554 
The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
March 22, 1910 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
Interest in Publisher’s Desk continues, 
and many requests come for publication 
of a record of the work for the year 1918. 
We have, therefore, compiled it, and the 
result is as follows: 
We received 8,777 claims 'for collection, 
amounting to $66,824.94. Of these 2,08S 
were against transportation companies 
and amounted to $36,993.34. Miscella¬ 
neous claims numbered 1.739 and 
amounted to $29,831.60. We collected 
2,332 claims amounting to $37,425.54. 
Transportation claims collected numbered 
1,034; miscellaneous claims, 1,19S. 
Eighty per cent of the claims that are 
uncollected are against express compan¬ 
ies. We estimate that we have written 
some 52.721 letters in carrying on this 
work. 
We began keeping this record in 1910, 
and the record is: 
1910— 400 claims collected... $9,665.45 
1911— 539 
1912— 558 
1913— 743.,; 
1914— 800 
1915— 921 
1916— 1.192 
1917— 1.630 
1918— 2.232 
.12.110.63 
. 10,926.51 
.10,112.91 
.19,655.50 
.13,021.12 
.18.131.54 
.23,961.21 
.37.425.54 
This makes a total of 9.015 claims col¬ 
lected. amounting to $155,020.41. 
Can you give me any information re¬ 
garding the Donald MacMillan Oil Com¬ 
pany. said to own oil fields in Oklahoma? 
Shares in this company have been dis¬ 
posed of in the vicinity of New York City. 
Connecticut. L. F. J. 
Enclosed find letter and application 
blank which my son received to sell stock 
of Oklahoma-Texas Producing and Refin¬ 
ing Company. What is your opinion of 
this firm and their proposition? He is to 
receive 20 per cent on the oil sales. 
Connecticut. J. A. M. 
We have no information regarding 
these oil companies. Thousands of these 
oil companies have come into existence 
since the price of oil was advanced to 
such a high figure. Many of them have 
nothing more in the way of assets than a 
hole in the ground. It is reported that 
spurious oil companies operating in Okla¬ 
homa during 1917 produced less than $1 
worth of oil to more than $500 of capi¬ 
talization. With so many get-rich 
schemes afloat the only safety is in re¬ 
fusing to consider investment in any 
stock that is not on a dividend-paying 
basis and regularly quoted on the ex¬ 
changes, which in some measure at least 
establishes a price or value. The stocks 
that are offered to country people, either 
by mail or slick-tongued agents, as a rule 
have no real value. If they had there 
would be no necessity for selling them in 
this way. 
I saw your notice in The R. N.-Y. 
about Walter F. Thorpe entering the list¬ 
ing fee real estate game, so I watched 
the papers, for I knew a fish can escape 
once by the slip of its tail, but when lie 
returns for the bait the fisherman is 
wise to the trick and gets him. In this 
case the police got their game without any 
mistake. It is a pity every farmer does 
not take the good old R. N.-Y.; if they 
did. maybe these sharks would starve to 
death after a while. A. j. G. 
Syracuse, N. Y. 
The above refers to the item published 
a few weeks ago regarding Thorpe’s ar¬ 
rest. The record of his conviction and 
sentence which follows may serve as a 
warning to fakers of the same stripe: 
“I do not consider this a case for leni¬ 
ency. Ever since the beginning of this 
trial I have heard of so many that have 
claimed they were swindled by you, that 
there must be some substance, some foun¬ 
dation for their attitude, where the situa¬ 
tion appears to be so widespread. 
“Considering the conditions, I am not 
inclined to entertain your appeal for 
leniency. The sentence of this court is 
that you be confined in the State’s prison 
at Auburn for a period of not less than 
four years nor more than six years and 
six months.” 
This was the sentence meted out to 
Walter F. Thorpe, convicted of grand lar¬ 
ceny for defrauding David J. Gardner in 
the sale of an automobile, by Judge D. 
Raymond Cobb in County Court. 
