714 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Apia G, 
PUBLISHER'S DESK 
All letters to Publisher’s Desk depart¬ 
ment must be signed with writer’s full 
name and address given. Many inquiries 
are answered by mail instead of printing 
inquiry and answer, hence uusigned let¬ 
ters receive no consideration. 
Warning! Don’t ship maple syrup or 
honey to W. H. Whiting Vermont Maple 
Sugar and Syrup Co.. West Washington 
Market. New York City, without cash in 
advance. We have claims from two ship¬ 
pers that have been standing a long time 
which we are unable to collect. Mr. 
Whiting is no credit to the West Wash¬ 
ington Market. As maple syrup produc¬ 
tion is now at its height, we consider this 
warning is timely and necessary for the 
protection of producers. 
Last Summer we signed a plain order 
for 10 bushels of O. A. C. No. 72 oats 
from L. P. Gunson & Co., No. 1 Ambrose. 
Rochester, N. Y. Recently we were 
notified of the arrival of the shipment to, 
our locality, and as the salesman told us 
we could examine the seed on arrival, we 
did so. As they are not like sample, we 
refused to take them. I am enclosing 
their reply to our refusal to accept them, 
also sample we got from a neighbor, who 
took them without examination. These 
oats were represented to us as thrashed 
and in bags in warehouse ready to ship. 
The agent claimed to be carrying such 
a sample. Price was $2.75. and half 
would fan out. We notice that these oats 
are listed in the catalog of the Canadian 
Provincial Fair at $1.25 and $1.50 per 
bushel. w. a. s. 
New York. 
The sample of the oats sent us is about 
the poorest we have ever seen sent out 
for seed purposes. Tn a letter of March 
11 L. P. Gunson & Co, admit that the 
oats shipped were not like the sample 
carried by the agent, and remind W. A. 
S. that the contract does not stipulate 
that the oats delivered were to be like 
sample, and insists that he accept the 
shipment and pay for it. How is that 
for a sample of liigh-hauded, brow-beat¬ 
ing methods! We think it would take 
first prize in auy contest. No sensible 
farmer would sow such oats if of his own 
raising, and much less should he pay 
$2.75 a bushel for such an inferior qual¬ 
ity. Such oats are not good horse feed, 
while decidedly expensive as such. Again 
we say beware the seed and nursery 
agents roaming about the country telling 
“big yarns.” 
I am enclosing with this some cor¬ 
respondence from the F. C. Taylor Fur 
Co., St. Louis, relating to a skunk skin 
shipped to them by insured parcel post 
Dec. 23. When I shipped the fur I wrote 
on the tags “Hold separate.” placing one 
tag inside the bundle. I wanted them to 
make a bid on the skin. They paid no 
attention to this, grading the fur unprime, 
and sending me a check for $3.30. As 
you will see from their letter, I asked 
them to return the fur. They being un¬ 
able to do this. I suggested that they pay 
me what I was offered by the local buyer 
here. This was $5. In their last letter 
you will see they were unwilling to do 
even this. I can get the names of three 
people as witnesses to the fact that I had 
“Hold separate” on the shipping tags. I 
also wrote this to Taylor. It looks to 
me like a case of carelessness or negli¬ 
gence on their part. They advertise this 
“Hold separate” feature; I believe they 
ought to live up to it. c. H. R. 
Minnesota. 
We wrote the firm in behalf of this 
subscriber, and received a curt reply to 
the effect they consider the “transaction 
closed." No explanation or apology is 
made for the failure to “Hold separate" 
as instructed. The methods of this house 
are indicated by this small transaction 
as well as though a larger amount were 
involved. F. C. Taylor Fur Co. is finan¬ 
cially a highly responsible house. The 
R. N.-Y. does not accept the advertising 
of any raw fur house in St. Louis, Mo. 
Last July an agent for nursery stock 
called upon me and obtained an order 
for young trees, to be delivered this com¬ 
ing May. He gave his name as II. M. 
Whiting, representing himself to be the 
owner of a nursery at Geneva, N. Y., 
from which the stock sold was to come, 
carefully selected by himself iu person, 
etc. He obtained many other orders in 
the neighborhood, some as high as $90 to 
$100. I am informed. We have now 
heard that he owns no nursery: is a kind 
of jobber, buying up the cast-offs of other 
nurseries, and putting them over on his 
customers as first-class goods, and that 
it is very doubtful whether we get the 
varieties ordered. We are infonned that 
you have given this man a “write-up” in 
Publisher's Desk as a person to be avoid¬ 
ed iu the nursery line. Some of us are 
thinking of cancelling our orders with 
him. but wished your advice in the mat¬ 
ter. as we have confidence in your judg¬ 
ment. G. H. H. 
