The American agriculturalist and journalist Jesse Buel (1778-1839) pioneered in the effort to make farming more scientific and more productive. The new agricultural methods he developed were disseminated to other farmers through his journal.

Jesse Buel was born on Jan. 4, 1778, in Coventry, Conn., the youngest of the 14 children of farming parents. When Jesse was 12 years old, the family moved to Rutland, Vt., where he was apprenticed to a printer 2 years later. He worked as a journeyman printer on newspapers in New York City and upstate New York, and in 1797 he began publishing his own newspapers.

Buel's newspaper career lasted until 1821; he published papers in Lansingburgh, Troy, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, and Albany. During his residence in Albany he was the printer for the state. By the age of 43 Buel had acquired a reputation as an editor and built up a sizable fortune in personal property and real estate. He then...