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The Live Stock Man

HE keeping of live stock has been recognized as the ideal condition of agriculture from the earliest times. Abraham was a cattlebreeder and to say "the cattle on a thousand hills are his," was to express in the highest terms the wealth of the ancients.

Agriculture that is confined to the cultivation of the land, and the consumption of the products in any place away from the farm on which they were produced, is destructive. The cereals are always taking from the soil its elements of value and returning nothing.

On the other hand the breeding of live stock is creative. It maintains the condition of fertile soil and builds up that which has been depleted or was originally lacking in fertility.

The ancient Spanish proverb: "The sheep has a golden hoof," has been proved true in every country and clime where sheep have been kept.

The roast beef of Britain, which has been accorded the credit of making stout the hearts of Britons, comes from bullocks that have furnished the farmers of England with a way to make a living while at the same time maintaining the fertility of their farms.

The hog is popularly called a "mortgage lifter," and no farm on which swine are largely bred ever becomes poorer under such a system of management.

The dairyman milks his cows and from the milk extracts the butter, which is only another form of sunshine, and by feeding the skimmilk to pigs, calves or poultry, returns to the

farm all the elements of fertility used by the grain and hay fed to his cows. That this is not mere theory is easily proved on thousands of farms all over this country, and in foreign countries.

"These fields," said a German farmer to an American visitor, "have been cultivated since before the time of Julius Cæsar."

"How have you maintained their fertility?" was asked.

"We have always kept cattle," was the reply of the man, who might have been a direct descendant of the ancient barbarian who first cultivated those fields.

Coming nearer home we find examples that are striking proofs of the benefits that may be derived from breeding live stock.

Lying in the great "corn belt," well within a half day's ride from Chicago are two great farms. Either of them has more than 20,000 acres within its boundary lines.

The first, the great Funk farm, has been in the possession of the Funk family for fifty years or more. This farm is distinctively a cattle farm. The corn produced on it has been fed to bullocks which have added to the wealth of their owners and the fertility of the farm on which they are fed. The keeping of live stock might go on for unnumbered years-for as long as the German farm had been under cultivation-and at the end of that time the broad acres would be more productive than they are to-day, although no more productive land than that of the Funk farm can be found in America.

The other farm we refer to is a

grain farm. Forty years ago a rich man from oversea established himself on this farm and proceeded to grow corn and oats, year after year. Just corn and oats on all that stretch of fertile prairie. Year after year since that time corn and oats have been grown and sold from that farm, and to-day it produces average crops only twothirds as large as the average crops of a quarter of a century ago. Now the owners are buying manure in the Chicago stock yards, paying freight on it to the farm and hauling it out on the fields to restore to them the fertility that has been shipped away in the form of corn and oats.

The crops of this farm have been sold to those who could feed them with a profit, have been sold at the lowest price, the market price, instead of having been sold in the shape of beef and pork at the highest price, and now some of the money received for the crops is being paid for fertilizers to

restore to the soil what the crops havé taken from it.

The foundation of agricultural wealth is in the breeding of live stock. Farms may be made to yield large profits by using them for the production of grain, for a short time, but in the end the crops cost so much, on account of the necessity of buying fertilizers, that profit is impossible. The permanent wealth of this country comes from its live stock products.

Stockmen and Advertising

The average stockman looks on advertising about as the average physician. Both recognize its merits, but they can't be induced to try it. The doctor holds back, he claims, from ethical reasons. Occasionally, he can be induced to run a one-inch business card giving his name, address, office hours and telephone number, nothing else.

Of course, if he performs a success

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stock in the county and state fairs. He expects the list of his entries to be properly given in the papers, including the live stock press, daily and weekly. When he pulls down a few blue ribbons he looks for a front page story with half tone of his prize steer, stallion, mare or whatever it chances to be. If he doesn't find it he says that the editor is afraid he'll give some free advertising.

But for the other picture: There are stockmen who advertise and find profit, and, therefore, pleasure in doing

So.

Their advertisements are to be found in the best live stock papers. They are well written, well displayed, and they bring big results.

