A SNAP FOR ADVERTISERS! The Weekly Live Stock Report will issue on January 27 a fine special number, which will have a GUARANTEED circulation, principally among farmers and live stock owners, of not less than 50,000 Copies It while it is not unlikely that the edition may aggregate 60,000. will be the largest and best number we have ever issued, with specially designed colored covers, beautifully illustrated, and printed in new, clear type throughout. It is to be issued for a purpose, and the extra circulation will not be ordinary sample copy distribution. The rate, for this special number only, will be 15 cents per agate line, but advertisements to run continuously three, six or twelve months will be accepted at our regular flat rate of 10 cents per agate line (for orders aggregating over 100 lines) and will be published in the special number without extra charge, thus giving 25,000 to 30,000 circulation free. Copy must reach us by January 25th. The Weekly Live Stock Report, Union Stock Yards, Chicago. For a matter of some three years now, a certain wind of prosperity has been blowing out of the Northwest. The farmers, stock raisers and dairymen who live north of Chicago and west of Lake Michigan have alighted on good years. This has not always been true of the section of country we call the Northwest, and there have been harpies to wail against the possibility of hard times every year, but the prosperity of the Northwest goes cheerfully forward until to-day the advertising agency cannot go into the field and solicit advertising without having the subject brought flatly to his attention, usually in these words: man "How can I best and most economically cover the Northwest?" The purpose of this article is to point out a publication that will cover the Northwest and cover it thoroughly, as well as to tell some of the reasons why it has succeeded so tremendously. One has only to look over the advertising pages of The Farmer of St. Paul and compare it with the same publication of three years ago to know that for some reason this pa per is getting the business. Advertising to the astonishing amount of 110 columns was carried in this great paper in a single issue in March, 1904. Month after month it carries so heavy a line of business-good, clean advertising-that one wonders how so many advertisers manage to make it pay so well. Yet it does pay, as every advertiser and every advertising man, who has had experience with the publication, knows. In the first place, the success and prosperity of The Farmer are due to the prosperity and success of its thousands of readers in a good country, but how has it succeeded in getting so close to these people and winning and holding their confidence? Probably more than any other farm paper that could be named, The Farmer of St. Paul stands for personality. Photographs of some of the personalities that have made The Farmer famous and have made it dear to the hearts of the people of the Northwest are reproduced herewith. There isn't an advertiser or an advertising man in the country who does not know and respect Mr. E. A. Webb, general manager of The Farmer and president of the Webb Publishing Company. There is not an intelligent farmer in the Northwest who does not know and respect the fine ability and keen, searching intellect of Prof. Thomas Shaw. editor of The Farmer. These two personalities alone would make any publication successful, but, like the able men they both are, Mr. Webb is clever enough to get about him a trained, efficient corps of assistants. Mr. E. W. Rankin, assistant manager, is a man widely known for his clever editorial work and his ability as a writer of business literature. He is also a practical advertising agency man. There is not one man in ten among the leading advertisers who has not personally met Justin E. Brown, advertising manager. He is one of the very best business getters in the country. Mr. A. L. Halsted, advertising representative, is the very competent associate of Mr. Brown, devoting most of his time to the Twin Cities. Among Chicago and New York advertisers, Messrs. George W. Herbert and Wallace C. Richardson are among the very best known newspaper representatives. As an advertiser, you are probably not so much interested in the editorial staff of The Farmer as is The Farmer itself, and yet you, as an advertiser, cannot afford to overlook that side of any publication you may want to use in your work. In every department The Farmer is editorially strong. Even publishers of rival farm papers will admit this, and it is an important factor in the paper's success. A Laudable Ambition. You cannot be in touch with The Farmer or The Farmer's working force without feeling that here is a publication that is going to go forward year after year. It is going to be a publication better in every way in 1905 than it was in 1904, and the publishers, themselves, say that at no very distant date it is going to be known as one of the greatest farm papers in the world in point of paid circulation. The largest paid circulation west of Ohio is now claimed for it. The Farmer was established in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1883, and was known as The Northwestern Farmer. After a few years it was moved to St. Paul, where its greatest development has taken place. A notable thing about the circulation growth of The Farmer is that it has been a steady, definite gain year after year. It has not been inflated by schemes or anything other than the worth of the paper itself. Its subscriptions are taken by trained solicitors who devote their whole time to this work. Five of them are now in the field. The Webb-Shaw Experiment Farm. At Farinington, Minnesota, twentyfive miles from St. Paul, The Farmer conducts a two hundred and eighty acre experimental farm. In this farm it has an investment of $25,000, and is continually making experiments of interest and general help to its readers. Some Personalities. The Farmer claims that it has a larger paid circulation than any other farm paper west of Ohio. It claims that it has the best paid editorial staff of any farm paper in the West. Besides the editor, special attention should be called to Mr. A. W. Trow, a practical and efficient dairyman, and the man who was in charge of the butter exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair, where Minnesota won as many prizes as all other states combined, and is much in demand as a speaker and lecturer at Farmers' Institutes. He is also president of the Minnesota State Dairymen's Association. Mr. Clarence Wedge, horticultural editor of The Farmer, is president of the Minnesota State Horticultural ciety. He is a man of acknowledged ability and a capable writer. So Mr. V. D. Caneday, editor of the Poultry Department of The Farmer, is not only a well-known writer, but is a man who makes a good living out of the business on his own poultry, fruit and apiary farm. Mr. E. A. Morgan, editor of the Apiary Department, runs a large apiary at Vermilion, South Dakota, and devotes his whole time to the business. Dr. R. White, V. S., is a well-known surgeon with a large practice in the city of St. Paul, being veterinary surgeon of the police and fire departments of that city. Mrs. Maude Meredith, of the Household Department, was formerly editor of The Housekeeper, and turns out three or four pages of clever matter for The Farmer every issue. Advertisers. Advertisers cannot afford to overlook the editorial policy of a publication in making up a list for advertising. They cannot afford to fail to distinguish between the paper that pays good money for original editorial work and the paper that gets most of its editorial work via the scissors. We quote from a recent advertisement of The Farmer that we believe is of interest now at the beginning of a new year: "During the year now closing, The Farmer printed an average of four pages in each of the twenty-four issues more than a year ago. For the twelve months from December, 1903, to November, 1904, The Farmer showed an increase of 23 per cent in advertising patronage as compared with the twelve preceding months. During this period The Farmer carried nearly as much business as any other two Minnesota farm papers combined." Advertisers have good reason to believe in The Farmer and in The Farmer people, for this sterling publication presents to them great possibilities for gaining trade in the rich field in which it circulates. |