ipdm 
CgM R n a - 
^TRY H 0*4% 
Vol. LXXVIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
338 W. 30th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. FEBRUARY 22, 1910. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 26. 1879. at the Poat 
Office at New York. N. Y'., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
No. 4522. 
Telling the Farmer’s Story 
Why Not Control Wholesale and Retail Products? 
A NEGLECTED INDUSTRY.—I am a salesman 
for an electrical concern and live in a suburban 
town of 6.000 people. T am also interested indirectly 
in a 150-acre farm,have 
been taking. The R. 
N.-Y. for five years 
and class it among the 
four papers, outside 
of local papers, that I 
have time to read : The 
National Geographic. 
Literary Digest. Sat¬ 
urday Evening Post 
and R u r a l New- 
Yorker. I have also 
just returned from 
France, where I have 
been engaged in Y. M. 
C\ A. work for 10Vi 
months, and if my im¬ 
pressions are worth 
while yon might be in¬ 
terested in the follow¬ 
ing: It seems as 
though in the large 
Held of industrial ad¬ 
vertising. one impor¬ 
tant. branch has been 
neglected, and that is 
the farm. An industry 
that returns millions 
of dollars in wealth to 
the country each year 
is neglected, and hence 
the misunderstanding 
that is created in the 
minds of the average 
consumer towards the 
price of the farm 
product. 
TEI.L THE CON¬ 
SUMER.—W h y not 
tell the consumer, 
through the local news¬ 
paper. magazines, etc., 
what it costs to oper¬ 
ate a farm? Educate 
them: they have been 
led to believe that all 
the farmer had to do 
was to sit on his porch 
and see his crops 
grow. Why not an In¬ 
ternational Farmers’ 
Association, similar, if 
you please, to the 
Brewers’ Association? 
The only thing that 
lias kept out prohibi¬ 
tion up until now has 
been the money ob¬ 
tained by a tax onevery 
gallon of whiskey and 
every barrel of beer. 
MILK PUBLICITY.—Suppose we start with the 
milk producer. For an example, the Dairymen’s 
League is a nucleus. By taxing each 100 pounds of 
milk live cents a fund would he raised that would 
he sufficient to educate tlie public to the needs of 
the farmer, both political and economical. Then 
Borne-•’> Milk Company had whole page advertise¬ 
ments about how badly the dealers were being 
treated, and figures were given to show that they 
were making but a fair profit. The cost of thi* 
advertising had to come from the consumer; why 
not the farmer’s side in the same way? If the 
towns and smaller 
cities where country 
people can bring a 
strong influence upon 
We have advised our readers to 
these papers, and to write letters for 
publication whenever any farm interest needed a de¬ 
fense. Our people have taken thi> up and. in several 
localities, have succeeded in dominating the local 
papers so that farmers and their interests have a 
A Good Day's Work by the Busy White Leghorns. Fig. 69. 
tlie local paper: 
advertise in 
continue further, if you please, by the tax of a few people actually understood what the farmer's 35- 
cents per bushel on grains, fruits, etc. If you,wish cent dollar really meant, they would settle the eon- 
to make {►"comparison, the manufacture of liquor troversy themselves, but unless they are educated 
has always controlled the wholesale and retail; why how are they to know? 
can't the farmer control the wholesale and retail of A CASE IN POINT.—In Buffalo a compromise 
1)is products? W hen the milk fight was at its height, has been effected, due to an investigation in the 
operation of the pub¬ 
lic markets, and the 
mayor lias refused to 
allow the farmer to 
peddle bis unsold pro¬ 
duce to the housewife 
• on his way home in 
the afternoon. A little 
money spent in adver- 
, , tising that stand, and 
the reasons why the 
farmer should not 
have to take his pro¬ 
duce home and back 
again, or take the 
price offered by com¬ 
mission men. would 
arouse the public and 
compel the mayor to 
change his attitude, 
but the dealer’s side is 
the only one heard, as 
they are advertisers in 
the paper and the far- 
• mer is not. and when 
there is any free ad¬ 
vertising naturally the 
advertiser gets it. 
Your constant tight for 
the farmer and against 
the 35-cent dollar can¬ 
not help but impress 
those who read your 
paper, but unfortu¬ 
nately the percentage 
of your readers, out¬ 
side of the farmers, is 
very small.* 
w. F. O’CONNOR. 
It. N.-Y.— We be¬ 
came convinced long 
ago that something of 
this sort must finally 
be done. We are not 
sure as to the best way 
to go at it. but some 
plan must sooner or 
later be devised for 
putting the farmer’s 
side right into the 
thought and imagina¬ 
tion of the consumer. 
We have got to make 
him understand our 
story. In a limited 
way this has been 
done in some of the 
