760 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. I a 



remittance of $5, made in advance, or at the time 

 of the order, any two new subscribers will be fur- 

 nished with a copy for each. Thus, while no sin- 

 gle subscription or payment will be for less than 

 .^•5, the price, in effect, will be reduced to S;2 50 

 the copy, to every subscriber, old or new, who will 

 unite with one other new one in a joint payment 

 for two copies. 



This offer, if ineffectual, will be the last of se- 

 veral different attempts made by the proprietor, 

 for the purpose of inducing the agricultural public 

 to aid his efforts to furnish the Farmers' Register 

 at a lower price than any valuable publication has 

 ever been issued in the southern states. Hereto- 

 fore these offers and efforts have met with no ef- 

 fectual response. This one will, and must be, 

 final. If fully availed of by subscribers now, and 

 also hereafter, upon similar conditions, the proprie- 

 tor will be sufficiently compensated for the great 

 reduction of price, by a greatly increased issue, 

 and tlie publication can be continued to be obtain- 

 ed hereafter, on the like conditions, at half the re- 

 gular cost, heretofore. To furnish the new sub- 

 scribers now expected, it is necessary to commence, 

 and continue, even if that expectation should not 

 be realized, an additional and extra impression of 

 the work of more than double the amount of its 

 present and usual issue ; and it will require that 

 all this additional supply shall be absorbed by ad- 

 ditional and increased demand, to prevent loss to 

 the publisher from the change. Nevertheless, he 

 has determined to encounter the risk of such loss ; 

 and havinsi commenced the course, and taken the 

 first step, he is fiiUy committed to the completion ; 

 and cannot, without still greater loss, retrace his 

 steps, or avoid bearing the full expense. Should 

 the offer be properly appreciated by the agricultu- 

 rists of the southern stales, and the necessary 

 support be offered for so cheap a publication, then 

 both its permanency and its continued cheapness 

 will be secured. But if less should be the result, 

 it will be the last of the risks and many and heavy 

 personal sacrifices made by the editor and propri- 

 etor, for the purpose of bringing into existence, 

 and establishinjj, and maintaining the usefulness 

 of the Farmers' Register, through all difficulties, 

 and all the numerous sources of vexation and an- 

 noyance which can scarcely be compensated by 

 pecuniary profit, and which have been increasing 

 more and more from the commencement of this 

 enterprise to the present time. The most impor- 

 tant of these inflictions, the costly and most disa- 

 oreeable connexion with hundreds of non-paying 

 subscribers and " patrons,^^ it is hoped will be ef- 

 fectually removed by the sacrifice now offered to 

 be made in greatly increased expenditure for ad- 

 vanced or prompt and sure payments. 

 From the first commencement of this publica- 



tion, reduced prices have been fixed for joint and 

 advanced payments, and especially for such as 

 brought in new subscribers. The last and most 

 considerable reductions, offered last year, were by 

 some old subscribers so misconstrued, as to be 

 considered as bearing unjustly and disadvanlage- 

 ously on their class. As the like misconception, 

 however groundless, may attend the still more 

 liberal, and more easily available deductions now 

 offered, the editor asks leave, for full explanation, 

 and for the first, and as he hopes, the last time, to 

 obtrude upon his readers in general, some of the 

 small matters of personal and private interest and 

 concernment, which must necessarily, and at 

 length, he brought forward. 



Ever since this publication has been in exist- 

 ence, it has been the object of its conductor, to ex- 

 tend its circirculation, by every honorable and 

 proper means. But he has not resorted, and will 

 not resort, to other means that are deemed almost 

 essential to the prosperity, if not existence, of 

 many periodical publications. JHe has scorned to 

 beg or buy, or exchange or sell puffs and unde- 

 served praises ; and therefore has gained nothing 

 in popularity, or extended circulation, from the 

 operation of that very general system, and nothing 

 of favor or of money has been gained in the still 

 more dirty profit that would have been perfectly 

 available, by making this journal a puffing ma- 

 chine lor all who would pay, directly or indirectly, 

 for its use. 



Neither are regular travelling agents employed 

 to procure subscriptions by personal solicitation, 

 and who, for some periodicals gain a hundred 

 names by such importunity, where one would 

 have voluntarily offered his support, upon mere 

 knowledge of the existence and character of the 

 works. There is nothing in the business itself of 

 an agency to procure, in a proper manner, sub- 

 scriptions to any publication, which is otherwise 

 than respectable and honorable, or wanting in 

 delicacy and propriety. But so many persons to- 

 tally deficient in these qualifications, have been 

 employed by northern publishers, and they have 

 acted so much more like sturdy beggars, (to whom 

 the solicited subscription money would be given 

 as alms, and merely to get rid of their importuni- 

 ty,) than like gentlemen offisring an exchange of 

 equivalent values, that this kind of agency busi- 

 ness has been long stamped with discredit ; and 

 few persons who have a proper degree of self^ 

 respect will risk incurring the suspicion and odium 

 now attached to the business, by seeking subscrip- 

 tions to any work, amongst strangers. Hence, 

 the market is open only to publishers and agents 

 who have no such scruples ; and accordingly they 

 profit well by the virtual monopoly. For such is 

 the Indolence of most men, and their unwilling- 



