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JVIERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH

BY GILBERT M. TUCKER

PRIVATELY PRINTED

ALBANY, N. Y.

1909

V

K

COPYRIGHT

GILBERT M. TUCKER
1909

MAIN l.mRARY.AGRICUUTURe OCTT

• .* . ••• •

[P'

NOTE

The peculiar typographical arrangement
of the following matter, and the high num-
bers carried by the pages and the illustra-
tions, are due to the fact that it is printed
from plates that were made for the fourth
volume of Bailey's Cyclopedia of American
Agriculture, for Avhich work it was written
by the editor's special request. An agri-
cultural publisher, who objected strongly
to having the facts about his business put
on record in the Cyclopedia (though the
facts are in no manner discreditable) in-
duced Prof. Bailey to omit this article at the
last minute, the author absolutely refusing
to consent to changes that would have
falsified history. It seemed that the not
inconsiderable labor devoted to obtaining
and arranging the multitudinous facts,
names and dates here embodied ought not to
go to waste, particularly as there is now in
existence no history of the American agricul-
tural periodical press, and the men who are
qualified by their recollections and knowledge
of the most vital period, covering say the last
fifty years, to prepare such a history, ane
now very few and are fast passing away.
The author therefore bought the plates of
the publishers, and presents the sketch as
the reader sees it, intending to place it in
a number of the larger libraries of the coun-
try, that the story, however imperfectly
and unsatisfactorily related, of the develop-
ment of one of the most important agencies
that have co-operated to make present-day
American civilization what it is, — a story
that it will be very difficult if not quite im-
JDossible to compile again, when a few more
years shall have gone by — may be per-
manently preserved.

HISTORICAL SKRTCJi OF AMERICATSl'^ ' '
AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

By Gilbert M. Tucker

A sketch of the history of the American agri-
cultural press may be conveniently divided into
four sections, dealing respectively with (1) the
pioneers, all established, so far as is now known,
during the decade ending with 1828 ; (2) the now-
old papers, those that were founded before — say —
1850 and outlived the nineteenth century; (3) the
developments of more recent years ; and (4) the
branching off of our rural journalism into special-
ties, marked by the appearance of a number of
periodicals devoted to subdivisions of the art of
husbandry. "Horse papers," chronicling chiefly
the events of the race track, and publications
intended for readers who live in the country as a
matter of pleasure, not gaining their livelihood by
the practice of any branch of farming, are not
included in the purview of this article.

The Five Pioneers

The pioneers of the American agricultural press
of which distinct record has been preserved, the
list being undoubtedly incomplete, were five — the
first American Farmer (not the present paper of
that name), the Ploughboy, the first New England
Farmer (not the present paper of that name), the
first New York Farmer (not the present paper of
that name), and the Southern Agriculturist.

The original American Farmer was established
at Baltimore by John S. Skinner, April 2, 1819, a
weekly of eight quarto pages, for which the nomi-
nal subscription price was four dollars, (Fig. 33).
Some nearby subscribers must have paid practi-
cally a good deal more, the bank bills of Wilmington,
Del., being quoted in the first issue as passing at 25
per cent discount, so that persons tendering such
bills were probably required to give between five
and six dollars ; and undoubtedly it was one of their
best investments. The head-line describes the con-
tents as " Rural Economy, Internal Improvements,
News, Prices Current," and an editorial announce-
ment says : " The great aim, and the chief pride, of
the American Farmer, will be, to collect informa-
tion from every source, on every branch of Hus-
bandry, thus to enable the reader to study the vari-
ous systems which experience has proved to be the
best under given circumstances ; and in short to put
him in possession of that knowledge and skill in the
exercise of his means, without which the best farm
and the most ample materials will remain but as
so much dead capital in the hands of their propri-
etor." A rather remarkable offer is added : " If at
the end of the year, any subscriber should think he
has not received his 'penn'orth,' his subscription
money shall be repaid to him on demand." The
paper seems to have run until 1862, when its pub-
lication was discontinued. (The second American
Farmer, started in 1866, was a different affair ;
so is the present American Farmer, dating from
1884 ; and there may have been others.)

Two months after the birth of the American

448735

72

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

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Farmer, what is now counted as the second agri-
cultural paper in this country was started at
Albany, It was called the Ploughboy, and was
of the same size as the Farmer, though offered
at a lower price — three dollars per annum (Fig.
34). The editor, who called himself "Henry
Homespun, Jr.," for the first few months, was
Solomon Southwick. The title was chosen — so
the opening announcement says — as conveying
"the idea of a real, unsophisticated American;
a virtuous, intelligent, brave, hardy and gener-
ous yeoman, who despises alike the trappings of
Royalty or Aristocracy ; abhors the idleness,
luxury and dissipation, which subvert private
happiness and public liberty ; and firm as his
native hills, wraps himself in the simple dignity
of his condition, and imitating his glorious an-
cestors, resolves to live free or to die." Not-
withstanding all this grandiloquence, the Plough-
boy ran successfully for at least twenty years,
and perhaps longer.

