1078 
'X'HIS RURAL NEW-YORKER 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
The Bridgeport Post in reviewing a 
number of libel suits recently brought 
against Connecticut newspapers says 
they “signally failed”; and also “that 
suits brought for libel arc seldom suc¬ 
cessful.” That is true, and it is highly 
creditable to the courts that the facts 
are as stated. The cases referred to are 
of particular interest because they are 
Connecticut ones and such affairs are 
comparatively rare in this State. As a 
rule libel suits are brought for the pur¬ 
pose of bluffing or in an effort to pre¬ 
vent the further showing up of crooked¬ 
ness. 
Telling the truth is too often risky 
business. The libel laws are sadly in 
need of repairs. Newspapers are ham¬ 
pered far too much. In protecting the 
public from imposition and fraud, dis¬ 
honest business and crooked politicians 
they are rendering service of the most 
important kind, and deserve better treat¬ 
ment than libel suits which would be 
less frequent and less fashionable if 
those whose duty it is to uphold the 
laws and punish swindlers were not so 
often criminally negligent and indiffer¬ 
ent.—Bristol Press. 
The above expresses several thoughts on 
the subject of newspaper libel that the 
public ought to know. Our motto is that 
it is even better that a thousand rogues 
go free than that the breath of suspicion 
be cast on one honest name. This prin¬ 
ciple imposes the duty on the publisher 
of being sure of his facts before publish¬ 
ing anything to reflect on the person 
discussed. 
This has made it possible for us to 
justify the publication when the matter 
came up in court. The experience is too 
expensive, but I know little good done 
in tiie world except at the expense of 
money, time and energy. 
I have a claim against the P. W. Zieg¬ 
ler Bible Co. of Philadelphia, Pa. I 
worked for them 60 days under guaran¬ 
tee contract of receiving $2 per day, or 
not less than $120 for 60 days work. I 
put in the 60 days and they refuse to 
pay me. Can anything be done with the 
claim? j. f. w. 
Iowa. 
Houses offering agents work and prom¬ 
ising a definite salary whether the agents’ 
commission amounts to a specified sum 
or not usually find some means of escap¬ 
ing the conditions of the contract. When 
v.e took the complaint up with P. W. 
Ziegler & Co., they pointed out to us 
that under the contract in order to be en¬ 
titled to $2 per day he would need to re¬ 
port daily which this agent did not do. 
It is also the privilege of the Ziegler Co. 
under the contract to move agents from 
one territory to another in case they do 
not find the work progressing satisfac¬ 
torily. There is no provision for the 
company paying the expenses of the 
agent and under this provision they could 
order the agent to work territory in Cal¬ 
ifornia if they so desired; from that point 
back to Maine. Of course the travelling 
expenses for such changes would more 
than eat up the amount of the salary 
promised. The Ziegler Co. proposition 
practically resolves itself into one of pay¬ 
ing a commision on any goods which 
the agent sells and the conditions to be 
entitled to the salary of $2 per day as so 
impossible of execution that one is justi¬ 
fied in questioning that the offer is made 
in good faith at all. 
I enclose you a set of documents of 
what appears to me to be a first class 
fake concern, the Empire Art Institute, 
Syracuse, N. Y., and will briefly tell you 
the circumstances, and ask if you can do 
anything to force them to return the 
money that has been paid to them. My 
mother is a widow, 73 years old. Dur¬ 
ing the absence of everyone from our 
home but my mother, one day in May a 
dapper young man called on my mother 
as agent of the concern in question and 
by taking advantage of her infirmity by 
false representations inveigled her into 
giving him a large copy of my father’s 
photograph, together with $1.98 and 
stated that he would make her a painting 
for the said price, returning the photo 
with the painting. Anyone in full men¬ 
tal capacity would of course know that 
it could be nothing but a chromo at its 
best. My mother thinking to surprise 
us fell readily into his trap. In June he 
again appeared at our house when no one 
was around and stated to her that the 
painting was nearly done and that she 
would want it framed and that it took a 
special frame that no one but he could 
furnish, and that it would cost $8 for the 
frame, and that he could not deliver the 
painting without a frame. Again by fal¬ 
sifying, he in some way obtained from 
my mother another payment of this $8 
stating that this was all that she would 
have to pay and that he would soon bring 
the picture. A few days ago another 
young man appeared at the house, and 
my sister was at home and answered the 
call. This was the first that we knew 
of the affair. He announced that he had 
the picture and frame in his team and 
could not deliver it without a further 
payment of another $8. She of course 
asked of my mother the meaning of all 
this and then promptly refused to pay 
anything and was told by this fellow that 
he would have to return the painting to 
his people. I would like to have you 
investigate this fraud and see what you 
can do for me toward getting a return of 
this money and the photo that was loaned 
to them. e. n. u. 
