The Great Error of American Agriculture Exposed, by Thomas Moore, 1801. Like many early nineteenth-century gentlemen who owned estates and farms, Thomas Peter was interested in new methods for improving agricultural production. This book, in his library at Tudor Place, was written by planter and inventor Thomas Moore, who in 1794 began successful experiments with deep plowing, crop rotation, and the application of manure to his small farm, Retreat, near Brookeville, in Montgomery County, Maryland.