1B38] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



761 



ncss to refuse what is asked ; (and especially does 

 the remariv apply to the people of these southern 

 states,) that twenty subscripiions arc made to 

 publications, which are neither wanted or prized, 

 because urjxently begored lor, face to face, where 

 one would be gained without such personal so- 

 licitation. 



Being debarred, by proper and sufficient consi- 

 derations, from these modes ofoblainins support 

 for, and extending the circulation of the Farmers' 

 Register, there remained one other, which is also 

 usual, and which seemed free from any objection, 

 save the cost m money, or possible risk or loss, to 

 the publication. This was to spread abroad gra- 

 tuitously specimen numbera, and to offer induce- 

 ments to subscribers themselves, old and new, to 

 render this good service, and to accept the profits, 

 (for themselves or for others,) of the agents and 

 the coileciors whose employment for this publica- 

 tion has been abandoned. In many cases, the 

 putting out some one volume as a specimen, even 

 at a loss if considered alone, may gain subsequent 

 and profitable circulation ro a number of volumes. 

 Acting upon this plan of making known the work 

 to persons who would not of themselves seek the 

 knowledge, thousands of separate numbers have 

 been distributed gratuitously ; and in pursuance o! 

 the same system, and from the beginnini;. and in 

 the earliest and ali the publications of conditions, 

 new and joint subscribers have been invited by 

 reduced terms, upon the expectation that all such 

 who, after trial, might approve the work, would 

 continue as subscribers at the regular and neces- 

 sarily hiijher price of single subscriptions. Inde- 

 pendently of the private interest and gain of the 

 publisher, it is manifestly a gain to the public, and 

 of course to each individual subscriber, that the 

 circulation of the work, (il'ii be valuable,) should 

 be extended as far as possible, to insure its stabili- 

 ty and increase its usefulness. 



But because the work has been, in this manner, 

 and for these reasons, offered on certain conditions 

 at prices much reduced below the regular and 

 usual rate of single subscripiions, it has been erro- 

 neously and strangely inferred that the publication 

 could have been afforded to all paying subscribers 

 at the lowest named rate; and that those v^ho did 

 not choose to avail of the conditions of reduction, 

 suffered the injustice and disadvantage of being 

 over-charged. 



If the means proposed and offered, had, before 

 the commencement of the printinir of vol. vii, 

 induced a quadrupled or even trebled subscription, 

 then, indeed, the price miiiht have been reduced, 

 and profitably, by one haifio all subscribers, and 

 with no other condiiiuns than the nuikinij the re- 

 duced payments all advanced, and all sure, and 

 thus relieve the publication of the heavy charges 

 of collectors' commissions, postajre, discount on 

 Vol. VI.-96 



uncurrent paper money, and all the numerous 

 other pecuniary losses which are of daily occur- 

 rence, and enormous in their total amount. Such 

 a change would be a most happy one. for the in- 

 terest of the publisher, as well as for that of all his 

 paying subscribers. It was in the hope of reach- 

 ing this desirable end that the latter ofl'ers of de- 

 duction were made, and that a still more liberal of- 

 fer is now risked. And without succeeding in 

 some means of making payments more prompt 

 and secure, tfie publication must sink — not for 

 want of subscribers — but for the entire disregard 

 of so many of them of their obligations to the 

 publislier. Had no subscribers' names been strick- 

 en from the subscription list, except by their own 

 proper order of discontinuance, the number wotild 

 have been every year still increasing, and the 

 publication would have been thrice as rich as it is, 

 in debis from its negligent patrons. But the list 

 has been diminished and would continue to be di- 

 minished under the former system, by the publish- 

 er's erasure ol" the names of debtors. 



There are circumstances, not siifRcienfly (if at 

 all) considered by the public, which cause heiivy 

 expenses to a matrazine like this, which is and 

 ought to be taken by subscribers only in eniire vo- 

 lumes, which do not attend newspapers. Subscri- 

 bers to the latter heL'in and discontinue at any 

 times; and the publishers can expand or contract 

 their issues precisely to suit the most fluctuating 

 demand. Not so with this and similar publica- 

 tions. With the printins: of the first sheet of each 

 volume, the entire number of copies must be fixed; 

 and the opposite dangers are threatened, of print- 

 ing too few, or too many copies, for the subsequent 

 demand. Heavy losses fiom both these opposite 

 causes have been already sustained in conductinir 

 this publication; and were necessarily incurred, to 

 make sure of supplying the actual demand, ft 

 will be plain enough to any who will reflect, that 

 to supply a certain and previously known demand, 

 4000 copies of a volume could be aflorded to be 

 printed at a rate of sub-crijtion price, which if 

 doubled, might be less profitable, for an impression 

 of 1500 or 2000 copies, issued lor an uncertain 

 demand. 



Upon all the grounds stated and referred to, it is 

 earnestly desired by the puhlislipr that every indi- 

 vidual subscriber will avail of the offer made to 

 him; and thus bring to the work directly a doubled 

 subscription, and probabi}-, indirectly, twice as 

 many more. 



Before quittiuir this subject of personal and pri- 

 vate interest, the writer will use the occasion to re- 

 mnrk on another erroneous opinion, which he has 

 reason to believe is prevalent. This is, that this pub- 

 lication has been very profitable to the proprietor, 

 and so much so that a large abatement from the 

 former price and uicome, would still leave abun- 



