86 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 18, 
l 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
According to a recent decision of the 
United States Supreme Court the States 
have no power to annul contracts be¬ 
tween railroads and shippers limiting 
the liability for loss of interstate ship¬ 
ments. The same court held that State 
laws penalizing railroads for failure to 
furnish cars for the shipment of goods 
could not be enforced. The court held 
that the railroad or express company 
was responsible under the Federal in¬ 
terstate commerce law for the valuation 
shown in the shipping receipt. Hence 
when shipping by express or freight 
from one State to another, be sure to 
give the full and true value of the ship¬ 
ment. 
Our attention is called to the follow¬ 
ing paragraph from Mr. Myrick’s North¬ 
west Homestead, edited by Clifford 
Willis, of recent fame through the stock 
promotion scheme of the International 
Farms Company. Listen to the virtue 
of it: 
Give a wide berth to promoters, manipu¬ 
lators and others who seek to exploit the • 
great idea of cooperative finance for the 
benefit of their own pockets instead of 
insuring the most effective results to bor¬ 
rowers and lenders at the least possible 
expense. Cooperative land credit is not 
run for profit to middlemen. It is a 
strictly cooperative effort by borrowers to 
employ their lands as the basis for mort¬ 
gage bonds that investors will seek. 
In view of the recent stock promotion 
schemes put up to farmers by Editor 
Willis and his principal, Myrick, one 
wonders whether this is the fervor of 
a repentant sinner or the confession of 
a frightened accomplice turned State’s 
evidence. 
As a constant reader of your valuable 
paper, where advertisements of impossible 
things are put in their true light, what 
of the inclosed and the oft heralded Giant 
Himalaya berry? I took the inclosed clip¬ 
ping from a well-known fruit paper. If 
it is in the line with such notices as you 
often give, I shall be glad to see a word 
from you. E. S. v. L. 
Massachusetts. 
The Berrydale Experiment Gardens, 
Holland, Mich., have been making won¬ 
derful claims for this berry for a num¬ 
ber of years. The only other nursery¬ 
man with hardihood enough to boom it 
has been one who has established a rep¬ 
utation for booming anything new that 
might create a small-sized sensation. 
This berry, while it has been on the 
market for some two or three seasons, 
is practically unknown to the trade or 
to fruit growers generally east of the 
Rocky Mountains. It lias been boomed 
on the strength of its behavior in Cali¬ 
fornia and other Pacific Coast States, 
while it does not stand the cold climate 
well, and is not equal in quality to the 
old-time varieties. 
Day after day letters pour in here en¬ 
closing circulars of Dr. George E. Cou- 
tant. This man mentions in his circu¬ 
lar 64 troubles which he is ready to 
cure—but his stronghold is deafness. 
You will probably give us credit for 
some knowledge of “guff.” While not 
pretending to be an expert, we know 
“guff” when we see it, and the sample 
which this Dr. Coutant sends out will 
rank high in the scale of points. His 
strong point is a “home treatment.” This 
costs $5, but if you send him one dol¬ 
lar he will accept it, and let you pay 
the rest later. 
A victim of deafness who has studied 
the disease and undergone real treat¬ 
ment cannot help being saddened by the 
letters which our afflicted readers write. 
Our constant advice is never to send as 
much as five cents to Dr. Coutant or 
any other man who claims that he can 
help your hearing without a personal 
examination. Any man who says he 
can cure a disease like deafness with¬ 
out examining your ear in person is a 
fake. He knows better if he knows 
anything about medicine. We would 
not under any circumstances patronize 
any such “experts” with their home 
treatments and so-called guarantee. 
These men are after your money, and 
two to one they will do your ears far 
more harm than good. Once for all, 
let Dr. Coutant and the other deafness 
cure guffers alone. 
Some agricultural papers have dropped 
their prices almost to the infinitesimal 
point, but no one will be the gainer in 
the long run. A paper that is not worth 
at least a dollar a year is not worth taking 
as a geiteral proposition. If you change 
your prices make it one fifty per. c. n. 
New York. 
