Reading of Mark Twain's "How I Edited an Agricultural Paper"

Here's my reading of Mark Twain's classic short story, How I Edited an Agricultural Paper, a seriously funny and trenchant look at both journalism and agriculture.

The guano is a fine bird, but great care is necessary in rearing it. It should not be imported earlier than June or later than September. In the winter it should be kept in a warm place, where it can hatch out its young.
It is evident that we are to have a backward season for grain. Therefore it will be well for the farmer to begin setting out his corn-stalks and planting his buckwheat cakes in July instead of August.
Concerning the pumpkin. This berry is a favorite with the natives of the interior of New England, who prefer it to the gooseberry for the making of fruit-cake, and who likewise give it the preference over the raspberry for feeding cows, as being more filling and fully as satisfying. The pumpkin is the only esculent of the orange family that will thrive in the North, except the gourd and one or two varieties of the squash. But the custom of planting it in the front yard with the shrubbery is fast going out of vogue, for it is now generally conceded that, the pumpkin as a shade tree is a failure.

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(Image: Small cotton house surrounded by agricultural fields, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from kheelcenter's photostream)

Update: Sorry, I dropped a line in the original recording; just uploaded a fix

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

My wife is writing a novel, and told me of this editing advice from Mark Twain: “Replace every instance of the word ‘very’ with the word ‘damn.’ The editors will remove it, and it won’t make a difference anyway.”
GuyNoir

Ahh, Mark Twain. A great way to end the day.
Anonymous

Pity he was a bad botanist — pumpkins are in the cucumber family, Cucurbitaceae.
billstewart

Looks like a lot of technical journalism, especially after it gets filtered out into the regular press. All the buzzwords are spelled correctly, but …