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29-464: It was one of the earliest farm journals, a genre that began in the early 19th century. There were only 600 subscribers at the end of the first year, by 1839 it had grown to 19,000 subscribers. It was available as a weekly paper or a monthly journal. Articles in The Genesee Farmer were collected to form an agricultural journal The Monthly Farmer and Horticulturalist , "made up of selections from

58-607: A certain inventive or mechanical skill, great ability in sketching, and unbounded interest in collecting specimens from the rich fossil deposits on the family farm." In 1837 Eben met James Hall working on the New York State Natural History Survey. Eben was of such service that Hall wrote Amos Eaton , effectively recommending him for scholarship. He instructed in perspective drawing at the school in Troy, New York , county seat of Rensselaer County . In 1838 Horsford

87-646: A daily newspaper serving the farmers of western New York, particularly the valley of the Genesee River . The Genesee Farmer "was dignified, pious, and, in a stilted way, literary. It won the sincere good will of its constituency and some fame. Jesse Buel became an assistant editor in 1833, but soon resigned to edit the Cultivator , which had been established at Albany by the State Agricultural Society in 1834. In 1839 Tucker bought Buel's Cultivator , united

116-795: A family. Seeking advancement, Horsford twice, for six weeks, taught chemistry at Newark College ( Newark, Delaware ). In 1842 he attended an event of the American Association of Geologists and Naturalists, and thereafter took up a study of Justus von Liebig 's Organic Chemistry . Soon he was advocating Liebig's views on agricultural chemistry . He decided to study with Liebig at the University of Giessen in Germany, and departed October 10, 1844. After he qualified to work in Liebig's lab in October 1845, he took up

145-552: A little earlier than August Oetker . In 1854, Horsford, with partner George Wilson, formed the Rumford Chemical Works . They named it after the title of Horsford's position at Harvard. Horsford obtained patents for the production of calcium biphosphate as well as other chemicals. The creation of a commercially successful baking powder was the basis of his wealth, enabling him to pursue personal and philanthropic interests in later life. Horsford's development of baking powder

174-545: A plaque documenting all this placed on Memorial Drive near Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts . A few miles upstream, at the mouth of Stony Brook , he had Norumbega Tower built marking the supposed location of Norumbega , a Viking fort and city, complete with its Althing and America's first Christian bishop. He also commissioned a statue of Leif Ericson that stands on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. The professor wrote

203-462: A series of books, articles, and pamphlets about the Vikings' visits to Massachusetts. After his death, his daughter Cornelia Horsford took up the cause. Their work received little support from mainstream historians and archeologists at the time, and even less today. In honor of Horsford's generous donations to Wellesley College , a building named Norumbega Hall was dedicated in 1886 and celebrated by

232-478: A thorough re-examination. The disposition to follow where ever truth leads, in defiance of preconceived opinions or prejudices, is becoming general, and, if tempered by caution and directed by knowledge, cannot fail to be productive of the happiest of results. ... The beneficial influence of this state of things is most apparent in the pursuits of Education and Agriculture....As the farming body ... has been intellectual and intelligent ... in exact proportion ... has been

261-438: Is to the experience of such men, and the publication of their experience in farming, that the intelligent farmer owes his freedom from many absurd and injurious processes in farming, and the introduction of more rational, and thus more successful methods." "Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris, has become so essential an item in the successful cultivation of the soil, and is so intimately blended with Clover in all our Wheat districts, that

290-547: The Genesee Farmer (a weekly publication)" beginning in January 1836. Then in 1839 Tucker moved to Albany to edit The Cultivator , into which he folded his Genesee Farmer . To serve the Genesee River community, a New Genesee Farmer and Gardener's Journal was launched in 1840 by John J. Thomas and M.B. Bateman, later edited by Henry Colman and Joseph Harris. It merged with American Agriculturalist in 1866. Volume "X" (ten)

