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John Mills (c. 1717 – c. 1794) was an English writer on agriculture, translator and editor.〔John Goldworth Alger (1836–1907) and Anne P. Baker. "Mills, John (c. 1717-1786x1796), writer on agriculture". in: ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.'' 1894/2004〕 Mills and Gottfried Sellius are known for being the first to prepare a French edition of Ephraim Chambers's ''Cyclopaedia'' for publication in 1745,〔John Lough: ''The Encyclopédie''. Slatkine 1971/1989, ISBN 9782051010467, p. 9 ()〕 which eventually resulted in the ''Encyclopédie'' published in France between 1751 and 1772. As writer on agriculture, Mills is credited for publishing the earliest complete treatise on all branches of agriculture.〔John Donaldson. "(John Mills, F.R.S. )". in: ''Agricultural Biography'', 1854, p. 51〕 His chief work, ''A New System of Practical Husbandry,'' in 5 volumes, appeared in 1767. It combines the results of the experience and observations of such writers as Evelyn, Duhamel, John Worlidge, and Jethro Tull, and was highly commended. Mills was a warm advocate of small farms. == Biography == John Mills was a person of considerable eminence in the 18th century, though little definite is known because no record exists of his life.〔〔William White (1889) ''Notes and Queries.'' p. 456〕 From his manner of expression, it is possible he may have lived his early life in foreign countries along time,〔 possibly in France, but he was not born there.〔 In 1741 he was staying in London, where he had made preparations to go to Jamaica. He cancelled those plans because, as he wrote "having met with something more advantageous which engages me to stay in England"〔Mills (1741), cited ''Dix-huitième siècle.'' Nr. 1-2, 1969. p. 274: And cited in John Lough (1971)〕 Mills married a French women, and they had two children; one baptised in Paris on 27 April 1742 and another born in May 1743.〔 In 1743 Mills was in Paris for the purpose of bringing out, in concert with Gottfried Sellius, a German historian, a French edition of Ephraim Chambers's ''Cyclopaedia;'' but Lebreton, the printer commissioned by him to manage the undertaking, cheated him out of the subscription money, assaulted him, and ultimately obtained a license in his own name. This was the origin of the famous ''Encyclopédie.'' Mills, unable to obtain redress, returned to England.〔 In 1755 Mills had started translation ''The History of the Roman Emperors, from Augustus to Constantine'' by Jean-Baptiste Louis Crévier from the French, and in 1763 Mills continued and completed the ''Memoirs of the Court of Augustus,'' by Thomas Blackwell the younger. In the 1760s he found his true vocation as a writer on agriculture, which started with his translation in 1762 of Duhamel du Monceau's ''Practical Treatise of Husbandry.'' In 1766 he published an ''Essay on the Management of Bees.'' The ''A New System of Practical Husbandry,'' (1767) treated all branches of agriculture, and contains the first mention of the potato as grown in fields. In 1770 appeared a translation from the Latin of G.A. Gyllenberg's ''Natural and Chemical Elements of Agriculture;'' in 1772 an ''Essay on the Weather'' (translated into Dutch in 1772), and ''Essays, Moral, Philosophical, and Political'' (anonymous, but advertised under his name); and in 1776 a ''Treatise on Cattle.''〔 On 13 February 1766〔(List of Fellows of the Royal Society 1660 – 2007 ) at ''royalsociety.org'', 2008〕 Mills was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society with Benjamin Franklin as one of his sponsors.〔 He was the first foreign associate of the French Agricultural Society, on whose list his name, with London as his residence, appears from 1767 to 1784.〔 He was also member of the Royal Societies of Agriculture of Rouen, the Mannheim Academy of Sciences,〔 and the Economical Society of Bern.〔John Mills. ''A New and Complete System of Practical Husbandry.'' London. Volume 1, 1766. Title page.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Mills (encyclopedist)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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