336 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS 



AS BETWEEN THE NURSERY ADVERTISER 



AND THE PUBLIC. 



E. A. WEBB^ GENERAL MANAGER, ''XHE FARMER/'' ST. PAUL, 



I am glad of the opportunity of saying something on this sub- 

 ject, which is one that although not generally considered by the 

 people at large is, I believe, generally by editors and publishers of 

 agricultural papers themselves. 



The lesson of our responsibility for the welfare of those about 

 us is taught negatively in the very beginning of recorded history, 

 where Cain exclaims to his Lord, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 

 The answer is not given ; but scanty crops and noxious weeds have 

 made life burdensome for six thousand years and bear testimony 

 to the tremendous significance of our mutual responsibility for one 

 another's welfare in this world. 



Our subject is threefold and comes home to each of us in a 

 more or less degree of personal concern. In the treatment of it, 

 however, I shall not be confined to its significance as to the nursery- 

 man alone, but as between advertisers generally and the publishers 

 of agricultural papers. Considered in the following order : 



First : The agricultural press ; its character ; why it is influen- 

 tial ; its editors and publishers. 



Second : The public reached by the agricultural press ; the class 

 influenced directly by agricultural papers. 



Third : The responsibility of the agricultural press to its readers 

 in its advertising department. 



First, the agricultural press: Those of you who have subscribed 

 for and read agricultural papers for thirty years or more have wit- 

 nessed a great advance in the character of these papers now from 

 what they were thirty years ago. Then there were two or three 

 agricultural papers of large circulation that were generally known. 

 Among these I recall the "American Agriculturist," of New York 

 City, at that time a monthly journal; and the "Country Gentleman," 

 published at Albany, by Luther Tucker, and still published by his 

 sons. I read the former with interest as a young man, although the 

 thought of publishing an agricultural journal myself would have 

 then been my last thought. 



Twenty years ago the agricultural press had recruited to its 

 ranks more or less valuable sheets, mostly less. The great West 

 was fruitful of these productions, because the West was chiefly 

 depending upon agriculture ; but the papers themselves, with few 

 exceptions, bore evidence of being edited by men of little practical 

 agricultural knowledge or experience. A very noticeable improve- 



