of Agricultural Advertising for a uniform rate card and order blank. The best of these will be published in the February and future issues. These forms, to be in time for February issue, should be in the Editor's hands not later than January 24th. The cordial co-operation of publishers, advertisers and advertising men is earnestly requested. * * * Time Discounts. An advertising order which goes out in a few days, calls for five inser tions of a ten inch advertisement, every other week with alternate insertions of a four line catalogue notice. To get the three months rate, the order was made 140 lines five times, and four lines eight times. Before passing it, however, the estimate man figured 140 lines five times and four lines twentyone times, securing the six months rate and thereby effecting a saving in cash of about $12 and securing thirteen additional insertions of the four line advertisement. That rate card needs revision. I am humbly resolved in the year To promise less and to do more; To hate a lie and hypocrisy-in myself, first; To fritter away less time on unimportant things; To store a little energy each day for the morrow; To face facts, and To remember that no man is utterly bad and that even I am not wholly good. Every Experienced must realize that the only way to measure The Country Gentleman is beyond question the most valuable pub- It has blazed the way to success for more Make 1905 a successful year for you by being represented in The Country Gentleman If you haven't tried it, it will open your eyes to new possibilities. Let us send you the opinions of others who know. Advertisements tastefully set and carefully classified. One insertion: 40c per line; $5.60 per inch. Liberal discounts for continuance. SEND FOR SAMPLE COPY. LUTHER TUCKER & SON, PUBLISHERS, ALBANY, N. Y. The Price Element in Mail Order Work Continued from December Agricultural Advertising. F. A. SOUTHWICK. runs IN catering to the element that makes price a prime factor, the enthusiastic mail-order man great danger of stuffing up the descriptions. The lower the price the better the description usually is. With high-grade goods plain statements of fact will suffice, but when the cheapening process commences the customer must be fed on nicely turned phrases that may mean nothing to the seller but everything to the buyer. It is easy to write descriptions in such manner that the buyer may infer the best and most complete equipment. "Best quality" and such claims are meaningless and misleading. For example, there is a top buggy advertised for $21, and of "A 1 grade." How much quality can one get for this sum when Brewster or Kimball charge $35 to $50 for a pair of shafts? Yet there must be some means employed to make the purchaser believe he is getting good work, and the description of that buggy is so good that it seems a shame to take such a rank advantage of the seller. Then there is the special price bait which always means a skimping of the work. One correspondent writes: "I always wait for special offers." He will learn that what he really waits for is a lowering of the quality. No one is going to hold his quality up and still sell at lower prices. Or, if he does, it is a candid admission that his price was too high at first and those who paid the full price have been swindled. Mail order buyers are learning this and have more confidence in and respect for one who maintains his price, because, if they can jew the price down they never know when the best offer is made. When one makes a deal of that sort one never feels certain that he has reached the lowest price and there will probably always lurk in his mind the feeling that had he hung out a little longer he might have been offered a still lower price. Even on the plea of a desire to introduce one's goods, price competition is bad because whatever price is made is likely to become fixed and hard or impossible to advance. the the I might pause here to ask if it is the price which has made Pear's, Sapolio or Royal household words throughout the civilized world. Does price explain the fact that of many food products recently on market, Grapenuts and Postum are all that remain? We might with profit look a little nearer home and ask if it is price that impels us to purchase space in the Home Journal and Delineator at $6.00 and $5.00 per line when we can buy all the space we want at from $3.00 to $5.00 per page. It is evident that if ad. men were controlled by "the price every time," there would soon be very little advertising worthy the name. But naming a low figure is not the only way of competing in the matter of price. I mentioned above the inducement of throwing in a lot of extras. Because a piano is sold with stool, scarf, and a cheap, goodfor-nothing instruction book, and perhaps half a dozen pieces of cheap music (all of which the purchaser pays for) there is no reason why a BEUTSCH. FARMER and ber housfreund FRW C The Result Tells. L. L. Olds, Pres. L. L. Olds Seed Co., writes us on Sept. 27, 1904: "We find that the Deutsch-Amerikan. Farmer stood first last year in the cost of each application for catalogue out of a list of about twenty-five papers; and second in cost of each $1.00 worth of or lers received," If your goods are used by farmers it will pay you to advertise in the DeutschAmerikan. Farmer, Published at Lincoln, Neb. We can place your proposition before the great mass and the best class of German farmers; introduce you into over 140,000 German farm homes. Our readers pay for the paper in advance and are ready to do business on a cash basis. Circulation 149,331 Rate 35c Per Line Flat. stove should be made to include coal scuttle, saucepans, teakettle, or ton of coal. But it is common practice of some mail order advertisers to offer such extras and make the buyer think he is being presented with them when in reality he is paying a pretty high price for them. He must not lose sight of that large class of mail order buyers who form a component part of that contingent ever looking for some gain without any outlay. To those of course such a proposition always appeals, and it seems to be hard to convince them of the folly of their faith. Such people, however, are not profitable or lasting customers, and can in most cases be dispensed with without loss to the busi ness. This practice also has a degenerating tendency toward downright dishonesty. It is only a step to the practice of leaving out these accessories when making shipment. If complaint is made the customer is referred to the transportation company. Of the course he receives no satisfaction from that source, and between two he tires and drops the matter. That this is done I know by experience. I am glad to say, however, that I do not believe it is a general practice, or, in fact, even a frequent one, but it shows the danger that always lies just ahead when the seller promises a lot of extras in order to make a sale. Morally speaking, the line between truth and deception is exceedingly faint. Legally, it is discernible only to the expert. Mark Twain once said, "Truth is our most valuable possession. Let us use it sparingly." I hope the day is far distant when mail order advertisers follow Mark's advice, but in competition on basis of price alone there is great danger of some of them doing so. Another phase of price competi tion is the freight paid proposition. This has proved a winning game in some instances and the attractiveness of the proposition cannot be denied. It is a notorious fact that some will pay a much higher price for an article delivered to their station without stopping to reason that the freight charge must of necessity be added to the price in the first instance. There is an element of unfairness here also, because some will inevitably pay more for the same thing than is right, while the seller will, of course, see to it that none pays too little. But without going into the ethics of the case, it is sufficient to say that as a matter of strict truth the seller only pays freight when the customer gives him the money to do so, and in every case the "consumer pays the tax." No matter what inducement is held out, no matter whether the freight be paid or a lot of extras thrown in, whether sold on installments or whether bait is given. The customer pays for it. And it will usually be found that the more liberal the proposition appears the more the customer pays before he is through. He who pays the lowest price will undoubtedly always get less for his money than he who pays a fair figure. In contradistinction to the practice of including extras to make the price look small, is the one of cutting out necessities. One advertiser will describe his goods complete with all necessary accessories or parts. Another, in order to make a lower price, will omit some desirable but inconspicuous feature and charge extra for them, so that when his goods are figured up to where the first man sets his standard, his price will really be higher on the same equipment. We find this most common in the riage and harness business where there is ample room for sharp prac car "The Proof of the Pudding." OVER 10,000 ADVERTISERS PER YEAR. That's the record of The Indiana Farmer For the Past Three Years. The Following Well Known Advertisers-A Few of Them: McCormick Harvester Co. Oliver Chilled Plow Co. The D. M. Ferry Seed Co. International Stock Food Co. Some advertisers have been using THE FARMER over forty years. It will pay you also. Sample copies, weekly circulation, rates, etc., upon application to INDIANA FARMER, INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA |