i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
From T. B. Terry. 
“ CAK farmers deal directly with manufacturers and thus 
save agents’ commissions ? ” Yes, certainly they can, and 
you will find here and there one who does. The writer has 
for years advocated this way of doing business, at our in¬ 
stitutes. He has shown farmers how by simply writing 
a short letter or two they could often save $5, $10 or $20, 
and tried to make them see that they could not afford to 
let others make out of them money that was so easily 
made. But to change farmers into better business men is 
slow work. They do not like to write letters. They often 
lack funds to pay cash down, and so the “ majority of man¬ 
ufacture™ ” are right when they say “ they cannot get 
along without the agents.” They cannot as business is 
now done, nor can the farmers. The majority of the latter 
must have some one to come around and urge them to 
buy a new and improved tool, furnish it at their door or 
station, and trust them for the pay until they can make it, 
no matter if they do pay 25 per cent, more for it. Would 
it were otherwise I But it isn’t. 
In regard to my own practice : I first heard of the ma¬ 
nure spreader through an advertisement in an agricul¬ 
tural paper, and went to the Northern Ohio Fair to see it 
work and bought one of the first that came into Ohio. 
The general agent of the Eureka mower came to my place, 
many years ago, and almost forced me to try one, for 
which I now thank him. 1 was then too set in my way of 
thinking to have bought one, if it hadn’t been brought to 
my door and forced on me for actual trial. (I am going 
to tell the exact truth, even if it makes me out rather 
foolish in my younger days). I bought my first Thomas 
harrow of an agent; but at wholesale price. I fear it 
would have been some years before I got one had not the 
agent come right here to my door. I didn’t believe it 
would do what was claimed for it until with my own 
eyes I saw it work. 
In late years I have bought nearly everything directly 
from the manufacturers, usually first hearing of tools 
through the papers. My binder, horse-dump, hay-rake, 
potato-planter, potato-digger, cultivators, harrows, etc., 
etc., were all obtained directly from first hands. I got my 
Breed’s weeder last year directly from the manufacturers; 
but a letter from an Eastern farmer first called my atten¬ 
tion to it. I had never seen it advertised. For myself all 
I ask of manufacturers is to advertise in the leading papers, 
telling just what they have. I think now I have brains 
and sense enough to judge whether it will be of enough 
use to me to warrant me in buying it. In ordering it I 
either send a draft, or agree to pay as soon as it is tried 
and found satisfactory. There are many other farmers 
who are ready to deal in the same way ; but the masses I 
fear are not. 
About farmers combining to buy of manufacturers: 
Some one person then does the business, and he becomes a 
middleman, and more than once in our Ohio combinations 
the cure has been worse than the disease. Our Granges I 
notice do not say as much as they once did about the ben¬ 
efits of this plan. At an institute this winter, however, 
friend S. H. Ellis, Master of the State Grange, said that if 
farmers combined their purchases through the Grange, 
the difference in the prices at which they could collectively 
get their supplies from first hands and those at which a 
single person could get his from the same source, would be 
as great as the difference between the wholesale figures to 
a single purchaser and the retail figures at our country 
stores. He is all wrong. I bought a barrel of granulated 
sugar last week in Cleveland for 6 % cents per pound. I 
would like to have seen him buy the same day, in the 
same market or delivered there, for one-eighth of a cent 
less, if he took 20 or 80 barrels. The retail price here is 
about eight cents. In the same way I can buy almost 
everything a farmer needs just about as low as any small 
combination of farmers can. Competition is strong every¬ 
where and cash customers do not have to go begging. 
There are some things, of course, that the State Grange, 
buying in very large quantities, could get cheaper than I 
could buying in a small way. But here steps in the fact 
again that some one must do that business, and to pay 
him will eat up about all the saving in cost. To Illustrate: 
A large dealer in the city told me once that he could and 
would sell me a bolt of cotton cloth as cheap as our home 
merchant could buy it, because he bought by the car-load. 
