The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-26

ounces, making total of 500 ounces.
| The original daily report which send
you shows that instead of weighing
| 76s ounces, the twine weighed 74s u
ounces.
ION twine sent to foreign countries.
every sack must be marked Draw
back for the company pays duty on
4S pounds. and has a rebate of two
pounds on every sack, though the sacks
are marked so pounds. They are very
particular about their drawback.
'Iashing or rope is weighed the
same on all bales. If farmer buys
sisa1 he pays or 10 cents a pound for
the lashing; if he buys manila at IL or
6 cents, he pays 2 or 16 cents for the
same lashing. Lashing is made from
broken twfne and floor sweepings.
This amounts to many thousands OF
dollars year to the company.
Easy to Change Tags.
Suppose it is Monday morning, and
all hands are commencing work. We
have been running on Mccormick
pure manila order of 1000 bales. The
that twine is to go. The length is $50
feet to the pound. If it is TO go to a
locality where they have absolute con-
troll of the trade, they will put in 10
or 18 per cent of oil. and have it made
out of good and bad fibers, mostly bad.
The more oil the less fiber. and the
weaker twine. The standard strength
for pure manila is 80 pounds tension.
awhile, another order comes to change
the tags on the bales to Deering tags,
then the twine becomes Plano. Cham
pion, International, all in the same
small orders, it must be understood,
for certain localities. for they would
not ship twine patched like this only
where they had medium trade OF trade
already established. But now comes
an order for 500 bales of twine for a
new locality. The oil is reduced to 8
or 7 per cent The girls are ordered
to select the best of the twfne and put
it on top of the bench. Possibly a
Champion tag is placed on that, and
is placed. One farmer gets the good
twine, one gets the bad. all the same
price. All the different brands Of
twine can be taken out of the same
run of twine on the same day.
Now if a farmer buys Mccormick
twine one year. and he had to crawl
off his binder too often on account of
bad twine, then the agent sells him
Plano, and so on until all the trust
Irvine is tried. and he won't have any
Of them. All the farmers in the local
ity have had the same trouble and
they won't buy trust twine. They
start to buy of an independent con-
Germ. Then the trust will make them
a good twine, put plain tag on it.
and send it into that locality to knock
out the Independent twine.
"hail Order Twine.
1.-THE cheapest twine is sisaI; STAN
dard next, manila next and pure ma
nilla next.
They make three kinds OF sisa1 or
standard to be sold under a plain
tag. One is very good, better in fact
than the regular stock, and it is to be
sold in localities where there is COM
petition; another Is cuttings, and is
sold to mail order houses, and 50
o.. =. g4t, ,,JI -
foot length to the pound, Is made 450,
and contains as high as 22 per cent
oil. The last is used to compel far
mers to buy their regular stock in
stead of cheap plain tag twine, for a
ball of twine with 2 per cent of oil is
a poor investment for any farmer
Getting the Fond du Lac Order.
THE samples of twine sent as ex-
hibits to expositions are such as no
farmer ever got. They are carefully
selected stock, and sometimes it takes
long time to make them. It took
two or three months to make the st.
Louis exposition exhibit. Every bali
and sheared by hand. No one sees
an exhibit of this twine in a locality
where they have control.
There is an order that the COM
pany calls the Fond du Lac order,up In
Wisconsin. This company had been
lIyIHS 10 get II lOI d long time. 30
last spring an order came for samples
as good as could be made. The best
stock was collected and looked over
by hand. No short stuff went In.
There was a very small per cent Of
oil, and it was kept separate and
watched carefully on the spinners All
dirt was removed, and the choicest
help in the mill ran it. When it was
taken to the ballers to be balled, the
girl was paid day work, instead of
piece work, and ran it on one flyer in
stead of eight. When it was balled
every ball that had the least flaw was
put out and the officials from down
town came and looked at it. It was
the best they ever saw.
'But it would not do. 1t was too
good They were afraid to send out
such a sample, so they doped it up a
little for looks, but let the strength
remain. 1t would almost pull a bin
der in two before it would break.
They sent the samples out and got
the Fond du Lac order, in Wisconsin.
Those Wisconsin farmers got good
article prepared to catch their trade,
but they will get no more like it. Next
time they will probably get cuttings,
and someone else will get the good
twfne
Keep the Covers Clean.
''The main feature of the McCor-
mick plant Is to keep the covers
cIedn MAKE the DaleS look good.
Don't care much for the inside, but
make the covers look nice. A farmer
down east sent some twine back and
some dirt he had found on the cover.
I received a letter from the company
stating those facts and stating that
they really believed themselves that
their twine was not as good as the
Plymouth but that from a sales stand
point it must be made so-that is,
the covers must be in good shape"