1913. 
THE RURAL, NEW-YORKER 
367 
AN AUCTIONEER’S HINTS. 
Preparing for a Sale. 
The season of auctions is now here, 
and. the success of the sales will de¬ 
pend more or less on various circum¬ 
stances and conditions, a few of which 
I will give, based on my experience 
and observation as an auctioneer. It 
is so seldom that average farmers have 
a sale that they have never given the 
subject much consideration. They have 
attended their neighbors’ sales and per¬ 
haps have made some criticisms, but 
have never given much thought to the 
work, and attention that is necessary to 
prepare for a successful auction. 
If you are to have a public sale, pre¬ 
paration should start weeks before the 
sale. Repair and put in good working 
condition all your farm implements, 
wagons and harness. Have them clean 
and so they will show to best advantage. 
Put your live stock in good condition. 
Tell every one that you are going to 
have a sale after a while. They will 
tell others. This is the first step in 
advertising. 
Carefully prepare a list of the articles 
you have for sale, describing briefly your 
live stock and any articles which are 
especially good or have special merit. 
Give a brief description of your cows 
CHESTER WHITE BOAR, Fig. 119. 
and horses, and if your stock is pure 
bred and registered give the number, 
age, sire and dam of each one; also 
record tests if they have any. Make a 
complete list. The things you omit 
may be just the ones that would at¬ 
tract several buyers to your sale. 
Employ a good auctioneer, one who 
is honest and reliable, and can com¬ 
mand the attention and respect of men. 
He should be a man of good appear¬ 
ance, a salesman, have a good pleasing 
voice, quick and firm of decision, a 
good judge of human nature and know 
how to handle people, and well posted 
in values. Hire a good auctioneer, re¬ 
gardless of price, for a poor one at any 
price is a losing proposition. The days 
of the old-time auction crier, whose 
main stock in trade was a lusty pair of 
lungs, and a limber tongue, have gone 
by. The business has come to be a 
profession, which calls for skill and 
diplomacy. 
The clerk should be a plain and 
rapid writer, accurate in figures, well 
known in the community where the 
sale is to be held, and personally agree¬ 
able. He should also be somewhat 
familiar with the personal condition of 
bidders. 1 here should also be a cashier 
located in the house by the fire, who 
should make all settlements, the tally 
sheets, as soon as filled by the clerk, to 
be sent in to him. He should be an 
honest, capable man and be able to 
judge as to the worth of the notes of¬ 
fered in payment. 
After you have the arrangements 
made with those who are to assist you, 
take your list to a good printer, and 
make arrangements for your bills. 
Employ a printer who uses good ma¬ 
terial and sets up his work in a way to 
attract attention. Always use a good- 
sized bill, on good paper, as it gives a 
better impression of your sale. From 
50 to 200 bills, according to the sale, 
will be required. Have a notice of your 
sale printed in all the principal papers 
taken in your vicinity. They are read 
in the homes in the evening around the 
fireside. Bear in mind that all your 
goods are going to be sold in one day, 
and on the attendance that day depends 
whether you make or lose perhaps sev¬ 
eral hundred dollars. A few dollars 
expense is absolutely nothing at all com¬ 
pared with the importance of adver¬ 
tising and conducting your sale right. 
Take a day or two to circulate and post 
your bills and see that all your neigh¬ 
bors for two or three miles around are 
notified and invited. About a week is 
plenty of notice for a sale. It is better 
than a longer time. 
The importance of getting everything 
ready before sale day cannot be too 
much emphasized. Your horses and 
cattle should be in good condition, care¬ 
fully groomed and made to look just as 
well as possible. Number and tag every 
head. Sheep and hogs should be 
graded, and not too many in a pen. 
Fowls should be cooped or crated and 
marked as they are to be sold. Have 
your wagons, sleighs and farm imple¬ 
ments in a convenient place and ar¬ 
ranged in a row so that each can be 
seen and inspected, which gives the 
auctioneer more time. Harness should 
be clean, oiled and shown on the 
horses when possible. Miscellaneous 
small articles should be gathered in a 
place by themselves. Household articles 
should be out of doors as much as pos¬ 
sible before the sale begins. Your 
barns, . outbuildings and stables should 
be clean and orderly, and good places 
for hitching horses should be provided. 
You should have one or two good, 
trusty men to assist yoo; as you will 
have plenty of business that day. 
Always conduct an honest sale. Do 
just as you advertise. Make true state¬ 
ments in regard to your stock. Nothing 
can be more important. It gives the 
people confidence. A suspicion of side¬ 
bidding will kill a sale, no matter how 
big the crowd. Make it an open sale 
and take your chances. If you wish to 
make a bid do it in the open so that 
all may hear and know. 
The terms of the sale depends on the 
time of year and other local conditions. 
The notes should be payable at some 
local bank and become due at a time 
when farmers generally have some in¬ 
come from sale of crops, and should 
bear the regular rate of interest. Blank 
notes for use should be procured from 
the bank before the day of the sale. 
If your sale is to begin before noon 
always advertise a free lunch. A full 
stomach, or the prospect of one makes 
good bidders and brings them early. 
Sandwiches, fried cakes, cookies and 
apples with plenty of hot coffee make 
a good lunch. Have the eatables in 
paper sacks that you can get at the 
grocery. _ Carry out the coffee in milk 
pails all fixed ready to drink with plenty 
of cups and tell them to help them¬ 
selves. 
In conclusion, I will say, never kick 
on the prices your stuff is bringing; it 
makes the bidders sore. You are 
getting what others consider it worth. 
