1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
47 
next meal, which should be taken after the preceding has 
been digested, and the stomach allowed to rest a little, 
but before it is weakened by starvation again. If one 
18 very weary, and the stomach weakened by long delay 
iu eating, a light meul should be ta.ken ; a heavy meal 
will overload it in its exhausted condition. Good 
palatable food, in fair quantity, eaten at ngular times, 
and with sufficient moderation to secure its proper mas- 
tication, is vastly preferable to all medical nostrums, and 
to fasting and starvation. The writer speaks from 
knowledge gained by experience and a study of the prin- 
ciples involved— a knowledge, which, had it been ac- 
quired and appreciated -10 years ago, would liave saved 
him some suffering at least, and have made him worth 
much more now for the remainder of his life's work. 
A " Mystery " Explained. 
More than one reader has written to us to the follow- 
ing effect: ""From what I know of the cost of good 
paper, of fine engravings, well printed, etc., I can well 
understand that at the low price of the American Agri- 
cult n fist there c&n be little, if any, profit. It is then a 
mystery to me how the publisht-rs can ofl'er such premi- 
ums as they do to those who obtain clubs of subscribers, 
unless these articles are clm.i'tafi'uirs or poor selections." 
There ia nu " mystery " about u that we are unwilling 
to explaiiJ. First, the money received for advertise- 
ments properly pays a* the premiums ; the premiums 
help to increase the circulation, and more circulation 
brings in more advertising money. Second, manu- 
facturers well know the carefulness of this journal in 
commending nothing but the best, and that to be 
recommended in this journal is the highest testimonial 
fchey can have. Hence, most mai^ufacturers are ready to 
give the publishers extraordinary terms for such articles 
as they give as premiums, and generally to accept part 
payment in advertising. This enables the publishers to 
pay two or three times as much in premium articles as 
they could possibly pay in cash, while the articles given 
aje just as good as 'money to the recipients, or even 
hetter, for they come with a guarantee of their quality. 
So it is a good thing all round, for the manufacturers, 
the publishers, and especially lor those who receive the 
articles, as they get good things for using the little time 
and i'ffort required to raise a club. Multitudes of them have 
written their great satisfaction on receiving these articles, 
and more than 15,000 persons have received them. 
Still further, it is a good thing for the subscribers in the 
premium club, as they are induced to supply themselves 
with good reading, and the club raiser s;ives them all 
trouble of remitting the subscriptions. Finally, let 
us repeat that every article in the premium list is war- 
ranted. ^rsi rate. (Hundreds of second-class articles are 
pushed upon us for our premium list every year, but all 
such are rejected.) Our own reputation is at stake, and 
even were we so disposed, we cannot affi-rd to give any 
but good articleg. Itastly, we ask all our readers to 
look over the Illustrated Premium List and descriptions. 
(If any one has failed to receive a copy, please write at 
once for one, which will be sent free.) There are many 
good things that any one cnn get without cost during 
these winter months. You want them, and we like 
to give them, and you can easily get them. 
TIiDse *' 10-Cent Postage " Complaints 
and Otlier Matters. 
Constantly, for five mouths at least, the publishers 
have announced, that on and after January 1, IST.'i, they 
must prepay the postage on all papers mailed. Subscri- 
bers had previously paid 12 cents a year. The Publish- 
ers will have to pay 10 to 12 cents, according to the num- 
ber of exti-a pages added during the year, as they pay by 
the gross weight. Still many old subscribers, and some 
new ones, partly from long habit, send us in only the 
old s-.ibscription rates, without the postage. To such a 
postal-card is forwarded, stating the omission, and oc- 
casionally this is complained of rather bitterly as a "smaU 
matter." So it is, in individual cases—'' only a dime ■"— 
but to the Publishers it is a large affair— a matter of 
$10.00il on a hundred thousand subscribers ! Some pub- 
lishers of high-pricnd papers and magazines make con- 
fiiderable display of liberality in offering to prepay all 
postage. They can easily afford it, having a large mar- 
gin o! profit to take it out of, but with this Jonrnal it is 
quite different. It has 44 pagesof more Mian double the 
size of ordinary magazines, and is printed on firm, sized 
paper, of as fine a quality as ordinary writing-paper. 
The paper is made of strong rags, not of straw and clay 
that fall to pieces in u*e. Th-* en^nivings are finely cut, 
and are not rapidly thrown offink daubs, but are slowly, 
carefully, and expensively printed. The preparation of 
the reading matter is expensive, because in the wide range 
of topics, many first-class mnn are required to investi- 
gate. A few lines are often the result of many hours of 
investigation, and multitudes of articles and items are 
left out, because laborious investigation has thus de- 
cided. There are not half a dozen monthly journals or 
magazines in this country, even of those sold at $4 and $5 
a year, and but vi^ry few weekly papers, which are got 
up with so great care, investigation, labor, and expense. 
as are put upon the ATTierican AgriadtKrisf^ notwith- 
standing its low popular rates of $1.60 a year, including 
postage, wliile it is supplied to large clubs even as low 
as $1.10 a year, including postage. The reader wilt, 
therefore, readily see the necessity the Publishers are 
under to require the postage to be paid by the subscri- 
ber, or in other words, of increasing the price enough to 
cover the cost of paying this. The annual terms {postage 
inehidy.d) Q.VQ : One to three subscribers. $1.60 each ; four 
to nine subscribers. $1.35 each ; ten to nineteen subscri- 
bers, $1.30 each ; twenty or 7?wre subscribers. $1.10eacb. 
