Country gentleman
The Country Gentleman was a weekly or monthly agricultural magazine that appeared from January 6, 1853 in Rochester , New York . This made it the second oldest agricultural journal after the American Agriculturist at the time . Still, it could claim to be the oldest, having taken over the Albany Cultivator from 1834. The country gentleman existed under changing names until 1955.
history
The editor was Luther Tucker (Sr.), at times together with John J. Thomas and Joseph Warren. They also wrote the majority of the articles. Tucker had previously published the weekly Horticulturalist and the monthly Cultivator (acquired in 1839), and in 1831 even the Genesee Farmer . In 1840 the house was moved to Albany . A first edition appeared on November 4, 1852; the official first edition was January 6, 1853. It was 16 pages long and cost 2 dollars. Only towards the end of the Civil War did the price rise to $ 2.50. Tucker’s son Luther H. Tucker became co-editor at the age of 21. In 1858 the magazine already had a circulation of 250,000, but the circulation dropped drastically as a result of the civil war. In 1869 it was down to 13,000, but the Midwestern focus and the involvement of correspondents in the new states made the paper a nationwide institution. In 1866, Tucker merged the Cultivator , his 50-cent weekly paper, with the Country Gentleman. Both now appeared under the name The Cultivator . In 1873, after the founder's death, his son Gilbert M. Tucker took over the publication together with his brother Luther H. Tucker. In 1894, the co-editor John J. Thomas died. When the second Luther Tucker died, a third Luther H. Tucker followed him. The paper got its old name back and the price was lowered to one dollar, only to rise again to 1.50 dollars later.
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From 1908 to 1911 Tucker made several attempts to sell the sheet, in 1911 it was taken over by Cyrus HK Curtis, owner of the Curtis Publishing Company . So it was issued from July 6, 1911 in Philadelphia . The new owner placed the emphasis on the economic-technical side, while in the 80 years since the foundation a considerably wider spectrum had taken center stage. Hence the original title of the paper was: The Country Gentleman, a Journal for the Farm, the Garden and the Fireside, Devoted to Improvement in Agriculture, Horticulture, and Rural Taste; to Elevation in Mental, Moral, and Social Character, and the Spread of Useful Knowledge and Current News . It should therefore serve economic interests, but also the spiritual, moral and social uplift as well as the distribution of news. It also turned to women, recommended them targeted further training in the 1920s, and accepted numerous contributions from women. The Country Gentlewoman developed from a supplement in the course of the 1930s . The circulation rose again to 300,000 pieces, the price was again lowered to 1 dollar, the circulation rose to over half a million. Finally, in September 1925, the paper was changed from weekly to monthly, three years for one dollar. This made the magazine a mass newspaper. The circulation rose to over 800,000.
During the Second World War the paper was at its peak, the editor was Ben Hibbs (1929–42), but the range of the news became too broad and the depth too shallow for the readers. In addition, there were many more Americans living in the country who did not farm and who did not like the numerous technical articles. In a now highly urbanized world, the praise of the rural homeland, to which the new publishers placed great value, found fewer and fewer buyers. The number of readers decreased, and the income from advertisements decreased. The owner renamed the sheet Better Farming . In 1954, earnings were $ 173 million and profits were 1,308,735, but the next year it slumped to $ 385,918.
In 1955, the Country Gentleman was still the second largest agricultural magazine in the USA with a circulation of 2,566,314 copies after the Farm Journal with 2,870,380 copies. That year it was acquired by Farm Journal editor Graham Patterson for $ 6 million. Its paper was also published in Philadelphia - even in the same place, Washington Square. It now appeared under the title Farm Journal-Country Gentleman . Patterson took over the Farm Journal in 1935 and doubled the circulation by 1955; he had previously headed the Christian Herald and in 1939 merged The Farmer's Wife with the Farm Journal.
But the Federal Trade Commission referred to the Clayton Antitrust Act on the threatened monopoly position of the paper on the agricultural magazine market, since it now brought out 51% of the local number of copies.
literature
- George F. Lemmer: Early Agricultural Editors and Their Farm Philosophies . In: Agricultural History , 31.4, October 1957, pp. 3-22.
- Frank Luther Mott: A History of American Magazines, 1850-1865 . 4th edition. 1970, volume 2, chap. 23 The Country Gentleman , pp. 432-436.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ The latter must not be confused with the Genesee Farmer , which John J. Thomas had brought out together with MB Bateman, and which had emerged from the New Genesee Farmer founded in 1840 . This sheet was only published as Genesee Farmer from 1846 . It existed until 1865. See: E. Merton Coulter: Daniel Lee, Agriculturist: His Life North and South . University of Georgia Press, 1952, Paperback 2000, pp. 21f. and p. 140.
- ↑ Country Gentleman Pay; Cyrus HK Curtis Buys America's Oldest Agricultural Weekly . Special to The New York Times , Feb. 8, 1911, p. 3.
- ↑ Amy Mattson Lauters: More than a farmer's wife: voices of American farm women, 1910-1960 . University of Missouri Press, 2009, p. 89.
- ^ The Press: Room with a View . In: Time , June 20, 1955
- ↑ Amy Mattson Lauters: More than a farmer's wife: voices of American farm women, 1910-1960 . University of Missouri Press, 2009, p. 81.
- ^ The Press: Trouble at the Farm . In: Time , July 25, 1955