Connecticut. 
The above illustrates the method of 
“art institute” agents very well. When 
the victim is some old lady as in this 
case, it is easy for the agent to work his 
game and secure a fabulous price for a 
comparatively cheap and worthless frame 
to go with the picture. The method is 
essentially one of deception and fraud. 
We have been exposing the methods of 
art institute agents for 20 years back, 
but evidently they still find victims 
among country people. We hope the 
agents of art houses will receive a warm 
reception on their future calls to families 
where The R. N.-Y. is read. 
I am enclosing a letter from the O. I\. 
Seed Store, Indianapolis, Ind., advertis¬ 
ing their new wheat “Marvelous.” In 
your judgment will it pay to pay them 
.'’’.'I per bushel for this wheat to sow? 
T have so much faith in The R. N.-Y. 
that I want your advice. 
Shepard, O. s. n. D. 
The proprietor of the O. K. Seed Store, 
.1. A. Everitt, purchased Miracle wheat 
from a prominent Philadelphia seedsman 
in the Fall of 1912, and sold it to farm¬ 
ers as “Marvelous.” making claims that 
one-half bushel per acre was sufficient. 
He is making the same claims now in 
his printed letter to this subscriber for 
his “Marvelous new variety.” We do 
not know whether the variety he is sell¬ 
ing now is the same he purchased from 
the Philadelphia seedsman, but the Na¬ 
tional Department of Agriculture knocks 
the Miracle wheat claims into the pro¬ 
verbial “cocked hat” in a recent report 
which reads as follows: 
This variety of wheat has been ex¬ 
tensively exploited as one of unusual 
tillering ability. Extensive tests by the 
United States Department of Agriculture 
and several State experiment stations 
have shown that it is not at all extraord¬ 
inary in tillering power. It is just an 
ordinary variety of wheat of the Ful- 
caster type and ha,s never given better 
than average yields in variety tests. The 
results at experiment stations do not 
indicate that more tillers per plant would 
be formed by this wheat than by other 
ordinary sorts; in fact, most of the ex¬ 
periments indicate that it is hardly so 
good in this respect as several of the 
other common varieties. Attempts have 
been made to charge exorbitant prices on 
the basis of this statement. I do not be¬ 
lieve that those who make these state¬ 
ments have any evidence to support their 
claims. 
The advertisement of the O. K. Seed 
Store appearing in some farm publi¬ 
cations offering to “Trade seed wheat” 
is a fake as the proposition in their 
letter sent to those answering the adver¬ 
tisement tells the farmer to sell his own 
wheat at $1 a bushel and buy the O. K. 
Seed Store’s “most remarkable variety 
ever introduced” at $3 per bushel. 
On a Sunday in February, 1912, an 
agent from the International Corres¬ 
pondence School of Scranton, Pa., called 
and explained to me about the course 
the school gave in electrical engineering. 
I signed for this course, making a pay¬ 
ment of $5 each month until $85, the 
price of this subject was paid. When I 
received the first lesson I found there 
were lots of extras to buy, so I w r rote 
the school that their agent gave me to 
understand that $85 included everything, 
and I was not going to take the course 
and wanted my $5 back. I received a 
letter saying I had signed for the elec¬ 
trical engineering course, and must make 
my payments when due, and then the let¬ 
ter told the advantages of completing the 
course, etc. I paid no attention to the 
letter. The agent called for his month¬ 
ly payment and I told him I was not go¬ 
ing to take the course. lie said I would 
have to pay just the same. From this 
time until the following February, when 
the school brought suit. I received col¬ 
lector’s and lawyer’s letters, circular let¬ 
ters, and letters from the school urging 
me to cont’nue the course. When the case 
came up in court we used for defense 
“misrepresentation” and “contract signed 
on Sunday.” The judge ruled that al¬ 
though the contract was signed on Sun¬ 
day. it was not accepted by the school 
until the following Tuesday (the day 
they received it from their agent) there¬ 
fore the contract was binding on my part. 