319-422: The Genesee Farmer (a weekly publication)". In the opening pages he gives a mission statement for the journal: "The present may be appropriately termed the age of experiment – bold [and] persevering ... No course of proceeding, whatever may be its sanctions, is allowed to escape without investigation – no error, whatever may be its antiquity, can hope for impunity – no dogma, however venerable, but must submit to

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348-448: The Genesee Farmer with it under the name of the Cultivator , and moved to Albany." Son Luther Junior entered the firm in 1852 and publication expanded with Country Gentleman . Its sections included Farm, Garden & Orchard, Fireside, Current Events, Produce Markets. In 1857 Luther went west to survey agricultural developments in other states. Through regional contributors he grew his subscriptions from several states. In 1866, given

377-656: The U.S. Civil War , circulation then fell dramatically, rebuilding from lower numbers. At age 16 Luther Tucker was apprenticed to printer Timothy C. Strong in Middlebury, Vermont . Strong moved his business to Palmyra, New York, and in 1819 Tucker left his employ. He then worked as a journeyman in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and New York. He was first a principle in printing in Jamaica, New York, with Henry C. Sleight in 1824. Two years later he started Rochester Advertiser ,

406-565: The analysis of nitrogen content of grains, an index of their nutritive value as fodder. In February of the following year he began quantitative elemental analysis of "sugar of gelatin", then called glycocoll . Previous attempts at this analysis by Mulder and Bossingault had yielded unwieldy giants; Horsford's result was C 4 H 5 NO 3 , {\displaystyle {\ce {C4H5NO3 ,}}} not exactly right. Henry Darwin Rogers had been

435-453: The collapse of subscriptions due to war, Country Gentleman and The Cultivator were merged. The Cultivator is remembered for carrying articles by Yale University professor Samuel William Johnson , an analytical chemist involved in soil testing , measuring for deficiency in ammonia, lime or phosphorus. In January 1836 Tucker ventured to start an agricultural journal, The Monthly Farmer and Horticulturalist , "made up of selections from

464-473: The leading candidate for the Rumford Chair of Physics until John White Webster got involved. Rogers had been tarnished by association with Vestiges of Creation , and as recommended by Webster, Horsford in Germany visited laboratories and industrial plants before returning from Liebig's lab. Since Rogers and George B. Emerson had charged Webster with incompetence, and challenged his Harvard position, Webster

493-413: The march of national wealth and civilized society. To reduce agriculture to a science and certainty should be the object of every farmer." "To such men as POWEL, THOMAS, BUEL, BRADLEY, COLMAN, ALLEN, STIMSON and others, men who may be considered pioneers in this country, of a system of Agriculture base on experiment, and successful beyond a precedent, the country certainly owes a large debt of gratitude. It

522-433: The store burned down in 1891, a new library for more books donated by Professor Horsford was built on a nearby lot donated by his daughter Lilian, and his daughter Cornelia became the library's first president. Baking powder had contained baking soda and cream of tartar . Horsford replaced the cream of tartar with the more reliable calcium biphosphate (also known as calcium acid phosphate and many other names). He did this

551-521: The theory of its operation, and its practical utility, will be explained and enforced." Students Eben Horsford in Germany and John Pitkin Norton in Scotland acted as correspondents for The Cultivator , contributing monthly letters in 1844 and 5 describing their observations and scientific studies. In 1844 The Cultivator included a reader's review of Liebig's Familiar Letters on Chemistry . An extract

580-548: Was Edward Everett , and Abbott Lawrence had come forward to finance a new scientific school at Harvard. But the funds for Horsford’s lab were consumed by heating costs and salaries for a janitor and assistants. In April 1854 Horsford realized that the demands put upon him were unreasonably onerous and he wrote the Corporation: "The necessity of the elementary instruction made it my fortune to be oppressed pecuniarily and professionally. In attempting to do what seemed to be required, I

