 Industrialist Phineas P. Mast, the owner of P. P. Mast, manufactured farm and agricultural tools, and he wanted a magazine to promote his products.Mast made wind engines, pumps, plows and mowers in Springfield, Ohio.Mast hired John S. Crowell away from the successful "Home and Farm" of Louisville in 1877 to manage the new bi-monthly farm journal called "Farm & Fireside".