The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1921-02-18

sas, during August, 1919.
We farmers formed an association
for the purpose of marketing our
wheat for seed at a price we could set
ourselves. The association also IN
dertook the task of keeping pure at
least part of the kanred wheat seed.
To this end, inspectors were sent into
fields of members requesting it, short
ly before harvest last summer About
two-thirds of the GOO members in the
association had at least one field Of
kanred wheat inspected. A nominal
fee was charged.
The names of all members having in
spected seed, with the quantity and
quality disclosed by the inspection,
were assembled in a catalog. Approx
imately 10000 bushels of pure seed
was listed. besides more than twice
that amount Of mixed or smutty seed.
Smutty wheat, if pure in other re-
spects, ives recommended for seed
when treated before planting, but no
particular effort vas made to dispose
of it for members was made by the
association.
A scale of prices that averaged 81
above the market price of market
wheat was recommended for pure in
spected seed. Thus, pure, cleaned, re-
sacked seed, f.. o. b.. the railroad sta
ton would sell at $3.50 a bushel, the
maximum charge made.
How to get this seed distributed in
small quantities throughout the hard
wheat belt was the problem that faced
officers of the association when they
met in Manhattan the last week in
June. Transportation facilities were
bad, Kanred wheat was little known,
and farmers were not accustomed to
pay what undoubtedly would sound to
them a fancy price for seed wheat, al
though our price was in no way ex-
c~essive.
Upon the recommendation of S. C.
Salmon. secretary of the association,
and a sort of sales manager for the
association, the officers decided to
spend some money in advertising. Ac-
cording to the plan agreed upon, every
member was to contribute one cent
toward advertising for every pushed of
wheat sold for him.
Since there was only a few hundred
dollars in the treasury at the time, it
was decided not to spend an amount
equal to the total sum that would be
raised in the event all the pure and
smutty wheat owned by the members
Of the association was moved. Adver-
Using was put on probation, and l was
asked to serve as advertising manager
with less than $400 at my disposal to
move $500. 900 worth of wheat. My
fund was less than LOO of / per cent
of the total value of the product. The
average cost of an advertising cam
paign is about 2 per cent of the gross
sales.
The publicity problem was somewhat
simpliied by a vast number of news
paper and farm journal accounts of
large Kanred yields which began to
appear as soon as the harvest got I'M
der way. These accounts helped in
this way: they acquainted the farmer
of the hard wheat belt with the out
standing qualities of Kanred above the
older v~arities of hard wheat. These
qualities are: greater yield, greater
resistance to rust, and greater winter
hardness, all of which are important.
But this sort publicity did not give
specific directions how this seed might
be obtained. That, of course, would
have to be done with display advertis-
ing.
l should have liked to use the best
paper in every county of the hard
wheat belt. On account of a limited
appropriation the space had to be linn
tied to 26 county papers, three daily
papers and seven farm papers.
kanred had a bad start the year
previous in about 26 Kansas counties.
1t was in these counties hat we de-
cided to spend the largest proportion
of our money. 1t was my business to
determine the best paper in each of
these counties and to prepare the copy
that should appear in them.
| obtained from a former newspaper
associate the result of a survey he had
made of papers in the territory. This
| checked against another list obtained
from an advertising agency, and
compared each with the circulation
statements of all the papers in the
territory.
An interesting result of this analysis
was the disclosure that papers claim
ing a large circulation were not in ev-
cry case papers considered the best
advertising medium by those who had
used them.
In order to be sure to command at
tention, | decided the size of the adj
vertisement should be double column,
!. and twenty inches long. In planning
the copy, / made allowance for plenty
!. of white space in the margins. These
preliminaries having been disposed of
i, the story that we wished to convey was
next taken up.
, How the Successful Advertisements
We're Written.
t 1t was a straightforward message
C~OnvevinU the cIperiOr advantages of