Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1909 — Farmers Adopting Advertising. [ARTICLE]

Farmers Adopting Advertising.

The farmer is coming to appreciate the value of advertising. He is learning what is good for the merchant who has dry goods to sell is also good for the man who has anything to sell, says the South Bend Times. He is finding that the advertisements appear in the newspapers not because the advertiser wants to assist the publisher, but because it is the most economical way of informing people that you want to buy or sell certain commodities. One of the most prosperous farmers 1 in Illinois, living near a city about the size of this, is a pretty constant advertiser in the daily paper. Recently he was interviewed upon the subject and said: “When I am ready to sell my stuff I insert a little advertisement in the paper telling them what I have to sell, and if live stock, how many head of each and when they will be ready to ship. The result has been that the buyers are right after me, either personally or by mail, and naturally I always get the highest price. If I want to buy a cow, a steer, a horse or a dozen of each, I insert a little ad that costs me frpm twenty-five cents to a dollar, aijd instead of traveling over the country inquiring of my neighbors who has this or that for sale, the newspaper does it for me at less expense, and those who have what I want manage to let me know in some way. I have saved the time and expense of traveling aimlessly about and get a better selection to choose from.” That is just one man’s experience, and there are thousands of others just like it. Then, there are the great estates that farmers have built up through advertising. One of the most notable is of a farmer in Wisconsin who advertised a few years ago that he was putting up some little pig sausages which were unusally fine. Orders began rolling in upon him until today his business has devoloped into one of the large packing house industries of the country, and his meats and butter and farm produce is sold all over the United States. A Michigan farmer advertised in several New York papers that he would be glad to furnish a few families with select eggs for table use. The result was that persons who were able to pay a little more than the market price for eggs, and who were willing to do so when they knew they were getting the freshest eggs, wrote to the Michigan farmer, and now be has all the customers he can supply with eggs. He is careful to ship his customers only fresh eggs, and they pay him a little more for them than the market price, thus taking care ol the cost of advertising and reimbursing the farmer for his care in attending to his business in a business-like way. The farmers in this part of the country are not using the advertising columns of the papers to the extent they should, but they will gradually come to it, because it is a matter of economy to do so. ' The experience of the Illinois farmer shows to what extent they are tending in that direction, and it is only a question of time until the farmers in this rich agricultural section of the country will take advantage of the advertising columns of their respective papers. Try the classified column.