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Authority and accountability · Claim record

The evidence at the centre of the appeal was the United States Department of Agriculture’s own record of governmental experiment with the seed, which the Appellate Division held admissible: it “tended to show, as the result of governmental experiment, that Miracle wheat was no more prolific than brands of wheat in general use and of ordinary quality”. The court also recorded “independent evidence that other wheats could be purchased at prices so low in comparison as to make the advertised price of Miracle wheat exorbitant”.

Claim ID claim-authority-usda-seed-evidenceConcerns 7 May 1915Context
Context · 7 May 1915 Verified

The evidence at the centre of the appeal was the United States Department of Agriculture’s own record of governmental experiment with the seed, which the Appellate Division held admissible: it “tended to show, as the result of governmental experiment, that Miracle wheat was no more prolific than brands of wheat in general use and of ordinary quality”. The court also recorded “independent evidence that other wheats could be purchased at prices so low in comparison as to make the advertised price of Miracle wheat exorbitant”. New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, 7 May 19151975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1975

The organisation’s position or later explanation: The 1975 Yearbook cites a favourable 1907 report by a government agriculturalist about the original grower's crop and says the Society “made no claim for the wheat on its own knowledge”; it does not mention the later government tests put in evidence at the trial.

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Official public record Verified

New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, “Charles T. Russell, Appellant, v. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Respondent, 168 A.D. 121”

7 May 1915 · pp.121-124 · Appellate Division Reports

“The plaintiff was the editor of a publication purporting to be devoted to a religious propaganda. In it he informed his sympathetic readers that one of his associates had accumulated Miracle wheat, which the associate was disposed to sell to the readers of that publication for one dollar a pound. The associate promised to give the entire proceeds to a corporation organized and controlled by the plaintiff. In the article it was represented that the yield of Miracle wheat was ten or fifteen times as great as the yield of common wheat. The record offered in evidence tended to show, as the result of governmental experiment, that Miracle wheat was no more prolific than brands of wheat in general use and of ordinary quality. There was independent evidence that other wheats could be purchased at prices so low in comparison as to make the advertised price of Miracle wheat exorbitant.”

Russell sued over a cartoon headed “Easy Money Puzzle” carrying the line “If Pastor Russell can get a dollar a pound for Miracle wheat, what could he have got for Miracle stocks and bonds as a director in the old Union Bank?” The trial judge told the jury the cartoon was libellous and left the defence of truth to them; the jury found for the Eagle. The appeal court held the United States Department of Agriculture reports properly admitted and affirmed, with costs.

Archived or alternative copy

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The full official-reporter text was downloaded and read on 19 September 2026. It records that judgment for the defendant was entered on 3 February 1913 and the motion for a new trial denied on 10 February 1913, and that J. F. Rutherford was on the brief for Russell on appeal. The opinion describes Russell as “an unordained preacher”.

Scan provenance. Caselaw Access Project (Harvard Law School Library) static edition of the official reporter, New York Appellate Division Reports vol. 168.

Notes. The opinion is per curiam; Jenks, P. J., Thomas, Carr, Stapleton and Putnam, JJ., concurred, and the judgment and order were unanimously affirmed with costs. This is the appellate record of the trial that Russell reported to his own readers in The Watch Tower of 15 February 1913.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-ad-1915-0507-russell-v-eagle

Primary JW publication Verified

1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, “Part 1—United States of America (“Miracle Wheat”)”

1975 · pp.70-71 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“his enemies have charged that he sold a great quantity of ordinary wheat seed under the name of “Miracle Wheat” at one dollar per pound, or sixty dollars per bushel. They have held that from this Russell realized an enormous personal profit. However, these charges are absolutely false. ... The wheat was received and sent out by the Society and the gross receipts from it amounted to about $1,800. Russell himself did not get a penny of this money. ... When others criticized this sale, all who had contributed were informed that if they were dissatisfied their money would be returned. In fact, the identical money received for the wheat was held for a year for that purpose. But not one person asked for a refund.”

The Yearbook's account names K. B. Stoner of Fincastle, Virginia as the grower, records the 1907 United States Department of Agriculture report that first drew Russell's attention, and says two Watch Tower readers, J. A. Bohnet and S. J. Fleming, donated about thirty bushels in 1911 on condition it be sold at a dollar a pound for the Society's benefit.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library; page markers 70 and 71 bracket the passage, and the organisation’s own Index 1930-1985 cites this treatment as “yb75 70-71”. The account does not mention the Brooklyn Daily Eagle trial, the jury’s verdict against Russell, the 1915 appeal, or the government seed tests put in evidence at that trial; a full-text search of the Watchtower Online Library returns no occurrence of “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” anywhere in this Yearbook.

Corroborated by. src-ctr-ad-1915-0507-russell-v-eagle

Notes. The Yearbook says the donors gave “about thirty bushels”; Russell’s own account in The Watch Tower of 15 February 1913 says “the total amount being twenty bushels”. The discrepancy is on the record and neither figure should be published as settled.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-yb-1975-p70-miracle-wheat

Claim page

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