090, 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
September 21, 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
We are constantly in receipt of in¬ 
quiries about the feasibility of orchard 
companies working on what is known 
as the “unit system.” In short, these 
companies sell you five or 10 acres of 
land, as the case may be, and agree to 
plant it to trees and care for them till 
they come in bearing, and turn the bear¬ 
ing orchard over to you at a fixed price, 
usually to be paid in installments. We 
have not the space to reply to all such 
inquiries in this department, and our 
advice has been sent by letter. We have 
felt compelled to discourage people front 
investing in all these land and orchard 
schemes. Experience of the past has 
shown that an orchard cannot be eco¬ 
nomically developed in this way, and 
those who have invested in such enter¬ 
prises in the past have met with dis¬ 
appointment and loss eventually. If any 
such investment by our subscribers has 
turned out profitably we have failed to 
hear of it upto date. Munsey’s Maga¬ 
zine for September contains a very 
exhaustive analysis of these “unit 
orchards” from the investment stand¬ 
point. The following extracts from 
the article puts the case in a nutshell: 
In most instances it may be said that 
the promoters of these companies capitalize 
the city dweller’s ignorance of farming, 
vegetable-growing, or orcharding. The spe¬ 
cial and novel products of proposed culti¬ 
vation appeal to the imagination, while 
the literature teems with references to 
enormous profits derived from luscious 
fruits and rare nuts, which excite one’s 
credulity. The reader may be familiar 
with wheat, corn, oats, cotton, potatoes, 
cabbages and _ the like. If so, he knows 
that farming is no easy work, nor does it 
pay excessive returns for the risks and 
the labor; but he probably knows nothing 
whatever about pineapples, oranges or 
pecan nuts, and he may feel that unusual 
profits are obtained from such articles 
without great effort. 
The contracts between the vendors and 
the land-purchasers are of the “jug- 
handle” sort in which the companies 
have a firm grip on the handle all the 
while. The purchaser supplies all the 
money, takes all the risks, and is wholly 
at the mercy of the company, both during 
the period of cultivation and thereafter; 
and this is true whether the project is a 
success or a failure. 
In our issue of June 15, 1912, we 
published the complaint of a New York 
State subscriber who sent $175.25 to 
the Phillips Gasoline Engine & Motor 
Co. 'of Chicago, Ill., on December 19, 
1910, for a gasoline engine, the receipt 
of the money having been acknowl¬ 
edged, but the company failed to ship 
the engine. In commenting upon the 
case we stated that “Recently the 
Phillips engine has been advertised over 
an individual name, which is the plan 
usually resorted to by engine concerns 
wishing to escape the odium of past 
transactions.” The statement in quota¬ 
tion is taken exception to by the L. C. 
Kuhnert, Jr., Co., which it appears had 
bought the business from Mr. W. L. 
Phillips just previous to the time this 
article was published. The statement is 
literally true, as a number of gasoline 
engine manufacturers whose dealings 
with farmers have been unsatisfactory, 
are at present and have been during 
years past, advertising (their engines 
over different names, but since Mr. 
Kuhnert feels an injustice has been 
done him, we are only glad to make the 
statement that Mr. Phillips has no con¬ 
nection whatever with the L. C. Kuhn¬ 
ert, Jr., Co. at the present time, and it 
is our information that this company 
has no responsibility in the subscriber’s 
claim against the Phillips Gasoline & 
Motor Co. on account of the money re¬ 
ceived for the engine. 
Another land scheme is reported from 
Muskegon County, Michigan, promoted 
by the Fruitdale Land Development Co. 
The board of supervisors of Muskegon 
appointed a committee to investigate the 
operations of this company. The fol¬ 
lowing is taken from the committee’s 
i eport: 
This gigantic scheme comprises more 
acreage than there is in the entire city of 
Muskegon and is divided into more than 
four and one-half times as many lots. The 
original plat of Fruitvale and Riverside 
addition, comprising 295 acres, divided 
into 4,087 lots, being situated north of the 
White river and between it and one of its 
tributaries, a small stream called Sand 
Creek, this portion of the tract being about 
eight miles from the village of Montague 
at its nearest point. It has been reported 
by your committee that a large number 
of purchasers of lots in Fruitvale have 
come over from Chicago for the purpose of 
looking at the property they have bought 
and in a large number of instances they 
were unable to locate the lots they had 
bought, and in other cases, after having 
seen the lots, they have torn up their deeds 
and returned home with a knowledge of 
having been victimized and with a pro¬ 
found disgust for western Michigan in gen¬ 
eral, and Muskegon County in particular. 
We are sometimes led to believe that 
Florida and Long Island had a mon¬ 
opoly of land schemers, but no State 
or section seems to be free from this 
sort of land boomers. Florida, how¬ 
ever, seems to have more than its share. 
