668 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 12, 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
I received check from the Newark Pro¬ 
duce Co. of Newark, N. J., for .$281.45 in 
settlement of the carload of apples but will 
not settle for that amount. Will it pre¬ 
judice my case against them by getting the 
check cashed? R. e. g. 
Walker, N. Y. 
These apples were sold to the New¬ 
ark house for $1.60 per barrel, but after 
they were sold the usual claim of “poor 
quality” and “bad condition” is set up. 
Commission houses and produce dealers 
seem to be a law unto themselves, inas¬ 
much as a shipper is practically help¬ 
less, and is forced to accept just about 
what the receiver of the produce is wil¬ 
ling to pay him. We have written the 
Newark Produce Co. several times in 
behalf of the subscriber, and the fact 
that our letters have been ignored 
speaks for itself. There seems little 
hope of farmers ever getting fair value 
for their produce until they find some 
means of reaching the consumer with¬ 
out their goods passing through the 
hands of commission houses. 
May 4 a friend shipped three cases of 
eggs to Sampson I. Miller, 041 5th street, 
New York, and expected about 20 cents per 
dozen for them, but up to date has received 
no returns whatever, and although he has 
written Mr. Miller several times he has 
been unable to get any answer from him. 
Mr. Miller is still in business, as I have 
just received a letter from him asking me 
to send him some eggs. Can you collect 
this for my friend? c. G. s. 
New York. 
1 have learned through your Publisher’s 
Desk that you failed to collect two bills 
of Sampson I. Miller. I enclose the first 
letter I received from him. for your opin¬ 
ion as to prosecuting him through the Post 
Office authorities. I remember some such 
case in a recent issue. He owes me $34. 
New York. M. M. M. 
1 shipped Sampson I. Miller four cases of 
eggs during the month of May, for which 
I have failed to receive returns. I en¬ 
close one of liis letters in which he prom¬ 
ises to make prompt returns. Can you help 
me? x. r. t. 
On pages 120 and 129 we referred to 
two other claims against Sampson I. 
Miller, and we now add the above to 
the list. Our attorney has exhausted 
every effort to make the collection. He 
secured a judgment against Miller, but 
there are other executions against him, 
all of which are worthless. There is 
very little stock in the store and the 
attorney is unable to collect on the 
judgment The business is carried in 
the name of Miller’s wife, and it would 
be impossible to get the exact facts 
without an examination in supplemen¬ 
tary proceedings. Our readers will not 
want to respond to further solicita¬ 
tions from Mr. Miller. 
In October I sent A. S. rearson, 2025 
West 22d street, Chicago, Ill., chickens in 
a fine crate, which was worth $2. lie paid 
for the chickens and promised to send me 
a new crate the next Monday if he could 
not locate mine. I have heard nothing from 
him. C. w. L. 
Wisconsin. 
This in itself is a small matter but 
our people are reporting the same diffi¬ 
culty from time to time. Sometimes 
they prepay the charges for the re¬ 
turn of the crate but little or no at¬ 
tention is paid to their requests. On 
the other hand the express companies 
will return the crates free but take 
no responsibility for their delivery. 
However, they usually are received all 
right. These crates cost from $1 to $2, 
and while the amount is small, each one 
lost must necessarily be replaced and 
the profit on the shipments would soon 
be eaten up if cases were not returned. 
A reasonable house would not ignore 
a request to return or trace a crate 
for a shipper. 
I have studied farm catalogues covering 
New York and New England States issued 
by E. A. Strout Farm Agency of New York 
City. Noticing what you printed in re¬ 
gard to Strout a short time ago I wish to 
ask if you hold him more irresponsible than 
other real estate agents, or do you advise 
fighting shy of agents altogether? I would 
like your advice as I am looking for a farm 
and expect to make a purchase soon. 
New York. w. e. c. 
We refused the Strout Farm Agency 
advertising some years ago because they 
insisted that they were entitled to a 
commission on farms once listed by 
them, though the property had subse¬ 
quently been sold direct by the farmer 
or through their agents. Their con¬ 
tracts had a clause entitling them to ' 
this charge, but we doubt if it could 
be collected in the courts, and in any 
event we do not wish to carry the ad¬ 
vertising of an agency insisting on 
such a charge, but the buyer evidently 
has no risk to take from such a clause. 