Now, a large enough combination of farmers could employ 
a man shrewd enough to buy as cheap; but the parties 
doing the business in either case would want to make 
something, and I may tvs well support one combination as 
the other. I believe I will do my own buying, individ¬ 
ually ; but still I realize that, take farmers as we find 
them, it might be a good plan to have some one man, the 
best fitted for the business, to order goods for a club, or 
Grange, or Alliance, if a good man could be selected. 
I carry this matter still farther by buying, as far as pos¬ 
sible, our groceries and other supplies for the year at whole¬ 
sale, at one time. The saving amounts to more than most 
people would have any idea of, and we oftentimes get bet¬ 
ter goods. Last year I even tried buying a clock of the 
manufacturers in New York City, the last place where one 
would suppose a farmer could get wholesale rates. But a 
short business letter, describing what I wanted and asking 
for the cash-with-order price, got us for $10.45 a clock 
for which a city jeweler asked $15. This may well be 
called a “very live topic.” It is “live” to me to the ex¬ 
tent of at least 50 solid dollars every year, and much more 
when I happen to need some expensive implement. Three 
letters to manufacturers saved me $106.25 on a piano a year 
or two ago. The Rural writes me: “We will use your 
name or not as you like.” Bless you I I am not in the 
least ashamed of my way of doing business, nor of the cash 
results. An article not backed by the writer’s name does 
not carry full weight. 
From F. Grundy. 
I do not think it would be practicable for manufacturers 
of agricultural implements to deal with farmers singly; the 
cost would be too great. But with organized bodies, as 
Alliances, Granges, etc., it would not only be practicable 
but also of great advantage both to manufacturer and 
farmer. I know dozens of farmers who are working at 
great disadvantage because of lack of a proper supply of 
tools. I know a great many more who would instantly dis¬ 
card old, worn, out-of-date tools, if they were able to buy 
new and improved ones. They are able to buy them at the 
price manufacturers get for them, but not at the price at 
which they are Bold by the retailers. 
An acquaintance of mine owns a small farm which he 
has cultivated for years. He has a rattling good team, and 
when he plows follows the plow afoot. But time and labor 
have begun to tell on him, and last year he decided that 
thereafter he would ride, instead of walking, if he could 
possibly raise the funds to enable him to do so. By some 
means he learned that the price to dealers of a certain sul¬ 
ky plow was $27, and as he had been offered just that sum 
for a milch cow he concluded to let her go and get the plow. 
The retail price of this implement was $45, and as the fac¬ 
tory was not over 80 miles distant he set out early one 
morning to interview the head of the firm. He returned 
late at night without any plow. He said that he laid the 
whole matter before the manufacturer—that he was poor, 
growing old, etc., etc.—but it was no good. He was em¬ 
phatically told that the firm couldn’t do business in that 
way. If they sold him a plow at wholesale rates it would , 
become known and dealers would not handle their goods. 
They advised him to apply to his local dealers, who sold 
their plows, and see what they would do for him. He did 
so, and they agreed to “ knock off ” $1 for spot cash ! The 
old chap will toddle another year. 
It is true that as things now exist the manufacturer is, 
to a great extent, at the mercy of the retail dealer; for if 
the latter will not handle his goods he cannot well place 
them on the market. The retail dealer is the real enemy 
of both manufacturer and farmer. He has pretended to be 
the friend and assistant of both until he has matters so 
arranged that it is well-nigh impossible for them to get 
along without him: meanwhile he holds both by the collar 
and robs them at his pleasure. 
He is the enemy of the manufacturer because he forces 
him to put down the prices of his goods to the lowest living 
notch. He is constantly on the alert for goods that will 
bring him the largest profit. For quality he cares nothing, 
profit is what he is after. This compels the manufacturer 
to use the cheapest material he can find, and necessarily 
to make an inferior article. If a manufacturer decides to 
use better materials and raises the price of his goods ; o 
dealers, he is dropped like a hot poker, and the goods 
other firms are substituted. 
