CADET DE VAUX (Antoine Alexis François). Instruction sur la préparation des tiges et racines du tabac, considérées comme engrais des plantations successives. Paris: D. Colas, 1811. -Booklet in-12, 172x103: (1 f.), 26 pp. Bradel grey-blue paper boards, smooth spine (20th century binding). First edition of this rare booklet on tobacco growing, written by pharmacist and chemist Antoine Alexis François Cadet de Vaux (1743-1828). In it, he combats the received wisdom that "tobacco impoverishes the soil and devours fertilizers". In the short introduction, he states: "This impoverishment of the soil is an error that must be destroyed; but it dates back so far! but it is so generally adopted! So I'm going to attack it with principles and analogies: experience, whose name routine usurps, will be opposed, but I'll replace it with experiments fortified by theory." (p. 1.) His presentation begins with a chapter entitled: "De la culture du tabac dans la Virginie." He goes on to describe how to remove fertilizer from tobacco stems and roots, and the various experiments he has carried out. A good copy, despite light wetness on the edges of the leaves.