“No one will be the gainer in the long 
run.” How many realize the full truth 
and force of that statement? Many do; 
many more do not. You can get many 
papers for the service of taking them 
out of the post office, and others, as this 
correspondent says, at almost nothing. 
But how much real service do you ex¬ 
pect from a hired man who gets all or 
the greater part of his wages from your 
neighbor? Don't you expect him to give 
his best service to the man who pays 
him his wages? The publisher is in a 
sense a hired man. He must have reve¬ 
nue to run his business. He has two 
sources of legitimate revenue—subscrib¬ 
ers and honest advertising. But no paper 
to-day can exist on honest advertising 
alone, any more than it can exist on 
subscriptions alone, at present adjust¬ 
ment of subscription prices. If the pub¬ 
lisher gets little or no subscription reve¬ 
nue, lie must accept dishonest and de¬ 
ceptive advertising, and that is what he 
does. If the advertiser furnishes the 
publisher with all the revenue, the ad¬ 
vertiser pays the wages of the publisher 
and gets the service. In such cases, if 
the paper lives, the subscribers as a class 
pay indirectly a big price for the privi¬ 
lege of reading a paper, published pre¬ 
sumably for their interest, but really in 
the interest of the advertisers, good or 
bad, who furnish the wages of the pub¬ 
lisher. If a farmer wants a paper to 
serve his interests first, last and all the 
time, he must expect to pay a fair price 
for it. Not a single one of the class 
of papers that come to our desk fail to 
carry advertisements that The R. ^J.-Y. 
has refused, and some of them carry 
whole volumes of it. An individual fam¬ 
ily may escape their allurements, but the 
fact that the papers continue to exist 
is proof that the people who read the 
papers patronize the shady advertise¬ 
ments and lose more money than the 
cost of a reliable paper. 
The owner selling pays our commission. 
The above is a statement made in 
cold type in the catalog of the E. A. 
Strout Farm Agency, 47 West 34th 
street, New York City, whose business 
is the selling of farms. Now, listen to 
this: 
On April 1, 1909, I bought a farm in 
Bucks County, l’a.. through the E. A. 
Strout Farm Agency for $3,000. The 
owner’s price for the farm was $2,000. 
They made $1,000 out of me as commis¬ 
sion. The agent told me at the time I 
looked at the place that the price asked 
was the owner’s price, which of course 
was not true. After I had settled for the 
farm, the former owner told me that he 
got only $2,000 for the farm. Many others 
iu this section have been caught in the 
same way. J. e. 
We asked the Strout Company about 
this and they replied that they held the 
property he purchased on an option and 
that the amount of their profits was in 
accordance with the option. We then 
asked them how they reconciled this 
statement with the assurance in their 
catalog that the seller pays the commis¬ 
sion. They sent our letter to their at¬ 
torney, and he replied that he was au¬ 
thorized to say to us that the Strout 
Company will not furnish any more in¬ 
formation concerning complaints unless 
made as a legal demand, which would 
mean a suit in court. 
We are both sorry and glad that the 
Strout Company has finally taken this 
stand. Sorry because we have scores of 
such complaints which we would like to 
adjust for the interest of our friends; 
glad because we think it to the interest 
of the public that the people should 
know the basis on which this concern 
sells farms. Some years back we dis¬ 
covered that this company was induc¬ 
ing farmers to sign printed contracts 
that bound the farmer to pay them a 
commission when the farm was sold by 
the farmer himself or through another 
agent, or if he withdrew it from the 
Strout Company for any reason. The 
farmer seldom read the contract and 
often did not know this condition. He 
was not given a copy of it. We could 
not stand for any such deals as that 
and refused to carry the advertising 
after discovering the conditions. Since 
then we induced them to settle three 
complaints from buyers for complaints 
similar to the above, except that this 
was a cash transaction, while the other 
sales were closed so that the Strout 
Company got mortgage notes for 
enough of the purchase price to cover 
their share of the deal. In one case 
we recovered $500, on the second $800 
and the third for $1,000. We have 
made no reference to these cases here¬ 
tofore, because they were adjusted to 
the satisfaction of the buyers, and the 
Strout Company assured us that they 
were exceptional cases. We have sev¬ 
eral unsettled complaints now on file. 
Later on we will give the details of them. 
