1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



26» 



than the Farmers' Register, are constantly serv- 1 

 ing up, and settiiiir belbre us, the condiments oi" 

 pepper, sah, and vinegar, and niaUing us believe 

 the more ol' them we swallow, tlie better will be 

 our digestion; until, in fact, most of us have the 

 dyspepsia so badly, that we shall be compelled to 

 call in some "thumping" doctor, before we shall 

 be able to digest "nature's food." 



Your sincere well-wisher, 



Thos. B. Akjjerson. 



JEdiiorial Remarks. 



We fully concur with our correspondent in the opi- 

 nion that an elementary treatise on agriculture, such 

 as he describes, and desires to be furnished, would be 

 highly valuable to the agricultural community, provid- 

 ed it could be widely circulated and read. But, put- 

 ting aside the difficulties and labor of the author or com- 

 piler, and the expenses of publication, we doubt much, 

 even if such a work were published, whether enough 

 copies could be sold to pay half the printer's bill. It is 

 almost impossible for any author in Virginia to publish 

 and sell a book so as to make the smallest profit. The 

 great publishing houses of the north have acquired 

 a virtual but effective and close monopoly of the pub- 

 lishing business and trade in the southern states; and 

 one of these houses, as, for example, the Harpers of 

 New York, could sell the most worthless new work, 

 (if well chosen for its demerit, to make this experi- 

 ment,) to more purchasers, and at more profit, than any 

 Virginian publisher could do with the most valuable 

 and useful work. Their operations are effected, and 

 objects attained, by combining the credit system and 

 the pvffing sy stein. Hundreds of retail booksellers 

 have credit from some one of the great publishing 

 houses, on the condition of receiving a certain number 

 of copies of every new book published by that house. 

 Thus, an edition of 1000 or more copies of every pub- 

 lication is engaged before it goes to press. The next 

 thing is to get off as many as possible of the dozen 

 copies sent to each retail bookseller; for if this were 

 not done, they could not long continue to buy. To this 

 end, copies of every new work are sent to hundreds 

 of editors of newspapers; and for so small a bribe, 

 these gentlemen rarely refuse to give iii return a pvff, 

 or complimentary notice of the work, which serves to 

 aid the sale. If twelve copies of each new publica- 

 tion are sent for sale to each town, and, on the average, 

 half, only, of the twelve are sold to readers, there will 

 be no loss on the whole publication; and if nine are 

 sold, there will be a sufficient profit. If all should 

 sell, then there is a certainty of profit in disposing of 

 another edition. 



Without the aid of any such machinery and system, 

 no one can now publish a work, except at loss. If 

 .the publisher is not a bookseller, and acquainted with 

 the practical fair operations, and also with the tricks of 

 the trade, and he distributes his copies among many 

 different booksellers in various and widely dispersed 

 places, to be sold on commission, he will scarcely re- 

 ceive enough money to pay for the expenses, losses, 

 trouble, and vexation, incurred, Our own experience 



on this score has resulted informing the determina- 

 tion never hereafter to send any publication for sale to 

 booksellers, unlc.«s ordered by them as a purchase, 

 and the transactions closed. The particular work of 

 which our correspondent speaks with so much approba- 

 tion, has been so favorably received by the public, as 

 to leave the author nothing to complain of on that 

 score. Nevertheless, by the first edition, which was a/Z 

 sold, he barely paid the expenses of publication — and 

 by the second edition, which was on the cheapest 

 plan, not half the expenses have been paid by the 

 sales. Of the separate edition (600 copies) of John- 

 stone's ' Treatise on Draining,' recently published at 

 this office, not 20 copies have been sold; and the 

 whole edition has been offered, and in vain, to be sold 

 for the sum actually paid for engraving the wood-cuts 

 which illustrate the work. These statements are 

 enough to show that any Virginian who publishes a 

 book for sale, must count upon receiving his reward 

 (if indeed any is obtained,) in "honor and glory;" 

 but certainly not in profit. 



We have long thought of the importance to agricul- 

 tural improvement, and even to nation<il economy, 

 that might be found in a plan somewhat like that pro- 

 posed by our correspondent, and which might em- 

 brace his proposition entirely. This plan is to fur- 

 nish for all the common schools, in Virginia, agricultu- 

 ral works to be used for reading lessons. If the legis- 

 lature would give the first start to this scheme by con- 

 tracting for such cheap publications to be provided for 

 the boys taught in the primary schools at the expense 

 of the literary fund, (for which general objects $45>- 

 000 a year has long been spent, and mostly wasted 

 uselessly,) that demand alone would be so large as to 

 permit the printing of very large editions, and, conse- 

 quently, the prices of such books might be put so 

 low, that their greater cheapness alone ought to induce 

 their substitution, in all common schools, for the ordi- 

 nary reading books furnished from the northern publi- 

 cation offices. In this manner, if the publisher were 

 secured against loss, by a state contract for 5000 or 

 10,000 copies of any one work, it might be sold at less 

 than half the usual prices for northern school-books, 

 and yet give sufficient profit to the pubhsher. In this 

 manner, if no other benefit were found, there would 

 be the great saving to the literary fund, and to all the 

 parents of young pupils in Virginia, of more than half 

 the price of books designed merely for learning to 

 read; and the books substituted, would be at least as 

 serviceable in that respect, and unobjectionable in 

 every other respect, as school-books. As, therefore, 

 the patronage of the state would cost it no money, but 

 on the contrary cause to the treasury a considerable 

 saving of the money now expended for school-books, 

 it might be hoped, even from the legislature of Vir- 

 ginia, that such patronage to agricultural improvement 

 would not be withheld. But the saving of money to 

 the treasury, and the consequent hundred-fold saving 

 to individuals, (if these cheap books were adopted in 

 all the common schools,) would be the least of the 

 advantages gained. A very far more important bene- 



