Please note this is a new, photoduplicated reproduction, NOT an original.
The Department of Agriculture—established by President Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War—published hundreds and hundreds of booklets that spread the knowledge gained by government and university researchers to every farm town, hamlet, and household. Many were highly specific, such as Farmers' Bulletin No. 1514: Control of sugar-beet nematode by crop rotation. But many, like this one, were also designed to assist families struggling to support themselves in areas where there were simply no industrial enterprises and no jobs. They gave an expert’s general overview of a subject or topic—enough information for someone to figure out if the subject was something they wanted to take a crack at or not. And, many farmers and their families were quite capable of figuring out specifics for themselves, once they had a good general idea of what they were about.