what they want, and to assure him of its distribution when they ask. He forces nothing on the dealers. He sends them nothing unasked. He sends them samples-one sample at a time-of such advertising literature as he thinks will help them, and states that he is in a receptive mood for requests.

He don't enclose self-addressed post-cards. If a dealer don't want the material with sufficient yearning to cause him to "take his pen in hand" and write for it, on his own letter head, he doesn't get it. And if he will go to some trouble to write, he will probably distribute the matter when received.

Such is the reasoning; and experience demonstrates its correctness.

This man is also a great believer in "trying out" new things. He tests them on a hundred or two hundred people. If they fall flat the loss is insignificant. If they interest and do their work, ne adopts and pushes them.

He has in tow a couple of "skirmishers." Bright fellows, who are on the street, and who have a nose for good advertising novelties. He treats these fellows fine. He gives them orders. He has them running to him continually. He lets them take money from him. And he gets a lot of valuable ideas from them.

Cultivate enthusiasm! It is a wonderworking force. It will carry a business over difficulties. It will accomplish the difficult and the seemingly impossible. It will melt the ice, in the veins of the cold-blooded and turn the indifferent into ardent friends.

This we learn from every business teacher and every writer.

I am with them! I second their motion; and move to make it unanimous. But I wish to offer an amendment for the benefit of the inexperienced, and of the young-likewise of the old.

Put a rein on your enthusiasm! Keep it under control! Work in poise!

A recent experience of practical business is the cause of these words. A certain customer of mine who is a practical man in the manufacturing line, has, after years of arduous and ingenious study and experiment, perfected a system which will effect great economies in the manufacture of certain lines of goods. It is a difficult and expensive process for a factory to adopt this method, and the inventor desires only one order a year.

He interests parties through the mails, turns interest into desire by correspondence, and desire into orders by personal interviews. Though the number of orders desired is astoundingly small, and though his proposition is indubitably a good one for the manufactexperienced urers, he has, strange to say,

an inexplicable difficulty in obtaining an or der which he has now needed for many months. Discouraged at his want of success he placed the matter in the hands of the writer.

He explained his method, how it could be installed, its improvement over the prevailing systems and the large economies it would effect. It looked good, the figures were conclusive and the proof of its success was convincing. The question of order getting was reduced to the simplest terms, and it should have been the easiest thing imaginable to obtain the signature of the manufacturer. couldn't he get it?

Why

He produced copies of his correspondence, and the secret of his failure was revealed. The cause of his non-success was a surplus of enthusiasm.

On receiving a letter of encouragement from a manufacturer inquiring for some particulars he would state the facts and figures, then submit corroborative proof. But instead of stopping there and letting the facts do their perfect work, his enthusiasm and his superficial knowledge of advertising had led him to give many reasons why the manufacturer should install his method.

These were so voluble, so profuse, so altogether irresistible that they inspired a feeling of suspicion sufficiently strong to undermine the testimony and destroy faith in the whole proposition.

A revision of his letters with all the ebullient enthusiasm omitted was made, and the process of closing up the order which he had heretofore been unable to obtain is now under way.

This leads to the generalization that though superlatives are wonderful words, vibrating with life and energy, they have been so overworked the past few years that they have lost much of their vital power, and instead of inspiring respect and awe they are regarded with a feeling akin to contempt that comes from familiarity. Be cautious of the enthusiasm which leads into the use of superlatives. They have lost their force. The grow

ing intelligence of the day looks with suspicion upon their use.

It is impossible for this old world of ours to swing out of its well-grooved rut into a new, strange and untrod pathway without causing all the inhabitants thereof to readjust their customs. They must do this to keep in harmony with the new order of things.

The "advance" has sounded all along the line, and the bugler is sounding the thrilling notes at the door of every advertising of fice.

The advertising manager of yesterday would not make good as the advertising manager of tomorrow. Yesterday there were many things for him to learn; and it is not overstepping the line of proper appreciation to state that this energetic and progressive fellow applied himself to the task of learning with enthusiasm and unremitting effort.

