1218 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 7, 1022 
PUBLISHER'S DESK 
I would like to take this opportunity 
to express to you thv appreciation of an¬ 
other of your subscribers. Your paper 
has been in our home more than 20 years, 
iirst for my father ami then for my hus¬ 
band, who took over the place at tny 
father’s death. We have subscribed at 
different times for other farm papers pub¬ 
lished in this section, and each time 
found so much that was uninteresting 
and unprofitable that we did not renew 
our subscription. But The It. N.-Y’. is 
so condensed that we manage to get 
through each number even iu the busy 
season, and l think every member of the 
family reads every department through. 
After repeated readings we find we are 
getting acquainted with some of the 
writers, and in every case they prove 
men and women whom we like and wish 
r* know better. They are plain folk and 
thoroughly interested in what they are 
writing about, and not in the effect it 
will produce to see their names in print. 
There is something in the paper and its 
writers that spells "honesty and sin¬ 
cerity,” and we all like that. Just how 
you have been able to maintain this 
spirit for so many years when other 
papers change hands and rise and full in 
quality iu a few years. I do not know. 
I only hope such a change will not come 
to Tiie R. N.-Y. while I have an interest 
in home and farm matters. I trust the 
present editorial staff may stand by the 
paper for many years to come, and when 
it does step out it may hand down to its 
successors the same spirit of sincere help¬ 
fulness it now maintains. 
Ohio. HELEN H. LLOYD. 
This letter suggests a broad range of 
speculation and thought in the publishing 
field. In the past the agricultural pub¬ 
lishing field has heeu treated largely as a 
fertile, virgin soil, to be cultivated for a 
time and developed and exploited as a 
business venture or speculation, some¬ 
times as a chain of units, sometimes as 
one venture in a number of enterprises, 
sometimes as a means of propaganda for 
other enterprises or ambitions, and some¬ 
times as a means of selliug paper securi¬ 
ties of little or no definite value. Many 
of these are necessarily subject to the 
long-distance management or absent 
treatment. They are necessarily iu the 
management of strangers or paid em¬ 
ployes. Our observing correspondent 
has uoted the “ups" and "downs” of 
such publications and the speculative 
changes in them. The Rural Nrw- 
Y'orker has outraged all the money¬ 
making traditions of the publishing 
world. As a business it has gone con¬ 
trary to the general practice. To he suc¬ 
cessful it had to pay its way and make a 
reasonable profit. It has been econom¬ 
ically conducted to that end, but its main 
purpose has not been to make the most 
money, but to create an institution on 
the basis of real service. This could not 
he done through the "absent treatment,” 
through hired assistants. Every farmer 
knows what happens to the farm when 
run by "long distance." The publishing 
office fares no better. The men respon¬ 
sible for the policies of The Rural New- 
Yorker have personally been on the job 
daily for nearly 40 years. The one pur¬ 
pose is to do the best possible service to 
agriculture day by day. The accumula¬ 
tion of that daily personal work has 
grown to make the paper what il now is. 
The young people coming np in its service 
have imbibed its principles and caught 
the inspiration, and our friend can feel 
assured that their spirit and traditions 
will maintain the paper in the future as 
an established institution, hut it may be 
said that we have in tuind to keep them 
yet some years in training for their 
future work and responsibilities. 
Can you give me any information about 
Charles Dillenhcck, who has been around 
this section selling oats for George K. 
Higbie Seed Company of Rochester. N. 
Y\? A large number of farmers have 
ordered oats, to be delivered next Spring, 
and agreed to pay $2.10 per bushel. The 
name of the oats is Siberian Cluster, and 
he has claimed (hat they will yield 200 
bushels per acre. Knowing of the good 
work you are doing to protect farmers 
from fakers. I obtained the enclosed or¬ 
der from a farmer who became a little 
suspicious. In case it is a fake, will the 
farmers be obliged to accept the oats or 
pay for them if delivered? ,L s. K., JR. 
New York. 
We have published the history of many 
cases where George K. Higbie & Co., 
Rochester, N. Y., have sold seeds on simi¬ 
lar preposterous schemes such as the 
above. We always regard an order or 
contract as something sacred when en¬ 
tered into fairly by both parties to it, 
but we do not consider that farmers have 
any moral or legal obligation to pay for 
the oats which they ordered on the 
representation that the grain would yield 
200 bushels per acre. Wherever farmers 
have been tricked into signing orders iti 
this way the best plan for them is to join 
forces for mutual protection, and we have 
never known of a case where a group of 
farmers or any one of them have heeu 
sued ou account of orders they have 
signed through deceptive and fraudulent 
representations of the agent. 
