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EVENING LEDGER-PHILADELPHIA, TUESDAY. JUNE 8. 1915.
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LEADERSHIP ,
' the first of four advertisements descriptive of The Country Gentleman
There are between six and seven million farms in the United
States. Of these probably about three million are owned or operated
by people of such intelligence and prosperity as makes them poten
tial customers for the higher grades of merchandise.
In addition to these, there are probably one million families
living in towns or cities, but who have a direct interest in farms,
and who also have intelligence and means which make' them valu
able customers for farm utilities as well as for general merchan
dise. This means, a total market for farm advertising of 4,000,000.
But these 4,000,000 families are not of equal value.
There is at the top a narrow margin, probably covered by
250t000, that represents leadership in the agricultural field. These
are the well-known, progressive farmers who set the pace in their
respective localities, the county agents, country bankers and
agricultural educators.
About half the market, or 2,000,000 is made up of farm families
who have some education, live fairly comfortably, and offer a market
for many kinds pf goods, but who do not have large purchasing
power and are not influential. Each of them counts one in his
community. But they follow, they do not lead.
Between, lies the middle class of about 1,750,000 substantial
farmers, of a high degree of intelligence and progressiveness. These
are the business farmers alert, systematic business men. These
men are studying efficient organization, crop rotation, intensive
cultivation, price grading and profitable marketing. MJany of them
are working under the direct advice of county agents or in constant
touch with government experiment stations. Some of them have
-but a few acres, some of them tens of thousands.
They arc all out for profits and the most important thing about
farming for them is getting the dollar back.
In the last decade or two this kind of farmer has been increas-.
ing very rapidly. The agricultural colleges and schools are turning
out such men at the rate of more than 20,000 a year.
Inevitably tfrere arose among men like these, as they multiplied,
a need for a certain kind of farm paper a publication that viewed
agriculture as a business to be prosecuted by business methods, that
looked beyond the rail fences of local and sectional affairs and viewed
the whole sweep of national progress from the point of view of the
intelligent farmer.
In 1911 The Curtis Publishing Company bought The Country
Gentleman for the purpose of reconstructing it to meet this obvious ,
and growing need.
The editorial idea on which The Country Gentleman is being
published is not new, nor experimental. v
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Long ago, by the growth of The Ladies' Home Journal and The
Saturday Evening Post, the same fundamentals were proved sound
and practical.
Applying these fundamentals to the farm field, we have built in
The Country Gentleman a publication which is unique because it
has the following characteristics:
(1) A national farm paper, covering all sections.
(2) A general farm paper, covering all agricultural
subjects.
(3) A genuine family paper, touching all interests of
the country home.
(4) The exponent of farming as a business reaching
in each farm center the important group of in
fluential, up-to-date business farmers.
In its four years under new ownership, the circulation of The
Country Gentleman has increased from 21,000 to 350,000. This
circulation thus far has been obtained almost entirely from the leaders
of agricultural progress in town and country.
An astute politician once said that if he could get the right two
men in every town he could carry the state politically.
Mr. Smith, the leading farmer of his community, buys a silo
that has been attracted to his attention through the advertising
pages of The Country Gentleman. His neighbors, who respect his
sound judgment, buy similar silos, though possibly they themselves
are not readers of The Country Gentleman.
Mr. Smith's wife reads of a household product, buys it in the
city, and then calls for it at the rural general store. The store
keeper is accustomed to look to Mrs. Smith for ideas. He promptly
stocks the article for which she asks, although requests from other
patrons might have been ignored and those who are accustomed
to buy what the store carries automatically become purchasers of
that brand.
It is because The Country Gentleman is reaching the men and
women who hold leadership in methods and in merchandise among
progressive business farmers, that The Country Gentleman has
been able so early to demonstrate its efficiency for the advertising
both of farm utilities and general merchandise.
This is perhaps demonstrated by the fact that in 1914 The
Country Gentleman was one of the six among the 54 leading farm
papers which showed an increase in volume of advertising.
And its increase was greater than the aggregate increases of
all the other five put together.
V
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
' INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
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The Saturday Evening Post
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