886 
July 26,. 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
I put my farm in the hands of E. A. 
Strout Farm Agency to sell. I was to 
have 30 days’ notice. They sold it to a 
man from Ohio, and did not give me 24 
hours’ notice. I had eight cows and a 
team, and could not move right away. 
The Ohio man stayed four weeks. They 
moved all their goods on the farm and 
mowed some land. When his wife came 
(he title had not passed, and she would 
not let him take the deed. 
They left June 3. Then it was too late 
for me to plant anything. In the mean¬ 
time I had moved away. The Ohio man 
paid the Strout agent $200 down. They 
have the $200 now. They say this is 
their commission and I must stand the 
loss. One of your subscribers told me 
to write you about it. Can they keep this 
commission now, and another later? If 
they hold this commission now, isn’t it 
out of their hands, or shall I have to pay 
them a commission again if I sell it my¬ 
self? I wish you would advise me, as I 
am a poor boy. E. H. B. 
Vermont. 
Let us assume that everything the 
Strout agent did in this case was done 
according to the contract with this boy 
and perfectly legal. The agent probably 
acted within his rights by the authority 
given him by the owner in the contract. 
This leads to the conclusion that the 
trouble was with the contract. It was 
because of this contract that we refused 
the Strout advertising five or six years 
ago. We object to the contract because: 
(1) It is carefully drawn by skilled at¬ 
torneys for the benefit of the Strout 
Agency to cover every contingency that 
their experience suggests. The farmer 
has no part in the making of it except to 
fill in blanks and sign it. It gives the 
Strout Agency the broadest possible 
powers under its provisions. 
(2) The Strout agent is authorized to 
sell the farm under the terms of the 
agreement. The farm may be sold at 
any time without the owner’s knowledge 
or further consent. 
(3) The contract, so the Strouts con¬ 
tend, binds the owner to pay the Strout 
Agency a commission, even when the sale 
is made by the owner himself or by an¬ 
other agent, provided the buyer is a 
Strout customer. 
(4) The net price the owner is to re¬ 
ceive is fixed by the contract. The 
agents get all they are able to induce the 
buyer to pay above this price. In no 
case is the commission to be less than 
$200; or if the selling price exceeds 
$2,000, the commission is not to be less 
than 10 per cent. Commissions as high 
as 70 per cent of the owner’s price have 
been reported; and many reports of 50 
per cent have reached us. 
(5) In some contracts the selling 
price is also given; but the agents are 
given authority to change this price up 
or down with the proviso that it must 
not be reduced below the net price. It sim¬ 
ply gives the agent an excuse for telling 
a buyer that the price quoted is the sell¬ 
er’s price. It helps the agent deceive 
the buyer. 
(6) If the owner sells personal prop¬ 
erty to the buyer, he is bound to pay 10 
per cent of the sales to the Strout 
Agency. 
(7) When a farmer once signs this 
contract, he is bound for all time to pay 
a commission or a withdrawal fee. If he 
dies this fee is due, unless his executors 
or assigns re-list it with the Strout 
Agency. Moreover, if he withdraw the 
property and pay the fee, and after¬ 
wards sell the property, the Strout 
Agency claims the right under this con¬ 
tract to collect a commission, provided 
the buyer received information about it, 
directly or indirectly, through them or 
their advertising. Several years after 
paying a withdrawal fee the owner may 
sell his farm and be obliged to defend 
himself in a suit against the Strouts be¬ 
cause of this provision, or pay the com¬ 
mission. 
(8) The withdrawal fee discourages 
competition; and if for any reason the 
farmer finds that he does not wish to 
sell, he must pay the fee, or run the 
chance of having the farm sold over his 
head. 
(9) If the buyer makes a deposit and 
decides not to take the farm, and for¬ 
feits his deposit, two-thirds of the forfeit 
goes to the Strout Agency. In the case 
cited above the agency seems to have 
claimed and kept the whole forfeit. In 
either case it is to the advantage of the 
agent to allure a weak buyer to agree 
to a purchase and to pay a deposit, large 
or small. The agent’s commission is due 
THE RURAL 
when the purchase contract is signed, and 
if the deposit is not enough to pay it, 
the balance may be collected from the 
owner. Whatever other loss or annoy¬ 
ance results, the owner must stand. 
