1905. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER.. 
35i 
PUBLISHER’S DESK. 
It may interest you to know how the 
mail is handled in a large publishing 
house. Our system is as follows: 
First of all the letters are put into a 
leather mail bag at the Postoffice and 
locked. This is brought to the office and 
opened by some one in charge of the 
key. Then the envelopes are all cut with 
a sharp-pointed knife. They then go to 
clerks, who remove the contents of each 
envelope, separating those which con¬ 
tain money from the others. Those which 
contain no money are put into baskets for 
the editorial and advertising and other 
business departments. Then each letter 
containing money is carefully examined, 
and the amount of the remittance is plain¬ 
ly marked on the letter with blue pencil. 
Then the money is handed over to the 
cashier, who makes up a schedule showing 
just what each item is recened for, and 
the different amounts are entered on the 
books to the proper credits. His schedule 
must ultimately agree with the list made 
up by the clerks who open the mail and 
pass the remittances on to him. 
Now we come to the handling of the 
subscription mail. Each of these letters 
contains one or more subscriptions and 
a remittance. The remittance has been 
passed on to the cashier, and the amount 
is marked, as I have said, on each let¬ 
ter. These are compared with the sub¬ 
scription list, so as to make sure which 
are new and which renewal orders. These 
are kept separate for a time. To credit 
up the renewals, we have only to find the 
name on the mailing list, and change the 
date to credit you for the amount of your 
subscription. But a list has to be made 
of the new names and given to the type¬ 
setters properly indexed, so that the 
names go on the list in the proper place. 
This list is arranged alphabetically by the 
Postoffices, there being a separate list for 
each State. This is why it is necessary 
for you to always give your Postoffice ad¬ 
dress with a remittance. After these 
names have been put in type and placed 
on the list, and the dates charged on the 
renewal subscriptions, one clerk holds the 
proof from the printer and another the 
written lists, and the two are compared 
to see that no error has been made. 
When these corrections, if any, are made 
the proof is again compared with the list 
and now it is ready to he used in mail¬ 
ing your paper. The list is cut up, leav¬ 
ing one name on a tab by a little ma¬ 
chine which pasts it on the paper at the 
same time. This is the tab containing 
your name which you see on the paper 
every week. 
. But we are not through with the day’s 
mail yet. A large cabinet in the office 
contains long narrow drawers, which slide 
in and out one above the other like the 
drawers in a bureau, only smaller. These 
drawers contain cards 3 x 5 inches, and 
there is one card for each name on the 
subscription list. One of these cards con¬ 
tains your name and address, the date and 
amount of every remittance you have 
sent in during the last five years, and the 
date of the expiration of your subscrip¬ 
tion. It also tells whether the subscrip¬ 
tion came direct from you, or if not, the 
name of the sender and a record of any 
hook or other matter mailed you. One 
of these cards is found in the cabinet for 
each renewal of subscription sent in for 
the day; and the clerk has only to find 
the card, put in the record of, the renewal 
just received, and replace the card in the 
cabinet. For each new subscription a 
new card is made out, giving name and 
address in addition to the record of the 
order. These are then placed alphabeti¬ 
cally in the cabinet. In this way a 
double record of each subscription ac¬ 
count is kept. It involves a great deal of 
work, as you see, but by this system few 
mistakes are made. Still, an error will 
creep in now and then. When they oc¬ 
cur we are, of course, able to trace the 
records promptly and are always glad to 
correct them. From all this work and 
pains you will understand how anxious, 
we are to avoid errors. 
In addition to these records all these 
subscription letters are filed away alpha¬ 
betically, so that they can be found again 
if needed to trace an error or complaint. 
When the records are all complete the 
Publisher and Editor, too, like to run over 
the letters. This keeps us in touch 
with your needs and enables us to 
supply what you want in the way 
of a farm paper. Besides this there is 
an inspiration in the kindly sentiments of 
all these letters that helps and cheers us 
more than you who write them cam know. 
There are several hundred of these every 
day, and some days they run into the 
thousands. We cannot undertake to an¬ 
swer them personally, but we want you 
to know that they help us. We enjoy 
them, and we appreciate them. It may 
be only a single line—a word or two, or 
a long letter. It may be a word of ap¬ 
proval, or a kindly word of criticism or 
suggestion. One may be written in fault¬ 
less English, and the next without gram¬ 
matical rule. The lines of one may he 
perfect in formation and the other show 
that the writer is more familiar with the 
rough implements of the soil than with 
the pen. We never think of these differ¬ 
ences. We scarcely see them or realize 
them. It is the expression of kindly 
feelings and good will that move us and 
not the form or means of expression. The 
mail that I have just read is full of them, 
and it has made me happy. 
