12©8 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
December 28, 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
In every publication office there is 
more or less anxiety at the beginning of 
the year about subscription returns. The 
flow of subscriptions for the new year 
is to the publisher what budding trees 
and sprouting grains are to the watchful 
farmer. By them are measured the pros¬ 
pects and success of the coming year. 
The girth of bud and profusion of 
bloom may be the planter’s reward for 
previous years of thought and labor in 
care of land and selection of plant. The 
stunted and puny growth, on the other 
hand, may indicate indifference and neg¬ 
lect. So, too, the ready flow of sub¬ 
scription renewals reward the publisher 
and editor for past thought and labor 
and sincerity in the paper’s service to 
its subscribers. Again, if the flow of 
renewals is slow and uncertain the pub¬ 
lisher may be reaping the result of a 
neglected duty or of a trust betrayed. 
As there are accidents of frost and 
drought, rain and sunshine, that affect 
the farmer’s fortune beyond his personal 
control, so, too, conditions of trade and 
panic, boom and prosperity are reflected 
in the publisher’s daily mail. But in 
the long run a fixed purpose, honest 
service and hard work in field or office 
win whatever reward they merit. 
So far our new subscription year, 
which begins December first, is most en¬ 
couraging. The flush of returns began 
a little earlier than usual and increased 
over previous years for corresponding 
days. We have come, however, to look 
on the first day’s mail of the new year 
as an index of the year’s work. We ask 
our friends who have not yet sent re¬ 
newal to get it in the mail to reach 
us by the morning of January second. 
Every such renewal comes as .. vote of 
confidence and approval of our efforts, 
if not of our imperfect work, and brings 
with it a cheer and an inspiration for 
better service for the coming year. In 
the meantime with this last word of the 
old year goes our best wishes for a 
happy and prosperous new year for all 
the Rural family. 
It was learned to-day that the scaled 
indictments handed down by the Federal 
Grand Jury about a week ago in the case 
of the American Telegraph and Typewriter 
Company named Dr. George A. Cardwill, 
president of that company, Alfred E. Bensch 
and Edward J. Beach as defendants. The 
latter two are members of the brokerage 
firm of Bensch & Beach, 27 William street. 
The indictments charge the defendants 
with having used the mails to defraud in¬ 
vestors in the stock of the American Tele¬ 
graph and Typewriter Company, adver¬ 
tised by them as a 810,000,000 corporation, 
with offices at 31 Prospect street. Brook¬ 
lyn. It is alleged that Bensch & Beach 
sold 8200,000 worth of the stock.—Daily 
Paper. 
The above announcement indicates the 
end of another “get-rich-quick” stock 
promotion scheme. We have been re¬ 
ceiving inquiries about this proposition 
for several years and our advice to sub¬ 
scribers, both by correspondence and in 
this department, has been to leave the 
proposition alone. The number of this 
class of promoters who have been pros¬ 
ecuted during the Taft administration 
is one which establishes a record which 
will be well for his succefisor to emu¬ 
late. The weak point of this sort of 
prosecution of this class of gold-brick 
men by the government is that nothing 
can be done until they have positive 
evidence that someone has been swin¬ 
dled. What we need is a blue-sky law 
in State and nation which will prevent 
these swindling stock promotion opera¬ 
tions before anyone has been injured. 
The failure of the million-dollar co¬ 
operative association known as the United 
Stores Association, incorporated last year, 
was announced from Philadelphia this 
week, when a receiver was appointed in the 
United States Circuit Court. The com¬ 
plaint was filed by Edward S. Flannery, a 
stockholder, who alleges that the associa¬ 
tion is unable to collect money due on sub¬ 
scribed stock, and is thus unable to meet 
its obligations. The failure of the co¬ 
operative plan, it is understood, is not in¬ 
volved, and it is believed that the tangle 
may be straightened out without crippling 
the* organization. 
