Wil Haggles find of RDC Evans book on the construction of cricket squares is in actual fact an interesting piece. There are infact three time periods to look for for sports turf construction books.
The first period for this type of book was just before the Great War, but a word of warning books from this period can be pricy.
The next period is the 1950’s, when the early books got regurgitated but the pictures were all re done for the 1950’s, which is the time frame for most collectors today, and there are some riveting examples.
The last period is the 1970’s to 1980’s,again the wording is relatively the same but with later pictures. One of the best books to find in the last period is The ABC of Turf by Eskritt
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I have been collecting books for years, one of my best pass times in filching though old book shops, you never know what falls out of the shelves.
A good bedtime read is Nile C Brady’s, Ninth edition, On Soils and Soil Science guaranteed to put you to sleep by the second chapter!
Some of the lesser known titles are better as they have many period adverts in the rear, which in the day paid for the publishing of the book, but today gives much insight to forgotten parts of the Horticultural industry.
We house heading on for a thousand titles of books from all the periods from the USA to Colonial countries, to Great Britain.
An obscure book but with much insight would be The French Garden, A Diary & Manual of Intensive Cultivation dated 1908 (This is the use of glass bell jar culture) Very interesting!
Regards
The book worm
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