazines and books at the rear. Contents: The Living Soil; Compost, Theory and Practice; The Dangers of Chemical Fertilizers; Health or Disease from Food; Good and Bad Farming Practices; Bibliography.