The United Stores Association, at a 
recent date, included a list of 520 stores 
throughout the country, with cooperative 
buying, advertising and selling methods. 
It is said that 58,000 subscribers, paying 
a nominal fee of $2 each, had been en¬ 
rolled. The company’s offices in New York 
have been closed, pending adjustment of its 
affairs.—Printer’s Ink. 
Stuff like this goes out under the 
name of cooperation. There never was 
even a suspicion of real cooperation in 
the so-called United Stores Association. 
It was a wildcat stock-jobbing scheme 
from the first. The two-dollar member¬ 
ship scheme has been worked by fakers 
and swindlers with great success for 
many years. In my first interview with 
the officials I reached this feature in the 
first three minutes of conversation and 
told him frankly that it was the in¬ 
heritance of a very old and somewhat 
worn-out fake. It never had the first 
essential principle of cooperation in its 
conception nor in its business. It was 
a stock-jobbing scheme for the benefit 
of the promoters at the expense of pro¬ 
ducers and consumers. It died the death 
it deserved. There is no more chance 
of reviving it than there would be to 
reincarnate the renowned Captain Kidd. 
Clifford Willis, the editor of Mr. 
Myrick’s Northwest Farmstead, is no 
longer president and promoter of the 
International Corporate Farms Com¬ 
pany. He says he has resigned in 
broken health, and we are informed that 
the headquarters of the company have 
been removed from Minneapolis to 
Charleston, Ill. 
The scheme, however, was promoted 
on the representations of Mr. Willis’ 
gieat ability to operate the undertaking 
successfully, and if farmers paid their 
money on that representation clearly 
made in the promotion literature, we 
would like to have some good reason 
advanced why those investors should not 
be entitled to the return of their money. 
One would get the inference from the 
literature that there was no one else in 
the country quite so well qualified to 
make a success of the proposed under¬ 
taking as Mr. Willis would be able to 
do. There is no other reason than poor 
health given by Mr. Willis for his resig¬ 
nation, but the hysterics created by the 
publication of the facts in connection 
with the case would seem to indicate 
that there were some other influences at 
work. 
The December ist and 15 th numbers 
of Farm, Stock and Home, Minneapolis, 
Minn., contained some editorial matter 
that was intended to give a promoter of 
Mr. Willis’ experience and connection 
a fit of nervous prostration. The farm¬ 
ers of the Northwest who read Farm, 
Stock and Home are not likely to dam¬ 
age their teeth on a gold brick of the 
Willis composition. If any other pro¬ 
ducers of the Northwest continue to 
support a publication pretending to sup¬ 
port their interests, and edited under 
the Willis editorship, the experience 
will probably be worth to their children 
the money losses to themselves. 
What do you know about this American 
Farmers’ School and the men that are run¬ 
ning it? They claim there is a great de¬ 
mand for agricultural writers, associate 
editors, etc. Is this so, and would a per¬ 
son be any better fitted for such work 
after taking their course then he was be¬ 
fore? t. w. m’i. 
This refers to the American Farmers’ 
School at Minneapolis, Minn., said to be 
“endorsed by Governors, Congressmen, 
judges” and other large notables. For 
example, Gov. Vessey of South Dakota 
is reported to have said two years ago 
that he can certainly recommend it if 
Prof. Clifford Willis is connected. An¬ 
other member of the faculty has received 
the “high compliment of being secured to 
edit a number of books for Luther Bur¬ 
bank, the wizard of the agricultural 
world.” With our limited experience in 
farm journalism we should consider that 
about the poorest preparation a man 
could have for teaching straight news¬ 
paper correspondence, but an admirable 
equipment for “guff.” 
The fact is there is but a poor open¬ 
ing in farm journalism. The idea of 
teaching a man by correspondence how 
to write articles for practical farmers 
is quite enough to make a veteran jour¬ 
nalist smile. The letter which our friend 
encloses contains the following: 
Recently 14 persons, while still students 
of this course in agricultural journalism, 
had 75 articles accepted by farm papers. 