It affects the seller. 
Recently, however, we have received 
many complaints where purchasers 
bought through the Strout Agency on 
the representation in their catalogue 
that the seller pays the commission, 
and by the verbal representation of 
the agent that the commission was 5%, 
but the buyer afterwards discovered that 
the commission was not paid by the 
seller but was paid by the buyer, and 
that in some cases the commission was 
as high as 50%, the Strout Agency mak¬ 
ing $1,000 on the sale of a $2,000 farm. 
If a buyer knows his property and 
knows the value and has confidence in 
himself, he can buy either through an 
agency or from a seller direct as will 
best suit his purposes at the time. No 
definite rule can be set down. In some 
cases one might be able to buy cheaper 
through an agent. In other cases he 
could buy to better advantage from the 
owner. But playing against a man with 
a scheme or a trick is rather dangerous 
business. He is always sure of his 
ground and you are guessing. We 
would not care to advise our friends 
with whom they should or should not 
transact business, but I have had some 
experience in the buying and selling of 
farm land and other real estate, and 
judging from the complaints that have 
come to us from men who bought from 
them, I would not consider myself safe 
in making a purchase through the 
Strout Agency, and I certainly would 
not list a property with them on the 
terms of their printed contract. 
I had an old neighbor who was intending 
to rent his farm to a tenant. They went 
through the house, barn and fields and made 
all the arrangements and plans for the 
things to be done, the way they should be, 
and the division of the proceeds. Then tTie 
prospective tenant ’said, “Now we under¬ 
stand this all, let us write a contract and 
sign it.” The old man said, “Yes, let us 
make a contract. 1 am worth $10,000 and 
what are you worth? I will sign it. You 
go and get a man worth that amount to 
sign for you. You can't do it, you want to 
tie me up, do you? D— you, get off my 
place as soon as you can, and don’t you , 
ever come on it again.” buckeye. 
The man with stamina and character 
enough to take such a decided position 
will probably be ahead in the end. I 
have seen too many contracts made be¬ 
tween a responsible farmer and an irre¬ 
sponsible second party without proper 
protection to the former. The farmer 
may be held to the terms of the con¬ 
tract, but he has no redress if the other 
party violates his part of it, and yet 
when all is said a written contract is 
on the whole the best protection the re¬ 
sponsible party to it can have, provided 
the engagement is to go on at all; but 
the contract should be so drawn as to 
protect the responsible party, as well as 
the other. In drawing such a contract it 
is well to remember that the essential 
features of a contract are an offer and 
an acceptance. Hence a letter making 
the offer and all the conditions, and an¬ 
other letter by the second party accept¬ 
ing the conditions of the first, makes 
a good and legal contract. Each party 
to it should keep a copy of his own letter, i 
I. too, have been included among the 
favored few (?) who have been ^specially 
selected as worthy and well qualified to 
become life members of the Luther Burbank 
Association at a price of $151. I wonder 
what the extra dollar is for? I am prop¬ 
erly impressed with the honor sought to 
be done to me, and almost overwhelmed 
with pride that I should be one of the 
few citizens of America that should have 
been selected for this distinguished honor, 
but, nevertheless, on. looking into the sub¬ 
ject further, it occurs to me that $151 is 
rather a long price for a complete set 
of Mr. Burbank’s works; in fact, I may 
go so far as to say that this life mem¬ 
bership scheme is entitled to some comment 
from you in your always interesting “Pub¬ 
lisher’s Notes.” a. I., c. 
New York. 
A good many people are now trying 
to make it appear as a distinction to be¬ 
come a member of a sucker list. The 
Burbank scheme to sell books that you 
would not otherwise buy for $150 is 
only one of them. Herbert Myrick 
will make you a member of his league 
if you buy a book for $2.50 or less. 
Others come to us every day. I was 
selected only last week to go on a 
Long Island land promotion sucker list, 
and was shown names of neighbors who 
had actually bitten on the sucker bait. 
Every one of these promoters figures 
that you and I have vanity that they 
can commercialize for their own profit. 
