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The thesis
statement
is often
(but not
always) the
last
sentence of
the
introductio-
n.
The thesis
is a clear
position
that you
will support
and
develop
throughout
your paper.
This
sentence
guides
your paper.
Angeli 1
E.L. Angeli
Professor Patricia Sullivan
English 624
12 February 2012
Toward a Recovery of Nineteenth Century Farming Handbooks
While researching texts written about nineteenth century farming, I found a few
authors who published books about the literature of nineteenth century farming,
particularly agricultural journals, newspapers, pamphlets, and brochures. These authors
often placed the farming literature they were studying into an historical context by
discussing the important events in agriculture of the year in which the literature was
published (see Demaree, for example). However, while these authors discuss journals,
newspapers, pamphlets, and brochures, I could not find much discussion about another
important source of farming knowledge: farming handbooks. My goal in this paper is to
bring this source into the agricultural literature discussion by connecting three
agricultural handbooks from the nineteenth century with nineteenth century agricultural
history.
To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into four main sections, two of
which have sub-sections. In the first section, I provide an account of three important
events in nineteenth century agricultural history: population and technological changes,
the distribution of scientific new knowledge, and farming’s influence on education. In the
second section, I discuss three nineteenth century farming handbooks in
connection with the important events described in the first section. Special
attention is paid to the role that these handbooks played in the dissemination of
agricultural knowledge (and the creation of genuinely new knowledge). I end
If your
paper is
long, you
may want
to write
about how
your paper
is
organized.
This will
help your
readers
follow
your ideas.
MLA requires
double-spacing
throughout a
document. Do
not single-
space any part
of the
document.
Page numbers
begin on page
1 and end on
the final
page. Type
your name
next to the
page number
in the header
so that it
appears on
every page.
Your name,
the
professor's
name,
the course
number, and
the date of
the paper are
double-
spaced in 12-
point, Times
New Roman
font. Dates in
MLA are
written in this
order: day,
month, and
year. Do not
abbreviate the
month.
Titles are
centered
and written
in 12-point,
Times New
Roman
font. The
title is not
bolded,
underlined,
or
italicized.
Blue boxes contain
directions for writing
and citing in MLA
style.
Green text boxes
contain explanations
of MLA style
guidelines.
The
introduc-
tory
paragraph,
should set
the context
for the rest
of the paper.
Tell your
readers
why you
are writing
and why
your topic
is
important.
Use
personal
pronouns
(I, we, us,
etc.) at
your
instructor’s
discretion.
Angeli 2
When using
headings in
MLA, title
the main
sections
(Level 2
headers) in
a different
style font
than the
paper’s
title, e.g., in
small caps.
The headings used here follow a three-
level system to break the text into
smaller sections. The different levels
help organize the paper and maintain
consistency in the paper’s organization.
You may use your own format for
headings as long as they are consistent.
with a third section that offers research questions that could be answered in future
versions of this paper and conclude with a fourth section that discusses the importance of
expanding this particular project. I also include an appendix after the Works Cited that
contains images of the three handbooks I examined. Before I can begin the examination
of the three handbooks, however, I need to provide an historical context in which the
books were written, and it is to this that I now turn.
H
ISTORICAL
C
ONTEXT
The nineteenth century saw many changes to daily American life with an increase in
population, improved methods of transportation, developments in technology, and the
rise in the importance of science. These events impacted all aspects of nineteenth century
American life (most significantly, those involved in slavery and the Civil War).
However, one part of American life was affected that is quite often taken for granted: the
life of the American farmer.
Population and Technological Changes. One of the biggest changes, as seen in
nineteenth century America’s census reports, is the dramatic increase in population. The
1820 census reported that over 10 million people were living in America; of those 10
million, over 2 million were engaged in agriculture. Ten years prior to that, the 1810
census reported over 7 million people were living in the states; there was no category for
people engaged in agriculture. In this ten-year time span, then, agriculture experienced
significant improvements and changes that enhanced its importance in American life.
One of these improvements was the development of canals and steamboats,
which allowed farmers to “sell what has previously been unsalable [sic]” and resulted in a
If there is a
gramma-
tical,
mechanical,
or spelling
error in the
text you are
citing, type
the quote as
it appears.
Follow the
error with
“[sic].”
The
paragraph
after the
Level 2
headers
starts flush
left.
Be sure
to
differen-
tiate the
Level 3
headers
from the
Level 2
headers.
The
paragraph
continues
directly
after the
header.
Headings,
though not
required by
MLA style,
can help the
overall
structure and
organization
of a paper.
Use them at
your
instructor’s
discretion to
help your
reader follow
your ideas.
Angeli 3
“substantial increase in [a farmer’s] ability to earn income” (Danhof 5). This
improvement allowed the relations between the rural and urban populations to strengthen,
resulting in an increase in trade. The urban population (defined as having over 2,500
inhabitants) in the northern states increased rapidly after 1820.1 This increase
accompanied the decrease in rural populations, as farmers who “preferred trade,
transportation, or ‘tinkering’” to the tasks of tending to crops and animals found great
opportunities in the city (Danhof 7). Trade and transportation thus began to influence
farming life significantly. Before 1820, the rural community accounted for eighty percent
of consumption of farmers’ goods (Hurt 127). With the improvements in transportation,
twenty-five percent of farmers’ products were sold for commercial gain, and by 1825,
farming “became a business rather than a way of life” (128). This business required
In-text
citations
occur
after the
quote but
before the
period.
The
author’s/
Insert the
footnote
after the
punctuatio-
-n mark
that
concludes
the
sentence.
Use
endnotes to
explain a
point in
your paper
that would
otherwise
disrupt the
flow of the
text.