Here are a few samples taken at ran¬ 
dom from the day’s mail: 
Yours is tlie best all-around farm paper we 
have ever read, and we feel as though while 
we might keep house without it. we could 
not keep a farm without it. at least as a farm 
should he kept. We are your sincere 
friends. MB. and mbs. d. c. s. 
To show you my love for your matchless 
paper, 1 make a gift of it to M'r. and Mrs. 
W. who are large farmers and poultry keep- 
ers. I take Tub u. N. y, and five other 
farm papers and the dailies, and I put yours 
a l the top. Hoping you continued success. 
Ohio. w. t. e. 
Kudosed please find one dollar for The 
K. N.-Y. for the year 1905, and the Business 
lien. I take seven papers and think yours 
the best of them all. f. s. c. 
New York. 
Couldn’t get along without Tub U. N.-Y., 
the best paper of the dozen I read. 
Maine. w. i. e. 
I don’t want to miss a single paper. I 
have 10 or 12 papers every week, but rather 
miss any one of the others. I am pleased 
with the Business Hen, a grand, good hook, 
full of advice. I have a llock of almost 200 
White Leghorns. L. J. d. 
New York. 
1 thank you for “The Business TTen.” 
This is the most practical little book on the 
subject of poultry keeping that I have met 
with, and it supplies a long-felt want in this 
house. j. w. f. 
British Columbia. 
I am well pleased with your paper. I am 
sorry I did not take it before. 1 will try 
to got some more of my friends to take it. 
•New York. j. h. 
I have had a fair trial of nearly three 
months of The It. N.-Y. and 1 don’t see how 
I can get along without it. So here is my 
renewal and best wishes for your paper. 
Michigan. f. a. m. 
Every clay brings letters from old sub¬ 
scribers who have received “The Busi¬ 
ness Hen” and like it so well they come 
back with a subscription for a friend, 
so that the new subscriber may have both 
the paper and the book. They go right 
hack by next mail. Perhaps your neigh¬ 
bor would like one. Why not ask him? 
Harvester Talks to Farmers—No. 4. 
A New American Industry of Vital Importance to Every Farmer.—Binder 
Twine at Greatly Reduced Prices. 
NEW market for the prod¬ 
ucts of thousands of acres 
of American farm lands 
—development of a new 
American industry — a 
high grade binder twine 
at greatly reduced prices. 
These are some of the results follow¬ 
ing the introduction of the International 
Harvester Company’s new flax twine— 
an article which is undoubtedly destined 
to enter largely into the binding of grain. 
It is an important move in many ways, 
for it not only makes possible a cheaper 
twine for the farmer's use, but, also, 
creates an entirely new market for one 
of the most important American farm 
products. 
For many years the manufacturers of 
harvesting machines have been experi¬ 
menting in an attempt to perfect a 
method by which American-grown flax 
can be utilized in the manufacture of 
binder twine and thus render both the 
manufacturer and farmer independent of 
manila and sisal fiber of foreign growth. 
In their first experiment the attempt 
was made to use retted flax, but the 
process of retting the fiber was so slow 
and so expensive that but little was 
gained by the substitution of flax for 
sisal and manila, and finally the attempt 
was abandoned. 
One of the brightest inventors in the 
country was put to work to solve the 
problem of how to utilize the flax in its 
natural state as harvested. 
In the early part of 1904 this inventor 
succeeded in perfecting a process and in 
constructing the necessary machinery for 
the work. 
This overcame all the mechanical ob¬ 
stacles, but the next difficulty was to get 
a sufficient quantity of flax suitable for 
twine manufacture. 
Flax for this purpose must be sown 
much more thickly than flax sown for 
seed, in order to produce a higher and 
less bushy growth, getting a longer and 
better fiber. The ground, too, must be 
left as smooth and level as possible, so 
that the flax may be cut low down, with 
a short stubble, getting all of the straw 
and the longest possible fibers in the 
product harvested. 
The flax is harvested, when fully ma¬ 
tured, with a regular grain binder, and 
bound into bundles. In handling flax for 
twine purposes much care is taken to 
keep the sheaves straight. The company 
buys the flax in the bundle, before it is 
threshed, paying for it a price based on 
the yield of seed, and saving the farmer 
the expense of threshing. 