We see then that the contract may be 
entirely legal, and the agent act entirely 
within the authority vested in him under 
it; and yet the owner may be at a great 
disadvantage under it. The agent acts 
legally under the authority given him by 
the owner. The way to avoid this is not 
to sign the contract. 
Of course this sale and payment of 
commission closes the listing contract, 
and the boy should now notify the agency 
that he considers the contract closed; 
and he will then be at liberty to sell to 
whom he pleases with no further obliga¬ 
tion to the Strout Agency. The farm 
papers that carry the Strout Agency ad¬ 
vertising, indirectly recommend this con¬ 
tract to their subscribers. Those who 
guarantee their advertisers and carry it, 
directly recommend it. It is, however, 
only just to say that heretofore publish¬ 
ers probably had no knowledge of its exist¬ 
ence or terms; but they have the infor¬ 
mation now, and those who continue to 
carry the advertising must share in the 
responsibility of any hardships that befall 
their subscribers because of it. 
The indictment and arraignment of 
Nova Adolphus Ilrown, Harold Lewis 
Davis and Floyd N. Franklin, operating 
at No. 1 Wall Street as N. A. Brown & 
Co., brought to grief yesterday the latest 
stock promotion scheme of the versatile 
and ever optimistic Brown, whose record 
as prime booster of stocks or corpora¬ 
tions which later went bankrupt or whose 
officers were forced to suspend operations 
until they had served penitentiary sen¬ 
tences, is well known in the financial 
district. A Federal Grand Jury, after 
reading printed matter sent through the 
mails by this firm promising dazzling div¬ 
idends upon stock of a candy company, 
Franklin’s Incorporated, whose selling 
agent, N. A. Brown & Co. was, indicted 
the trio for using the mails in an at¬ 
tempt to defraud. United States Com¬ 
missioner Shields held them in $5,000 
bail each. In the two years of the pro¬ 
motion the firm succeeded in unloading 
upon the public $500,000 of the stock, so 
the indictment charges.—Daily Paper. 
One more get-rich-quick stock promo¬ 
tion scheme in the net of the postal au¬ 
thorities. The Franklin’s Incorporated 
was referred to in this department about 
two years ago as sending on an imposing 
list of candy stores on Broadway that 
were selling Franklin candy. Our inves¬ 
tigation showed many of the addresses 
given to be office buildings with a cigar 
stand in the rotunda which carried a 
few dollars’ worth of candy as a side 
line. Among the candy stock carried 
were a few pieces of Franklin candy. 
But the list of alleged candy stores made 
excellent “sucker bait.” The most in¬ 
teresting item in connection with the 
arrest of these promoters is the uncover¬ 
ing of the Federal Advisory Bureau, 154 
Nassau Street, with which the defend¬ 
ants had a contract to revise advertise¬ 
ments and literature. The president, an 
ex-postoffice inspector, might reasonably 
be expected to know how to keep such 
promoters out of the clutches of the Fed¬ 
eral authorities, so as to lure the savings 
of the credulous indefinitely. 
As a subscriber to your valuable paper, 
I am taking the liberty of addressing you 
in the interest of a friend who has got 
into one of the numerous land schemes 
in your vicinity. lie is only interested 
to know if it would be advisable to pay 
these taxes (if they are really taxes) or 
to drop the whole matter. Ilis "invest¬ 
ment” is about $60, and he does not know 
anything about the lots or how situated. 
Anything you may be able to tell me 
would be appreciated. w. h. w. 
New Hampshire. 
We wrote a trusted friend at Lake- 
wood about this property and he reports 
as follows: 
Lakewood Terrace is owned by a Bos¬ 
ton book concern, and is one of the 30 
fake companies who are operating in 
Ocean County at the present time. This 
property comprises a small farm and sev¬ 
eral acres of Jersey sand soil located about 
six miles from Lakewood out toward 
Whitesville. The valuation of the farm 
would be about $40 per acre, and the rest 
of the property is not worth paying taxes 
on, unless it should be wanted for a spe¬ 
cial purpose. 
The above shows how little value these 
investors got for their money, and this 
is a fair sample of the real estate invest¬ 
ments presented with glowing colors to 
country people at a distance. New Jer¬ 
sey and Long Island particularly are 
infested with this sort of real estate pi¬ 
rates. 
