The collection contains the original gardening book of James L. Hunter with diary entries from September 1845 to March 1846. The diary details the plan for Hunter’s vegetable garden, the types of vegetables planted, and best practices for successful crops. The dated entries provide a clear timeline of Hunter’s gardening activities. Incidentally, the diary contains rote French exercises and math calculations on its final pages. The collection also includes Catherine Howett’s 1996 publication, The Gardening Book of James L. Hunter, a Southern Planter, which provides images of the original diary’s pages and commentary on Hunter and the significance of his diary as a unique document of the horticultural history of the antebellum south.