American Business: Agricultural Newspapers

Agriculture was the dominant American business in the 18th and 19th centuries. It fueled the social and economic engine that built the United States and generated its state and local governments. Farming also stimulated and regulated pioneering, land tenure and commodities trading. In addition, the country’s agrarian history was crucial in defining the national character and the cultural values and mores of Americans.

American Business: Agricultural Newspapers captures the central role of farming in the growth of the United States. Economic, social and cultural historians, as well as science, technology and environmental specialists, will find the published record of farming and rural life critical to teaching and researching America in the 19th century.

Sustainability focus timely today
This collection is particularly relevant as the United States enters another agricultural transformation. Agricultural newspapers taught rural farmers to improve their practices and technologies using what now is called alternative agriculture—application of sustainable, or organic, farming methods geared to a region’s soil and climate. Examples included crop rotation and prudent use of natural minerals and fertilizers.  

Deep local news coverage, regional and national news coverage
Beyond chronicling agriculture and farming, the collection offers deep overall local news coverage, along with general regional and national news. For instance, the papers shed light on such topics as the environment, technology, manufacturing, immigration, labor, politics, slavery, the Civil War, Native American history, invention and the 19th-century global economy.

Published in more than 30 states, the 200-plus titles in this collection include California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences (Sacramento, CA), Grand Valley Star (Grand Junction, CO), Florida Agriculturalist (Jacksonville, FL), Maine Farmer (Augusta, ME), Massachusetts Ploughman and New England Journal of Agriculture (Boston, MA), Farmers’ and Mechanics’ Advocate (St. Louis, MO), Miners’ and Farmers’ Journal(Charlotte, NC), Long Island Farmer and Queens County Advertiser (Jamaica, NY), Western Stock Journal (Pleasonton, TX) and many others.

Other subject-specific newspaper collections
American Business: Agricultural Newspapers ideally complements American Business: Mercantile Newspapers—part of a new group of subject-specific collections designed to meet targeted teaching and research needs. The other collections are American Gazettes: Newspapers of Record, American Politics: Campaign Newspapers and American Religion: Denominational Newspapers.