The Baldwiusville Farmers' Co-opera¬ 
tive Association published a warning 
about George R. Ilighie & Co. during the 
past Spring, and it was republished in 
the August 5 issue of The R. N.-Y\ for 
the guidance of our readers. 
Hoes The R. N.-Y. yet oppose invest¬ 
ment in publishing securities? Would it 
think a 7 per cent publisher's bond a safe 
investment, at this time? H. F. 
Massachusetts. 
We oppose nobody nor anything as 
such. We simply try to give our people 
correct information. We have advised 
against publishers’ securities because the 
hulk of such securities have been pure 
fakes, and none of them has offered even 
a fair security for the money. We know 
no publisher’s bond seeking farm money 
that we could recommend as a safe in¬ 
vestment. 
My young daughter has, like many 
others, caught the “fever” that comes to 
most of us in our youth. Do you know 
anything about the United Silverware 
Company in Montreal? Naturally, she 
is anxious to claim her “prize." hut ow¬ 
ing to the fact that the firm gives no ad¬ 
dress other than the postoffice box, and 
demands such an exorbitant price (08 
cents) for packing and mailing expense. 
I am inclined to think the entire offer is 
fraudulent. R. n. it. 
New York. 
The United Silverware Company, the 
Imperial Silverware Company, the Can¬ 
adian Silverware Company, and the 
Crown Silverware Company, all of Mon¬ 
treal, Quebec. Canada, are sending out 
similar cards advising the party lie had 
entered a "puzzle contest” and had won 
a prize, but it would he necessary to 
send 08 cents, for shipping charges, etc. 
It is evident the “prizes” have little value. 
We referred to the Imperial Silverware 
Company previously, and it will be well 
to make a note of the other uarucs. 
I am writing you iu regard to a mat¬ 
ter which came up recently iu regard to 
cans. I was delivering milk last Sep¬ 
tember. 1021, to Amity Dairy Company, 
used their cans and paid rental for them. 
I quit sending my milk to them and took 
it to the Hammond Station, operated by 
the Dairymen's I-eague. Having permis¬ 
sion from the man who hauled my milk 
to use two cans until I could secure 
small ones of my own, I used these cans 
for three days, when a man was at the 
station representing the can federation 
of New York. lie took the two cans, and 
op March 21 I received a letter from 
Shea & Crimmins, attorneys, of Syra¬ 
cuse. asking me to settle for the amount 
of $25, or they would sue for $50 and 
costs, claiming that I had violated the 
general business law. G. IT. 
St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. 
This experience shows how the milk 
can law can he used and is used to annoy 
dairymen and to penalize them if they 
submit to thp process of persecution. 
The law never contemplated any such 
practice, and should he changed to stop 
the abuse. A vigorous attempt is being 
made to induce this dairyman to send 
the attorneys $25 to sustain the perse¬ 
cution of himself aud other dairymen un¬ 
der the distorted provisions of the dairy 
law. We most emphatically advise him 
to refuse to pay the tribute aud to keep 
his money. We do not believe that the 
dealers' association or its attorneys have 
any serious purpose of bringing n suit 
under such circumstances. They know 
that on this record he was using the cans 
with the consent of the owner, and 
strictly within the provisions of the law. 
Nevertheless they are willing enough to 
take the $25. This dairyman can prob¬ 
ably make fully as worthy a use of it as 
they would, and we advise him to keep 
it. If they persist in the suit as threat¬ 
ened. The Rural New-Yorker will de¬ 
fend it at its own expense. We would 
like to thrash this matter out in court, 
and see where dairymen stand on it. 
Born in the mind of a Farmer 
The Safety Razor of the Fields 
It was no accident that a farmer 
invented this wonderful im¬ 
provement, for who but a prac¬ 
tical farmer could understand 
the extreme need for a better 
mower knife — a knife without 
rivets, a knife with sections or 
blades, each instantly and easily 
removable in the field. Always 
sharp, always ready for work— 
the A-M-F Sickle Bar, the 
Safety Razor of the Fields. 
Made in a great Industrial ffant 
Who but the American Machine and 
Foundry Company, with its vast re¬ 
sources and capitalization, its great 
manufacturing plant, should develop 
this real labor-saving; cost - reducing 
[tool! The Company has. for many 
years, been developing and making 
special machinery of many kinds. 
A-M-F Bars are made for ail standard mowing machines and for any width cut. 
Built stronger than old style bars—rust-proofed too by the Intraloy Process. 
A-M-F Blades are high carbon steel, heat treated and tempered. Will not break. 
In handy dozen packages. Interchangeable in all A-M-F Bars. Ask your dealer 
or write us. Head aad bar guaranteed against breakage for one year. 
American Machine & Foundry Co. sll NiwV^ nuo 
Life Galvanizing 
Quick Delivery 
Through Dealers in 
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American Steel & Wire Company 
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