-766 
June 14, 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
On September 28, 1911, I shipped 500 
baskets of grapes via Erie Railroad from 
Eden, N. Y., to Buffalo, N. Y. The 
baskets tallied at Eden but were 102 
baskets short at Buffalo. The balance 
sold for six cents a basket, leav¬ 
ing a- shortage of $9.75. I made 
claim through our agent here and after 
some correspondence they offered to set¬ 
tle for half but I refused this offer. Can 
vou help me get my own? The only 
way I can see 1 was at fault was in 
entrusting my produce to the Erie Rail¬ 
road. They have all the papers in their 
possession. a. E. n. 
New York. 
After some further correspondence it 
developed that check had been sent to 
consignee with no advice whatever and 
he had entered it on his books awaiting 
claim for same. This shows rather a 
lax way of following up claims by the 
Erie Railroad as settlement is cer¬ 
tainly due the consignor and he had 
promptly entered his claim. 
We sent E. Lee, Riverhead, Long 
Island, N. 1\, 300 Enchantress plants 
valued at four cents apiece, or $12 fot 
the lot, and have been unable to get pay 
for same. The flowers were in A1 con¬ 
dition and a good investment should 
have been realized. He fails to respond 
to my letters and if you can make 
the collection we will appreciate it. 
New York. K. B. 
We have been unsuccessful in making 
this collection and our attorney has not 
been able to get an adjustment of the 
account. It is reported that Mr. Lee 
has a number of bills standing against 
him and it is almost impossible to make 
collections. 
December 18, 1912, I shipped a 30- 
dozen case of fresh white eggs to a New 
York dealer. Ten days later I wrote 
him asking why I had not heard from 
him. January 8 he wrote he received 
them December 19 and would send check 
as soon as they were sold. I wrote 
again and now (January 20) I have 
heard nothing from him and received no 
check. We have shipped to other firms 
and received payment promptly each 
week. Can you give me any advice as 
to what to do? w. a. ii. 
New York. 
The usual claim was made for delayed 
payment for this case of eggs. The eggs 
were undersized—market had dropped— 
and a final plea that while he had 
only received 23 cents per dozen he had 
returned 28 cents per dozen in order 
to retain the shipper’s good will. The 
subscriber states his neighbors were 
getting 43 cents per dozen for the same 
quality of eggs. This only emphasizes 
our oft repeated advice—ship only to 
houses of known reliability. The new 
commission law ought to prevent trouble 
of this kind in the future. 
The good women who conduct the 
Guild of the Infant Saviour, 105 East 
22nd Street, New Y r ork City, wish us to 
announce to The R. N.-Y. readers that 
they are prepared to receive applications 
for positions for women with children. 
This is conducted as a work of charity 
to find employment for these women, 
and every precaution is taken to select 
a suitable person for the application. 
Can you tell us why the St. Louis & 
San Francisco Railroad went into the 
hands of a receiver? All reports in¬ 
dicated that this road was In a nour¬ 
ishing condition. I hold some of their 
bonds. Is there anything wrong? 
Connecticut. E. s. D. 
The immediate cause of this failure 
was that $2,250,000 of its notes matured 
on June 1 and the money could not be 
secured to pay them. There seems little 
question that there was a tendency to 
whoop up the affairs of this road in 
published statements at a time when in¬ 
siders knew that trouble was brewing. 
In fact the 1912 statements of the com¬ 
pany seemed to conceal the true state 
of affairs. Losses of a million in the 
operation of subsidiary companies were 
entirely obscured in clever bookkeeping 
devices. The real cause of this trouble, 
and of the financial straits of other rail¬ 
road and industrial companies is the 
financial policy that has prevailed for 
some years back of over-capitalizing and 
excessive issues of bonds and notes. 
Securities have been issued with total 
disregard of their relation to actual as¬ 
sets. So long as earnings seemed for 
the time being to. promise a small divi¬ 
dend or interest charge, the issue of 
obligations went joyously on. Frenzied 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
finance has become a national disease. 
