American Agriculturist, May 12,1923 
417 
One Year’s Stewardship 
Publisher of American Agriculturist Reports to 120,000 Reader Owners 
I T is just a year ago that I purchased the 
American Agriculturist. Never has a 
year passed so quickly or been so full of 
important events. At the time of the 
change of ownership, I said “I intend that 
the welfare of my readers shall be the. con¬ 
trolling consideration in the direction of the 
affairs of this publication. I propose to 
command your support by deserving it. I 
shall hope to strengthen the ties that have 
bound you to this publication.” Let us stop 
a minute and consider whether or not, as a 
steward of your paper, I have hewn close to 
the line of my pledge given you one year ago: 
The first move that I made to improve the 
paper was to strengthen the staff and to. 
secure the best writers in their particular 
field as regular contributors to the American 
Agriculturist. 
Mr. George T. Hughes, on May 20th, 
joined the Contributing Staff of the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist, and through his articles 
and advice on financial matters, has been 
able to render a real service to our readers 
and has saved them thousands of dollars 
which otherwise might have been invested 
in questionable securities. 
Miss Gabrielle Elliot, on June 3rd, became 
Household Editor. Under her direction the 
Household Department has become a very 
important part of the magazine. She inaug¬ 
urated a shopping service for our women 
readers whereby they could buy through her, 
the latest New York styles at reasonable 
prices. She introduced Aunt Janet to our 
readers. She has developed our patterns to 
a point where we sold 24,000 last year. Her 
recipes have made many a husband happy. 
The next move was to secure Herschel 
Jones. His weekly market review and fore¬ 
cast have steadily grown in interest and im¬ 
portance and are a daily help to our readers 
in guiding them in the sale of their produce. 
An epoch in the history of the American 
Agriculturist during the past year was when 
on September 2, 1922, Jared Van Wagenen, 
Jr., consented to write exclusively for the 
American Agriculturist. His column has 
won for him a warm spot in the hearts of 
thousands. 
Paul Work joined the paper on September 
9, 1922, and since that time has been writing 
on truck, vegetable and market gardening— 
a department which has grown to be a very 
important one during the past year. 
E. S. Eastman Becomes Editor 
During the first three months that I owned 
the paper, I hunted high and low for a man 
who would stand out head and shoulders 
above the crowd as the best editor available 
in the United States for the American Agri¬ 
culturist. In E. R. Eastman, our present 
editor, I felt I had found this man, and on 
October 14, 1922, I announced that he had 
accepted the position of editor. Now in 
looking back over the six months that he has 
been with the American Agriculturist, I 
know that the readers have many times and 
in many ways heartily endorsed my judg¬ 
ment and their approval of the choice of Mr. 
Eastman. 
Birge Kinne became advertising manager 
in December, and under his forceful, clean 
leadership, the number of columns of adver¬ 
tising in the American Agriculturist have 
steadily grown. The fakirs in advertising 
give Mr. Kinne a wide berth. 
We began the New Year by interesting H. 
E. Babcock, of Ithaca, formerly county 
agent leader and college professor, now 
General Manager of the G. L. F. Exchange, 
to write on livestock, the dairy industry, 
and cooperative marketing for the coming 
year. Mr. Babcock’s writings have been 
particularly useful and practical, as they are 
By HENRY MORGENTHAU, JR. 
based on his experiences on his own farm, 
coupled with a thorough theoretical ground¬ 
ing. 
Dean Cook continues to write his Plow- 
handle talks and his host of old friends still 
enjoy his sound philosophy. 
Under the careful guidance of Fred Ohm, 
our Associate Editor, the paper goes to press 
each week. Notwithstanding the heavy re¬ 
sponsibilities which have been placed on his 
shoulders, he still continues his interest in 
the boys and girls back on the farm. 
The American Agriculturist family has 
grown under the direction of H. L. Vonder- 
lieth. Circulation Manager, until we have 
over 120,000 members, and he is so encour¬ 
aged that he has promised this family will 
exceed 130,000 by the 1st of September. 
Thus the American Agriculturist has sur¬ 
rounded itself with a group of writers who, 
collectively, are unsurpassed. 
Editorially we have fought and helped to 
get passed legislation of great importance to 
farmers. 
Results Accomplished 
In our June 3rd issue, Henry S. Graves, 
former Chief Forester of the Department of 
Agriculture, told the inside story of how the 
Department of Interior was trying to get the 
Bureau of Forestry transferred from the 
Department of Agriculture to the Depart¬ 
ment of Interior. The result of this contro¬ 
versy was that Secretary Fall of the Depart¬ 
ment of Interior resigned and the Bureau of 
Forestry remained in the Department of 
Agriculture where it belongs. 
