"John Beale Bordley (1727-1804) first had 'Necessaries' printed in 1776 as a seventeen-page pamphlet. More than twenty years later, in 1799, he revised his work and reprinted it as a chapter in 'Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs'--a handsome volume of thirty-two chapters, complete with plates and illustrations, comprising more than 600 pages. 'Necessaries' published a third time in 1801, when 'Essays and Notes' saw a corrected and expanded--to thirty-nine chapters--edition, as the author neared the end of his life. With its history spanning Colonial, Revolutionary, and early national America, Bordley's work provides an advantageous window from which to view some of early America's central debates as they played out on the ground. That 'Necessaries' has been much neglected by modern scholars until now is unfortunate. It is an intrinsically interesting pamphlet. Uncovering its historical contexts enriches our understanding of it as well as of its author and his enlightened, revolutionary, and increasingly republican times."--Back cover.