The (first) New England Farmer made its
appearance at Boston, August 3, 1822, and
lived until June 24, 1846, when it was discon-
tinued, unfortunately for the agriculture of the
Northeast. It closely resembled its two prede-
cessors in form and style, but was even a lit-
tle cheaper than the Ploughboy, at least for
such subscribers as would pay in advance, the
price under that condition being two dollars
and fifty cents.

The (first) New York Farmer was started in
the city from which it took its name, probably
about 1827, inasmuch as the sixth volume,
called also "New Series, Vol. I," began with
1833 (Fig. 36). At this time it was a monthly
of thirty-two quarto pages, Samuel Fleet editor,
D. K. Minor proprietor, three dollars per annum
in advance. It ran for several years beyond the
date given.

Fifth and last of the now-known pioneers of
American agricultural journalism was another
monthly, the Southern Agriculturist, started at
Charleston, S. C, in 1828, by J. D. Legare, and
containing at first forty-eight, afterward fifty-
six, small pages, 5J x 8i inches (Fig. 37). The
subscription price appears to have been re-
garded as a detail not worth mentioning. It
was continued at least to the end of the year
1842, and probably longer.

Old Papers Still Published

The agricultural press of the present day
dates from January 1, 1831, at which time was
established, at Rochester, N. Y., by Luther
Tucker, the older of the two papers now con-
solidated as the Country Gentleman. It was
called the Genesee Farmer, and closely resembled
the American Farmer, the Ploughboy and the
New England Farmer in general style, though
the subscription price was lower than that of
any of the others — two dollars a year in ad-
vance. There was also a monthly edition at
fifty cents. Three years and two months later —

HISTORICAL SKETCH OP AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

78

March, 1834 — Jesse Buel started, at Albany, the
monthly called the Cultivator, which he con-
tinued till his death in 1839, when Luther Tucker
bought it and united it with the Genesee Farmer
(Fig. 38). This turned Mr. Tucker's paper into
a monthly, which he thought too slow for the
times, consequently beginning, January 1, 1853,
the Country Gentleman as a weekly. Both papers
were continued until January 1, 1866, when the
Cultivator was fused into the Country Gentleman.
This makes a story of continuous publication from
January 1, 1831, not a single issue having failed
ito appear on its appointed day, and no change of
ownership having occurred except by descent
from father to son. This record is believed to be
unique in journalism, in this country at least.
That of the New York Herald, of which one would
naturally think, is not equal,
the Herald dating its existence
only from 1835.

Besides the Country Gentle-
man, not more than eight agri-
cultural papers established in
this country before 1850 were
continuously published until
1900; probably not so many, be-
cause there is reason to believe
that at least two or three of
the nine have had breaks in their
history. At all events, the fol-
lowing list is complete, if not
more than complete :

Second to the Country Gen-
tleman stands the Maine (at
first called the Kennebec) Far-
mer, born at Winthrop, an
eight-page weekly, January 21,
1833, "E. Holmes, editor," sub-
scription price two dollars. Dr.
Holmes continued editor for
thirty years, and was propri-
etor also until 1839, when the
ownership passed to Seavey &
Robinson, who held it until 1843.
Subsequent publishers have been
Russell Eaton, 1844-58, Homan
& Manley, 1858-61, Homan &
Badger, 1861-78, Badger & Man-
ley, 1878-97, and since then the
Maine Farmer Publishing Com-
pany. B. F. W. Thorpe is the present editor. The
place of publication was changed in November,
1843, to Augusta, where it remains.

Third among the old papers is the Boston (now
called the American) Cultivator, dating from 1839,
and one of the earliest local namesakes of the
Buel - Tucker monthly, others being the Southern
Cultivator, the Ohio Cultivator, the Northwestern
Cultivator, the Kentucky Cultivator, and so on. The
first publisher of the Boston paper of whose name
record has been preserved was Otis Brewer ; he
was succeeded; some time in the seventies, by
George B. James, the present editor and manager.

Fourth is — or perhaps we should now say, was
— the Massachusetts Ploughman, established in

74

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

1841, and published until early in 1906, when it
was absorbed by the Boston Cultivator.

