Besides their regular buying of the common necessaries and lesser luxuries our farmer readers will soon be using the proceeds of the harvest in heavy purchases of improved farm machinery, windmills, gasoline engines and household labor-saving appliances, paints, oils and varnishes for their buildings, pianos, organs, furniture, jewelry, carriages and automobiles.

Mail-order and general advertisers should secure their share of the profits of the bumper harvest by advertising in the fall issues of COMFORT.

COMFORT is regularly subscribed for in more farm families than is any other one publication.

COMFORT'S farmer readers are of

the prosperous, progressive class that aspire

to and can afford the luxuries.

COMFORT is a live wire which short-circuits the farmers' trade direct to its advertisers.

W. H. GANNETT, Pub., Inc.
Augusta, Maine.

New York Office: 1105 Flatiron Bldg. WALTER R. JENKINS, Jr., Representative
Chicago Office: 1635 Marquette Bldg. FRANK H. THOMAS, Representative

State in the Union there is such concentration of the vineyard industry in certain "grape belts" as to render it a comparatively simple matter for the advertiser who is uncertain of the field to conduct an experimental campaign, localized to any desired extent. For instance, the Pacific Coast has more than half of all the grape vines in the country and the vineyards are almost all located in that section of California which has come to be known as the hub of the American wine and raisin industry. Another agricultural area where the luscious grape has been a prime factor in inducing present prosperity is that bordering on the Great Lakes and located especially in the States of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Some idea of the adaptability of what is known as the American native-grape region, and which embraces the lake region, may be formed from the fact that seventy-five varieties of grapes are produced in this region although, as a matter of fact, the lion's share of the acreage is in the immensely popular Concord-a variety for which there is always a market and which will sell readily in carload lots whereas other varities may have to be marketed in assorted quantities. Yet another typical center of the vineyard industry is found in the Piedmont region of Virginia, the stronghold of the Norton grape, a valuable variety for red wine and grape-juice manufacture.

American growers have not as yet entered to any extent upon the cultivation of grapes under glass or in graperies but this is a development that is bound to come as the luxury of our modern life increases and thereby hangs a hint for manufacturers of greenhouse utilities, heating plants, etc. There is already a considerable market in this country for hot-house

Table Grapes Ready for Shipment.

grapes, and whereas at present the supply comes largely from Europe the prices realized for this out-of-season fruit-often as high as $1 to $3 per pound-are bound ere long to draw experienced American grape growers into this specialized field. The keeping of grapes in cold storage is another phase of the business which has not yet been developed to anything like the extent that may be expected in the not distant future. There is also growing agitation for the utilization of the wastes of the grape for the manufacture of by-products, as wastes have been similarly utilized in other industries. It is estimated that if all the wastes were used the income from the annual crop would be increased at least ten per cent and that means something in the case of an industry the annual output of which is figured to be worth upward of $20,000,000. Incidentally the utilization of wastes for the manufacture of by-products will open numerous opportunities for the manufacturers and the supply men who can combine imagination with energy.

A

GOOD many advertisers and advertising men are asking themselves and others this question of late.

Not that letters do not pay-or can not be made to pay. They do pay. But do they pay as well as the less conventional and admittedly more attractive folder, mailing card or circular? Are they as economical?

The first question is open to argument. As for the second, who that has used both letters and cards or other similar mailing matter can doubt that the latter form of advertising is less expensive, all things considered.

To take a specific case: A Chicago advertiser has been in the habit of getting out a certain form letter at certain seasons every year. An itemized account of the expense connected with it averaged about as follows: 2,500 letter heads (stock and printing). $ 6.50 Imitation typing

Printing signature

Filling in names...

Writing and handling..

4.90 2.00 6.50 15.00

He was able to make two calls-to reach his prospects twice for only about $7 more than he had paid when he used a letter once. This instance is by no means far-fetched or unusual. Nearly every advertising man could call to mind similar cases.

Whether the letter pays better than the circular, folder or mailing card can not be answered unreservedly. Some letters might pay better than some cards. Other things being equal, however, the card, circular or folder possesses certain desirable features not found in the letter.

The card, circular or folder is exactly what it purports to be an advertisement. It does not come to a business person's desk under

any disguise. It is no masquerader. The recipient knows before opening it that it advertises something and he takes it at its face value. He is privileged to throw it away unread. But if it is as attractive as it should beas attractive as it can easily be made it will not be thrown away but will be singled out for immediate reading or put aside for later careful consideration.

If, after having drawn the reader so far as to have compelled him to open it, the circular has sufficient "punch" to hold his attention, it will be acted upon just as quickly as a letter would be. And the reader will have vastly more respect for it, just as he would have more respect for a flesh-and-blood salesman who began his solicitation by stating his business instead of by using some pretext to engage his prospect in conversation.

Is not this latter method exactly what the average form letter does? It comes to you like any other correspondence-bears a two cent stamp, used so that you will think it is what it is not. Naturally you open the envelope and are most likely greeted with some irrelevant or impertinent introductory sentence calculated to lead you on. Or, as the canons phrase it, "to get your interest."

You read until you are suddenly and unceremoniously brought up short with the realization that something is "being put over" you. A natural sense of indignation arises and before you know it you have dropped the offending letter like a hot potato into the nearest waste basket.

Invariably? Most assuredly not. Still, who will deny that this is a common experiencethat it happens every day to thousands who, though calloused to form letter appeal, will nevertheless open envelopes bearing two cent stamps?

Not only is the form letter limited from the standpoint of substance matter but it is limited physically as well. It must be printed on a letter head which may vary somewhat in size but which cannot be much larger or smaller than the regulation 82 by 11 inch sheet, which must be multigraphed or imitationtypewritten printed to look like an original typewritten letter; and which must be signed either with a printed signature in a different

color ink from the body or with a hand-written signature.