Among the things on which more knowledge was imperative were; forceful and interesting copy, effective illustrations, the most influential form letters, the various kinds of follow-ups, how often to tickle a prospect, what publications to favor, what sort of booklet to get up, what style of copy to write.

These, and a hundred other subjects engaged the earnest attention of every progressive advertiser. It took time and brainstuff to master them. Every one of the above is more complicated than a watch, has a thousand working parts, and if it isn't handled just right it throws a monkey wrench in the machinery of an advertising campaign.

If it takes a bricklayer three years to perfect his trade so he can properly lay one crude brick upon another, we can well imagine that it would call for years of study and practice for an advertising man to master the subtleties of the above subjects, and be able to bring them into the fierce battle of business strife so they will assist him to win a trade victory for his house.

A battleship is termed one of the most complex and complicated pieces of mechanism produced by man. But a battleship is crude, obvious and simple compared with the vague abstractions which an advertising man must handle.

Well, after some years, the fraternity has pretty well mastered the principles of the subjects which have been threshed out.

Many of us have breathed a deep sigh of blessed relief at the completion of the task and uttered with thankfulness the comment that we are now a finished product in the advertising line.

Then we painfully awakened to learn that these are merely preliminaries, fundamentals, kindergarten reasons, the primary exercises of the advertising business.

They are mere details. And details-while vastly important-never equip a man to be capitan, general or leader.

The advertising man of tomorrow must know the above things. But he must know them as a matter of course and take no particular pride or credit in the knowing. They are mere tools to perform his work.

He must go down to the fundamentals of the business. He should have a say in the quality of the goods, in the way they are packed, in their general distribution, in the work of the salesmen, and in fact in all the with important things connected the busi

ness.

His most important work will be in the planning of the campaign and this campaign must harmonize and co-ordinate with that of the salesmanager.

These are the new tasks which the world cut out for the advertising man when it swung out of its beaten orbit the past few years. They are big tasks. They are hard. They compel a man to dig down into the foundations of himself and of his fellow men, and ground his work on the immutable laws of nature which we are now painfully and slowly discovering.

It is a notable thing that J. P. Morgan & Co. feels the need of a publicity manager and has engaged Daniel F. Kellogg, for many years financial editor of the New York Sun, at a salary said to be $25,000 a year.

This action is significant of the trend of modern affairs, and proves that great financial businesses are appreciating the value of honest, legitimate, frank publicity.

It is evident that Morgan & Co. are planning some new publicity policies, and that the public is to be taken into its confidence through the direction of a man thoroughly versed in the details and technique of finance to help them do it.

T

HE brilliant outlook for everything connected with farming operations, as noted in recent issues of AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING, continues. Probably never in the history of crop reporting has the season up to the first of June been as uniformly satisfactory for the farmer as this one of 1913. Temperatures have been about normal, rains have been abundant and distributed almost as the crop grower would have them.

All kinds of farm animals have done remarkably well, and the dread hog cholera is disappearing so rapidly that it can now be considered as a negligible quantity. Pastures and meadows are furnishing an unusually large amount of forage, reducing the necessity for feeding much grain at least three or four weeks earlier than usual.

In other words, everything seems to be favorable for heavy yields and big profits, provided the marketing is distributed in such a way as to prevent disastrous gluts.

In

The most notable proposition at present is the wonderfully fine conditions of winter wheat. Prospects are excellent everywhere and the acreage is the largest on record. western and southern Kansas, parts of Oklahoma and Texas, dry weather threatened for a little while but just as soon as the surface began to need moisture, rains came and growth was not checked in the slightest.

Moreover, the abandonment of acreage from winter killing is undoubtedly the smallest on record, amounting to slightly less than 1,000,000 acres or about 3 per cent of the area seeded last fall. This is a very unusual condition of affairs for it will be recalled that last year the loss from this source was frequently as high as 50, 60 and even 70 per cent. It is the common thing for at least 10 or 20 per cent of the acreage seeded to be killed by cold weather. In most of the winter wheat states, the majority of the counties show no loss at all.