Fifth is the Prairie Farmer, founded at Chicago,
October, 1840, by the Union Agricultural Society,
as the Union Agriculturist. The words "and
Western Prairie Farmer" were added to the title
three months later, the present abbreviated style
dating from 1843. It was originally a monthly of
eight large quarto pages, and the subscription
price was a dollar, which was only expected to

teen-page monthly in 1845, and in 1862, when
paper had grown scarce in Dixie, a bi-monthly.
The price was advanced to three dollars per annum
in January, 1864, to five dollars in May, and to ten
dollars in November — in Confederate money, how-
ever. The place of publication was changed to
Athens at the opening of the year 1865, and in
1880 to Atlanta, where it is still published, semi-
monthly for a number of years. It has absorbed
at various periods the Georgia Grange, the South-

^hmmjE^^

DEVOTED TO AGRICULTURE AND ALL ITS VARIOUS KINDRED ARTS AND SCIENCES

VOL.1.

Honor waits, o'er all the earth, The art that calls her harvests forth.— Dryant.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1848.

NO. 1.

S. W. COLE, Editor.

QUINCY HALL, BOSTON.

J. NOURSE, PUHLISHER.

CONGRATULATORY.

We recently oflfcred a valedictory, in another
Jpiimal, and we are now happy in greeting the agri-

of the eaith must undergo a most rigid scrutiny and
the severe ordeal of exact comparison ; implements
and machines, the astonishing product of the greatest
skUl, science, and practice, must bc imgrovcdL_or

Fi£. 35. Facsimile of the first issue of the second New England Fanner.

cover the actual cost of production. " We hope in
tiiv.e," says an editorial in the second issue, "to
make the Union Agriculturist to the West what
the Cultivator is to the East." Some difficulty
seems to have been experienced in filling the sheet,
as the prospectus of the third volume begs earn-
estly for contributions, remarking that "a good
correspondent is better than several subscribers."

Sixth of the old papers is the American Agri-
culturist, started in New York as a monthly of
thirty-two pages, A. B. and R. L. Allen editors,
April, 1842. The original subscription price was a
dollar, afterward increased to a dollar and fifty
cents. The paper had a checkered career until, in
1856, it came into the possession of Orange Judd,
who greatly improved it in many ways and carried
it to a high point of success commercially. Mr.
Judd lost control of the property in 1881, and a
period of decadence set in, ending in the sale of
the paper, seven years later, to the proprietors of
the New England Homestead, who removed it to,
Springfield, Mass., where it is still issued, and in
1894 changed it to a weekly.

Seventh is the Southern Cultivator, founded at
Augusta, Ga., by J. W. and W. S. Jones, March 1,
1843, an eight-page bi-weekly. It became a six-

ern World, the Dixie Farmer and the Southern
Farm of Atlanta, the Plantation of Montgomery,
the Rural Sun of Nashville, the Southern Farmer's
Monthly of Savannah, and the Phoenix Agricultur-
ist of Marietta; and has had a career quite un-
equaled for picturesque variety of fortune in all
the annals of the American agricultural press.

The eighth old paper, the Indiana Farmer, began
life at Indianapolis, October, 1845, a monthly of
sixteen pages about the size of those of Harper's
Magazine, and was edited for two years by Henry
Ward Beecher (" Henry W. Beecher" he wrote it in
those days), then pastor of the Second Presbyterian
Church of the city named. It became a weekly
about 1860. No connection is claimed with an ear-
lier journal of the same name, started in 1837.

Ninth and last of the agricultural journals
founded before 1850 that outlived the nineteenth
century is Colman's Rural World, established in
1848 as the (monthly) Valley Farmer ; edited for
more than fifty 3'ears by the veteran Norman J.
Colman, who was at one time United States Com-
missioner of Agricultuie ; and for a long part of
that period generally regarded as the great agri-
cultural authority for the Mississippi valley and
the vast region beyond.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICAI^

•75

To the preceding nine papers two others
could be added, were it not for interruptions
of their publication. One is the Southern
Planter, born at Richmond, Va., January,
1841, C. T. Botts publisher; a monthly of
sixteen octavo pages ; one dollar per annum.
"A very able paper, upon the plan proposed,"
says the prospectus, " published in our sister
state of New York, has been eminently suc-
cessful and productive of great good to the
cause of agriculture. Why should not our
own state, more peculiarly agricultural, be
inspired by so excellent an example?" Publi-
cation of the Southern Planter was inter-
rupted shortly after the outbreak of the
Rebellion, on account of the impossibility of
obtaining paper ; and was not resumed until
1867.

The other old paper that suffered a break
in its history is the present New England
Farmer, which suspended operations for five
months in 1864. It was founded December 9,
1848, less than two years and a half after
the decease of its predecessor of the same
name, and there must have been some temp-
tation to " date back," but it was resisted,
the issue of December 9, 1848, being honestly
marked " Vol, I, No. 1." It was originally a
bi-weekly, octavo in form, sixteen pages ; S.
W. Cole editor, J. Nourse publisher ; subscrip-
tion price not stated. Publication was con-
tinued at Boston until a few years ago, when
it changed hands and was taken to Brattle-
boro, Vt. For long years, this paper com-
manded the support of all the principal lead-
ers in rural advancement in New England ;
and if we were to select half a dozen peri-
odicals whose story is inextricably bound up
with the history of American agriculture,
the New England Farmer would assuredly
be one.