609-659: Was an American scientist who taught agricultural chemistry in the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard from 1847 to 1863. Later he was known for his reformulation of baking powder , his interest in Viking settlements in North America , and the monuments he built to Leif Erikson . Horsford was born in Moscow, New York , located in the Genesee River valley, to Jerediah Horsford and Maria Charity Norton. "At home he showed

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638-662: Was assisted by Charles Grafton Page , a patent solicitor who had previously worked at the US Patent Office . Professor Eben Norton Horsford created the Shelter Island Public Library in Shelter Island, New York in 1885. He donated 280 volumes for the first library, which was initially housed in a closet in the Old Store, a building that functioned as a post office, telegraph station, and local meeting place. After

667-460: Was awarded Bachelor of Natural Science in Engineering from Rensselaer School and took up teaching mathematics and natural history at Albany Female Academy . At some point he met Mary L'Hommedieu Gardiner of Shelter Island, New York , a student, and she became the object of his affection, but her father disapproved of the relationship on the grounds that Horsford's income was insufficient to support

696-750: Was compelled almost to lose sight of the objects which as a scientific man I had placed before myself." Horsford taught chemistry and conducted research at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard for 16 years. For textbooks, the same ones that were used in Germany were also followed at Harvard (and Yale): Heinrich Will's Outlines of the course of Qualitative Analysis followed in the Giessen Laboratory (1847), and Remigius Fresenius 's Instruction in Chemical Analysis (quantitative) (1846). His publication included such topics as phosphates, condensed milk, fermentation, and emergency rations. In 1849, he

725-622: Was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in 2006. Horsford became interested in the theory that the Vikings , specifically Leif Ericson , had visited North America, and set out to prove it. He connected the Charles River Basin to places described in the Norse sagas , invented Old Norse etymologies for Algonquian place-names like Naumkeag , Namskaket , and Amoskeag , and 'discovered' Viking archaeological remains. Horsford had

754-520: Was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society . A generous supporter of higher education for women, Horsford became president of the board of visitors of Wellesley College , and donated money for books, scientific apparatus, and a pension fund to the college. He enjoyed remarkable success through his development of processes for manufacturing baking powder and condensed milk. In seeking patents for his inventions, Horsford

783-558: Was keen that Horsford take the Rumford Chair rather than Rogers. On January 30, 1847, Horsford was elected unanimously by Harvard Corporation. With his new position, Horsford obtained permission from Mary's father and they were wed on August 4, 1847. Two years after Mary's death in 1855, Horsford married Phoebe Dayton Gardiner (August 15, 1826 – October 8, 1900), Mary's sister. Horsford had four daughters by Mary and one daughter, Cornelia Horsford , by Phoebe. The new university president

812-815: Was published in 1849, Volume "XI" (eleven) in 1850, and Volume "XX" (twenty) second series was published in 1859. The Cultivator Luther Tucker (May 7, 1802 in Brandon, Vermont – January 26, 1873 in Albany, New York ) was a publisher of farm journals in Rochester and Albany, New York. Tucker started Genesee Farmer (January 1, 1831), acquired The Cultivator (January 1840), and later started Country Gentleman (November 4, 1852). He also started Rochester Advertiser (October 27, 1826), later acquired by Rochester Union , and finally merged into Rochester Times-Union . The agricultural journals were quite popular before

841-739: Was quoted: "Agriculture is both a science and an art . The knowledge of all the conditions of life of vegetables, the origin of their elements, and the sources of their nourishment, forms its scientific basis ." In 1855 Samuel William Johnson had his translation of Liebig's The Relations of Chemistry to Agriculture and the Experiments of Mr. J. B. Laws published by Tucker. In 1975, when Margaret Rossiter wrote The Emergence of Scientific Agriculture , she made over forty references to The Cultivator , indicating that Tucker succeeding in propounding his scientific rhetoric . Eben Horsford Eben Norton Horsford (July 27, 1818 – January 1, 1893)

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