156 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



April, 1914 



Romances of Modern Business 



CHAPTER IV 



The Story of a Mattress 



When an old Frenchman a quarter of a cen- 

 tury ago fidgeted in the pew of his provincial 

 church and wondered why worship of the 

 Almighty must be attended with hard 

 benches he was approaching a genuine service 

 to the world. For he thought out a way to 

 make pew cushions for churches and from his 

 idea a great business grew in far-away Amer- 

 ica, that of Ostermoor & Company. 



Mr. M. G. Ostermoor and Mr. Edwin A. 

 Ames in a modest way began making church 

 cushions. Later they developed the idea and 

 made a mattress. A small trade was built up 

 with hotels and hospitals ; but the business was 

 limited. 



Just then fate turned a lucky card for the 

 owners of the Ostermoor patent when a well- 

 known advertising agent called at the small 

 office of Ostermoor & Company. He urged 

 Mr. Ames to expend two hundred dollars in 

 advertising the only mattress that was built 

 and not stuffed. That was in 1895. 



The suggestion was not even taken seriously. 

 Today Mr. Ames tells of this with relish. 



"I had so little faith in advertising that it 

 took this agent nearly three months to induce 

 me to dig down in my jeans and produce the 

 two hundred dollars," he relates in his charac- 

 teristic way. "He had explained over and 

 over again that I would be exploiting my mat- 

 tress and necessarily creating a demand for it, 

 but at that time I could not see the logic of it. 



"And when the agent showed me the copy 

 and told me he intended spending all my 

 money for a half page in one magazine — well, 

 what I thought of him wouldn't be esthetic 

 publicity. 



"But my surprise can be imagined when 

 in a few days the orders from that one adver- 

 tisement amounted to nearly one thousand 

 dollars. Naturally, I continued to increase 

 my advertising appropriation until we were 

 using some thirty national magazines. 



"When I tell merchants that my adver- 

 tising appropriation has reached two hund- 

 red thousand dollars a year, and that my 

 business has been built up through national 

 magazine advertising, there is little need of 



anyone asking if I am a believer in national 

 magazine advertising." 



The Ostermoor Company not long ago 

 celebrated the twenty-first anniversary of its 

 organization. The first three years of its 

 business life were meager; for the Ostermoor 

 Mattress, like many other advertised com- 

 modities, had a modest beginning and a 

 struggle during its early existence. 



A dynamic force must be brought into the 

 making of the success of a commercial pro- 

 duct. This stirring influence — need it be 

 said? — is the power to tell the people what 

 the merchant has, and to tell them in a way 

 that will command attention, interest, and 

 confidence. 



The success of the Ostermoor Mattress is a 

 striking example of the application of this in- 

 fluence to business. 



Eighteen years ago, the Ostermoor Mattress 

 first was advertised in a national magazine. 

 Since then its makers have consistently adver- 

 tised in the magazines of national circulation. 

 Today it is seldom that you lie down in a 

 hotel, club, or home without reposing on an 

 Ostermoor. 



Mr. Ames and his business associates freely 

 give magazine advertising credit for their 

 success. Hear him further: 



"Our business has grown beyond our 

 fondest expectations. As an example, I 

 might state we did more business during the 

 month of October, 19 13, than we did during 

 the entire year of 1896. And as the business 

 was built entirely upon magazine advertising, 

 we, naturally, feel indebted to the magazines." 



But it is not sufficient merely to tell of the 

 success achieved by the Ostermoor Company 

 through the force of national magazine 

 advertising; for the same power has per- 

 formed another service. This is the scope 

 of its achievement for the buying public. 



The Ostermoor has brought comfort to 

 thousands, has lightened the weariness of 

 travel and lessened the strain of sickness. It 

 is an important feature of our present-day 

 contributions to comfort and happiness. Such 

 products have more than a commercial mission. 



This is the fourth of a series of articles that is being published to show how 

 magazine advertising is serving the public. 



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• 



Trying Out Novelties 



I PLANT several novelties every year and in the 

 last five years have grown but few that have 

 proved worthless or no better than the common 

 sorts. It sometimes happens that novelties that 

 have made poor showing here are well suited to 

 other sections of the country. This is the case with 

 the Burpee Bush lima. It likes cool nights and 

 succeeds better at the North than in the South. 

 The Improved Burpee Bush lima, a much longer 

 and larger podded sort, gives much better results 

 with us than the old Burpee Bush lima, and in 

 quality it is above all bush limas. Fordhook Bush 

 lima is still more productive here, the pods and 

 beans being of the Dreer type. I believe this is one 

 of the most valuable of the novelties that have been 

 introduced in seven or eight years. 



Two more very valuable new lima beans is Hen- 

 derson's Ideal pole lima and Burpee's Giant Pod- 

 ded pole lima. These are fine for exhibition on 

 account of their mammoth pods. They give best 

 results here in rich, moist soil. They are very 

 prolific. 



Dwarf Giant tomato is another valuable novelty. 

 The fruits are almost as large as Ponderosa. It 

 does not have the strong tomato taste, the fruit 

 being very sweet and firm. 



Ailsa Craig onion is a yellow variety that can be 

 grown to a very large size in a remarkably short time 

 from seed, but must have a rich soil and plenty of 

 moisture. ■ Berks County Bottle onion is very dis- 

 tinct, being as its name indicates bottle shaped and 

 with a brownish yellow skin. It does not grow to 

 an extra large size but is very early, tender and of 

 good quality. 



Gregory's Bush pumpkin is a prolific novelty. 

 It is a true bush type the fruit being medium in 



The new Baby Delight watermelon, with an exceedingly 

 thin rind and rich, carmine flesh 



size. They are excellent for small gardens; they 

 can be grown as close together as bush squashes. 

 The fruits are golden yellow., of good quality and 

 very early. 



The Fordhook muskmelon is one of the sweet- 

 est varieties I have grown. It is not only of good 

 quality, but is very prolific. 



Livingston's Coreless tomato is a very highly 

 valued variety on account of its being all meat and 

 an almost perfect ball shape. 



Landreth's Fourteen Top turnip is a great im- 

 provement over the old Southern Seven Top, which 

 has been so highly prized in the South for winter 

 greens. This new introduction produces from 

 twelve to eighteen buds and makes a great mass of 

 large leaves. Like the old Seven Top it does not 

 make roots. 



Japan Mammoth turnip (Shogoin) like the Main- 

 moth Sakurajima radish in size, is round in form, 

 and has small tops for so large a turnip. The 

 leaves are different from all other varieties, being 

 very narrow and thin. The roots are of extra good 

 quality and sweet and tender. The leaves which 

 grow very rapidly are also good for greens. 



A little melon that is bound to become a favorite 

 wherever tried is the new Baby Delight, a pretty 

 little round watermelon with exceedingly thin rind 

 of dark green; the meat, a rich carmine, is very 

 tender and sweet. When grown the fruit weighs 

 from three to five pounds. The seed is about the 

 size of a match head. The vines are long and pro- 

 duce melons continuously throughout the season. 



Georgia. Thomas J. Steed. 



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