890 
The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
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  unsigned  let¬ 
ters  receive  no  consideration. 
“The  Luck  of  Swoboda”  is  the  title  of 
a  prospectus  of  the  West  Toledo  Mines 
Company,  put  out  by  Deru  &  Thomas, 
stock  brokers,  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah. 
Alois  P.  Swoboda,  of  “Conscious  Evolu¬ 
tion  ’  fame,  is  represented  as  president. 
The  prospectus  alleges  that  Swoboda  has 
been  exceedingly  fortunate  in  his  specu¬ 
lations  as  a  result  of  his  good  judgment. 
The  public  is  urged  to  follow  Swoboda’s 
streak  of  luck  and  put  their  savings  into 
the  mining  proposition.  It  is  quite  the 
custom  for  easy-money  sharks  when  their 
other  games  are  worked  out  to  turn  their 
attention  to  stock  promotions.  Two  other 
notable  examples  of  this  are  the  cases  of 
Dr.  Cook  and  E.  G.  Lewis.  Swoboda’s 
operations  are  not  on  so  large  a  scale  as 
the  other  get-rich-quick  artists,  but  just 
as  dangerous  for  anyone  who  might  be 
tempted  to  take  the  bait. 
What  do  you  think  of  the  enclosed  let¬ 
ter?  Do  you  know  anything  about  these 
brokers  or  about  the  “Ucan  Safety  Hair 
Cutter  Corporation”?  Not  that  we  would 
ever  invest  any  money  in  any  stock 
through  any  letter  sent  us  by  any  in¬ 
vestment  brokers,  but  we  have  a  friend 
who  also  received  letters  from  these 
brokers  and  talked  of  investing.  F.  l. 
New  York. 
This  stock  is  being  promoted  on  the 
basis  that  the  purchaser  of  the  “Ucan 
Hair  Cutter”  can  cut  his  own  hair.  We 
cannot  imagine  this  practice  ever  be¬ 
coming  popular.’  Until  the  contrary  has 
been  demonstrated,  putting  money  into 
the  stock  of  the  company  behind  the 
project  must  be  regarded  as  taking  a 
very  long  shot. 
It  may  interest  you  to  look  over  the 
inclosed  get-rich-quick  offers  of  Martin 
Grocery  Company  that  were  mailed  to 
me.  Could  you  advise  me  whether  I 
should  send  $20.06  for  the  grocery  order? 
Prices  quoted  on  goods  are  less  than  the 
chain  stores  charge  in  our  neighborhood, 
and  in  addition  they  are  giving  away  75 
lbs.  of  sugar.  Sounds  good,  but  I  want 
to  know  if  this  firm  is  reliable.  e.  p. 
New  Jersey. 
The  Martin  Grocery  Company  has  no 
financial  responsibility  that  we  can  find. 
On  this  basis  we  could  not  recommend 
anyone  to  send  tbe  concern  money  in  ad¬ 
vance  on  an  order.  The  fake  “free  offer” 
of  75  lbs.  of  sugar  condemns  the  concern 
in  our  minds.  The  scheme  seems  to  be  a 
revival  of  similar  ones  emanating  from 
Chicago  a  few  years  ago.  These  cheap 
grocery  offers  seem  to  be  sent  out  broad¬ 
cast  to  rural  route  box  numbers  without 
the  name  of  the  individual.  We  advise 
R.  N.-Y.  readers  to  beware  of  the  scheme. 
We  learn  that  Joseph  E.  Martin,  the  per¬ 
petrator  of  the  fraud,  has  been  arrested 
and  jailed  as  a  result  of  the  prompt  ac¬ 
tion  of  the  postoffice  inspectors.  No 
semblance  of  a  grocery  business  was  dis¬ 
covered  by  the  authorities  —  purely  a 
swindle. 