The success of your sale depends on 
how well it is advertised, the honesty 
of the sale, and the good appearance 
and condition of the stock and articles 
offered. g. b. sickmon. 
Tompkins County, New York. 
Handling Apple Pomace. 
F. R. n., Michigan .—There is a pile of 
apple pomace within a half-mile of my 
farm, the accumulation of years of cider 
making. A year ago I drew some of it 
and spread it, just nicely covering a berrv 
patch with it as a mulch, but this will 
not do. it kept the weeds down all right, 
but turned the plants yellow at a time 
when they ought to have been at their 
best. There is certainly good value in 
that pile of stuff as a fertilizer but how 
to use it is the problem. I am told that 
lime will be the correct thing to use. Can 
some of your experts tell how to make a 
compost heap of it? If a layer of pumace 
is first put down say four inches thick, 
how much lime should be used before an¬ 
other layer is put on? It does not decay 
in the pile. The outside turns black with 
age, but dig into a few Inches and it seems 
to be in the same condition as when it 
came from the press. No vegetation grows 
in the stuff as it stands. How can it best 
be used? 
Ans.—O ur experience with pomace is 
much the same. It contains, ton for 
ton, about as much nitrogen as stable 
manure, but is very sour, and unless 
sweetened in some way will injure most 
crops. It can be broadcast under apple 
trees with lime scattered over it. but 
this is not the best way to handle it, 
since there is more or less loss of am¬ 
monia when lime is mixed with organic 
matter above ground. If the pomace 
could be hauled and w r ell mixed with 
the manure it would make a good com¬ 
post. Mixing it with lime alone as you 
suggest will help, but you can fit it 
more rapidly if you mix some coarser 
material with it. The fine pomace 
packs down hard and excludes the air 
so that fermentation does not develop 
rapidly. If you can make a layer of 
pomace and then dust on say 150 pounds 
of burned lime to the ton—then put on 
a layer of manure or coarse trash, then 
more pomace and lime and so on, you 
can make a good compost. Horse ma¬ 
nure put into such a pit will be excel¬ 
lent, since it is naturally warm and 
will act like kindling wood to start up 
the heat. Handled in this way that pile 
of pomace can be “cooked’’ into an ex¬ 
cellent form of plant food. 
Tile Your Farm 
with a Cyclone Tile Ditching Machine and 
end your ditching troubles at once. When 
you’re through with the work on your land 
you can earn many dollars by cutting ditches 
for your neighbors. The 
^yelorji 
Tile Ditching Machine 
—cuts tile drains quickly, easily, cheaply; 
—cuts 300 to 400 rods of ditch in a single day; 
—saves its cost every 10 days you use it; 
—is guaranteed to live up to all our claims 
and save enough in cutting drains to pay 
for the tile you put into them; 
—price places it within reach of the average 
farmer. 
You know the benefits and advantages de¬ 
rived from tile drainage. Don’t put the 
matter off any longer. Hundreds of farm¬ 
ers are using Cyclone Ditchers to dig their 
ditches. You ought to get busy with a Cy¬ 
clone at once. A Cyclone will do for you 
what it is doing for hundreds of others. 
Write A Postal 
for full information that explains how you 
can make and save money with a Cyclone 
Ditcher. Address 
THE JESCHKE MFG. 
Box 113 
Bellevue^ 
Ohio 
Don’t put it off, 
but send for 
book now. 
IF YOU ARE 
GOING TO SPRAY 
^property tills Spring for Seal© yon must order yonr 
Sprayer now. There isn’t another day to spare, not a 
minute for taking chances on machines that are not backed 
up with such a guarantee as goes out with every 
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The Sprayer that's guaranteed to go right to work with¬ 
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materials and gasoline; the sprayer that’s been on the 
market thirteen years. 
Write today for Illustrated Spray and Engine Booklets, 
to us or our nearest selling agents. 
DEYO-MACEY ENGINE CO. 
22 Washington St., BINGHAMTON, N. Y. 
J. S. Woodhoose, 189-195 Water $t.,Neur York 
Riebardson Mfg, Co., Worcester, Mas*. 
Kendall & Whitney, Portland, Maine 
Spray for Blight 
It cannot be cured but can be prevented easily 
and at littlecost.if sprayed in timeand in the right 
way. Spraying increases the yield enough to pay. 
Traction 
Sprayers 
are built for this purpose. 4 or 6 rows. 55 or 100 gallon, 
wood or steel tanks, single or double acting pumps with 
least slippage, wind shift adjustment, nozzle strainers, 
for one or two horses. Ask your dealer about them and 
write us for new Free booklet. 
Farm Garden and BATEMAN M’PG CO. 
Orchard Tooli. Box! 1029 Grenloch, N. J. 
ISOS ACE 
•u FREE BOOK °» 
ALFALFA 
HOW TO GROW IT ON YOUR LAND 
“Alfalfa—Wonder Crop,” Is the title of a new book 
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it is yours.for the asking without cost. This book 
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Don’t put it off—write for free book today. 
GALLOWAY BROS.-BOWMAN CO., BOX 664 S WATERLOO, U. 
RAW GROUND LIME 
Good for all Crops. Quickly available. 
Order now. 
F. E. CONLEY LIME CO., - - UTICA, N.V. 
The Clothcraft Guarantee is as 
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spring and a sample of 5130 serge. 
THE JOSEPH & FEISS CO. 
Founded 1846—Oldest American 
Manufacturers of Men's Clothes 
635 St. Clair Avenue. N. W, 