During the twenty-eight years that elapsed
between the founding of the Genesee Farmer
and the compilation of the first complete list
of agricultural papers in this country, a con-
siderable number not destined to very long
life were established. Among them were the
following: Northern Farmer, Newport, N. H.,
July 7, 1832 ; Farmers' Register, Richmond,
Va., June, 1833 ; Tennessee Farmer, Jones-
borough, December, 1834 ; Farmer's Cabinet,
Philadelphia, 1836; Farmer's Monthly Visitor,
Concord, N. H., January 15, 1839 ; Western
Farmer, Cincinnati, September, 1839 ; the
first Southern Cultivator, Columbia, Tenn.,
1839 ; Southern Cabinet of Agriculturej*
Charleston, S. C, January, 1840; Agricul-
turist, Nashville, Tenn., January, 1840 ; Cen-
tral New York Farmer, Rome, N. Y., January,
1842 ; the second New York Farmer, 1844 ;
Ohio Cultivator, Columbus, January 1, 1845 ;
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, Albany,
January, 1845 ; Monthly Journal of Agriculture,
New York, July 1845; Working Farmer, New York,
1849; Northwestern Cultivator, Madison, Wis.,

125

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1849 ; Valley Farmer, St. Louis, 1850 ; California
Farmer,San Francisco, 1850; Agricultor, New York,
1852; Farmer's Companion, Detroit, 1852; Kentucky

76

HISTORICAL SKETCH OP AMERICAN AGRICULTTRAL PERIODICALS

Cultivator, Covington, 1852 ; Connecticut Valley
Farmer, Springfield, Mass., 1853 ; Southern Agri-
culturist, Lawrenceville, S. C, 1853 ; Iowa Farmer,
Burlington, 1853 ; Northern Farmer, Woodstock,
Vt., 1855 ; New Jersey Farmer, Freehold, 1855 ;
Western Agriculturist, Pittsburg, Pa., 1855 ; Ru-
ral American, Utica N. Y., 1856 (?); Western
Farm Journal, Louisville, Ky., 1856 ; Northwestern
Farmer, Dubuque, Iowa, 1856 ; Vermont Stock
Journal, Middleburg, 1857 ; Farmer's Journal, Port-
land, Oregon, July, 1858 ; California Culturist, San
Francisco, 1858 ; American Ruralist, Springfield,
0., 1858 ; North Carolina Planter, Raleigh, 1858 ;
Kentucky Farmer, Frankfort, 1858 ; New Hamp-
shire Journal of Agriculture, Manchester, 1859.
In the year last mentioned, 1859, forty-four peri-

THE
JANUARY, 1828.

FARTZ.

ORIGINAL COERESPONDENCE.

Art. L — An Essay on the Culture of the Grape Vine,
and making of Wine ; suited for the United States, and
more particularly for the Southern States. By N.
Herbemont, of Columbia, S. C.

" And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard."—

Genesis c. ix. v. 20.

Ip it were necessary, at this period of the existence of
man, to prove the utility and great importance of the culti-

Flg. 37. The Southern Agriculturist, one of the five pioneers. •
Part of the first page, exact size.

odicals more or less devoted to general agriculture
were in existence, eight in New York, five in Ohio,
three each in Massachusetts, Virginia and Illinois,
two each in Maine, Georgia, Iowa and California,
one each in New Hampshire, Connecticut, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina,
Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Missouri and Oregon. It was compara-
tively easy to start an agricultural paper in those
days. A few hundred dollars sufficed for capital,
and any little town that contained a printing
press would do for location, provided always it
was surrounded by a good farming community.
The papers of that period relied entirely, or almost
entirely, on subscription money for their support,
none of them carrying any considerable number of
advertisements, and many of them having none.
Advertisements, in fact, were not only not solic-
ited, but were hardly welcomed, not much more
than barely tolerated as a questionable feature.

Development from 1850

Of American agricultural papers started during
the second half of the nineteenth century and still
published, the Rural New Yorker is both the oldest
and historically the most interesting. It was
started at Rochester, N. Y., in 1850, by D. D. T.
Moore, who had learned newspaper work under
Luther Tucker, and who had been, for a time in
the forties, proprietor of the first Michigan Farmer;
and it ran very successfully until 1868, when Mr.
Moore committed what proved to be the fatal mis-
take of transferring his location to New York and
entering into competition with the Country Gentle-
man and the American Agriculturist for general
circulation. Bankruptcy followed in a few years.
The paper was thereafter published succes-
sively, first by one of Mr. Moore's creditors
and afterwards by several other persons, none
of whom could make it pay, and it was more
than once on the point of being abandoned.
Finally, however, it was acquired by the
present management, who have raised it, as
is well known, to a position among the rec-
ognized leaders of the American agricultural
press.

