Switzer, Stephen, 1682?-.1745. 
A compendious, but more particular method, than has 
ever yet been published, for the raising Italian brocoli, 
Spanish cardoon, celeriac, fenochi, and other foreign 
kitchen vegetables; so as to make them dishes more gener¬ 
ally used than hitherto they have been. As also a more au- 
thentick account of the la lucerne, St. Foyne, clover, and 
other grass seeds, for the improvement of land, than is at 
present to be found in any books of husbandry, or gardening 
... To which is added, the new, but very useful method of 
burning of clay, for the improvement of land ... As also, 
an appendix, wherein is contained a further and full ac¬ 
count of the la lucerne ... By S. S. euthor of the Practi¬ 
cal fruit and kitchen gardener, &c, London, Printed by 
S, A. and sold by T. Astley [etc., 1728?] xvi, 46 p. 
(Dept. Agr.) 
There is some uncertainty about the date of 
this 1st ed. No date appears on the t.-p. of the 
Dept. Agr, copy, which was offered by Vfheldon & 
Wesley, Cat. 2 (1921), no.990, with the date 
1727 supplied; but the text (p.5) mentions the 
author’s "Practical Kitchen Gardiner" (1727) as 
"sometime since published." Although there is no 
break in the numbering of the pages of the pref¬ 
ace and contents, the preface stops abruptly in 
the middle of a sentence, making one wonder wheth¬ 
er more might have been intended, including a 
date. There may have been an earlier issue than 
the Dept. Agr. copy since its Appendix refers to 
those gentlemen who may have bought the book be¬ 
fore the Appendix came out. The first nine para¬ 
graphs of this earlier preface, however, make up 
the preface of the 6th ed., 1735, which is dated 
April, 1728. Moreover, Johnson, p.l82, and the 
Diet. Nat. Biog., 55:^242, both give 1728 as date 
of 1st ed. R.P. Brotherston, writing in Card. 
Chron. Ill, 58:186-187 (1915), evidently accepts 
that year, as he speaks of Switzer’s having es¬ 
tablished himself in 1728 as a seedsman in West¬ 
minster Hall, of his having produced "The Practi¬ 
cal Kitchen Gardiner" in the previous year, and 
of his issuing a pamphlet [A compendious, but m.ore 
particular method] as an appendix to this volume 
"after starting business." (JSB) 