It cost me over *150 befo-e I got out of 
it, and I received nothing from the 
school except a set of study books. 
Every case that has come up in Massa¬ 
chusetts courts has been won by the 
school, while in the State of Michigan 
the school has lost most of their suits. 
Massachusetts. f. l. g. 
The experience of the above subscriber 
is interesting as showing the attitude of 
the courts of the State of Massachusetts 
with regard to these contracts for corres¬ 
pondence school courses. The letter also 
emphasizes the fact that anyone signing 
an order or contract for a correspondence 
school course should be very sure in his 
own mind that the course will be of 
some benefit to him. and that he is in 
a position to carry on the contract and 
pay for it. A great many people are 
talked into signing contracts of this kind 
who really can derive no benefit from 
such a course, while under the spell of the 
persuasion of some slick-tongued agent. 
In view of the fact that the student 
must be forced in many cases by threats 
of law-suits to accept and pay for the 
correspondence courses, the financial dif¬ 
ficulties of the proprietor of this school, 
Mr. T. J. Foster, recently reported, are 
not surprising. The Rural New-York¬ 
er is said to have the distinction of be¬ 
ing the only paper refusing this line of 
advertising. j. j. p. 
Cutting Corn Too Soon. 
A very common mistake made by many 
farmers is cutting corn before it is ripe 
or fully matured. I remember hearing an 
old farmer say that if corn was well 
glazed over there was enough substance 
in the stalk to ripen it in the shock. If 
any young corn grower is tempted to fol¬ 
low this advice don’t do it. It always 
results in a decided loss. In growing a 
large acreage of corn and wishing to 
economize our working force we would 
begin cutting a few days before our crop 
was ripe so as to avoid hiring high-priced 
help. In every instance it was poor econ¬ 
omy, because the loss in weight of dry 
corn would much more than have paid 
the extra help needed. A few years ago 
I was away from home at the beginning 
of the corn harvest, and wishing to see l 
five acres of a field to wheat I employed 
a young neighbor to cut the corn, leaving 
it to his judgment as to when the corn 
was ripe enough. He cut it five days too 
soon, and when husking, the men who did 
the work agreed that there was a loss of 
at least five dollars an acre in value of 
dry corn. Now we wait until our corn 
is fully matured, the fodder showing dry 
leaves and ripened husks, even though 
some has to become over ripe before we 
get to it, and we are so sure that it. pays 
that we would not allow our corn cut too 
soon if some one would do it without pay. 
Some experiment stations have of late 
years conducted experiments along this 
line, proving that our conclusions given 
above are correct. horatio markley. 
Ohio. 
Destroying Woochucks. 
Have you a remedy or can you recom¬ 
mend a method for getting rid of wood¬ 
chucks? These pests have become so nu¬ 
merous on my farm that it has become 
dangerous to drive team over the fields 
lest horses step into woodchuck holes and 
become disabled. The blocking of the en¬ 
trance to the holes starts them burrow¬ 
ing another outlet, and they are expert 
borrowers. Their evasiveness makes it 
difficult to get within shooting range, and 
hunting the varmints is an expensive 
time loser. w. s. A. 
Niles, Mich. 
Probably the most effective way of 
cleaning out woodchucks is to have some 
good marksman make a business of 
hunting them. A good rifle is best for 
this work. The woodchucks usually come 
out to feed early in the morning or in the 
late afternoon. Let some hunter get into 
a quiet place where he will be hidden at 
these parts of the day and wait for the 
woodchucks. They come out cautiously, 
but when they think there is no danger 
they will go some distance from the hole. 
Then let him shoot them. Probably of 
all methods this is the surest plan. An¬ 
other plan frequently recommended is to 
drive bi-sulphide of carbon down into the 
hole. This can be done with an injector 
or pump, or a round stone may be covered 
with cotton batting with the bi-sulphide 
of cai’bon poured upon it. Then push this 
down as far into the hole as possible and 
cover the openings. In order to make 
sure of this method all the openings must 
be closed. In some cases part of a stick 
August 2S, 1915. 
of dynamite is pushed far down into the 
hole and exploded with a long fuse. 