Enclosed find some literature of All- 
American Truck Company, Chicago, that 
may interest: you. They have an agent 
selling stock in this community. I thought 
it was such a good thing you would pub¬ 
lish their standing and help your sub¬ 
scribers. E. N. s. 
New Jersey. 
The woods are getting to be as well 
filled with tractor and truck promotions 
as it is with oil stocks and hog ranch 
schemes. Both the above concerns have 
apparently some financial standing. The 
tractor and truck business both unques¬ 
tionably have a big future. The fields are 
already well occupied by manufacturing 
concerns with ample capital and with 
sales forces covering every section of the 
country. There are yet opportunities in 
this field for concerns that have a tractor 
or truck that fills some demand that may 
not yet be supplied; but the one essential 
for the successful establishing of either a 
tractor or motor truck enterprise is ample 
capital. Those looking for money from 
the public to finance their operations cer¬ 
tainly have an up-hill “row to hoe.” They 
cannot reasonably hope to compete with 
the concerns established in the trade; but 
if the public furnishes the money the pro¬ 
moter is nothing out and will enjoy the 
experience. 
Can you give me any information as to 
the reliability of the Lakeside Live Stock 
Company. Inc., of New Orleans. La.? 
One. of their agents li. s been working this 
territory trying to sell their stock. I am 
sending you under separate cover cata¬ 
logue which you will see is got up in 
fine shape. h. m. p. 
Pennsylvania. 
We have no definite information regard¬ 
ing this proposition on file which we can 
give you. We only know that livestock 
enterprises or farming enterprises of any 
kind cannot be successfully established or 
conducted on the proposed plan. We have 
read so much of the promoters’ “dope” on 
farming enterprises, cattle ranches, hog 
ranches, unit orchards, etc., that it has 
got to be an old story. They can all 
figure out profits on paper, but we know 
that no farming proposition can bear the 
promotion expense and overhead expense 
which are necessarily incurred in develop¬ 
ing these enterprises on a lax-ge scale. The 
promoters may be sincere in their expres¬ 
sions of confidence in the future of the 
country; but if so they have failed to 
inform themselves of the history of simi¬ 
lar efforts in the past, and they are also 
lacking information as to the small mar¬ 
gin of profit in producing stock and farm 
produce for market. The agent selling the 
stock will get more fat results in selling 
it than the buyer is likely to x’eceive from 
dividends in the rest of his natural life. 
Gan you advise me as to the honesty 
and reliability of the Colony Holding Cor¬ 
poration. Atascadero. Cal., of which E. G. 
Lewis is head? This company is pro¬ 
moting a .small farms colony in Atasca¬ 
dero and Santa Margarita, Cal. Their 
book, “Back to the Land.” gives a glow¬ 
ing description of this proposition, and 
as you formerly were pretty well on the 
track of an E. G. Lewis of St. Louis, 
Mo., I wonder whether this is a scheme 
to relieve somebody of his hard-earned 
cash or whether it might be a bona fide 
proposition. As your paper has taken a 
keen interest in advising your people of 
land frauds, will you give me any in¬ 
formation you have? l. h.*k. 
Ohio. 
We shall have to judge E. G. Lewis in 
the present promotion by his past per¬ 
formances. His manner of separating in¬ 
nocent people from their hard-earned 
savings is all a matter of record in the 
courts of St. Louis. Can the “leopard 
change his spots”? It has been our ex- 
pex-ience that this rarely happens. In 
our experience Lewis is the champion 
long-distance inventor of “get-rich-quick” 
schemes, and those sending him money 
on any pretext will do well to kiss it 
good-bye for all time. One of our busi¬ 
ness friends, traveling in California, re¬ 
ports as follows: 
I must tell you I passed through Atas¬ 
cadero. where our mutual St. Louis friend ! 
has been doing some great things. The 
old, old story, with new additions. 
w. p. s. 
Charles Schonbrun, 162 Reade Street, 
N. Y. City, has offered us three cents per 
dozen above highest quotations for eggs. 