For the same reason the middleman is the enemy of the 
farmer. He keeps in stock and recommends the goods he 
can make the greatest profits on. It makes no difference 
to him if they are puttied and painted trash; they will wear 
out all the sooner and trade will be kept up. I have seen a 
dealer recommend and sell plows that I know were made 
of the poorest materials. He sold them cheaper than other 
makes that stood beside them, and made a larger profit on 
them. 
A few weeks ago I called at the leading hardware and 
implement store in our town and ordered a Wilson bone- 
mill—the one we have seen advertised in agricultural and 
other periodicals for years. The head of the firm, who, by 
the way, is a very energetic and enterprising tradesman, 
said he would write his “ house” in St. Louis for one and 
I could have it within a week. A few days afterwards he 
informed me that the “ house” didn’t have any, but had 
referred him to a firm in Chicago, and he would write to 
it. After about 10 days he told me that he had corres¬ 
ponded with several “houses” in St. Louis, Chicago, and 
some large towns nearer, and none of them knew anything 
about such a mill, and he guessed it wasn’t on the market. 
He could get me a bone-mill of another make from several 
firms, but it would cost a little more money. 
At the St. Louis Fair last fall I examined a large num¬ 
ber of road carts of different patterns and was much 
pleased with the appearance and make-up of one manu¬ 
factured by the Studebaker Company. As the Studebaker 
goods were not “ handled ” in our town, I wrote the firm 
for prices, and in due time received a circular setting forth 
the many excellencies of the cart, and stating that the re¬ 
tail price, crated for shipment, was $25. I went to our 
dealer and asked him to get me one. He said he would 
first write for prices if I would give him time. I happened 
in soon after he had received the letter, and as it lay wide 
open on the desk I glanced at it and saw what made my 
eyes pop. 
" Price of our road carts in lots of six, crated for ship¬ 
ment, $12.50 ” The freight charges on one to this village 
were $1.50; dealer’s profit, $11.00. I might go on and add 
and multiply through whole columns, but every live, 
sensible farmer knows how it is. The implement dealer 
looks pretty well and wears a pleasaut smile, as he can 
well afford to. Farmers pay him well for the privilege of 
dealing with him, and naturally he feels well. The manu¬ 
facturer thanks him for any orders he may send in, and 
respectfully awaits his further commands. 
273 
It would be a very easy matter for farmers and manu¬ 
facturers to unite their forces and get rid of this cormorant 
in short order. But will they do it? Not at present. 
One makes and the other uses, and they may just as well 
deal directly with each other as the baker and miller, but 
they will not do so for two reasons : The manufacturer is 
conservative; he may not like the present methods; but 
they are established, and he Is opposed to Innovations. 
The average farmer doesn’t know how to do business in a 
business-like manner. If any person thinks otherwise, let 
him gather the farmers of a township together and try to 
form an organization for purchasing goods and selling 
products. When all are engaged in growing one crop, and 
using the same sort of machinery, it can be easily done ; 
but where the farming is diversified it is almost as diffi¬ 
cult to unite them as to make water run up hill. 
When farmers learn that pig-headed obstinacy is not in¬ 
dependence ; when they educate themselves to use their 
brains as well as their hands, and to do business in a busi¬ 
ness-like manner, these things will be remedied. I be¬ 
lieve the manufacturer is ready to meet them half way 
whenever he is satisfied that he can do business with them. 
Their interests and his are identical, and they will deal 
directly with each other as soon as the farmers are educat¬ 
ed up to that point. 
Christian County, Ill. 
IMPLEMENT NOTES. 
Origin of Breed’s Weeder. 