Two years later than the Rural New
Yorker, that is to say, January 1, 1852, the
Ohio Farmer was established at Cleveland,
where it has been published ever since,
though having suffered suspension during
the last three months of the year 1862. The
founder was Thomas Brown ; and the editors
have been F. R. Elliott, S. D. Harris, Geo.
E. Blakelee and M. E. Williams, Ownership
of the property was acquired, at the close
of the year 1873, by M. J, Lawrence, now
the president of the Lawrence Publishing
Company, which has conducted the publica-
tion since June, 1894, and now operates
also the Michigan Farmer.

Three years later than the Ohio Farmer,
that is to say in 1855, was started at Racine,
Wis., by Mark Miller, the Homestead. It
was removed within a few years to Madison,
and then to Dubuque, Iowa, and in 1861, the
entire outfit going in two wagons, to Des Moines,
where it has been published ever since. It was
bought in 1885 by James M. Pierce, who after-
ward acquired also the Madison (Wis.) Farmer and
the Kansas City Farmer and Stockman.

In the same year, 1855, the Practical Farmer
was started at Philadelphia, by Paschall Morris, at
first a monthly, but changed to a weekly in 1867.
The death of the founder had a bad eflFect, and the
pap* was sold, in 1876, to the owner of the Ohio
Farmer, who ran it until 1881, when he disposed
of it, finding the venture both troublesome and
unprofitable. The next eight years saw various
other changes in management, until finally the
property was acquired by the present owner, Mr.
Maule, and a second era of prosperity began.
(There was an earlier Practical Farmer, a weekly,
published at Boston, but it does not appear that
Mr. Morris' paper bad any connection with it.)

Wis.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

77

VOL IV

BOCHE^'i'RK, J4NVARY 1, IH31.

Nl'MBEU 1.

TH£ G£\ESKE FARMER

AND GARDRNEr's journal.

DoT«t^4 to A|>icu'.tur«, Horticaltun, Domettic EcoDO-
my, &e. Ac.

The flrtt number of a paper under the above
title wai publiahed at Rochester, on Saturday,
Jan. 1, 1331— conducted by a gentleman long
experienced in the iciencc of Agriculture, Hor-
ticulture,and other useful arts,a8aiated by many
of the beat practical firnters in this eection of

:iix month*, or $2,00, if paid at. the time of
•utMcribioe.

tUCKER & STEVENS.
Rocheder, Jan. 1, )831.

Kdilor* who will gire the sbo'a (wo or ihr^e isser
tiou, will confer • favor » hicb will be reciprocated the
irMopptuoity.

NXJlttDER ONE.

We are aware that thfe ueaaon of the year ie
raihtr an unfavorable time to cnnim«nce a work

same year a aloop of forty tons wai, built and
launched on the Gtncsee Lake."

fifieref Where was the " Ontario Gazette"
printed, and where is the " Genesee Lake ^"

That portion of country f.nce called the "Ge-
nesee Country," although iterzact boundnriee
were' rather vague and uncertnin,. probibly ,
now contains eome two hundred towns, witii <
inoro than liOfi.ODO inhabiteMis, with cities and
villages at everv four corners, and newspaper's
HB thick as bUcUberrios. 1'he Gcnqsec C'oun*

Fig. 38. A reduced reproduction of part of the first page of the first issue of the Genesee Farmer.

The Nebraska Farmer was started by Robert
W. Furnas, at Brownville, in 1859, but failed to
receive sufficient support and was after a time
discontinued, to be revived in 1875, at Lincoln,
by J. C. McBride and J. T. Clarkson. It was moved
to Omaha in 1898, but taken back to Lincoln
seven years later, and is still prosperously pub-
lished there.

The Kansas Farmer was established at Topeka
by the State Agricultural Society, in 1863, at first
a monthly, afterward a weekly, and it shortly
became private property. Its career has been
highly useful and highly uneventful.

The Farmers' Home Journal was started at Lex-
ington, Ky., by James J. Miller, in 1865, and ten
years later was moved to its present home at
Louisville. It has always been a weekly, the first
form being a sixteen-page folio. The original sub-
scription price, three dollars, has been reduced
to one-third of that sum. Several small agricul-
tural papers have been absorbed at various times,
the Journal having always prospered steadily, do-
ing better every year regularly than the year
before — which is something that can be said of
very few periodicals of any class.