FI.  W.  Cobb  of  Glen  Rock  Nursery  and 
Stock  Farm,  Ridgewood.  N.  J.,  wrote  he 
shipped  me  800  Black  Minorca  chicks 
May  16,  whereas  he  only  sent  me  200.  I 
wrote  him,  stating  the  shortage,  and  he 
never  acknowledged  my  letter-  So  I 
wrote  him  the  second  time,  canceling 
shipment  of  the  shortage,  and  ordered 
him  to  refund  $18.  Instead  of  refunding 
my  money  he  sent  the  other  100  chicks 
May  31.  You  will  note  by  inclosed  cards 
when  this  order  should  have  been  deliv¬ 
ered  :  1,000  came  Mav  10.  200  came  May 
16,  and  100  came  May  31.  Tbe  1,000 
came  from  Galion,  O.  I  wish  to  thank 
you  for  the  interest  you  had  in  my  deal¬ 
ings  with  II.  W.  Cobb,  and  would  like  to 
have  you  publish  same  for  the  benefit  of 
other  R.  N.-Y.  readers.  r.  e.  j. 
New  Jersey. 
The  above  experience  speaks  for  itself. 
We  have  had  a  number  of  complaints 
from  Mr.  Cobb’s  customei's  this  season. 
This  thing  of  advertisers  representing 
themselves  as  poultrymen  and  accepting, 
orders  as  such,  and  then  sending  the 
order  to  some  hatchery  at  a  distance  to 
be  filled,  is  a  distinct  menace  to  the  baby 
chick  industry.  This  subscriber  naturally 
expected  the  chicks  to  be  shipped  from 
Ridgewood,  N.  J.,  which  is  not  more  than 
50  miles  distant  from  his  address.  There 
are  altogether  too  many  of  this  class  of 
baby  chick  advertisers.  Again,  many 
baby  chick  advertisers  feel  it  is  their 
privilege  to  accept  orders  for  definite  de¬ 
livery  on  or  about  a  certain  date  and  fill 
it  a  month  or  six  weeks  later,  ignoring 
the  customer’s  cancellation  in  the  mean¬ 
time.  We  have  found  some  of  The  R. 
N.-Y.  advertisers  following  this  practice, 
but  when  another  season  comes  around 
those  advertisers  will  be  obliged  to  seek- 
trade  through  other  channels,  as  their 
advertisements  will  not  be  accepted. 
Mr.  Cobb  left  an  unenviable  record  in 
Maryland,  where  he  operated  several 
years  ago. 
Some  of  my  lady  friends  are  quite  anx¬ 
ious  to  join  the  Automobile  Legal  Asso¬ 
ciation,  Newark,  N.  J.,  as  per  inclosed 
circular,  and  as  I  also  drive  a  car,  they 
are  trying  to  have  me  join  as  well.  Will 
you  write  me  about  this  company? 
New  Jersey.  Mrs.  r.  m.  g. 
This  is  another  of  the  service  schemes 
that  we  consider  of  very  doubtful  value. 
You  pay  $10  for  membership  and  the  only 
definite  sendee  promised  is  in  case  you 
break  down  on  the  road  you  are  to  call 
up  the  nearest  garage  which  is  member 
of  the  association  for  help,  and  you  will 
be  towed  to  the  garage  without  charge. 
There  is  no  assurance  that  the  towing 
charge  will  not  be  included  with  the  bill 
for  repairs  which  may  be  necessary.  We 
advise  giving  all  these  membership 
schemes  a  wide  berth. 
Our  Orange  County  friends  who  have 
made  inquiry  about  the  Wallkill  Automo¬ 
bile  project  will  be  interested  in  the  fol¬ 
lowing  from  a  recent  issue  of  the  Finan¬ 
cial  World: 
Advices  have  drifted  into  our  offices  in¬ 
dicating  that  promoters  discovering  the 
whereabouts  of  David  Buick  have  drafted 
him  into  a  new  motor  financing  concern 
and  they  would  soon  flood  the  country 
with  literature  telling  investors  what  a 
g’-eat  part  he  played  in  the  motor  world. 
The  success  Durant  has  had  in  financing 
his  various  concerns  directly  through  the 
people  has  inspired  the  backers  of  Buick 
with  the  hope  they  could  repeat  this  suc¬ 
cess  under  the  glamor  of  his  name.  They 
will  tell  how  Buick  put  the  Buick  car 
where  it  is  today,  how  he  was  a  part  of 
the  brilliant  past  reflected  now  in  the 
General  Motors  Company,  but  they  will 
pass  by  the  fact  that  Buick  is  as  dead 
as  old  King  Tut  so  far  as  enjoying  any 
prominence  in  the  financial  world  and  they 
will  not  touch  upon  his  connection  with 
the  Buick  Oil  Company,  one  of  the  no¬ 
torious  oil  swindles  of  10  years  ago  which 
the  Financial  World  exposed  until  it  was 
driven  out  of  business. 
