VOL. XLIX. NO. 2127 
NEW YORK, NOVEMBER i, i 89 o. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
CULTIVATING A BANK ACCOUNT. 
HOW CAN I SAVE MY EARNINGS ? WHERE DO CENTS GROW 
TO DOLLARS ? 
Not long since the following note was received from a 
young man living in Central New York: 
“ I am a bov, 19 years of age, engaged as a farm laborer, 
and having complete control of my earnings. I find it 
impossible to save amounts large enough to be invested 
profitably, as I am given to spending my money for almost 
useless articles, such things as I could easily do without. 
Moreover, I lend small amounts which I scarcely ever re¬ 
ceive back, etc. Can The Rural tell me if there is any 
place where I could safely invest my 
money in amounts ranging from $2 to $8 
per month ? ” 
This young man had been urged to in¬ 
vest his savings in a “ building and loan 
association ” located in the town near 
him, and he wished to know if we con¬ 
sidered it a reliable concern We know 
from experience how difficult it is for 
the average young man to “get a start.” 
His money comes in very small drops and 
for every dollar he can earn there are 
chances of spending 10. It has occurred 
to us that the experience of some of our 
self-made farmers—who have worked from 
nothing up to a competency or more— 
would be of great service to such young 
men as the one whose letter Is given 
above. We have, therefore, secured the 
following bits of advice, wh 5 ch, we feel 
sure, are well worthy of attention : 
for intelligence which alone can furnish it with continuous 
and profitable employment. [prof.] I. P. ROBERTS. 
Cornell University. 
Why Not Have Grange Banks? 
I have always lived in the near neighborhood of savings 
bank 3 , of which there are in this State one or more in 
nearly every manufacturing town of 6 000 or 8,000 inhabi¬ 
tants. Many of them receive on deposit sums as small as 
five cents at a time. But from the tone of this young 
man’s letter I assume that he lives in a part of the State 
where savings banks are not as numerous or convenient of 
access as in my vicinity. In my boyhood days I always 
to the towns and cities to enrich them at the expense of 
the rural districts. Wherever there is a strong Grange, 
its leaders should be ever on the alert to better the condi¬ 
tion of its members, and the town and section where it Is 
located. Why could not several Granges join and organize 
a co-operative bank in which such young men as this one 
could deposit their savings, and where farmers could bor¬ 
row money at reasonable rates to buy their goods at whole¬ 
sale, and thus get clear of the exactions of the middlemen? 
It is no worse for a farmer to borrow money and pay inter¬ 
est in order to buy his goods at wholesale than it is to get 
credit of the local store keeper, and eventually pay him 
interest and a large profit besides. The 
New York Granges have made a great 
success in the co-operative insurance 
business; why should they not tike up 
the co operative banking business as well? 
Worcester Co., Mass. F. A. putnam. 
Building and Loan Associations. 
The fact that the boy is investigating 
the question with a view of placing his 
earnings where they will accumulate, is 
an encouraging feature of the inquiry. I 
have been carefully noting the success of 
building and loan associations, and find 
that where they are well conducted and 
confine their business to their legitimate 
purposes, they furnish a desirable method 
of investing small accumulations, and if 
this young man 19 years of age can invest 
from §2 to $8 per month and continue to 
do this until he is 25 years old, he will 
have a very handsome little fortune ac¬ 
cumulated. I would commend the local 
building and loan associations to his care¬ 
ful consideration. By local, I mean those 
which loan in the town where they are 
established, and not those that employ 
agents to travel around the country 
soliciting investments, but where the 
stockholders can know something of the 
officers and something in regard to the 
investments themselves. In many cities 
in this State they are working very satis¬ 
factorily, and I presume that this is the 
case in other States where they exist. 
Governor of Michigan. CYRUS G. LUCE. 
The Savings Bank Every Time. 
Answering from my own experience, I 
would, if a boy again, put every dime 
that I did not actually need in one of the 
best savings banks I could learn of. 