Legitimate Advertising Business

The recent failure of one of the oldest advertising agencies in the country has led publishers, especially publishers of daily papers, to investigate the lines of credit they have been extending to Tom, Dick and Harry in the agency business. The prediction is freely made that there will be quite a shaking up in the agency field before the autumn snows fly, particularly among the agencies which are practically doing business on the capital of the publishers.

However much personal regret we may feel for the gentlemen who will be put out of business, their disaster will not be regarded as an unmitigated calamity. Unquestionably publishers have been much too lax in the recognition of advertising agents; the curb-stone brokers in advertising space have done

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the publishers no good and have been a serious menace to the advertisers. By poor service and bad advice they kill more advertising than they create and lose more money for their customers than they make for them.

But the curb-stone man is not the sole sinner. The "old established" agency, the agency with a "prestige" to maintain is quite as apt to be guilty of offenses which in time lead to its own undoing as well as to disaster for its customers. The most common of these offenses is rate cutting. It may be that the customer who hawks a list of papers about the country for "bids" is largely responsible for this evil, but the reaction upon the agency that indulges in it is none the less disastrous. The advertiser may depend upon this with certainty: He may not always get full service even when he pays for it, but he surely will not get it if he does not pay for it. The advertising agent is no more of a philanthropist than other

business men are; he expects to make money and if he accepts business below the cost of handling it, either he will skimp the service in order to "come out even" or he will lose money. One or the other result is inevitable; the advertiser can no more afford the one than the other.

It is well to note, however, that the legitimate advertising agency of today is coming to regard advertising more and more of a profession and less of a business. The successful agent must make money, but he does not expect to make it at the expense of his customer.

Things were not always thus, and are not universally so now, but more and more it is not only desirable but absolutely necessary that the advertising agent who expects to remain in business, be honest in a sense higher than the legal meaning of the word, and that he apply to his work and his relation to his customers much of the same ethics which the physician and the lawyer are

supposed to apply in their professions..

And that's another reason why there will be from now on a constant weeding out of the agency field.

Be Generous in Your Catalogue Is a new venture to be undertaken? Its success depends on sales, and the first steps must be made by advertising. Few advertisements make the sales direct. That is not their mission. They interest the prospective buyer enough to induce him to write to the house. Then other resources must be used to make the sale. Usually it is the catalogue in a mail order business, and right there is where a little extravagance is justifiable.

Obviously the mission of the advertisement being merely to bring the customer and manufacturer into communication, the advertisement should be no larger than is needed for the purpose. If larger, it is money wasted; if too small, you are apt to be overlooked. Just the correct size is very easily said, and here is where the experience of the advertising agent comes in. Where you would waste or foolishly scrimp the advertising appropriation, he will cause you to spend neither the largest nor the smallest amount, but a moderate sum from which you will obtain the maximum results.

Perhaps your competitors are running large double column advertisement. It's likely an attractive, strongly written, well illustrated advertisement not over half as large will bring you in as many inquiries as your competitor is getting. If a man writes for one catalogue he is

apt to write for others. Thus you get the benefit of their appropriation; and if your catalogue is the strongest you actually may make more sales than they. The returns are not always to the big advertisement. Driving the main proposition home should be the purpose of every advertisement, catalogue or other matter sent out to help sell goods. Picking up a catalogue of a certain machine sold on 30 days free trial, it was noticed that in thirty-two pages, the fact was stated no less than eighteen times that the purchaser was given 30 days free trial with money back if unsatisfactory. seems to be a good many and yet this is the essential element with this particular machine that goes toward making a sale. A good feature is stated and the customer is then told that he is given a month to find out if the statement is not true. By the time he has read the catalogue through he is an unusual sort of man if he is not greatly impressed with the merits of this particular article, or at least certain that he can find out for himself whether it is good or bad.

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That

The importance of repeating a truth many times is great. As a matter of fact it is only by repetition that we became impressed with the fact that it is

true.

An eminent lawer of Massachusetts once said: "My first statement of a case may be taken in by two or three of a jury, but I sometimes have to go over

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