Early American farming and gardening literature: “Adapted to the climates and seasons of the United States”l
Prior to the nineteenth century Americans wrote very little about farming and gardening. For general husbandry early colonial settlers relied primarily on traditional farming lore and practices. To aid them in concocting their herbal remedies seventeenth-century settlers depended on the English works of John Gerard, John Parkinson, and Nicholas Culpeper. During the eighteenth century a few English farming manuals, by the prolific Richard Bradley, and William Ellis, as well as various editions of the works of such noted gardening authorities as Philip Miller and John Abercrombie found their way to the colonies.