AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. v.l-, April 1842-. New York, Saxton & Miles, etc.

Illus. monthly.

On film: vl-9, April 1842-Dec. 1850.

Established by A.B. and Richard L. Allen in 1842, the American Agriculturist was one of the most important of the American farm journals. It attempted to be national in scope, paying attention to the South and West as well as to the East, and to planters as well as farmers. There were departments for ladies and for boys; and some rhymes, though little poetry. One of the leading contributors was Solon Robinson, who was an assistant editor and traveling correspondent in 1851. Orange Judd, who became co-editor with A.B. Allen in September, 1853, almost at once made the Agriculturist a valuable contribution to scientific farming, claiming a circulation of 100,000 by the end of 1864. While under his direction it reached what was perhaps the most distinguished position ever held by an American agricultural journal. In 1864 Judd turned the editorship over to Professor George Thurber. In the 1870's the competition of the sectional farm papers caused its circulation to drop and between this time and 1921, when it finally recovered its identity and its original name, the Agriculturist underwent a number of changes in location, name, and periodicity. In 1888 it was purchased by the owners of the New England Homestead of Springfield, Massachusetts, and in 1894 it was made a weekly. It printed articles by Asa Gray on insect and plant fertilization, George E. Waring's Ogden Farm papers, and Frank G. Carpenter's series on farming in eastern countries. Joseph Harris's "Walks and Talks" and the Rev. William Clift's "Tunothy Bunker" papers were valuable features. From the beginning of Herbert Myrick's editorship in 1891 much attention was given to political discussion.

APS II, Reels 364 and 365