Next came the present Michigan Farmer, dating
from May 15, 1867, a few months after an older
paper of the same name had been taken to Chi-
cago and rechristened the Western Rural. The
existing paper was founded by R. F. Johnstone
and has always been published at Detroit, though
it has been owned since September 25, 1893, by the
publishers of the Ohio Farmer. It absorbed the
Michigan Fruit-Grower and Practical Farmer in
1899, and the Free Press Farm and Live Stock
Journal in 1905. With brief and unimportant
exceptions, it has always been the only agricul-
tural paper in the state.

The New England Homestead was started at
Springfield, Mass., in 1868, and from a small local
beginning, gradually came to cover New England.
Not only that, but its proprietors finally bought up
the decadent American Agriculturist, and also the
Orange Judd Farmer, a paper established at Chi-
cago by the able editor whose name it bears, after
he lost control of his New York monthly. These
two journals were taken to Springfield, where they
are still issued, though bearing in their head-lines
not only the name of that place, but also the names
of New York and Chicago.

The year 1870 is memorable for the birth of the
first American agricultural journal printed inde-
pendently and only in a foreign tongue, the Acker
und Gartenbau Zeitung of Milwaukee. _ (A German
edition of the American Agriculturist was issued
for several years ; but that is a little different.)
The Zeitung was at first issued monthly, then semi-
monthly, and since 1893 weekly. The first editor
and publisher were Rudolph Koss and W. W.
W. Coleman.

The Pacific Rural Press was started at San
Francisco, January 1, 1870, a sixteen-page weekly,
four dollars per annum, W. B. Ewer editor, Dewey
& Company publishers. E. J. Wickson became edi-
tor in December, 1875, and has held the position
ever since. The ownership passed in 1892 to Al-
fred Holman, in 1898 to J. F. Halloran, and in 1905
to T. A. and E. Rickard. While the fire following
the earthquake of 1906 was still burning, new
offices were opened at Berkeley, and the paper is
still published there.

In the year 1875, when three-quarters of the
nineteenth century had passed, there were about
seventy agricultural papers of a general character
in the country, being a net increase of twenty-six
over the roll for 1859. In 1900, there were 140,
twice as many as in 1875 ; and the present number
is about one hundred and eighty, only seventeen of
which, however, date back as far as 1875. The
additions of these later years may, for present pur-
poses, be summarily dealt with, and this for two
reasons. In the first place, these newer journals
are still too new to be safely assigned to their
proper places in the perspective of history. And
secondly, it must be admitted that many of them
are so frankly commercial that they can never
lay claim to any historical interest, except such as
might attach to accounts of big department stores
or successful shoe factories. They were started
and are operated for the sake of revenue from
advertisements, subscription payments being re-
garded as a comparatively unimportant incidental.
By this it is by no means intended to be implied
that they differ much in character from the pres-
ent status of their older congeners ; no agricul-
tural paper could live in these days without adver-
tisements, and there are probably very few peri-
odicals of any class that do not actually lose money
on their subscription departments ; only the fifty-
year-old farm journals have a professional, and

HISTORICAL SKETCH OP AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

nary theater. In the one
case as in the other, the
furnishing of such infor-
mation was not the motive
of establishing the publi-
cation. What the proprie-
tor had in mind was the
selling of advertising
space. He by no means
aspires to anything like
the position of an author
having ideas to offer to
the public for suitable
compensation; he is more
like the owner of a bill-
board. He puts in the best
reading matter that he
can obtain, simply in order
to get people to notice
the advertisements and
patronize his customers.
The counting-room has
the center of the stage ;
the editorial sanctum has
become very largely a
secondary consideration.

Of the general agricul-
tural papers established
since 1875, the follow-
ing should probably be
counted as among the
most important: Farmer's
Review, Chicago, 1877 ;
Wisconsin Agriculturist,
Racine, 1877 ; Farm and
Fireside, Springfield, Ohio,
1877; Farm, Field and
Stockman (Farm, Field and
Fireside, National Farm
Press), Chicago, 1877; Na-
tional Farmer, Pittsburg,
1877 ; Farmer's Tribune,
Sioux City, Iowa, 1878 ;
Texas Farmer, Dallas,
1878 ; Farm and Home,
Springfield, 111., 1880; Da-
kota Farmer, Aberdeen,
S. D., 1881; Farm and
Ranch, Austin (now Dal-
las), Tex., 1883; Farm,
Stock and Home, Minneap-
olis, 1884 ; Orange Judd
Farmer, Chicago, 1886 ;
Northwestern Agricultur-
ist, Minneapolis, 1886 ;
Progressive Farmer,Wins-
ton-Salem, N. C, 1886, now
Raleigh; Farmer's Voice, Chicago, 1887; Oklahoma
Farmer, Guthrie, 1890; Southern Ruralist, Atlanta,
1893 ; Wallace's Farmer, Des Moines, Iowa, 1895 ;
Southerly Farm Gazette, Starkville, Miss., 1895;
National Farmer, St. Louis, 1898 ; Midland Farmer,
St. Louis, 1898 ; Twentieth Century Farmer,
Omaha, 1900 ; Arkansas Homestead, Little Rock,
1900 ; Tribune Fanner, New York, 1901 ; Sucoess-