In the meantime if anyone wants to get 
“back to the land” bad enough to pay 
the Strout Company 50 per cent of the 
value of the land for the privilege of 
buying a farm through them, we have 
no objection; but we want intending 
buyers to know the game. 
More profit per acre 
HOW? 
Manufacturers have found that their 
costs per unit of production whether it be a 
pair of shoes, a machine or a yard of cloth, 
are reduced by increasing the output of the 
factory. The same principle applies on the 
farm. Increasing the yield per acre reduces 
the cost per bushel, thus making more profit. 
Increased production chiefly depends on 
increased available fertility which is obtained 
by the use of high grade fertilizers. 
BOWKER’S 
spring fertilizer. We want you to 
Bowker’s Fertilizers are 
high grade and available. 
They are active, sure, and 
well backed by forty years of 
experience, the best of mater¬ 
ials and facilities and prompt 
service. A suitable fertilizer 
for every crop and adapted to 
every pocketbook. 
We want Agents in unoc¬ 
cupied territory. Write today 
for prices and terms; this may 
mean a good business for you 
if you act at once. 
Write anyway for our 
illustrated catalogue and 
calendar before you buy your 
know what we can do. 
BOWKER 
FERTILIZER 
COMPANY 
80 Lyman Street, Buffalo, N. Y. 46 Chatham Street, Boston, Malt, 
63 Trinity PI., New York, N. Y. 1218 2nd. Nat. Bank Bldg., Cincinnati. 
Original and largest manufacturers of special fertilizers. 
& 
BEST MAPLE SYRUP EVAPORATOR 
XTOT a single feature of our Maple Evaporator 
can be dispensed with. Simplest and most 
economical way of 
making M aple 
Syrup. Produces 
highest quality, 
which brings the! 
most money. Made* 
in 22 sizes for large \ 
and small groves. 
Write for catalog 
and state number of trees you tap. 
GRIMM MANUFACTURING CO. 
619 Champlain Ave., N. TV., Cleveland, O. 
Dirip Silos 
Are Manufactured Not Assembled Silos 
Highest grade material—air 
tight doors—permanent ladder 
—genuine wood preservative- 
easy to erect—built for long, 
continued service and sold 
direct. Send for catalog, prices 
and freight to your station. 
Discount for early orders. 
Stevens Tank&TowerCo., Auburn, Me. 
Gasoline Engines 
easy 
TERMS 
TO CATALOG FREE 
RELIABLE I PORTABLE OR 
PEOPLE STATIONARY 
Wood Sawing Outfit* , Three Styles, AH Sizes 
MAKE MORE MONEY—DO LESS WORK 
YOU need oo your farm right now one of our gasoline en¬ 
gines. They make money and save work. Take then 
wherever the work is. They are strong, durable, and reliable. 
In fact they are willing workers and never quit. Don't sleep 
another night till you have sent for information that means 
DOLLARS FOR YOU. Tell us SIZE FARM YOU 
HAVE and get special proposition. DO IT NOW. 
^R. WATERLOO 
137 Liberty St., 
ENGINE WORKS. 
New York City 
AGRICULTURE 
Are Thoroughly Hard Burnt 
OUR TILE 
LAST FOREVER! 
NATIONAL FIREPROOFING COMPANY, Fulton Building, PITTSBURGH. PENNA. 
Made of best Clay, is sold in car¬ 
load lots. Also manufacturers of 
Hollow Tile Silos, Building Blocks 
and Sewer Pipe. Write for cata¬ 
logue and prices. 
Easy Loading—Perfect Spreading 
These two things are absolutely necessary in a good manure 
spreader. They are combined in 
The Johnston “Easy Loader” Manure Spreader 
Drop 6ides to make loading easy. Rear only 4S inches from ground. No high pulverizing rake 
to load over. Steel side sills. Two chains. Steel wheels. 
Four sizes. Every owner says: 
“ Certainly ! Buy a Johnston ** 
Every farmer should have our 1913 catalog. 
Valuable implement informal ion. Copy Free. 
THE JOHNSTON 
BoxlOO — D 
HARVESTER CO. 
Batavia. N. Y. 
