The year was 1895. Yes, there was a world then, too: there was no Internet or cell phone, it was long before the invention of television, Edison and Tesla were trying to resolve the question of whether the direct or alternating current was appropriate, and it was a year before the Post Office Department began its experiment with free mail delivery in rural America. John Deere, by then a successful company famous for making plows, harrows, and tillers, came up with the visionary idea of publishing The Furrow, a magazine for American farmers. The predecessor of today's education-based marketing entered the scene.