34 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Our January number, ttie first of the New Year. 1857, 

 is now before you, kind reader. Thanks to our numerous 

 and experienced correspondents, it is worthy of your care- 

 ful examination. We feel proud of the paper, and think 

 you will agi-ee with us that no one need be ashamed to 

 show it to his neighbors and ask them to help sustain the 

 cheapest agricultural journal in the world by sending in 

 their names and thirty-seven and a half cents to the 

 publisher. 



From all parts of our extended country we receive daily 

 indications of the good-will of many true jrieiids of Rural 

 Progress, who are doing their best to circulate sound ag- 

 ricultural literature in their respective neighborhoods. 

 The letters we receive, and, not less, the $3 for a club of 

 eight which accompanies most of them, encourage us to 

 spare no efforts to make our paper worthy of the encomi- 

 ums bestowed upon it, and to hope that as our circulation 

 nearly doubled last year, we shall be able to chronicle a 

 still greater increase during the present year. 



We are free to confess that were it not for the voluntary 

 and disinterested labors of the friends of agricultural im- 

 provement in this country and in Canada, who have done 

 so nobly in extending our circulation, we could not afford 

 to furnish so good a paper at so low a rate. Our paper 

 costs as much as the dollar monthlies, and more than some 

 of them, and it is easy to see that our circulation must be 

 very large in order to make a tifiy cent paper as profitable 

 as a dollar one. 



For instance, supposing the actual cost of the paper to 

 be thirty cents, and the lowest club term to be thirty-seven 

 and a half cents, in the one case, and sixty-two and a half 

 cents in the other, the dollar paper makes more than foiir 

 times as much as the fifty cent paper. The dollar papers. 

 therefore, make more with five thousand subscribers thac 

 we do with twenty thousand. Nevertheless, we are anx- 

 ious to provide pood agricultural reading at such a low 

 rate as to be within the reach of all; and as long as our 

 efforts are sustained as they have been, we shall spare no 

 pains to make the Genesee Farmer the best, as it certainly 

 is the CHEAPEST agricultural and horticultural journal in 

 the world. 



i It has been intimated that the reason why we can afford 

 to make so cheap a paper is because we are engaged in 

 other business, and use the paper as an advertising medi- 

 um. This is a malicious falsehood. There is no one con- 

 nected with the paper that has the remotest interest in any 

 business whatever. The principal editor of this paper 

 was born and brought up on a farm, and has spent his 

 whole life in agricultural pursuits and studies till he took 

 the editorial chair in the office of the Genesee Farmer, in 

 November, 1851. Since tha.t time he has devoted himself 

 to writing for the agricultural press ; and it may not be 

 amiss to state as a fact showing the great interest felt in 

 agricultural literature, that last year he had an engage- 

 ment with one of our shrewdest publishers to furnish mat- 

 ter, at a far higher rate than is paid by the great British 

 Quarterlies, which are supposed to remunerate their con- 

 tributors better than any other periodicals in the world. 

 , There never was a time when good agricultural reading 

 .was so much sought after as at present ; and we are under 

 no necessity to engage in any other business than that of 

 endeavoring to make a good farmer's paper. We have 

 never had any other business — except farming — and as 

 lonsr as our paper is sustained as well as at present, we 

 shall devote ourselves exclusively to its interests, and those 

 of its readers. 



Unite d States AcnicuLxuKAL Society. — The fifth 

 annual meeting of the United States Agricultural Society 

 will be held at the rooms of the Smithsonian Institute, 

 in the city of Washington, D. C, Jan. 14, 1867, at ten 

 o'clock, forenoon. 



Business of importance will come before the meeting. 

 The report of the F.xhibition at Philadelphia, and the 

 journal of the society for 185G will be distributed to the 

 members present. At the same time, awards of Premiums 

 on Fie'd Crops will be made; the officers of the society 

 for the ensuing year, elected, and the propositions which 

 have been received in relation to the fifth annual exhibi- 

 tion, acted upon. 



?_ A lecture will be delivered on the application of Science 

 to Agriculture, by Professor IIenrt, of the Smithsonian 

 Institute. Another lecture on the Grasses of the United 

 States will be given by Ciiakles L. Flint, Esq., Secre- 

 tary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. 



Other lectures and interesting discussions are expected 

 on sulyects pertaining to the objects of the Association. 



The various Agricultural Societies of the United States 

 are requested to send delegates to the meeting, and all 

 gentlemen who are interested in the welfare of American 

 Agriculture, who would promote a more cordial spirit of 

 intercourse between the farmers in different portions of 

 our land, are invited to be present. 



MARSHALL P. WILDER, President. 



Wif. S. King, Secretary. 



December 11, 185G. 



Extracts from Complimentary Notices. — Prof. 

 J. A. Nash, of the Plough, Loom and Anvil, says: 



" The Gtnesee Farmer is one of the olde.=t, the cheap- 

 est, and in our view, one of the best monthlies." 



The italics are his own. This is high praise from such 

 a man. 



J. W. Alwat, of Kommoks, C W., says: 



" I would not be without the Farmer for three times ita 

 price." 



E. P. Underhill, of Golden rona, j\y., says : 



" I used to read the Farmer when small, and think it ifl, 

 decidedly, the best agricultural paper published for the 

 masses." 



J. N. Shepard, of Marion, O., says : 



" I have taken the Genesee Farmer for seventeen years, 

 and, like man and wife who have been a long time to- 

 gether, cannot afford to part in old age." 



E. A. Griffith, of Boston, Erie Co., N. T., says :^ 



" Of late I have taken the , but have concluded 



to change back again for the Farmc-y. The is too 



full of music and romance to suit my fastidious taste." 



Joseph Harris, Esq: — I have taken the Genesee 

 Farmer for three voars, and think it is a very valuable paper 

 and one that ought to be read in every family. I shall 

 endeavor to circulate it among our farmers as much as 

 possible; with little trouble I have formed a club of about 

 forty or upwards; the amount, with subscription, wiU he 

 forwarded, but your answer is first required how you wish 

 it mailed; it can be registered, if you desire; please an- 

 swer as soon as my note is at hand. With plf-asurc I act 

 as your agent, and notwithstnnding the various pajiers 

 published upon the best modes of farming, there is not 

 one, in my opinion, that will be as useful to the farming 

 community as the Genesee Farmer; and I hope it will long 

 continue, as it now is, a blessing to all who take it and 

 read it. I remain your Sincere Friend, Jonathan^ Mil- 

 ler. — Berrysbvrg, Dauphin Co., Fmn., Dec, 4, 185G. 



To Correspondents. — Many excellent commaniea- 

 tions have been received too late for this number. Tb«j 

 shall appear next month. 