As soon as the process of manufactur¬ 
ing the twine was demonstrated to be a 
success, a corps of men were sent into 
the flax growing sections of the country 
" > nd succeeded in securing a large quan¬ 
tity of flax of a good quality, the twine 
from which will be sold and used in the 
harvest of 1905. A few carloads were 
made in time for the harvest of 1904 and 
gave such uniform satisfaction that the 
manufacturers were encouraged to un¬ 
dertake operations on a much larger 
scale for 1905. 
Men are now canvassing Minnesota, 
Michigan and other flax growing states, 
contracting with farmers to grow flax 
for twine production and the expectation 
is to secure sufficient flax in this way to 
place a large amount of twine on the 
market for the harvest of 1906. 
In many instances the company is fur¬ 
nishing the flax growers with seed for 
planting, using the best seed grown in 
this country, or a high grade of Russian 
seed—all carefully cleaned and recleaned 
three or four times by hand. 
Inasmuch as the company takes the 
entire production of the flax field before 
threshing, it is desirable that the twine 
mill be located as near the flax growing 
region as possible. At the present time 
all the twine is manufactured in Chi¬ 
cago, but it is the company’s intention 
to establish branch mills in the leading 
flax growing sections of the country. 
When the supply of flax fiber shall be 
sufficient to permit the making of the 
twine in large quantities, the price will 
be still lower as compared with the price 
of manila and sisal fiber twines; while 
th<J price which the company pays for 
tht flax in the bundle makes it one of 
the most profitable crops the farmer can 
grow. 
We need not point out the great im¬ 
portance of this new industry to the 
American farmer; a twine cheaper than 
the twine made from imported fibers 
has long been a crying necessity. The 
utilization of flax gives him an article, 
at a lower price, in every way the equal 
of many higher, priced twines. 
But beyond this is the fact that the 
utilization of thousands of acres of farm 
lands for flax growing, at a profitable 
price, means a greater diversification of 
crops and less crowded markets for 
everything the farmer raises, and in this 
respect the new industry is of vital im¬ 
portance to every farmer in the country, 
even if he never raises an acre of grain 
or buys a pound of twine. 
As the industry grows, we may con¬ 
fidently count upon a flax twine mill in 
every flax growing section, giving flax 
growers a market of easy access for 
their product. 
This movement is in direct line with 
the well-defined policy of the Interna¬ 
tional Harvester Company—to produce 
from the raw material the machines and 
appliances needed for the harvesting of 
grain, securing by this means material 
of the highest grade at the lowest cost 
of production—and now they are de¬ 
veloping" a new industry, producing an 
indispensable necessity at a lower cost 
to the farmer, and making the American 
farmer independent of a foreign grown 
article and giving him a new market for 
one of his staple crops. 
The supply of flax twine for 1905 will 
not be nearly sufficient to meet the de¬ 
mand for it, but by next year it is 
hoped and confidently expected that 
every farmer who wants a purely Amer¬ 
ican product can secure it without dif¬ 
ficulty, and at a price which will save 
him much money. 
In our former talks we called atten¬ 
tion to the immense facilities of the In¬ 
ternational Harvester Company for 
manufacturing harvesting machines, and 
as harvest time is rapidly approaching, 
we wish to emphasize our statements 
thattlieChampion, Deering, McCormick, 
Milwaukee, Osborne and Piano machines 
have fully demonstrated their worth. 
No other machines have gained the 
approval of so many farmers of the 
country as have these. No other ma¬ 
chines have made so enviable a record. 
And you know the reason why— 
These machines are all of good, hon¬ 
est value—that’s why. 
You know your wants for the on-com¬ 
ing season. If a harvesting machine 
is one of them, see the local dealer in 
your locality. Remember there is a 
separate dealer for each machine and 
each one will be glad to show you his 
own line. 
The Intern&.tioi\aJI Harvester Company’s Machines, 
Champion, Deering, McCormick, Milwaukee, Osborne and Plano, 
have been endorsed by nine farmers out of ten as being the most worthy of their patronage. 
A good enough reason in itself, isn’t it, why you, also, should use this line of harvesting 
machines for saving your grains and grasses? 
Different Dealers Represent Dliferent Machines. See them lor Catalogues. 
Binders, Reapers, Headers, Header-Binders, Corn Binders, Corn Shockers, Corn Pickers, Huskers and Shredders, Mowers, 
Tedders, Hay Rakes, Sweep Rakes, Hay Stackers, Hay Balers, Knife Grinders, Gasoline Engines, 
Weber Wagons, Binder Twine. 