Some  time  ago  I  bought  shares  in  the 
All-Weather  Train  Controller  Company. 
Newark,  N.  .T„  to  the  amount  of  $500.  I 
get  a  letter  once  in  a  while  to  send  more 
money,  and  I  begin  to  wonder  just  what 
I  have  done.  What  is  your  candid  opin¬ 
ion  concerning  this  proposition?  I  shall 
be  very  grateful  for  it.  MISS  M.  a.  m. 
New  York. 
The  All-Weather  Train  Controller 
stock  is  of  the  “blue  sky’-’  class.  What¬ 
ever  may  be  the  result  of  the  original  in¬ 
vestment  of  this  woman,  we  could  not, 
advise  putting  any  more  money  into  the 
proposition.  The  fact  that  the  company 
is  constantly  appealing  for  more  money 
indicates  that  it  is  either  “hard  up”  or 
the  promoter  is  playing  for  easy  money. 
Can  the  Publisher’s  Desk  department 
take  a  hand  in  circulating  information 
regarding  the  fraud  revealed  in  the  in¬ 
closed  newspaper  clipping?  As  is  stated 
in  this  article,  the  operations  of  the 
salesmen  for  the  “Veteran”  magazines 
extend  well  into  the  country  districts  and 
many  a  hard-earned  dollar  has  been  taken 
from  the  pockets  of  those  whose  sympa¬ 
thies  have  been  played  upon.  Mr.  Brew¬ 
er  has  evidently  taken  pains  to  fortify 
himself  from  the  law.  but  he  is  a  criminal 
nevertheless,  as  well  as  his  assistants, 
who  prowl  about  seeking  to  benefit  them¬ 
selves  at  the  expense  of  real  ex-service 
men.  A.  w.  M. 
New  York. 
The  scheme  of  Wm.  S.  Brewer,  an  ex¬ 
convict,  selling  World's  TFar  Veterans' 
Magazine  is  a  contemptible  one.  At  the 
close  of  the  war  he  organized  what  he 
calls  “Ex-Service  Men’s  Co-operative 
League,”  which  is  only  another  name  for 
Brewer.  He  gets  the  proceeds  from  the 
sale  of  the  magazines,  which  he  sells  on 
his  plea  that  the  purchasers  are  thereby 
helping  ex-service  men. 
Tbe  only  faith  which  wears  well  and 
holds  its  color  in  all  weathers  is  that 
which  is  woven  of  conviction  and  set  with 
the  sharp  mordant  of  experience.— James 
Russell  Lowell. 
The  Reindeer  as  a  Dairy  Animal 
A  surprisingly  large  number  of  readers 
have  written  to  ask  what  we  think  about 
the  possibilities  of  what  they  call  “rein¬ 
deer  dairying.”  The  interest  in  this  mat¬ 
ter  seems  to  have  been  started  by  Mr. 
Stefanssen,  the  Arctic  explorer,  in  one  of 
his  books.  He  states  that  there  are  great 
possibilities  in  milking  reindeers.  In 
fact,  he  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  50 
years  from  now  the  so-called  “dairy  belt” 
will  work  north,  and  that  great  quantities 
of  butter  and  cbeese  will  be  made  in  what 
is  now  called  the  “Frozen  North.”  The 
claim  is  that  reindeer  can  live  very  cheaply 
on  the  moss  and  other  growths  of  that 
frozen  country.  He  states  that  the  milk 
is  exceedingly  rich,  and  that  through  a 
long  period  of  breeding  and  collecting  tbe 
dairy  qualities  of  these  animals  may  be 
greatly  improved.  Then  there  are  writers 
who  describe  life  in  the  North.  They 
give  us  very  pretty  pictures  of  cvhat  may 
be  expected  in  the  way  of  these  dairy 
animals.  In  a  story  recently  published 
we  are  told  of  a  herder  who  had  devel¬ 
oped  certain  families  of  reindeer  so  that 
they  were  giving  more  than  a  quart  of 
what  was  practically  pure  cream  at  a 
milking.  All  these  things  have  interested 
June  2.0,  1923 
number  of  reindeer  and  the  possible 
amount  of  milk  that  they  can  give.  Per¬ 
sonally  I  have  no  experience  in  milking 
reindeer,  but  from  all  I  can  learn  there  is 
absolutely  no  danger  that  reindeer  milk 
manufactured  into  cheese  or  butter  will 
compete  with  milk  from  cows  in  the 
States.  Possibly  the  enthusiasm  of  Mr. 