NEW-YORKER 
Unless reversed by the higher court, 
the decision handed down by the New 
York Court of Appeals, which holds pro¬ 
moters civilly liable for all losses in¬ 
vestors sustain through fraudulent claims 
as to the values and standing of securi¬ 
ties, the ruling will have the effect of 
making responsible men careful in the 
future about what statements they per¬ 
mit over their names in the sale of se¬ 
curities to the public. But if the 
promoter is civilly responsible for losses 
caused by fraudulent acts on his part, 
then by the same law he is equally 
guilty of the crime against the people at 
large, and ought to be prosecuted as a 
common felon. Were this more generally 
practiced it is certain that a lesser num¬ 
ber of promoters would risk going to 
jail, for the majority dislike forfeiting 
their freedom.—The Financial World. 
If the ruling of the court were uni¬ 
versally enforced both civilly and crim¬ 
inally the population of the State prisons 
would be increased, and they would 
become the residence of some very 
eminent but careless citizens. 
I would greatly appreciate it if you 
could collect $12 for me from the Lehigh 
Valley Railroad. I have written to them 
and can get no reply. Last Summer one 
of their trains set fire to my hay field 
and burned about 1,200 pounds of good 
Timothy hay, and made the ground so 
nothing would grow there this year. I 
think the railroad company should pay 
for the hay burned, as I have had to fight 
the fire several times, besides the loss of 
the hay. I will thank you if you can 
help me out. m. s. 
New Jersey. 
On the ground that there did not ap¬ 
pear to be any responsibility on their 
part, and the statute of limitation having 
expired on the claim, the claims adjuster 
respectfully- declined it. We wrote the 
facts of the case to the president of the 
Lehigh Valley Itailx-oad and he promptly 
instructed the adjuster to send voucher. 
We accepted $10 in settlement with con¬ 
sent of owner. j. j. d. 
Hand Raising an Orphan Foal. 
Could you give me a little advice how 
to feed a foal that lost its mother after 
it was only a few hours old? The foal 
is three weeks old; it can eat hay and 
drinks about two quarts of cow’s milk 
at each meal, but for a colt of that age 
I think it should be more lively. It does 
not seem to have any vim; it seems to 
have trouble in urinating. It also likes 
salt and sugar; it is not very poor in 
flesh. H. G. F. 
Pennsylvania. 
Give the foal three ounces of castor 
oil shaken up in milk to freely move the 
bowels. Mix one ounce of limewater and 
two teaspoonfuls of sugar with each pint 
of milk fed and feed at least six times a 
day. Gradually sweet skim-milk may 
take the place of new milk, after the foal 
is six weeks old. Allow it free access to 
a box containing oatmeal and as soon as 
it learns to lick that, add wheat bran. 
At all times have pure drinking water 
where the foal can get it. Let it run 
out on grass, in cool of morning and 
evening. A. S. A. 
Ropy Milk. 
I have a cow about eight years old. 
I think something is the matter with her 
milk. It takes quite awhile to strain it 
through a cloth strainer, and when the 
strainer is washed with soap it makes a 
very thick slime, which is very hard to 
get out of the strainer. The pans are 
the same way that the milk is set in 
when they are washed with soap. It 
can only be seen when soap is applied. 
Can you tell what the trouble is. J. R. 
Massachusetts. 
In such cases the cow usually is not 
to blame, for the trouble is due to bac¬ 
teria in the milk utensils. Perfectly 
scald, cleanse and sun dry all milk uten¬ 
sils. See that the washing water is pure. 
Clean up, disinfect and whitewash the 
stable. If the cow has garget that might 
affect her milk and treatment has often 
been given here of late. A. s. a. 
Stiffness in Cow. 
We have a cow that has been sick for 
two months; think she has rheumatism. 
Her legs are so stiff she can hardly walk. 
One day she has a pain in her shoulders 
and then the next day the pain seems to 
be all gone into her hips. There is no 
swelling. What can we do for her? 
New York. j. l. P. 
As the stiffness may be due to tuber¬ 
culosis of the bones and joints have the 
cow tested with tuberculin. If she proves 
to be free from tuberculosis give her half 
an ounce of salicylate of soda twice daily 
and feed light laxative rations. Keep her 
out of the wet and let her lie on a dry, 
well-bedded floor in stable. A. S. a. 
W 
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The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th Street, New York City 