A small area in the Ohio valley was killed during the flood period, but as was pointed out last month in AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING, this lcss is comparatively insignificant; in fact, the water remained over the wheat land so short a time that in many cases the crop was scarcely injured at all. According to the best information available, the heaviest loss in acreage is from Kansas, due to dry weather last fall. The acreage abandoned in this state is about 285,000 and while this is the largest loss reported anywhere, it is very small when compared with other loss records for Kansas.

It would seem that the total winter wheat acreage would this year be in the neighborhood of 32,000,000 acres, possibly a little less and possibly also a little more. Moreover, this acreage is not only large but the condition of the crop May 1 was 90% as against 79 last year. Further than this, the condition is high in states of large acreage like Kansas which is by far the greatest winter wheat state in the Union.

Ohio seems to have suffered most in the states of considerable acreage, the condition there on May 1 being 86. Indiana comes next with the condition of 88. The Michigan condition is 79, but as the acreage of winter wheat in that state is small, it does not cut very much figure. Over much of that territory a coat of ice last winter resulted in a little smother, from which the crop did not fully recover. Outside of this, the outlook could not be better so far as the growth of the plant is concerned.

Chinch Bugs Causing Apprehension Just at present there is considerable apprehension as to the effect of the chinch bug on the wheat crop. It is present in large numbers in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri and parts of Nebraska. Fortunately there is a large amount of moisture everywhere and if ten days or two weeks of humidity would prevail, undoubtedly the chinch bug fungus would effectively hold the pest in check.

If the air should be dry all the time, with plenty of sunshine, this fungus will not develop to any considerable extent and undoubtedly the chinch bug will cause probable loss. But there is no need to worry about this matter for the chances are about even that natural enemies will hold the bug in check.

Next month it will be possible to give a more correct estimate of what effect the presence of the chinch bug will have on the winter wheat yield.

The table herewith gives the opinion of Orange Judd Farmer's crop report service as to the conditions of winter wheat:

The season in the spring wheat area was a few weeks late. This was due to the presence of a great abundance of moisture and to lower temperatures than ordinarily prevail at that time. Seeding started very early but was held up on account of some heavy wet snows, which were detrimental at the time but filled the ground with a great abundance of moisture, which, other things being anywhere nearly equal, will result in big acre yields. The lateness of the season, however, possibly decreased the acreage a little but not very much.

Wet weather last fall prevented the preparation of as much land for spring seeding as is usual and this was another factor in the decreased acreage.

At present conditions in the northwest are first class and these same conditions extend into the great small grain fields of western Canada. Here almost ideal conditions prevailed, in that the end of the winter season was marked by an exceedingly heavy fall of snow. This melted and was absorbed. Then a lot of warm weather prevailed-much warmer than in the United States at the same time. The farmers were enabled to seed a lot of their fall plowed or summer fallowed grain at a very early date. This warm weather was succeeded by some moderately cool weather, making it possible for the farmer to do a lot of spring plowing. Teams did an unusually large amount of work because of the cool weather. Consequently Canada is in first-class shape as is in fact the whole country north of the Mexican line.

The outlook for oats the beginning of May was exceedingly good and continued on through the month. In a few places the lack of a great abundance of surface moisture was complained of but this did not cut much figure for just about as soon as rainfall was needed. precipitation occurred. The wet weather in parts of Illinois and Indiana delayed seeding somewhat, and probably also cut down the acreage a little. But with average conditions there is absolutely no danger of a shortage of oats.

The planting of corn through the heart of the corn belt has been delayed somewhat, but the majority of the farmers feel that if the bulk of the seed corn can be put in the ground between May 10 and May 20, the results will be most satisfactory. This will be easily accomplished this year unless something occurs during the latter part of May to prevent farming operations.