Stefanssen  may  have  fathered  the  idea.  It 
is  true  that  the  Laps  milk  some  of  then- 
reindeer,  and  that  they  make  cheese  from 
this  milk  and  use  it  as  an  article  of  food. 
But  the  labor  which  would  be  required  to 
milk  a  large  number  of  reindeer  would  it¬ 
self  be  prohibitive  as  a  business  proposi¬ 
tion.  Inclosed  herewith  I  send  you  an  il¬ 
lustration  of  two  Laps  milking  a  reindeer. 
It  is  a  genuine  photograph  and  tells  a 
vivid  story.  Reindeer  are  not  housed  in 
stables  or  tethered.  The  cows  must  be 
caught  from  the  flock  and  subdued  by 
force  while  the  milking  proceeds. 
C.  C.  GEORGESOrt. 
Worms  in  Well  Water;  Weevils 
1.  We  are  on  a  rented  farm  ;  came  here 
in  November,  and  found  it  all  run  down 
and  in  bad  condition.  The  drinking 
water  comes  from  a  pitcher  pump  in  the 
house,  and  it  seemed  pure  and  tasted  good. 
We  used  it  all  Winter.  Just  lately  we 
found  in  the  water  small  white  worms  with 
hairy  legs  and  long  antennae.  They  are 
real  small,  the  largest  about  l/±  to  %  in. 
long,  almost  transparent  in  color,  and 
are  in  sections  and  have  numerous  long 
legs.  We  don’t  know  what  to  do.  The 
Milking  Reindeer  in  Lapland 
the  public.  Not  knowing  anything  about 
life  in  that  distant  country,  men  and 
women  have  believed  these  stories,  and 
really  think  that  the  dairy  reindeer  has 
just  about  arrived.  We  wrote  to  Prof. 
C.  C.  Georgeson  of  the  Experiment  Sta¬ 
tion  at  Sitka,  Alaska,  for  information 
about  this  matter,  and  the  following  brief 
note  from  him  gives  his  opinion,  which  is 
probably  correct.  The  picture  here  print¬ 
ed  was  taken  from  a  bulletin  issued  by 
the  Sitka  Station.  It  is  from  a  photo¬ 
graph,  and  apparently  gives  a  true  pic¬ 
ture  of  the  way  the  reindeer  must  be 
handled  in  order  to  obtain  even  a  small 
supply  of  milk.  It  looks  as  if  this  was 
like  puncturing  another  dairy  balloon, 
and  it  is  not  likely  that  anyone  now  liv¬ 
ing  will  be  likely  to  eat  Labrador  butter 
because  it  is  cheaper  than  butter  made  in 
the  good  old-fashioned  dairy  belt.  We 
must  remember,  however,  that  the  fact 
that  the  present  reindeer  does  not  give 
much  milk  is  no  sure  reason  why  her 
grand-daughter  many  times  removed  in 
the  future  may  not  rank  as  a  dairy  ani¬ 
mal.  Probably  the  original  Jersey  cow, 
a  thousand  years  or  more  ago,  would  not 
rank  in  value  with  the  present  queen  of 
the  dairy.  A  pen  of  the  original  jungle 
hens  entered  at  one  of  the  egg-laying  con¬ 
tests  probably  w’ould  not  make  much 
more  of  a  record  than  10  or  20  robins  of 
the  present  day.  They  have  been  devel¬ 
oped  through  long  years  of  breeding,  and 
it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  in  the 
future  the  reindeer  may  become  very 
much  more  useful  than  at  present.  No 
one  is  advised,  however,  to  give  up  his 
present  employment  and  go  to  breeding 
reindeer  in  the  frozen  North  with  the 
expectation  that  he  will  become  suddenly 
rich.  As  for  the  dislike  of  reindeer  to 
give  their  milk  down,  they  cannot  be 
worse  than  some  of  the  cows  we  used  ro 
milk  on  the  Western  range.  They  never 
gave  much  anyway,  and  you  had  to  throw 
and  strap  them  before  you  could  get  the 
small  amount  they  carried. 
