THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL PRESS

1819—1860. Albert L. Demaree.Columbia University Press, New York, 1941.

pp. xix—43o. $4.00.

In this instructive and entertaining study of our early American agricultural press, Professor Demaree has analyzed and evaluated an American institution which the social and economic historian has long tended to overlook. This neglect has been unfortunate for the author makes it abundantly clear that in the American farm journals of the years before the Civil War is to be found a veritable mine of information respecting the varied activities, interests and thought of rural America. And most of America was rural before the Civil War.

That the student of the history of American life will welcome the appearance of TheAmerican Agricultural Press is certain, not only for the material he will discover between its covers, but as an introduction to further studies in the field. The general reader, too, should enjoy the book, even if not particularly interested in the agricultural problems of our forefathers, for the American farm journal was designed to meet the intellectual, as well as the practical, needs of the rural family, and hence contained much to interest and amuse its readers, as the author brings out in a series of entertaining chapters devoted to the advertising matter carried by the journals, rural poetry, the ladies' department, and the rise of the fascinating agricultural fairs.

Following an introductory chapter in which he discusses the background and character of our early agricultural literature, Professor Demaree divides his study into three parts. Of these the first constitutes the body of the study. Here the reader meets America's pioneer agricultural periodical, The American Farmer (Baltimore, 1819), and its colorful founder and editor John Stuart Skinner. Subsequent chapters analyze the program and policies of the farm press, the personalities and abilities of its editors, and the special features which appeared in its pages. Other chapters, as suggested above, discuss the advertising in the journals, the growth and content of the "Ladies' Department," rural poetry, and the changing character and fortunes of the agricultural fair, perhaps the most sensational of the rural activities of the period with its various prize contests, cattle shows, plowing and harvesting matches, and horse racing. Part I closes with a chapter on the general significance of the agricultural press before the Civil War.

In the second part of the book the reader will find an interesting selection of articles reprinted 'from the journals. The inclusion of this source material not only enables one to appreciate somewhat more fully the flavor of our early agricultural press, but makes available for the student material not otherwise readily accessible. The third part of the book, too, should prove of much value to the student, for this the author devotes to sketches of the history of a number of the more important journals, together with a considerable amount of biographical material on the personalities back of them.

The American Agricultural Press, 1819-1860 represents a real contribution to our knowledge of the history of American agriculture. Not only is the study the product of several years -of intensive and careful research, but in the organization and presentation of a mass of difficult material the author has done a first rate piece of work.