For more than a century, Wallaces Farmer has been one
of the most prominent farm journals in the United States.
Founded in 1895 by three members of one family, it began
as Wallace’s Farm and Dairy and then Wallaces’ Farmer
and Dairyman. The shift in the apostrophe’s location proclaimed that it was a family publication. The first editor
was the patriarch, Henry Wallace (1836–1916). A Presbyterian minister, he had entered agricultural journalism
in 1880, soon became editor of the Iowa Homestead, but,
after clashing over editorial policy with the business manager, James Pierce, lost his position. He quickly joined
forces with two of his sons, Henry C. and John, in the new
venture. By the beginning of the twentieth century, it had
become profitable, dropped and Dairyman from the name,
and adopted a slogan: Good Farming — Clear Thinking
— Right Living.
Based in Des Moines and focused on corn-belt farmers,
Wallaces’ Farmer had a broad range, including politics and
religion as well as farming. The Wallaces used the magazine as an instrument of reform. They sought to persuade
farmers to discard their disdain for “book farming” and
treat farming as an intellectual as well as a physical enterprise. Such changes, they assumed, would make farming
more productive, more rewarding, and more satisfying and
persuade bright boys and girls to stay on the land. Thus,
the nation would get the large and talented farm population
it required for success. Hoping to build what they called a
“distinctly rural civilization” outside the cities, the reformers were determined to prevent the United States from
becoming totally urban in population and culture.
For four decades, the Wallaces edited their magazine,
and it enabled them to become wealthy and prominent.
President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Henry to a Country Life Commission in 1908 (created to improve the quality of agricultural and rural life). After his death in 1916,
Henry C. (1866–1924) succeeded him as editor and served
until Warren Harding called upon him in 1921 to become
secretary of agriculture. His son, Henry A. (1888–1965),
then took over and remained editor until 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt chose him to represent agriculture in the president’s cabinet.
Shortly before Henry A. moved to Washington, the family lost ownership of the magazine. They had purchased
their rival, the Iowa Homestead, in 1929, but the Great
Depression seriously damaged their business, enabling
Dante Pierce, James’s son, to take control of Wallaces’
Farmer and Iowa Homestead.
The magazine remained in business well into the twentyfirst century. Along the way, it removed the apostrophe and
became simply Wallaces Farmer. It maintained its focus on
Iowa farmers, trying to help them become profitable. They
became the scientific and productive farmers the Wallaces
had encouraged them to be. In fact, they participated in an
agricultural revolution. Contrary to the hopes of the Wallaces, however, the revolution did not hold farmers on the
land. Instead, it substituted technologies for people, sharply
reducing the size of the farm population.
By the twenty-first century, Wallaces Farmer had
become significantly different from what it had been when
the Wallaces were in command. It was no longer familyowned. Instead, it was part of a large nation-wide combine,
the Farm Progress Companies. Its circulation was only
about a quarter of what it had been at its peak following the
merger of 1929 when circulation included about 250,000
paying subscribers. The magazine, like Iowa farmers, had
felt the force of the agricultural revolution.
Further Reading
Culver, John C., and John Hyde. American Dreamer: A Life of
Henry A. Wallace. New York: W.W. Norton & Company,
2000.
Kirkendall, Richard S. Uncle Henry: A Documentary Profi le of
the First Henry Wallace. Ames: Iowa State University Press,
1993.
Winters, Donald L. Winters. Henry Cantwell Wallace as Secretary of Agriculture, 1921–1924. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970.
Richard S. Kirkendall