You  express  fear  that  the  reindeer  in¬ 
dustry  may  jeopardize  the  dairy  industry 
in  the  States.  To  me  the  idea  is  ridicu¬ 
lous.  It  must  be  put  out  by  someone 
who  figures  out  on  paper  tile  possible 
neighbors  say  it  is  a  driven  well  up  in 
the  garden  somewhere  and  comes  here  in 
a  pipe.  I  don’t  see  how  we  can  clean  it. 
We  have  to  look  out  for  the  stock,  etc., 
and  we  can’t  afford  to  drill  a  well  on  a 
rented  farm.  We  strain  the  water,  but 
I  am  so  afraid  we  will  get  their  eggs. 
Would  they  live  in  people?  Of  course, 
we  can  boil  it,  but  that  makes  it  hot. 
Is  there  any  danger  of  our  getting  typhoid 
from  it  this  Summer?  We  have  an  eight- 
months-  old  baby,  and  I  want  to  be  pretty 
sure  there  is  no  danger  for  her  sake. 
Last  Winter  the  pump  froze,  and  we 
melted  clean  snow  to  prime  it  with.  Could 
the  worms  come  from  that? 
2.  Isn’t  there  some  way  to  prevent 
weevils  from  getting  into  beans?  I 
bought  6  or  7  lbs.  at  different  stores  and 
found  weevils  in  all.  They  look  just  as 
nice  and  clean,  but  maybe  I’ll  find  one 
or  two  weevils  in  looking  them  over ; 
then  when  cooking  I  find  more  floating 
around,  so  I  throw  them  out.  mrs.  c.  s. 
New  York. 
1.  You  will  find  notes  w-ith  regard  to 
“water  bugs”  in  recent  issues  of  this 
paper  on  pages  4S0  and  588.  It  seems 
likely  that  those  you  find  in  your  well 
water  are  of  the  same  nature.  If  your 
well  is  receiving  drainage  from  some  sur¬ 
face  source,  this  should  be  attended  to, 
but  as  to  that,  of  course,  only  an  exami¬ 
nation  of  your  premises  could  determine. 
There  is  no  danger  of  typhoid  from  these 
“worms,”  but  there  may  be  from  the 
source  from  which  the  worms  come.  Ty¬ 
phoid  is  always  caused  by  a  previous  case 
of  typhoid ;  never  from  anything  else. 
Water  or  food  that  has  been  contaminated 
by  the  discharges  from  a  typhoid  patient 
is  dangerous.  See  to  it  that  such  water 
cannot  enter  your  well,  either  by  means 
of  surface  drainage  or  the  close  proximity 
of  a  privy  vault,  and  that  food  for  the 
family  is  not  handled  by  one  recently  re¬ 
covered  from  typhoid  until  the  health  of¬ 
ficer  pronounces  the  patient  free  from 
danger  of  infecting  others. 
2.  Weevils  are  grubs  hatched  from  eggs 
laid  by  small  beetles  which  sting  the  pods 
while  growing.  When  the  beans  are 
picked,  before  the  grubs  in  them  are  fully 
grown,  bake  them  for  an  hour  at  a  tem¬ 
perature  of  145  degrees,  or,  what  is 
easier,  place  a  quantity  of  them  in  an 
airtight  box  or  can,  set  a  saucer  upon 
them  and  fill  with  some  liquid  carbon  bi¬ 
sulphide.  Then  cover  tightly  and  leave 
for  several  hours.  The  gas  from  the 
evaporating  liquid  will  kill  the  weevils. 
M.  B.  D. 
Thou  wilt  find  rest  from  vain  fancies 
if  thou  doest  every  act  in  life  as  though 
it  were  thy  last, — Marcus  Aurelius. 
