RESPONSIBILITY OF AGRICULTURAL PRESS, ETC. 339 



We believe we are correct in stating that as a matter of fact the 

 agricukural press in its advertising department will be found freer 

 from quack remedies, nostrums and fakes than other class journals ; 

 standing in this respect on an equal footing with the best magazines. 



It will be seen by this then that the agricultural press as a class 

 does aim at a high standard of ethics as to its responsibility to its 

 readers. There are. of course, exceptions, but those sheets admit- 

 ting advertisers of doubtful character will be found, on examination, 

 to be weak and of Ijttle influence 



The subject assigned to me contemplates taking it up more in 

 relation to the responsibility of agricultural papers to nursery ad- 

 vertisers. The unfortunate situation is that there are comparatively 

 few nurserymen using agricultural papers. Those who do, we be- 

 lieve, are uniformly conscientious in filling orders and endeavor to 

 satisfy their customers and do as they agree in their advertisements. 

 We believe, however, that nurserymen do not appreciate the value 

 of the agricultural press as a medium to sell their stock, or they 

 would use it more freely. 



The men who are perpetrating frauds upon the people of the 

 Northwest are not the advertisers of nursery stock to be found in 

 the advertising columns of agricultural papers, but are irresponsible 

 men with a beautifully printed and illustrated catalogue of trees and 

 shrubs, not adapted to this climate, who go about the country so- 

 liciting orders from farmers and deliver stock untrue 'to name, 

 which is too often selected from the brush pile of some Southern 

 nursery or picked up as seconds wherever they can get them. These 

 men never advertise, and it is strange that intelligent people who 

 have been so often warned against the wiles of these fake traveling 

 tree agents will continue to be tempted by a good talker and a 

 highly colored plate book. 



I do not remember that "The Farmer" has ever had a single 

 complaint from any of its subscribers against any advertiser of 

 nursery stock in our paper. Our uniform method in accepting ad- 

 vertisements from people we do not know is to address a letter to a 

 bank in their town, enclosing a stamped envelope for reply, request- 

 ing a report as to the character of the advertiser and his financial 

 responsibility. We have never failed to receive to such questions 

 as we ask uniformly courteous and satisfactory replies — either favor- 

 able or unfavorable — and they have given us our cue. While it 

 might be said that it would be natural for us to ^inquire into the 

 financial standing of an advertiser before accepting his business, it is 

 a matter of fact that the financial standing of the advertiser has very 

 largely to do with his general character. Men who are classed as 