They are in a class with the quack doc¬ 
tors who would endanger the life of 
a sick child to sell his mother a worth¬ 
less nostrum, when the child needed a 
family physician. j. j. d. 
Have You Seen the Dam — 
across the Mississippi at Keokuk, Iowa? Almost a mile 
long—solid concrete—nearly seven hundred thousand 
barrels of Atlas j Portland Cement are in it. “How does 
this affect me”, you say ? Why, because Atlas was selected 
by the skilled engineers in charge, from all the cements 
submitted for test. Because every barrel and bag of Atlas 
is the same identical high quality. You can get this 
same preferred high quality without all these tests. 
So you see it does affect you. 
Have d ou our FREE 168 page Farm Book on concrete work P Write uj for it now. 
If your dealer cannot supply you with Atlas, write to 
THE ATLAS CEMENT CO.* Dept 22 3 0 Broad St.,N.Y 
Chicag’o — Philadelphia 
Largest productive capacity of any cement company in the world. Over 50,000 barrels per day 
ATLAS 
PO RTLAND 
CEMENT 
Make Your Own Drain 
THE FARMERS’ CEMENT TILE MACHINE 
Makes tile 3 to 8 inches in diam., 1214 inches long. One man or boy operates it by hand 
or power. 500 tile per day by hand, 1,200 by power. Tile thoroughly cured by patent 
process. No tamping or use of pallets. This machine and tile used by Experiment Sta¬ 
tions of Agricultural Colleges and the U. S. Dept, of Agriculture. 5,000 farmers have 
doubled the yield of land by underdrainage, and saved 75% of cost by using our Machine. 
You can do the same. Save cost of hauling and breaking. Make perfect 
tile $3 to $5 per thousand. MACHINE SOLD DIRECT FROM FACTORY 
TO YOU. TEN DAYS’FREE TRIAL. SEND NOW for 36-page Illustrated 
Catalogue. Tells you about great benefits of underdrainage, how to take 
leveis and get grades, make and lay your tile at low cost. 
FARMERS’ CEMENT TILE MACHINE CO.. 
Box 604 . ST. JOHNS. MICH, 
The Home Land°f*h e Nation 
A DELIGHTFULLY healthful summer and winter climate 
with neither extremes of heat or cold—a well distributed 
* rainfall, varying from 45 to 60 inches annually — the 
production of nearly all fruit, vegetable and other crops 
known to the temperate zone—the rural telephone, improved 
highways, modern schools, ample church and social priv¬ 
ileges—these are some of the advantages that tend to make 
the Southeast the “ Home Land of the Nation.” 
A Great Profit Producing Section 
The Dunleith farm in Mississippi, from a 28 acre field of alfalfa averaged 
six tons per acre (from five cuttings). The net profits were $69.17 an acre at 
the local selling price of $15 per ton. 
There is not a state in the South today which does not import annually 
over $10,000,000 worth of beef, yet Government experiments have proved 
that beef can be produced cheaper in the Southeast than elsewhere in America, 
the cost varying from 3 to 4 cents per pound. 
Over $32,000,000 worth of butter is shipped into the Southern Railway 
States each year, though nowhere else can dairy goods be produced so cheaply. 
Northern Florida truckers were marketing strawberries the latter part of 
December, receiving locally $1.00 per quart. 
Good Land $15 an Acre Up 
The present price of Southeastern land is but a fraction 
of the cost of those in other sections. Good two and three- 
crop lands are selling from $15 to $50 an acre, prices varying 
according to improvements and location. 
Market Conditions Favor Farmers 
The large consumption of farm produce by the rapidly growing cities. town9 
and factory districts of the South, and the Northern demand for winter truck will 
always exceed the supply, thereby maintaining good profits to the producer. 
You should investigate now the wonderful opportunities of this 
section. Send for the “ Southern Field." our free magazine, mention 
the State and line of agriculture in which you are interested, and 
booklets and land lists will be sent. 
M. V. RICHARDS, Land and Industrial Agent, Room 87 Washington, D. C. 
SOUTHERN 
RAILWAY 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N-'.-Y. and you’ll get a quick 
reply and a “ square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
