1T6 Bureau of Farmeks' Institutes. 



A. T. Stewart is said to have begun his career with |1.50. He 

 invested 88 cents in articles that people would not buy be- 

 cause they did not want them. In this experience he learned 

 what they did want, and invested his remaining G2 cents in 

 these and easily and readily sold them at a profit. All hie life 

 he acted upon this principle and died leaving a fortune valued at 

 140,000,000. John Jacob Astor in his early life closed a mortgage 

 on a millinery store in New York because the parties could not 

 pay the interest. However, he retained them in the store with 

 instructions to take apart all their made-up goods which were 

 unstylish. He then went out into Central Park and when he saw 

 a beautiful, stj^lish hat he went directly to the store and had one 

 made like it and placed in the window. This he did until the 

 store was full of stylish hats that ladies wanted. The result 

 has been that the profits from that store have amounted to over 

 117,000,000. 



A farmer in Indiana had a great many fatted hogs which he 

 could not sell at any price. He went to Boston with his wife, re- 

 solved if he could find anything to do he would give up his farm 

 and hogs, which nobody wanted. While in Boston he saw canned 

 gooseberries selling at 60 cents per pint. He hastened back 

 to his farm, sat out gooseberry bushes, and began the culture of 

 berries, canning them within two hours after they were picked, 

 that the}^ might retain their freshness and tart. His gooseberries 

 were sold in New York for 75 cents per pint and to-day he is one 

 of the largest taxpayers in Indiana. 



An old man lived on a small farm in Vermont and each year 

 tapped a maple tree in front of his house, making a little syrup 

 from the sap. After 40 years of life on this farm he was still 

 poor. One day while making some maple sugar he made it into 

 maple crystals. They were so delicious to the taste that he in- 

 terested some large maple-sugar manufacturers in the scheme 

 and in eight years was worth |280,000. " Unseen opportunities '^ 

 in learning what the public wants. 



A man living in Boston was paying 12 cents per quart for 

 the milk used by his family. One day he learned of a milk dealer 



