This advertisement for Stanley's Crow Repellent came to me already clipped from an issue of The Rural New Yorker farming magazine, so I can't properly date it. I think the 1920s would be a fair guess, though.1
The Rural New Yorker was first published in 1850. In May 1938, The New Yorker published a profile of the farm magazine's editor/publisher. Here's an excerpt from that article's abstract:
"PROFILE of John J. Dillon, editor and publisher of the Rural New Yorker, a farm paper which now reaches 270,000 farmers throughout Northeast. The Rural New Yorker looks almost the same today as it did when Dillon took it over 46 years ago. It was founded in 1850 as Moore's Rural New Yorker, dedicated 'to home interests of both country and town residents.' The paper is printed in the old Chelsea Methodist Church, on 30th St., just east of Ninth Avenue."Today, the spirit of The Rural New Yorker lives on in Reginald Oberlag's charming The Rural New Yorker blog, which is inspired by the former magazine.2
As for Stanley's Crow Repellent, the advertisement includes some tiny testimonials regarding the product's effectiveness:3
- Crows pulled one hill, and said: "Good night!" writes C.H. Barnett, Thetford Center, Vt.
- Hundreds of corn-growers write us letters like these: "Had no corn pulled that I could discover." — F.G. Vincent, W. Tisbury, Mass.
- "Crows nor nothing seem to bother it" — M. Crockwell, Red Hook, N.Y.
- "One kernel was pulled by crows. None were eaten. Yet crows were in fields all the time catching bugs," says M.S. Taite, Turnhannock, Pa.4
- "The crows pulled only one hill of my corn" — L. Martin, Hillsboro, N.H.
Footnotes
1. On the other side of the advertisement, there is a mention of Goodrich Silvertown tires, which were produced as early as 1920 (possibly earlier).
2. Also, you can check out some old excerpts from The Rural New Yorker in this 2009 post by Sam Moore on Farm Collector.
3. Apparently, the primary ingredient in Stanley's Crow Repellent was creosote.
4. "Turnhannock" has to be a misspelling. They meant Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania.
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