PHILADELPHIA:

J. S. SKINNER, 79 WALNUT STREET.
18 6 1.

Fig, 39. Title-page of one of the early magazine-like periodicals. Slightly reduced

therefore an historically interesting past to which
their younger competitors can lay no claim. Still
less is it intended to be implied that the newer
papers are as a class inferior to the older in edi-
torial ability and enterprise. They furnish, for
little or nothing, and often in the very best and
most available form, information that is wanted
by the public. So does the program of the ordi-

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS

79

ful Agriculture, St. Paul, 1903. Others might be
added, including fourteen in foreign languages —
Skandinavisk Farmer, Danish, Minneapolis, 1882 ;
Skodemannen, Swedish, Minneapolis, 1888 ; Hos-
podar,Bohemian, Omaha, 1891 ; Obzor, Bohemian,
Hallettsville, Tex., 1891 ; Gazeta Wisconsinska,
Polish, Milwaukee, 1892 ; Hospodarske Listy, Bo-
hemian, Chicago, 1898; Feld und Flur, German,
Dallas, Tex., 1898 ; Landmann, German, Milwaukee,
1902 ; Svenska Farm Journal, Swedish, Omaha,
1903 ; Odelmannen, Swedish, Minneapolis, 1904 ;
Gospodarz, Polish, Chicago, 1905 ; Revista Agri-
cola, Spanish, Chicago, 1905 ; Hacienda, Spanish,
Buffalo, 1905.

One of the papers named in the last paragraph,
the Farmer's Voice, demands special mention as
having absorbed, a few years ago, the once well-
known Western Rural, which was the successor of
the first Michigan Farmer, a paper dating from
1843 under that name, though practically the
same as a journal of an earlier date called the
. Western Farmer. It was sold in 1865 to H. N. F.
Lewis, who changed the name to the Western
Rural, and in 1867 took it to Chicago, thus clear-
ing the way for the establishment of the present
Michigan Farmer. It was for some years immensely
successful, possibly the most profitable agricultural
paper west of New York ; and seems to have been
wrecked in consequence of embracing certain
vagaries in its editorial management which dis-
pleased its more sober-minded readers while failing
to attract the large patronage that was hoped for
among people of a different disposition. The far-
mers of America, whatever else may be said of
them, are, on the whole, men of sound judgment and
common sense ; and in the long run they give their
largest support to the best - balanced and most
reasonable journals, however much they may some-
times seem to be carried away for a time by the
presentation of heresies either in agricultural or
in economical science. Fortunate it is for the
country that such is the case.

In Canada, seven agricultural papers of impor-
tance are issued — the Farmer's Advocate, Lon-
don, 1866 ; Journal d'Agriculture, Montreal, 1879 ;
Nor' West Farmer, Winnipeg, 1882 ; Farming
World, Toronto, 1883; Prince Edward Island Agri-
culturist, 1883, and Island Farmer, 1887, both at
Summerside; Maritime Farmer, Sussex, N. B., 1895.

Journals Devoted to Specialties

The first of these appear to have been horticul-
tural— the Horticultural Register, started January
1, 1835, by Thos. G. Fessenden and J. E. Tesche-
macher, and continued for four years, followed by
C. M. Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture, both pub-
lished at Boston. These were admirable journals,
able, dignified and enterprising ; the first had col-
ored illustrations, not designed primarily as pretty
pictures, but for definite scientific purposes, which
they very satisfactorily accomplished. In somewhat
lighter and more popular vein was the famous
Horticulturist, started at Albany, July, 1846, by
Luther Tucker, who recognized the brilliant genius

of the younger Downing, and thought he could
advantageously exploit it. After Mr. Downing's
death in 1852, Mr. Tucker sold the magazine to
James Vick of Rochester, from whom it passed
successively to R. P, Smith of Philadelphia, and to
several New York publishers — C. M. Saxton, Mead
& Woodward, Henry T. Williams and others — and
was finally absorbed by the Gardener's Monthly of
Philadelphia, dying at last with that magazine
years ago. It is not too much to say that these
three periodicals covered the whole field of horti-
culture, including pomology, flower and landscape
gardening in all their ramifications, as no periodi-
cal has covered it more recently and as no periodi-
cal makes any pretense at covering it now.

Another pioneer in horticultural journalism,
though far more restricted in its scope, was the
beautiful and valuable Orchardist's Companion,
issued quarterly at Philadelphia by A. Hobby,
beginning April, 1841, and adorned with very fine
colored plates, accurately painted from nature, in
the real size of the fruit and leaves, and hardly
equaled, certainly not surpassed, by any similar
work of a later day.