Good seed corn has been abundant but farmers are taking no chances, and a great many of them have carefully tested their seed not only for germinative power but also for vitality. There is no reason why the stand should not be good the present season.

Excellent Meadows and Pastures Pastures and meadows, in fact, grass crops of all kinds, are in prime condition. This condition always exists when there is such an abundance of moisture in the soil as has been all spring, and when temperatures are moderately cool. Grass crops need cool, moist weather early in the growing season. With this, abundant crops will be produced even though the supply of moisture is not so liberal along to

ward the end of the growing period. In fact, dry weather at harvest season is exceedingly desirable.

Pastures have furnished an unusually large amount of feed for all kinds of farm animals. The grass started early and did not have the washy effect frequently present in early spring. This made it possible for farmers to decrease the supply of grain ordinarily required for farm animals during the early spring months.

A careful inquiry among sugar beet growers shows that this crop will be planted much more liberally than ever before; that for many years the growing of sugar beets has been exceedingly profitable to the men who raise the beets.

At first the culture was not thoroughly understood by American farmers, but it is now, and if the tariff tinkerers do not ruin the industry by admitting sugar free, this beet sugar proposition is firmly established and will increase very rapidly, until the bulk of the sugar consumed in this country is produced at home.

The factories are worried, of course, on account of the prospective tariff changes. They claim they pay a much higher price for labor than the European countries, that expenses are heavier all along the line and that they cannot possibly compete with free sugar from abroad. It is a serious question for this particular industry.

The outlook for potatoes is good. It is impossible at this time to make an estimate of the acreage to be planted. But outside of the purely commercial districts, there seems to be a decided tendency to reduce the area devoted to potatoes, largely because of the low prices received for last year's crop.

The potato output for 1912 was exceedingly large and some of it was not of the best quality. Consequently growers fared poorly, many of them not being able to sell their potatoes much above the cost of production.

The Northwest, including North Dakota, Minnesota and a certain section of Colorado, has recently entered the commercial potato field and these sections were somewhat hurt by last year's experience. However, commercial potato growers realize that every industry has its set-backs at certain times and are going ahead on that basis.

resulted in a very greatly increased area in 1912. Moreover, many farmers, wholly unfamiliar with the details of broom corn growing, but attracted by high prices the preceding year, went into the business and not only failed to get a large yield, but not knowing how to harvest the crop, found themselves burdened with a lot of very low-grade brush.

Much of this has not even yet been sold and a considerable percentage of that disposed of, went at figures much below the cost of growing. Consequently it now appears as though the acreage of last year will be reduced at least 30 to 35 per cent, that more attention will be given to the character of the seed used, to the cultivation of the crop and particularly to the harvesting and curing. Many farmers who grew broom corn in 1912 have abandoned the business entirely.

It must be remembered that the demand for broom corn is comparatively limited, that this demand will not absorb any considerable increase in tonnage. Consequently it is a very unsatisfactory and unsafe proposition for many farmers to plant additional acres. The lessons from the 1912 crop will long be remembered.

The outlook for fruit is still exceedingly promising. Weather conditions have been very favorable and only a limited amount of injury has been reported. This occurred in the Southwest principally and in a few localities in Michigan where damage to bloom was reported. Peaches and some of the other tender varieties suffered most. As a rule, however, the comparatively cool spring held back blossoming until danger from frost had practically disappeared.

Of course, there is plenty of time for injury to the fruit crop. With the ravages of insects which seem to be quite numerous this year, the June drop must be recognized. However, at present, the prospect for a heavy yield of all kinds of fruit was never better.

Live Stock

The most encouraging feature in the live stock situation is that hog cholera is disappearing. It looks now as though farmers would have an opportunity to again stock up.

The necessity of having liberal amounts of hog cholera serum available has been so forcibly impressed upon breeders, veterinarians, etc., that ample provision has been made. Nearly all the state legislatures which were