LECOUTEUX (Édouard). - Lot 97

LECOUTEUX (Édouard). 1814-1894. Agronomist, agricultural journalist, editor-in-chief of Journal d'agriculture pratique. L.A.S. "E. Lecouteux" addressed to M. de Guaita. Paris, March 1868. 2 pages in-8 on letterhead of Journal d'Agriculture pratique, 26 rue Jacob, Paris. Important circular letter concerning the founding of the Société des Agriculteurs de France, an association that was to become one of the main institutions representing French agriculture in the 19th century. Lecouteux solicits his correspondent's active support in recruiting the first members: "Permettez-moi de vous demander votre concours le plus actif pour notre Société des Agriculteurs de France". He insists on the decisive role of "men of initiative" capable of influencing landowners and farmers in their respective regions. The journalist explains in detail the aims of this new society, which is intended to "centralize all the collective forces of agricultural France" without undermining existing local societies. He emphasizes the strategic importance of the first subscribers: "The choice of the first subscribers in particular will have a great influence on its destiny". The letter also reveals the conditions for setting up the association: subscriptions will only be collected once "at least five hundred members" have joined. Finally, Lecouteux refers to the previous success of the Petit-Bourg competition, which encouraged him to undertake this vast national organization of the agricultural world. A very interesting document on the history of French agricultural societies and on efforts to structure the agronomic community under the Second Empire. A particularly revealing account of the networks of influence and recruitment strategies mobilized to unite France's rural elite around an institution destined to play a major role in national agricultural policy.