American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man .”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 113 For the Week Ending January 5, 1924 Number 1 
Standard Food and Fur Indicted 
A.-A. Helps United States Attorneys to Get True Bill Against Swindlers 
T HE American Agriculturist takes es¬ 
pecial pride in making this announcement 
because as our readers know, we have ham¬ 
mered early and late on the subject of this 
firm. To the American Agriculturist is due a 
large measure of the credit for the indictment, 
according to Assistant United States Attorney 
Charles J. Marasco, who has handled the case 
for the government. Mr. Marasco presented 
the indictment in open court on Friday, December 
28th, in the United States Court in New York 
City. 
Thus there is now in sight the end of a hard- 
fought battle, with victory on the side of the right. 
The case of the Stand¬ 
American Agriculturist analyzed this particu¬ 
lar statement. We showed how the company 
figured that 12 pairs might easily be raised in a 
year, making a profit of $300 from one doe. Then 
we quoted a statement further on in the pamphlet 
which qualified the “buy-back” policy to apply 
to rabbits “ six to eight months old, in good health, 
smooth-coated and in good condition.” 
Then comes a statement from the company, 
“There are no trick clauses in our contract.” 
But the American Agriculturist collected more 
than sufficient evidence from its readers to prove 
that there were clauses that proved decidedly 
tricky—one was a weight stipulation, one on 
It began to remind us of the village which had 
always maintained an ambulance down in the 
valley. We were able to “pick up the pieces” 
for some victims who fell over the cliff, but like 
the citizens of the pillage, we decided that the best 
thing would be to'build a fence at the top of tjie 
hill—in other words, to put a stop to the operations 
of the company and prevent the loss of dollars, 
time and effort on the part of the buying public. 
The indictment is the fence—there should be 
no more victims of this unscrupulous scheme. 
Assistant United States Attorney Charles J. 
Marasco, who presented the indictment against 
these violators of the postal law, formally thanked 
_ the American Agri- 
ard Food and Fur As¬ 
sociation has long been 
notorious. Other 
farm journals have 
printed statements 
warning their readers 
against this and simi¬ 
lar concerns. But the 
American Agricul¬ 
turist has -pledged 
itself to take on the 
farmer’s battle and 
with this pledge in 
mind, we felt we could 
not stop at mere warn¬ 
ings. We placed our 
files, the time and 
skill of our attorney 
and all our own re¬ 
sources at the dis¬ 
posal of the United 
States government 
authorities, and the 
result of this co-opera¬ 
tion “up to the hilt” 
is the indictment, on 
seven counts, of a firm 
which for years has 
COL. WILLIAM HAYWARD 
U. S. Attorney for the Southern 
District of New York. 
U. S. Attorneys Praise A. A. 
T HE American Agriculturist perform¬ 
ed a herculean work in assisting the post- 
office authorities to indict the Standard Food 
and Fur Association.” This is the statement of 
Assistant United States Attorney Charles J. 
Marasco, who presented the indictment in 
open court Friday, December 28. He goes on to 
say, “I cannot sufficiently praise the work done 
by this magazine in bringing this firm, which has 
long preyed upon farmers, to the bar of justice.” 
Read how, while other farm journals merely 
warned their readers against it, the AMERICAN 
culturist for the part 
it played in bringing 
the offenders to the 
bar of justice. 
“The American 
Agriculturist has 
performed a truly her¬ 
culean work,” said At¬ 
torney Marasco at his 
office in the New York 
Post-Office Building. 
His statement was 
confirmed by no less 
person than Col. 
a 
CHARLES J. MARASCO 
Assistant United, States Attorney. 
I 
AGRICULTURIST made good its pledge to present the case to the legal authorities. It is an 
achievement of which we are justly proud, as we are of the high praise given our efforts by 
Mr. Marasco and by his chief, United States Attorney William Hayward, famous for his record 
as a fighting Colonel in the World War and equally successful as a fighter in public life. 
Watch for the account of the court action on this case. The AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST will 
report every detail for the benefit of those who have been victimized by this “money back” 
scheme and now are to have the opportunity of seeing justice administered. 
breeding, another on’refunding expressage and so 
William Hayward 
himself, United States 
Attorney of the South¬ 
ern District of New 
York by appointment 
of the late President 
Harding. 
“No praise I could 
give your magazine 
and your lawyer would 
be exaggerated,” said 
Mr. Marasco. “ The 
Post-Office depart¬ 
ment has a stack of 
mercilessly mulcted the public. 
The defendants are listed as the Standard Food on 
and Fur Association, Inc., Nathan D. Hecht, We have also printed letters from readers who 
James Yarvaro, Vincent Lumia, Thomas Varvaro, 
and Thomas Laines. The indictment, Ahich 
proceeds through each of the seven counts, sets 
forth that these defendants “devising and intend¬ 
ing to devise a scheme and artifice to defraud 
. . . divers persons ... to obtain from said 
victims their money and property by means of 
fraudulent pretenses, did unlawfully, wilfully and 
knowingly place and cause to be placed in an 
authorized depository for United States mail 
matter certain letters and postcards hereinafter 
described.” 
The “fraudulent pretenses,” it will be recalled 
by those who have followed the American Agri¬ 
culturist articles exposing the Standard Food 
and Fur Association, were contained in the litera¬ 
ture and letters sent out by the concern to cus¬ 
tomers. This firm sells rabbits, and its circulars 
list several varieties at different prices. One 
misleading statement follows another in the 
pamphlet entitled “Dollars From Hares.” For 
instance, this: “we buy all you raise at $7 to 
$25 per pair.” 
In an article in the November 17th issue, the 
were taken in the promises and claims of the 
Standard Food aqd Fur Association. Many were 
pathetic in the extreme. War veterans, widowed 
mothers with children to support, boys who in¬ 
vested their small capital in rabbits guaranteed 
to be full-blooded but whose progeny were of 
mixed stock—all were taken in the net spread by 
this unscrupulous firm. One woman wrote of 
rabbits sent the firm but never paid for: “Those 
hares cost me a lot to raise and I am a mother 
with children and am not able to lose it. I have 
a lot of hares and they will not buy them as they 
guaranteed me they would. What shall I do?” 
The American Agriculturist files on this 
firm extended back over several years, and our 
readers will remember that the Service Bureau 
frequently warned them against dealing with the 
Standard Food and Fur Association. Yet cases 
kept coming in for adjustment, and although we 
many times succeeded in getting checks for our 
subscribers, we knew these adjustments were 
made by the company only to save themselves 
trouble and that for every one settled, scores were 
left untouched. 
letters that high” (his gesture was as wide as 
he could reach) “in its files on this matter. We 
indicted on seven counts, but in listing the victims, 
had literally thousands to choose from as examples. 
Men, women, and children from one coast to 
another had been taken in by this concern. We 
had cases firom Oregon and from Brooklyn, from 
Middle West and furthest South. And the help 
given by the American Agriculturist in round¬ 
ing up the victims and exposing the system on 
which this firm worked has been most efficient.” 
Mr. Marasco, through whose office go hundreds 
of cases of postal law violations, stated that 
although other farm publications had warned their 
readers against this firm and had issued general 
statements about their methods, the American 
Agriculturist was the only one to “get down to 
work in shirtsleeves” and help stop the nefarious 
practices for all time. 
Colonel Hayward, who attained fame in the 
World War by his record at the head of the 369th 
U. S. Infantry, which was under fire in France 
longer than any other American regiment, has 
shown in this and similar cases that he can wage 
successful warfare at home as well. But he has 
taken particular interest in the case against the 
(■ Continued, on page 13) 
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