Your name the course number the professor s name 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 The introduc tory paragraph or introduc tion should set the context for the rest of the paper Tell your readers why you are writing and why your topic is important If your paper is long you may want to write about how your paper is organized This will help your readers follow your ideas Elizabeth L Angeli Professor Patricia Sullivan English 624 12 February 2012 Green text boxes contain explanations of MLA style guidelines Blue boxes contain directions for writing and citing in MLA style Angeli 1 Page numbers begin on and with page 1 Type your name next to the page number so that it appears on every page 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 I end my paper with a third section that offers research questions that could be answered in future versions of this paper and Titles are centered and written in 12 point Times New Roman font The title is not bolded underlined or italicized The thesis statement usually is the last sentence of the introduc tion The thesis is a clear position that you will support and develop throughout your paper This sentence guides or controls your paper MLA requires double spacing throughout a document do not single space any part of the document Angeli 2 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 HISTORICAL CONTEXT When using headings in MLA title the main sections B level headers in a different style font than the paper s title e g in small caps The headings used here follow an A B C 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 come up with your own headings as long as they are consistent 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 but a large part of American life was affected a part 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 developments of canals and steamboats which allowed farmers to sell what has previously been unsalable sic and resulted in a substantial increase in a farmer s ability to earn income Danhof 5 This Use personal pronouns I we us etc at your instructor s discretion Headers though not required by MLA style help the overall structure and organiza tion of a paper Use them at your instructor s discretion to help your reader follow your ideas If there is a gramma tical mechanical or spelling error in the text you are citing type the quote as it appears Follow the quote with sic The paragraph after the B level headers start flush left after the headings Use another style e g italics to differen tiate the C level headers from the B level headers The paragraph continues directly after the header Use footnotes to explain a point in your paper that does not quite fit in with the rest of the paragraph Insert the footnote directly after the phrase or clause to which it refers Angeli 3 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 In text citations occur after the quote but before the period The author s authors name s go before the page number with no comma in between 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