THE FARMERS' PUBLISHING CO. 103 



interest to the rural population could be given 

 in much less space than was being taken to 

 carry city news, and purely city advertising. It 

 would not be necessary to equal the size of the 

 city papers, seeing that at least one-third of the 

 contents of the city dailies most widely circulat- 

 ing in Ontario was really waste matter for rural 

 subscribers. 



The rural mail delivery brought newspapers to 

 the farms at trifling expense, so that in the mat- 

 ter of distribution the farmers' paper would be 

 at once on a par with the greatest journals in the 

 province. On the business side it was apparent 

 that, as every farmer buys more goods than the 

 average city reader owing to his calling necessi- 

 tating continual purchases from manufacturers 

 and other large advertisers, the farmers' con- 

 stituency as a buying community was on a 

 higher level than the average community to 

 which existing journals appealed. A journal 

 written for a constituency of two hundred thou- 

 sand families not now furnished with a daily 

 paper devoted to their requirements, and con- 

 ducted with as much or more ability than was 

 applied to its competitors, it was felt, would 

 have every prospect of substantial success. 



The great question, therefore, was one of 

 finance; and here also was the great difficulty. 

 It must be remembered that, up to this time, 