Other periodicals devoted to subdivisions of the
art of horticulture have risen, flourished for a
time, and passed away. Among those now pub-
lished may be named Green's Fruit Grower, Roches-
ter, N. Y., 1881 ; American Florist, Chicago, 1885 ;
Pacific Fruit World, Los Angeles, 1895 ; National
Fruit Grower, St. Joseph, Mich., 1896 ; Southern
Fruit Grower, Chattanooga, Tenn., 1896 ; Western
Fruit Grower, St. Joseph, Mo., 1897 ; Fruitman &
Gardener, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, 1897 ; and the Gar-
den Magazine, New York, 1904.

Possibly not second in order among specialties
in agriculture having journals of their own, though
the writer believes that such is the case, was a
branch that would probably not be conjectured — •
silk-culture — the American Silk Society having
established a monthly journal at Baltimore at the
beginning of the year 1839. Interest in this sub- ^
ject, very vivid in the thirties and almost down tO'
the outbreak of the Rebellion, has never quite died
out ; and monthlies devoted thereto are still issued
at New York City and at Tallulah Lodge, Ga.

The third class of journals of agricultural spe-
cialties in order of establishment appears to con-
sist of dairy papers. A Dairyman's Record was
published semi-monthly at Little Falls, N. Y., as
long ago as 1859. This was succeeded in 1860, at
the same place, by the Dairy Farmer, the first
number of which gives notice that while "a few
advertisements will be received, upon terms to be
agreed upon," they will "be printed on a separate
sheet of paper." Prominent now (omitting trade
journals) are Hoard's Dairyman, Fort Atkinson,
Wis., 1870, and Kimball's Dairy Farmer, Waterloo,
Iowa, 1903.

Live-stock breeding was for years most promi-
nently represented by the National Live-stock Jour-
nal, Chicago, 1870, succeeded by the Breeders'
Gazette in 1881. The Horseman and Stockman,
Minneapolis, was started in 1890 ; Blooded Stock
at Oxford, Pa., in 1896; the Western Breeders'

Journal at Clay Center, Kas,, in 1898. Two breeds
of cattle have successful journals of their own,
the Jersey Bulletin, Indianapolis, 1883, and the
Holstein-Friesian Register, Brattleboro, Vt., 1886.
Here should also be named the American Sheep
Breeder, Chicago, 1883 ; the Shepherd's Criterion,
Chicago, 1891; the Swine Breeders' Journal, Indian-
apolis, 1882; the American Swineherd, Chicago,
1885, and the Western Swine Breeder, Lincoln,
Neb., 1894.

To poultry-culture no fewer than seventy peri-
odicals are devoted. Oldest and perhaps most
important are the American Poultry Journal, Chi-
cago, 1874; Poultry Keeper, Quincy, 111., 1884;
Fancier's Monthly, San Jose, Cal., 1885 ; Southern
Fancier, Atlanta, 1887 ; Western Poultry Journal,
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 1888; Poultry Herald, St.
Paul, Minn., 1888; Farm Poultry, Boston, 1889;
Poultry Success, Springfield, 0., 1889 ; Reliable
Poultry Journal, Quincy, III, 1894, and the Feather,
Washington, D. C, 1895.

Other papers devoted to specialties are the Amer-
ican Bee Journal, Chicago, 1861; Sugar Planters'
Journal, New Orleans, 1870 ; Gleanings in Bee Cul-
ture, Medina, 0., 1873 ; Sugar Beet Culturist, Bay
City, Mich., 1899 ; Wisconsin Sugar Beet, Menom-
onee Falls, 1900 ; Southern Tobacconist, Richmond,
Va., 1887, and the Rice Journal, Crowley, La., 1897.

Conclusion.

As the reader will have perceived, the unresting
activity and optimistic enterprise of the American
agricultural journalist will bear comparison, to say
the least of it, with that of any other calling in
this active and enterprising country ; and that is
not all. The motives leading to the establishment
of all the earlier rural papers were of a high and
distinctly professional character. The founders
hoped to make a living, certainly ; but so does the
physician, the lawyer, the clergjrman ; the laborer
is worthy of his hire and very properly demands it.
To be of benefit to the public, to promote the
advancement of the basal art of American life, this
was the fundamental purpose of Skinner and South-
wick and Ijegare, of Tucker and Buel and Holmes,
of Allen and Judd and Jones and Colman and Botts
and the other great leaders. Even in the present
commarcial era, it may fairly be claimed that no
other class of periodicals stand higher in point of
conscientious and independent editorial manage-
ment, and that very few are so careful about
admitting anything of doubtful character to their
advertising columns.

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