There has been no attempt to pay off 
obligations and reduce debts. The uni¬ 
versal policy has been to multiply obli¬ 
gations, and borrow more to meet ma¬ 
turing debts. With all such schemes of 
finance there comes a day of reckoning. 
The pity is that the burdens fall on the 
outside investor instead of on the inside 
manipulator, who is responsible for the 
crash. 
Received check from New York, New 
Haven and Hartford Railroad Company 
(through Tiie Ii. N.-Y.) for $7.76 in full 
for a 30-dozen case of eggs shipped to 
the Western Poultry and Egg Company 
June 18, 1912. I do not know how to 
express my thanks to you for the favor 
done me in collecting the bill. But for 
you I would never have realized one 
cent. How glad I would be to do some 
favor in turn, or would be willing to 
pay you if you will name the price. 
I will use a number of the trial sub¬ 
scription envelopes to those about here 
who do not take the paper if you will 
forward them to me. H. D. 
New York. 
There is more of the personal and of 
expressed gratitude in this letter than we 
usually print. We save this from the 
blue pencil not to express any praise 
for the little service for ourselves, but 
we think it serves to express the help¬ 
fulness of many shippers in such cases. 
Will you let me know what you can 
about W. M. Ostrander, Inc.? J. J. b. 
New Jersey. 
We have given about all the space to 
Ostrander that even his fake methods 
warrant; but it would require a book 
to tell all we know about the schemes 
of this gentleman, “incorporated.” The 
accompanying letter says he is forming 
a class of 100 to be instructed in his 
methods and to be established in busi¬ 
ness. Of course, if you do not act 
quickly, you will not be one of the 100. 
The first thing Ostrander will want will 
be a fee; and after that if you fake 
your neighbors on his schemes, he will 
probably allow you to keep a small per¬ 
centage of the spoils. 
Since you came so graciously and 
quickly to our aid once I believe you can 
do it again. I ask you to look over the 
enclosed papers and see if you can do 
anything for us. We live six miles from 
the station and cannot get any redress, 
as the Wells Fargo people pay no atten¬ 
tion to us. Our shipment of three coops 
of fowls arrived in New York City in 
very bad order and 12 head of poultry 
were dead. They weighed 21 pounds and 
we received 20 cents a pound for the live 
ones. b. N. c. 
New York. 
The Wells Fargo & Co. Express de¬ 
clined this claim three or four times, con¬ 
tending that the chickens were dead when 
delivered to their agent, and stated the 
truckman knew they were dead. Inas¬ 
much as they were carefully covered and 
only part of them dead, and a clear re¬ 
ceipt given for them in good order at the 
starting point, we contended the company 
was responsible. Their agent would not 
have received dead chickens for shipment. 
After some four months’ correspondence 
voucher for payment was passed, as it 
should have been three months before. 
Held ox False Pretense Charge.— 
On the charge of extortion, conspiracy 
and obtaining money under false pre¬ 
tense, William W. Leister, Edmont 
Mollenhauer, of Quakertown, and Oswin 
Erdman, of Pennsburg, were held in bail 
by Magistrate Harvey. The prosecutor 
is George M. Mock, of Pennsburg. He 
alleges that after he sold a farm for 
$2,700 to Henry F. Iloyle, the defendants, 
who are rea 1 estate agents, compelled 
him to sign a promissory note for $190. 
The men claimed that amount was due 
them for commission.—Pennsylvania 
Local Paper. 
This is the W. W. Leister who repre¬ 
sents the E. Strout Farm Agency at 
Quakertown, I’a., and vicinity. When 
we presented the complaints of sub¬ 
scribers who bought farms through Mr. 
Leister and the Strout Agency he was 
for the time being out of the Strout 
Agency service, and claimed that he only 
followed the Strout instructions in what 
he did. A suit against The It. N.-Y r . 
has also been filed in his name by the 
Strout attorney because of the publica¬ 
tion of the complaints of farmers. Mr. 
Leister and the Strout Agency claim to 
be as innocent of wrongdoing as new¬ 
born babes; but somehow their farm 
customers persist in complaints against 
them. A notable feature of these com¬ 
plaints is that they come from widely 
scattered sections from people who have 
no knowledge of each other’s troubles; 
and that the complaints from these 
widely distributed sources are practically 
all of the same general character there 
must be a mental telepathy between the 
Strout enemies that enables them to con¬ 
spire against their benefactors. 