This seems a very good price and better 
than we are getting. Please let ‘us know 
whether he is listed O. K. E. p. p. 
New Jex’sey. 
Any individual or house offering three 
cents per dozen above the market price 
is to be avoided. This is the plan adopted 
by the “gyps” of the trade, who never 
pay anything for the produce l'eceived. 
Charles Schonbrun has no financial re¬ 
sponsibility that we are able to discover. 
“What kind of a speaker is this man 
Gassawa.v?” asked the Old Fogey. “Oh, 
he’s a pretty fair speaker,” replied the 
Grouch, “but he lacks terminal facilities.” 
*—Cincinnati Enquirer. 
How to grow crops that 
fatten your pocket-book 
At the present cost of seed you want a 
yield that will pay you well. An investment 
in Planet Jr. tools is good-crop insurance. 
They enable you to cultivate so thoroughly 
that you get bigger and better crops. And 
they operate so rapidly and easily that you 
save both time and labor. Their substantial 
construction makes them last a lifetime and 
pay for themselves over and over again. 
They are savers at every stage of the sowing 
and cultivation—just what every farmer and 
gardener needs! Fully guaranteed. 
Planet Jr. 
No. 4 Planet Jr. Combined 
Hill and Drill Seeder, Wheel- 
Hoe, Cultivator^ 
and Plow j s a, 
special favor¬ 
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are more of 
them in use 
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furrow, sows all garden seeds (in hills or drills), covers, rolls 
down and marks the next row all at one operation. Hoes, 
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that will pay for itself in time, labor and seed saved in a single 
season. 
No. 8 Planet Jr. Horse-Hoe does a greater variety of 
work in corn, potatoes, and other crops requiring similar 
cultivation, and does it more thoroughly than any other 
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and finished. Lasts longef. Its depth regulator and 
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deep or snallow and different widths of rows. 
S. L. ALLEN & CO. Inc. 
Box U07V Philadelphia 
72-page Catalog, free! 
Illustrates Planet Jrs. doing: actual farm 
and garden work, and describes over 
55 different tools, including Seed¬ 
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Harrows. Orchard-, Beet- and Pivot- 
Wheel Riding Cultivators. Writ® 
postal for it today l 
mm 
lEROT 
Horse Power Is 
Cheapest and Surest 
CHILLED PLOWS 
for plowing. You who have tried 
it KNOW this to be a fact. Many 
1/ fields have been only half plowed. The 
harrow must do what the plow left un- 
done, on 95 per cent, of the farms 
by the readers of this ad. LE ROY 
Walking and Riding Plows would 
have done better work last year 
for much less money. 
LE ROY Plows are built in your 
territory and especially adapted 
for the rough Eastern plowing. 
Try a Le Roy dealer or write, Le Roy Plow Co., 117 Lake St., 
Le Roy, N. Y., for full particulars. 
LJmsist oxi being supplied with genuine Le Roy extras.) 
A horse with bruised, galled and 
chafed neck or shoulders can’t earn 
his feed. Whipping only increases 
his suffering. You can prevent such Injuries 
for less than the price of a good whip. 
Equip your faithful animal with Tapatco— 
The pad made with our 
NEW PATENTED HOOK ATTACHMENT 
(Found Only on Pads Made by Us.) 
Consists of wire staple with felt washer. 
It gives hook a firmer hold and prevents 
pulling off, even though fabric is weak¬ 
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provement since we invented the hook. 
STUFFED COLLAR PADS 
Filled with our Special Composite Stuffing 
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Ask your dealer for Tapatco Booklet. 
THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS MAKING PADS 
Look for the Felt Washer 
SOLD BY DEALERS EVERYWHERE 
The American Pad & Textile Company, Greenfield, Ohio 
Canadian Branch: Chatham, Ontario 
( 2 ) 
Pat. In U.S. Die. 1,1914 
Pat. In Caa. Apr. 6,1915 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a "square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