Each letter must be filled in with name and address, folded, enclosed in the envelope and the envelope sealed. The envelopes must also be addressed. All this takes needless time and costs needless money.

The circular, mailing card or folder is entirely without limitations as to shape, design or handling. It may be any desired size provided it is within postal regulations. It may be printed upon an immense range of stocks in from one color up. No signature is required. Neither is any filling in of name and address necessary. Folding, enclosing, sealing and even the use of envelopes are avoided.

For the money that the average letter costs it is possible to mail a folder, card or circular much more striking in appearance and effective in results.

In using a folder or circular a return card can be attached to the folder or a portion of the stock can be perforated for detaching. In using letters, cards are often enclosed but in opening the letter the card is apt to become separated-is liable to slip to the floor or in some way to get lost and when the reader gets to the point where he might sign the card, he has to feel, look or hunt for it and while so doing is often interrupted or may change his mind. As a result the card is never returned.

When the card is attached to the folder and must be torn off, the reader is much more likely to do it. "Tear Off, Sign and Mail Today," or some other display line can and should be used at the close or near it, to strengthen the reader's intention.

The card, folder or circular may be made original both in form and in copy. It has. therefore, double the chance of getting read that a form letter has which, while it may be original in copy, must be stereotyped in form.

In a circular, card or folder you have every advantage of the form letter without a single one of the faults. You have a number of ad

vantages in the bargain that the form letter lacks.

While no reliable statistics are available it is safe to say that at least one letter out of every ten that comes to the average desk in the day's mail, is a form letter.

What percentage of these accomplish results no one knows but it must be small judging by waste basket investigation.

If form letters do not produce the results they should the causes can be traced to the annoyance of the reader at being duped into reading what he would not have read had he known what it was; to commonplace or weak copy; and to the innerent physical limitations under which the form letter must labor.

Many advertisers have realized form letter short-comings and have stamped their letters "this is a form letter."

But that is a makeshift for it adds nothing to the weight of the letter in the eyes of the reader nor does it atone for the reader's disappointment at finding he is reading a machine-made communication.

The form letter, however, certainly has its uses. Various announcements in various lines of business can be made more fittingly by letter than in any other way. A publisher, for example, might more appropriately announce a change of rates in a form letter than in a spread-eagle circular. A dissolution of partnership, a change in firm, an apology for remissness in filling orders-these and many other contingencies are certainly suited to handle through form letters.

But an offer of new lines-a play for more business-any announcement of plans or merchandise into which salesmanship enters, can be most tellingly put before a prospect in the card, folder or circular.

One of the strongest of all the reasons for using card, folder or circular is that they can be sent for a cent while a letter, to get a moment's consideration, must be sent first-class.

For many years the form letter has worked overtime. Advertising Progressives are saying that it ought to be given a rest.

A

LITTLE learning is a dangerous thing." While Willie is in kindergarten and his education is still a negligible quantity it does very well for father and mother to talk to him in words of one syllable or even in "baby-talk." That is not only the best but the only way to make him understand.

But the time comes in the education of Willie when things are changed. The time comes

when he is studying

from the Fifth Read

er. Now his name is William.

He is very much educated. And if anybody attempted to tell him anything in words of less than six syllables he would promptly put them down as ignorant and beneath him! Like every one else he is not interested most in what he knows already but in what he does not know or only has a smattering of.

And the same general principle applies in advertising. The public gives good attention while it is learning something new but it shies at the idea of learning that same thing again and again.

staple or a real novelty must play the part of school-master. He must educate the public as to the new thing he is offering, its properties. its possibilities, its value and convenience. The manufacturer who advertises what is strictly a staple, on the other hand (if indeed there are any such, because their product can have no distinctive and individual talking points) has no use for educational, informative copy.

WORLD OVER

King Gillette

The GILLETTE Lasts a Lifetime. Standard Sets, $5.00; Combination and Travelers' Sets, $6.00 to $50.00. GILLETTE SALES CO. 48 West Second St. Boston, Mass New York, Times Bldg. Chicago, Stock Exchange Bldg: Canadian Office, 63 St. Alex ander St, Montreal: Glene Safery Razor Lad, London Eastern Oce, Shanghai China Factories: Boston, Montreal, Leicester, Berlin, Paris.

"If it's a safety razor-it's a Gillette" Ask your dealer to show you the Gillette Line.

The products of the manufacturing world are divided into staples and novelties. Possibly there is a third class in between consisting of what might be called "novelty-staples," that is products of an established general classification with which the public has long been familiar but offered in a new form or a better way. An example of the latter would be Crystal Domino Sugar when it first came out, which in reality is simply the old, familiar loafsugar cut a little more conveniently and wrapped in a sanitary fashion.

The first manufacturer to advertise a novelty

But just as slang slowly but surely becomes a regular part of the language by appropriation and general use. SO do worthy novelties become staples and so, tco, does the public assume toward them the same, know-it-all attitude. And the public is bored when anybody, especially an advertiser, attempts to tell it what it already knows.

To illustrate: The safety-razor is today a staple. Each make of safety-razor is a novelty staple. There are scores of reliable, recognized safetyrazors on the market today and these little instruments are as cs sential a part of modern life as their antecedents, the regular, old-fashioned razors which claim no safety merits, if not more so. Yet there was a time when some manufacturer (no matter who in this present consideration) put the first safety-razor on the market and advertised it. At that time the words "safety-razor" meant little or nothing to the public. That manufacturer would have been unwise had he laid more emphasis in his advertising copy on the steel and careful workmanship, etc., put into his product than upon the advantages of its use. The public wanted to have the contest of Ordinary Razor versus