J. J. D. 
CHICKEN RUNS AND LITTER. 
1. Mr. Cosgrove’s article on enclosing 
chicks in a dirt run in which grain is 
sown to furnish green food has solved 
for me a difficult problem. I have quite 
a large currant patch which I could 
enclose for chicks until the middle of 
July, when an adjoining run with large 
coops would be ready, as in this run 
grain is sown as early in Spring as 
weather permits. The drawback which 
bothers me is how I am going to keep 
the currant patch cultivated. Could I 
sow grain at different intervals between 
rows cultivating between those rows 
where grain is not sown? How far 
ahead should the grain be sown before 
it would be profitable to uncover it? 
2. With his dirt floors to his laying 
houses how does Mr. Cosgrove prevent 
the scratching litter from being buried 
by the dirt? I have tried the plan but 
have found the litter becomes so solid 
mixed with the dry dirt that it is difficult 
to work grain into it. E. J. 
1. A currant patch would be a fine 
place to raise young chicks in, the 
bushes furnishing what shade would be 
needed. The grain can be sown three 
weeks before the chicks are put in, or 
at any time after. The oats should be 
sown very thickly, and not allowed to 
get over two or three inches high. Sow 
more oats on top of these and cultivate 
them in. The first time I tried it, there 
were not enough chickens to keep the 
oats down; and they grew away from 
the chicks and ripened grain, which the 
chicks pulled down and ate later. Oats, 
barley, wheat, and rye can be sown, at 
intervals of three or four weeks all 
Summer. I don’t think chicks would 
eat enough currants to do any harm, if 
they were in the patch all Summer. 
2. To the question about litter getting 
mixed with the dirt, would say that my 
small 10x10 feet houses on the farm have 
the scratching shed outside of the roost¬ 
ing and laying house; ancl I take pains 
to keep the litter out of the house. In 
building a row of houses, I set them 
10 feet apart, then boarded up the 
space between the houses at the back, 
put on a roof, and used wire netting 
for the front. The two henhouses form 
the two ends of the scratching sheds. 
The henhouse door opens into the scratch¬ 
ing shed, so that can be wide open all 
day, and still keep the hens confined. 
A wire-covered door In the front of the 
shed gives admission to both house and 
shed. In my 20x20-feet house for 100 
White Leghorns, the litter has to be on 
the dirt floor, and it does get mixed with 
earth; but when it gets dirty enough to 
compel renewing, there will be enough 
hen manure mixed with it to pay for 
carting it out and putting it on the land 
or manure pile. This makes it neces¬ 
sary to cart in more earth at least once 
a year, but that ought to be done any¬ 
how. GEO. A. COSGROVE. 
Customer. — “I must say, waiter, this 
is the first time I’ve ever had a really 
tender steak here. Waiter (aghast) — 
“Good gracious! I must have given you 
the proprietor’s steak !”—Tit-Bits. 
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year, by saving- you time and 
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years to come—for a penny an hour. 
CAILLE 
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Use Gasoline or Kerosene 
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Send for details. Get tho facts, learn all 
about this wonderful, economical, littlo time 6avor. 
A postal brings all. 
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DETROIT, 
MICHIGAN 
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69 
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as 
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Complete Water Works equip¬ 
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THE BALTIMORE CO. 
Baltimore, Maryland. 
Running Water on the Farm 
If there’s a spring or flowing stream where you 
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YOUR APPLES 
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Ask for our 
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telling 
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EauAL To fiNEST Auto Springs 
tin principle, quality of steel and grade 
r of workmanship—in fact, made in a large 
1 auto spring plant—Harvey Bolster Springs can I 
not be excelled for resiliency, durability and | 
appearance. Get a set and save many dollars i 
hauling your perishables. Beware of 
substitutes. If not at your dealer's, writs us. 
Harvey Spring Co., 71617<bSf., Bacine.WIs. 
HOHCBCTItR 
*VEY BOLSTER SPRINGS- 