The actual amount of money the students 
received for these articles (some of which 
were quite short) amounted to $237—-suf¬ 
ficient to have paid the cost of the course 
for the whole 14 students and more. Some 
students did receive more than the price 
of the course. Probably you are just as 
bright as they are, and all you need is to 
learn how. Our course will teach you. 
That means about $3 per article. Let 
any young man figure what that will 
mean to him. The chances are that if 
he have any message to deliver and 
really knows what he wants to talk 
about he will stand a better chance to 
have it accepted when written naturally 
-—just as he feels it—than if it were 
“dressed up.” That would be so with us. 
There is no great demand for agricul¬ 
tural writers and associate editors. Our 
observation is that there are 10 appli¬ 
cants for every such desirable position! 
My Experience With Chickens. 
I decided to go into the poultry business 
on January 15, and after looking around I 
ordered 1,200 day-old chickens, S. C. White 
Leghorns, to be delivered April 16. Then 
the next thing was to order six Cornell 
gasoline brooders. As this was my first 
venture with incubator chicks I thought I 
would not build any brooder houses, so 
tore the inside out of an old hoghouse, laid 
a new floor, put on a new roof, put some 
cloth curtains and windows in the front, 
which faced the south, whitewashed the in¬ 
terior; then installed the brooders, and on 
measuring the floor I found I had 13 by 
25 «feet 
April 16 I started the brooders; at 11 a. 
m. the chicks arrived, the finest lot I ever 
saw. April 17, all alive yet, doing finely, 
prospects for success were very good. 
June 1, total loss up to date, 60 chicks ; 
balance of 1,140 doing well; some weigh 
over one pound each. Total cost of feed 
so far is $59.63. 
June 13, sold 100 broilers; June 17, sold 
340 broilers; total value of Shies, $125.01. 
August 3, feed bill up to date is $173.90; 
chickens look fine and seem to be very 
thrifty. 
September 2, I gathered my first pullet 
egg; looks as though more would lay soon; 
September 20, sold 43 roasters for $22.12. 
September 30, total number of eggs laid, 
150. value $3. Getting along well; started 
building a new laying house, size 20 by 60 
feet, shed roof, 4%-foot posts, rear, 7%-foot 
front, cloth curtains, and one sash three by 
six every 10 feet. 
October 12, moved my pullets to their 
new quarters; gathered 47 eggs that day; 
October 28, culled out 43 pullets and 11 
roosters for market; October 31, total num¬ 
ber of eggs for this month, 1,782, valued 
at three cents, $53.46. 
November 28. received for eggs so far 
this month, $155 (those we used not count¬ 
ed) ; my best day was 160 eggs; total eggs, 
3.384, from November 1 to 28, inclusive. 
Feed bill from April 16 to No¬ 
vember 28. $299.26 
Building material and equipmont. 
incidentals and 1,200 „ 
chicks . 427.33 
Total expense. $726.59 
Income from eggs and sales. $368.59 
Inventory of building material... 200.00 
500 pullets and 26 roosters at 
each . 526.00 
Six brooders, fountains and feed 
hoppers . 75.00 
Total income.$1,169.59 
Expenses . 126.59 
Total value above expenses.. $443.00 
I used the Cornell formula and rations, 
just exactly the way the college recom¬ 
mended, and for next season I shall build 
the Cornell type brooder houses for my 
baby chicks. august warnken. 
New York. 
When you write advertisers mention The 
R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a quick reply and a 
“square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
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Springfield, Ohio . 
Concrete Feeding Floors 
are taking the place of wooden or dirt floors on every modern 
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The only way to do it is by proper care, careful feeding and sanitary surroundings. 
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CHICAGO PITTSBURGH MINNEAPOLIS 
72 West Adams St. Frick Building Security Bank Building 
Plants at Chicago and Pittsburgh. Annual Output 12,000,000 Barrels 