Another way recommended is to take a 
good-sized sky rocket with a quantity of 
sulphur put into it, push this down into 
the hole to a reasonable depth and set fire 
to it as you would for a Fourth of July 
exhibition. This will drive the sulphur 
and powder gas down into the hole. It 
will frequently kill the woodchuck, or 
drive him out where he may be destroyed. 
Steel traps set at the mouth of the hole 
are sometimes used, as well as box traps, 
but these are usually not very satisfac¬ 
tory. In some cases the' woodchuck-’ 
may be poisoned by putting a quantity of 
strychnia into sweet apples, which are 
left about the holes, hut the shooting or 
the use of bi-sulphide seem to be the most 
effective remedies. 
A Small Silo. 
How large a silo would you deem nec¬ 
essary to provide feed for two cows and 
four pigs, and what do you consider to 
be the cheapest good construction? How 
much should such a silo cost in our local¬ 
ity 7 P. M. A. 
Yaphank, N. Y. 
A silo for two cows and four pigs 
would be so small it would prove en¬ 
tirely impracticable. Silage to cure out 
and have keeping qualities must have 
pressure enough to expel the air. and 
this is secured by deep silos, and the 
great weight of the silage itself. The 
pigs will consume very little if any silage. 
The cows for six months would require 
something less than four tons each of 
silage. The silage to keep well has to be 
compressed so compactly that it will 
average about 45 pounds to the cubic 
foot, so that a silo 7x7 feet and 11 feet 
in height would be ample to hold this 
silage when sufficiently compact. In so 
small a silo it would be impossible for 
the silage to settle compactly with its 
own weight, and resort would have to be 
made to some plan of mechanical pres¬ 
sure. I have, years ago, heard of the 
“hen men” pressing barrels of clover 
compactly, and then heading them up 
for green feed in the Winter, but the dis¬ 
covery of sprouted oats destroyed (?) 
this industry. It will be the better way 
for 1*. M. A. to feed his roughage dry. 
made appetizing by some of the approved 
plans of feeding. j. g. 
Dishorning Bull. 
Is there a law which compels one own¬ 
ing a bull to dishorn him and put a ring 
in his nose? Can you tell me whether 
or not such a law exists? c. S. 
New York. 
There is no State law on this sub¬ 
ject, and no one is compelled either 
to dishorn a bull or put a ring in his 
nose. In case a bull is ugly and the own¬ 
er knows of his propensity to attack peo¬ 
ple, the wisest course is to both dishorn 
and ring him as precautionary mea¬ 
sures, inasmuch as the owner is liable for 
damages resulting from his negligence 
after the bull once demonstrates his abili¬ 
ty to attack persons. 
Abnormal Milk. 
My cow freshens about Aug. 10. For 
the past two months she has been giv¬ 
ing ropy or clotty milk. During May 
the cream had a strong odor. She is 
drying off now, giving around six pounds 
a day. Would this clotty milk be apt to 
cake in her udder? Last year before she 
freshened her milk was a trifle ropy hut 
nothing compared to now. She is a big 
strong healthy cow, fine appetite and in 
prime condition. She has good pasture, 
give her no hay, one pound of bran, two 
pounds chops, in two feeds, but when I 
dry her off I shall give her one quart of 
bran night and morning. Can this clotty 
milk be prevented or is it the condition 
of some cows to give clotty milk before 
calving? She runs 18 to 20 pounds of 
fine rich milk all Winter. f. f. c. 
Connecticut. 
Cradually dry the cow off now and 
during the process do not feed bran or 
any meal or grain ration. Have her run 
on spare pasture and eat hay in addition, 
if she cares to do so. If you know that 
the cow has never had an attack of gar¬ 
get (mammitis) the present condition of 
the milk no doubt is preparatory to the 
drying-off process. It may. however, be 
due to bacteria in the udder or milk uten¬ 
sils, or to slight mammitis. It would 
therefore be well, on several principles, 
to milk three times a day, massaging the 
udder each time and at night to rub in 
a mixture of equal parts of fluid extract 
of belladonna leaves and camphorated oil. 
This treatment will tend to get rid of in¬ 
fected milk, check milk flow and grad¬ 
ually stop secretion. Do not drv the cow 
off suddenly; it might prove disastrous. 
A. s. A. 