Many of our readers who have used the above named 
tool, wonder why it was not thought of years ago, it is 
such a simple affair. Probably such people will be inter¬ 
ested in tbe following note from the inventor of the 
weeder. The R. N.-Y. may add here that it has used the 
Weeder this spring for harrowing in oats and barley with 
good success: 
“ Can you imagine an old man of 60 or more, trying to 
battle with the weeds of a 100-acre New Hampshire farm, 
with only a little boy of 12 to help bim ? Can you see him 
in the spring of ’82, standing stock-still, with head bent, 
and eyes fixed on the ground, in a “ deep brown study ? ” 
Can you imagine him, with his cane, poking through 
the potato-hills, and through the corn-hills, first carelessly 
and then carefully and earnestly as If digging for some 
precious object just at the surface of the ground ? Can 
you see the marks as if a hen had been there with her 
chickens, while the weeds are all cleared out and the ten 
der corn blades, and the more tender potato tops stand 
erect and uninjured ? Can you follow the old man to his 
garden where he poked rather carelessly among the cu¬ 
cumbers just up, and along by the early peas and among 
the broad-leaved early beans? If you could have then 
seen the smile of triumph in that old man’s face you would 
have concluded that " something was up.” 
That old man, when a boy, never could see any manurial 
value in a hoe. A piece of steel with a long handle 
fastened to it could impart nothing to the soil to make 
crops grow. His back used to ache as small boys’ backs 
do when they stoop all day to finger weeds out of potato 
and corn-hills. If fingers can poke out these little weeds, 
why not do it in some other way, on a large scale and by 
horse-power ? Five acres were to be worked by the hoe that 
spring when the old farmer got into that “ study.” His 
back was too old to be bent the time required to do the work. 
The little weeds were up “ as thick as spatters ” all over 
the surface of the five acres. The fingers must do that 
work, if a substitute could not be found. The human 
fingers are hung fast at one end, and are pliable and flex¬ 
ible because they are loose at the other. When “ poking” 
the weeds from the hills, he found that they move easily in 
any direction. “ Suspend long fingers to the underside 
of sticks of timber, and let them slant 10 to 20 degrees; 
attach shafts and handles and the thing is done ; ” so con¬ 
cluded the old farmer. The next morning, bright and 
early, you might have seen him at a pasture fence, cutting, 
from the dead fence hemlocks, dry limbs, three feet 
long and three-fourths of an inch thick. In a short time 
these were sticking from the underside of a 4x4 joist six 
feet long. Handles and shafts were bolted on, and before 
the dinner-bell rang the old farm-horse “ Kit,” was in the 
shafts, standing ready to enter the potato field, the surface 
of which was all green with tiny barn grass. The boy had 
been sent to do other work, so that all the weeding here 
could be done “on the sly.” 
“ Go 1 ” and the old white mare did go, the clatter and the 
clapping of sticks behind her bringing out as much force 
as would a peck of oats. Twice out and back in the same 
rows where the potatoes were four inches high ! A halt 
was then ordered and the work examined. Not a hill was 
turned up, but millions of little weeds were withering in 
the sun. The hills, being a little higher than the surface, 
were completely weeded, and wherever the points of the 
sticks came fairly to the ground, the weeds were com¬ 
pletely rooted up. It is to be presumed that if the old man 
had been away in some distant field, he would have shout¬ 
ed, like the scientist of old on discovering the met hod of de¬ 
termining the specific gravity of gold: “Eureka! Eu¬ 
reka I! ” But being a modest man, and not prone to noise, 
he enjoyed his triumph alone, and kept right on killing 
weeds with his hemlock limbs, and his five acres were 
“ hoed ” with this impromptu." scratcher,” and five acres of 
grass seed and winter rye were “harrowed ” in with it in 
the fall. It was also used on the rye in the spring, to put 
in clover seed, and to “ new up” the surface. 
This is how Breed’s Universal Weeder “came to be.” 
The hemlock sticks are supplanted by spring-steel wire, 
and I trust that many a farmer who uses the weeder will 
be thankful that there was once a hemlock fence that con¬ 
tributed something to the comfort and to the [pockets of 
the hard-working .farmer. 