New York. 
Our information regarding Mr. Whiting 
corresponds with what you say: that he 
grows no nursery stock himself, but buys 
his trees from other growers in Geneva 
to fill his orders. Whiting is one of 
the slickest salesmen in the nursery 
trade. He has been barred from doing 
business in the State of Pennsylvania 
because of the false claims made for stock 
he was selling in that State. It is due 
Whiting to say. however, that our reports 
show that he does as a rule deliver a 
very good quality of stock, and our criti¬ 
cism of Whiting has been entirely on the 
grounds that he invariably misrepresents 
the stock, and makes claims that it is 
some wonderful new variety, or grown in 
some wonderful way. so that his stock is 
so much better than auy other that can 
be purchased, and on account of such false 
claims he is able to induce the farmers 
to sign orders for stock at two or three 
times what it is worth. If a number of 
farmers in your vicinity who signed orders 
with Whiting feel that he made misrepre¬ 
sentations which induced you to sign the 
orders, you will be justified in cancelling 
such orders and refusing to accept the 
stock or pay for it. If a single indi¬ 
vidual did this. Whiting would probably 
bluff the party into accepting the stock 
and paying for it on the threat of a law¬ 
suit. If half a dozen of you join hands 
and get a lawyer to send in your cancel¬ 
lations. we do not think that Whiting 
will put up any fight, but accept the can¬ 
cellation as presented in this way. 
Here’s your chance! Get rich quick! 
Write movie plays! It only costs $3 to 
learn how. Isn’t it worth while? If 
The R. N.-Y.. which is my guardian an¬ 
gel in such cases, says it is O. K., I’ll be 
writing photo plays for life, I guess. 
What do you think of them? We take 
The R. N.-Y. and consider it the best 
investment we ever made. I wish the 
paper a long life and prosperity. 
a. c. .T. 
This proposition of Producers’ League. 
St. Louis, is one of the many schemes that 
are desigued to get advanced fees from 
people in the country on one pretext or 
another. Some of these classes of fakers 
pretend to sell real estate, others patents, 
and then this last class promising to sell 
manuscript, sougs. plays, etc. They are 
all just an easy-money scheme. The 
Postoffice Department has shut off many 
of these shysters under charges of fraud¬ 
ulent use of the mails, but others seem 
to keep within the letter of the law and 
flourish. 
What is your opinion of “System on 
the Farm.” edited by John Y. Beaty, Chi¬ 
cago? I will enclose their first letter. 
They sent me a postal card with the fol¬ 
lowing: “Mr. Beaty, I’d like to see how 
‘System on the Farm’ will help me save 
time, get more work done, cut expenses 
and increase my farm profits, so send me 
a copy for free examination, entirely at 
your risk and expense. At the same 
time you may put me down for one full 
year—12 large, well-illustrated numbers 
—and bill me in the regular -way for $2. 
But if I’m not more than pleased after 
reading the trial copy. I’ll simply tell 
you within 20 days, and I’ll owe you ab¬ 
solutely nothing. Name, address, etc.” 
It looks a little tricky to me. h. f. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
We do not like to be put in the position 
of criticising another publisher, but this 
method of securing subscriptions is 
“tricky.” The publisher gets the order 
for a conditional subscription in this way 
and relies upon the fact that a large per¬ 
centage of those signing such a blank 
will neglect to send the required notifi¬ 
cation even if the farmer realized he was 
under obligation to do so in case he did 
not desire more than the sample copy. 
Iu the event of his failure to do so. how¬ 
ever. the publisher then comes down on 
him to pay the subscription price, under 
threat of lawsuit. from collection 
agencies or be put on a blacklist. Buck 
methods are unworthy of the publishing 
business as a whole or of any publication 
looking for the confidence of the farm¬ 
ing public iu particular. 
“The school mistress is interested in 
you, dad.” “How’s that?” “Why, today, 
after she’d told me six times to sit down 
and behave myself she said she wondered 
what kind of a father I had.”—Philadel¬ 
phia Evening Bulletin. 
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