The University of Guelph has a unique agricultural background, and its Library houses one of the best collections of agricultural materials in Canada including many diverse sources for such a multidisciplinary study as agricultural history. Some of the books on agriculture have been in the Library since the establishment of the Ontario Agricultural College in 1874. Many individuals have donated items or provided funds to encourage collecting in this important subject area. There is a broad range of information in rare books and special collections pertaining to the various fields of agriculture that can be identified as source materials for agricultural history. More than 650 works can be consulted at the following catalogue link and sorted by date, author, and title.

Of particular interest are some of the earlier English writers' works of agriculture, e.g. Thomas Tussler's Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1580), Markham Gervase's Farewel to Husbandry (1668), Samuel Hartlib's Legacy of Husbandry (1655), Richard Bradley's General Treatise of Husbandry and Gardening (1724), William Ellis's Modern Husbandman : or the Practice of Farming (1727), Jethro Tull's Horse-Hoeing Husbandry (3rd ed. 1751), Arthur Young's Rural Oeconomy (1770), and William Marshall's books on the rural economy of various parts of England, e.g. Norfolk.

American and Canadian works are also featured. Michel Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer (1782), J.B. Bordley's Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs (1799), James Caird's Prairie Farming in America (1859), Farmer's Assistant (1820) by John Nicholson, John Young's Letters of Agricola (Halifax, 1822), William Evans' Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Agriculture published at Montreal in 1835, Canadian Farmer's Manual of Agriculture by Charles Whitcombe (1874), and Edouard Barnard's Lecon d'Agriculture (Montreal, 1875) are principal works in the rare books section.

Agricultural periodicals and newspapers are valuable primary sources. The Library has extensive holdings of significant Canadian agricultural periodicals; the Canada Farmer, Nor'West Farmer, the Farmer's Advocate, the Family Herald, and many others.

Rare and scarce items that originally belonged to the Entomological Society of Ontario, incorporated in 1871, are also present: James Rennie's Insect Architecture (1830), a 1756 edition of Systema naturae by Carl Linnaeus printed at Lyon, and C.J.S. Bethune's Insects of the Northern Parts of British America (nd) are some prominent examples.

Originally created by G. Pal (1979) with revisions by L. Bruce (2005)