These are not perhaps absolutely safe, 
not quite equal to government bonds; 
but I believe them to be the safest places 
within reach of a boy or girl, young or 
old, who wishes to save and invest small 
sums from time to time. The savings 
bank where our surplus is deposited is a 
mutual society, chartered in 1S49, and is 
a fair specimen of our best and safest 
savings institutions. It has over 40,000 
depositors and about $20,000,000 of de¬ 
posits, and a surplus fund of $1,350,000. 
I think it the safest place in which we 
Fig. 329. can invest our money. And then there 
is this advantage in deposits made there 
over those in most other investments, 
that we can draw all or part of the money whenever we 
want it. The dividends last year were five per cent, per 
annum, and they are made and added to the principal 
every six months. Before depositing I consulted a shrewd 
lawyer friend of long experience in investing money. His 
advice was : “ The bank’s the best place you can put your 
money in and it is as safe as the everlasting hills.” 
But our boy friend says: “ I am in the country and these 
banks are in the big cities; how can I manage to deposit 
there ? ” You may have to go to the city to start an 
account, or send the money by or to some trusty friend ; 
after that you can manage all right. I do not go to our 
bank, but send funds from time to time by mail, and it 
would make no difference if it were a thousand miles 
away. A draft on New York or some large city can be 
bought in almost any town. If you cannot buy such, and 
there is an express office, you can buy an express money- 
Savings Bank, Town Lot, Farm. 
First make the savings as large as pos¬ 
sible by practicing rigid self-denial and 
thfn deposit them in a savings bank. 
Leave them there until a considerable 
sum has accumulated and an invest¬ 
ment can be found which will yield a 
larger interest than the bank offers. The 
first thing this young man, without cap¬ 
ital, should learn, is how to secure profit¬ 
able employment; the second how to 
live comfortably yet economically. These 
lessons fairly mastered, the next step is 
to see if it will not be more pleasant and 
profitable to work for himself, handling 
and investing his own savings, than to 
let others make a profit by directing his 
labors and furnishing the brains neces 
sary for making paying investments. The 
bank will realize six per cent, for his 
money while he gets but three. Can he 
afford to pay 100 per cent, of the earniugs 
of his money to save himself from learn¬ 
ing how to attend to his own affairs ? He 
would do better by making a venture in 
a small way at first in order to become 
master of his own business though it may 
cost him something to do so. A house 
and lot or a lot upon which a building 
should be erected in some growing city 
or village—preferably the former—will 
be a perfectly safe investment as well as 
a profitable one for the man of small cap¬ 
ital. The rent of the house and the 
earnings saved will soon clear off the 
mortgage, and the appreciation iu the value of the property 
with the rent will be likely to exceed four or fivefold the in¬ 
terest which the bank pays. The second house and lot can 
be secured more easily than the first, and the two will pur¬ 
chase a moderate-sized farm or a good working interest in 
some modest businessof whichihe may have some knowledge. 
It must not be forgotten that the savings bank should al¬ 
ways be the repository for small daily, weekly and monthly 
surpluses. This young man evidently desires to count as 
a full unit iu society and not as a very small fraction of 
unknown value. If so, he must learn to set himself at 
work and if possible work for himself aud learn to invest 
and handle his own money instead of employing high- 
priced skilled labor to do it for him, and the sooner he 
learns, the greater will be his reward. The weakest link 
in our modern civilization is the distaste for vigorous, con¬ 
tinued mental effort. Labor with its myriad hands clamors 
HOSFORD’S 
MAMMOTH GRAPE. From 
See Page 739. 
Nature. 
made a banker of my mother, and when I had earned a 
few coppers, I turned them over to her for safe-keeping until 
I had accumulated enough to make a deposit in the bank, 
aud she always proved a true and honest bauker, never 
embezzling my funds entrusted to her for safe keeping. 
Perhaps this young man may have some honest friend who 
would willingly act as a temporary hol ier of his savings 
if he stated the case plainly to him or her. It is certainly 
a good sign when a person realizes his failings and begins 
to look about for some means of overcoming them. I have 
bad no personal experience with co operative banks, as 
they are largely termed in this State, but it seems to me 
that this is a matter that the Grange might well take hold 
of in farming sections where that organization is strong; 
for I see no good reasons why farmers might not act as 
their own bankers; and if there were any profits, they 
should be divided among themselves instead of all going 