Shoulder to shoulder with other friends of 
the cow we fought for the passing of the 
Voight Anti-Filled Milk Bill which became a 
law under the last Congress. 
We were successful with other agencies in 
advocating that potash should be permitted 
to enter the United States free from any 
tariff. 
The Editorial Staff consistently cooperated 
with the Committee of 21 to educate the 
farmer on the Rural School Bill, and we are 
now doing everything in our power to assist 
the Committee in their endeavor to have the 
new school bill become a law. ^ 
Our columns assisted the New York 
Market Growers’ Association in their fight 
against the City of New York to secure the 
farmers’ market place in New York City. 
In the August 26th issue, we pointed out 
editorially that there would be a great short¬ 
age of coal for the coming winter, and that 
there would be a real opportunity for the 
farmers in making money out of cord-wood. 
In September, we were amongst the first 
to point out the fact that it would be the 
world conditions that would control the dis¬ 
posal of the surplus of American agricul¬ 
tural products. 
In the October 2nd issue, we announced 
that President Livingston Farrand had ac¬ 
cepted from the American Agriculturist a 
$200 scholarship in the winter course at 
Cornell. It was Raymond Phillips of Victor, 
N. Y., who won the scholarship. 
The American Agriculturist in the Novem¬ 
ber 11th editorial columns, was the first 
agricultural paper to urge the World’s Dairy 
Congress and National Dairy Show to choose 
Syracuse as its next home. Members of the 
staff worked constantly to bring this great 
exposition to New York and also advocated 
the building of a Coliseum which was neces¬ 
sary as a part of the plan. We were very 
happy when Syracuse'was finally chosen as 
the location. 
On December 9th, we began our editorial 
policy of urging continued restrictions on 
immigration, which we have constantly pur¬ 
sued up-to-date. 
In the latter part of December, we first 
took up the question of the radio and the 
farm which was shortly followed on January 
13th, by our securing Brainard Foote, whose 
articles on how to construct various radio 
receiving sets have proven most valuable to 
our readers. 
In our December 16th issue, we began a 
series of charts on the production of agricul¬ 
ture in the United States, and showing the 
fact that in many crops New York State 
ranks first and that in a total crop production 
New York State ranks fourth in the United 
States. 
On December 30th, we urged the construc¬ 
tive building program for the College of 
Agriculture in both New York and Penn¬ 
sylvania. 
On January 13th, the present state of the 
Country Church, as described by Jared Van 
Wagenen, Jr., was pointed out to be a grave 
problem of the countryside to-day. 
In the January 20th issue, we urged that 
the farmers stand by the Dairymen’s League. 
At the annual meeting of the New York 
Holstein-Friesan Association, held on Jan¬ 
uary 16th, I spoke on the present delay in 
compensating the farmer for his condemned 
cattle under the accredited herd plan, and 
strongly urged that the State Legislature 
appropriate sufficiently large sums to pay 
the. farmer promptly. This suggestion has 
been consistently followed up in our editorial 
columns. Recently the New York State 
Legislature has appropriated five million 
dollars, the largest sum in history for this 
purpose. 
In the March 17th issue, we drew atten¬ 
tion through our columns to the country 
doctor of the old school. The question of 
the country doctor is a very important one, 
and we have urged discussion of this ques¬ 
tion through our columns with the hope that 
we might possibly help in the solution of 
this difficult problem. 
More recently, we endorsed the plan to 
hold a great eastern apple exposition and 
fruit show at the Grand Central Palace, New 
York City, during the week of November 3- 
10, 1923: 
First To Broadcast Farm News 
Broadcasting to the farmers by radio in 
the North Atlantic States was inaugurated 
by the American Agriculturist on April 11th 
in cooperation with the American Telephone 
& Telegraph Company. The first address 
was given by E. R. Eastman, our editor, and 
has been followed with talks by Enos Lee, 
President of the New York State Federation 
of Farm Bureaus; John D. Miller, President 
of the National Milk Producers’ Federation 
and General Counsel for the Dairymen’s 
League Cooperative Association; Mrs. A. E. 
Brigden, President of the New York Federa¬ 
tion Home Bureau; and United States Sen¬ 
ator, Dr. Royal S. Copeland, former Health 
Commissioner of New York City. 
In an editorial in the April 21st issue, we 
endorsed the suggestion of Senator Nathan 
Straus, -Jr., that the New York State Legis¬ 
lature appoint a joint legislative committee 
to study the marketing conditions . this 
coming summer. 
This concludes my report to you, as pub¬ 
lisher, of one year’s hard work. I sincerely 
hope that you will approve of it and any 
suggestions or criticisms that you may have 
to make will be greatly appreciated by me. 
Looking into the future, I assure you that 
the efforts of the staff, contributors and 
myself, will be to give you each week a better 
and more useful magazine than the week 
before. 