But it should be said in justification of 
Florida, most of the Florida land 
schemes are prompted by people out¬ 
side the State—mostly from Chicago. 
The residents of the State deplore these 
swindlers more than anyone, as the 
State has to bear the odium of them, 
while the outside promoters reap the 
spoils. The man or woman who buys 
land, whether in Michigan, Florida, 
New York or Texas, on the representa¬ 
tion of promoters, may rest assured 
they are “paying dearly for their 
whistle.” 
Will you see if you can collect the bal¬ 
ance due me on two cars of hay shipped to 
Jersey City, N. J.. for F. A. Champlin & 
Co., Newark. N. J. ? The two cars con¬ 
tained 38,200 pounds for which I was to 
receive .$10.50 per ton F. O. B. cars at 
station. This hay would amount to $315.- 
12. I also shipped one car of 23,905 
pounds at $18 per ton at the same time 
that was satisfactory, making a total of 
the three cars $539.27. November 21, I 
received check for $400 ; January 11 I re¬ 
ceived check for $32.18, making $432.18 I 
have received up to date. I have written 
them a number of times, but they refuse 
to send the balance, claiming the hay to 
be poor quality, but I did not grade this 
hay to them, and they bought it knowing 
it was poor quality, as they offered ine 
$17.50 for it, and when I got ready to ship 
it, not finding it as good as I expected, I 
wrote them to that effect. They then 
wrote and made me the offer of $16.50 per 
ton and I shipped it on, so think I have 
done the fair thing and don’t see why I 
should not have the balance that is due me. 
I have shipped this company quite a quan¬ 
tity of hay and it has always been sold to 
them F. O. B. cars at my shipping station. 
You will see by the statement I will en¬ 
close they have charged me commission, 
also $47 demurrage. It does not seem to 
me, as much call as there has been for 
hay, that it needed to stand 23 and 24 
days on switch. The lot of hay 1 shipped 
them just before I shipped the above men¬ 
tioned they claim a shortage in bales which 
amount to $10.24, which I was sure could 
not have been, as the hay was weighed 
twice and I loaded it myself, so they said 
they would take the matter up with the 
railroad company. Shortly after I received 
a check for the balance of that lot all right. 
Now on this lot they again figure in the 
shortage of $10.24 after that had all been 
settled up. The amount due me is $98.10. 
Trust you will do what you can to get this 
for me. J. c. 
New York. 
The following letter from F. A. 
Champlin & Co. seems to confirm most 
of the subscriber’s contentions: 
Your letter of the 9th received, but we 
are afraid to take the two cars you speak 
of on account of the quality, as poor hay 
will not bring any more to-day than it 
would a month ago. Under these circum¬ 
stances think you should sell us these two 
cars at $16.50 f. o. b„ and you can send 
them to Jersey City, N. .T., via Central rail¬ 
road, instead of the other billing we gave 
you. 
Pleased to note that you are going to 
get the car of hay for Dundee off next 
week, and that you will write us about 
vour hay at the same time. Yours truly, 
IJ. • P. F. A. CHAMPLIN & CO. 
Newark, N. J., Nov. 10, 1911. 
Following our usual custom we took 
the matter of this complaint up with 
F. A. Champlin & Co., of Newark, 
N. J., with a view to bringing about a 
satisfactory adjustment of the com¬ 
plaint. In reply F. A. Champlin & 
Co. complained about the quality of the 
hay and claimed it was not the kind 
of hay ordered and that they sold it to 
the best advantage on the shipper’s ac¬ 
count. The correspondence which the 
shipper had with this firm previous to 
the shipment of the hay constituted a 
sale of the hay at a certain price, and 
was not in any sense shipped on con¬ 
signment; that the shipper was not 
seeking to take any advantage of the 
firm is evident by his volunteering the 
information that the hay was not as 
good as he expected and accepted the 
offer of $1 a ton less than the price 
originally agreed upon. But when the 
hay was received F. A. Champlin & Co. 
accepted the shipment on which they 
had agreed to pay $16.50 per ton, 
F. O. B., on consignment. We have 
no knowledge ourselves of the quality 
of the hay beyond what the correspond¬ 
ence shows. But regardless of the 
merits of this controversy, the case il¬ 
lustrates how a dealer may secure a 
shipment under a definite agreement 
and when the goods are received accept 
them on an entirely different basis, to 
the loss of the shipper. F. A. Champlin 
& Co. are members of the National Hay 
Association. We endeavored to get 
this association to look into the treat¬ 
ment which the shipper had received 
at the hands of one of its members, but 
the association refused to do so unless 
the shipper put up $15 in advance for 
the privilege of having the merits of 
his claim passed upon by the associa¬ 
tion. We declined in the shipper’s be¬ 
half to advance the fee. The standing 
of its members ought to be of more 
concern to the association than the 
amount involved is to this shipper. 
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