A Catnlo^ite, n, Roolft, mid n His- 
tory, — Among the uumcrous lhiri:rt's catalogues which 
have been recently receive ', is one from Long Brothers, 
Florists, Bnftalo, N. Y. The catalogue of this establish- 
ment last year, showed much originality in its arrange- 
ment, and the one Issued the present season, is not a 
mere copy of the prccedin;^. One of the brothers, Mr. 
E. A. Long, has also issued a neat little work of SH 
pages, called '^ Tlie Home Florist," which gives descrip- 
tions of popular flowers and the methods of cultivating 
them, with a great deal of matter useful to the novice in 
flower garJeniug, all for flie small sum of 30 c's. ; an 
examination of the work shows tliat the author has a 
practical knowledge of plants and their culture, and the 
ability to impart this knowledge to others in a clear 
and instructive manner. Both the catalogue and the 
"Home Florist,*" are specimens of good and careful 
work. A number of mouths ago the Editor received 
from Lo;ig Brothers, a letter, stating that they were young 
men, trying to make their way as florists, and asking 
advice upon various matters relating to their business. 
The young men were perfect strangers, but they seemed 
to have so much confidence in our opinion, and expressed 
themselves so frankly, that the correspondence which 
grew out of this begiiming, was of a much more friendly 
character than that which relates to business matters 
usually is. It at length appeared that tlicse gentlemen 
attribute not only thuir success as florists, but the fact of 
their being florists at all, largely, if not entirely to the 
Agrfcnlturist^ and that while we were looking at their 
correspondence as that of business men, whose enthu- 
siasm and frushncss made it more than usually interest- 
ing, thi^y felt all the while that they were conferring with 
an old friend and benefactor. Mr. E. A. Long, who 
though not the oldest of the four brothers, was the one 
who first became a flnrist, gives us a brief history of 
their eslablishnient, which we here publish for several 
reasons, but mainly for the encouragement of other 
young men. Not to induce j'oung men to become florists, 
for it is not desirable that they should, iniless their tastes 
strongly lead them iu that direction, so much as to 
induce them to become so)7ief/ihtg. These young men, 
the oldest not got 28, have built up a handsome and 
growing business out ofnothing save what is within the 
reach of every young man who rends this, provided he 
lias within himself the necessary will and energy. It is 
so frequently that we recijive letters in which the writer 
attributes his success in some special undertaking, or 
even his whole success in life, to the ti-achings of the 
AgrkiiHurht, that we have perhaps come to look upon 
them as matters of course. It is certainly most gratify- 
ing to know that our work in the world is for good, and 
while wc have received the testimonials to this fact, with 
much inward satisfaction, we have regarded them as 
confidential. Tliis of Mr. Long comes with fnll permis- 
sion to publish, and we give it not only for the pk-asant 
light in which it i>l;ices our own laljors, but as showing 
what energetic and jiersevcring yoiuigmcn these brothers 
are, and how well they deserve the success which has 
thus far attended them. We have another reason for 
publishing this letter. Whi-n the panic of the fall of 
1S73, deprived papers which had heretofore given premi- 
ums, of tlio ability to do so, they all at once became dis- 
tressingly virtuous, and at the opening of 1874, discover- 
ed that the whole system of premium giving was wrong ; 
their paper was so good that people needed no induce- 
ments to work for it, and most of these at the beginning 
of lf>75. hold the same exalted vii-ws. though we notice 
tliat their journals do not improve in value. Of course, 
tlus" publishers have a right to manage their business 
in their own way, but we do not think it fair iu Ihem to 
sneer at those who choos" to do differently. The Agri- 
culturist many years ago, inaui:rnrated the paying of 
premiums tn those who worked to extend its circulation, 
anri has increa'^ed the number and value of these from 
year to year. We should not have continued to do this, 
had we not found some good came of it ; aside from the 
benefit it has been to ourselves, wc l*tow that hundreds 
if not thousands of young men in the country, date their 
success in life from working for these premiums. 
But we will allow Mr. Long to speak for himself: 
''I formerly canvassed for the Agriculturist, and re- 
member having one year sent in a club of C4 names, 
gathered in our neighborhood (I was 17 then, I think), 
with somewhat smaller clubs in preceding and following 
years. My first premium was " Worcester's Unabridged," 
next a gold pen and silver case, next $40 worth of excel- 
lent books from your list ; after that a few implements, 
other books, etc. This was about ten years ago. and I 
shall never be able to fully ascertain the great advantage 
of the early business schooling I derived from devoting 
my spare evening time mostly in soliciting subscribers 
to your journal. Besides this I was able to gratify a de- 
sire for information on horticultural art and science by 
procuring the best of books on these subjects without 
cost, at a time when I was without means for purchasing, 
and I can not tell how valuable this has been to me since 
I subsequently engaged in business as a florist. About 
eight years ago, as a then successful amateur florist, I 
commenced the cultivation of greenhouse plants iu one 
end of a propagating house, built by my fatlier for nurs- 
ery purposes at Williamsville, ten miles from Buffalo. 
My purchasesin the first year to stock "ray greenhouse" 
amounted to less than $15 worth. From the first I was 
snccessful, both pecuniarily and otherwise, although 
almost wholly dependent for my guidance on my " pre- 
mium " books, the Agriculturist , and the knowledge I 
had been and was constantly gaining by experience. I 
increased my greenhouse stock considerably in the next 
few years, and about this time made arrangements for 
spending, and did spfnd, the better part of a year in Mr. 
Peter Hond'Tson's employ. While I was there I gave 
directions by mail to some younger brothers at home, 
who had become somewhat initiated in working with 
me, f(u- propagating and managing my stock. After I 
returned home, and ever since, my brothers and myself, 
with very limited capital, have been pushing the florist 
business with eagerness. A little over two years ago we 
located ourselves at Buffalo. Tliis was a capital move, 
as Buffalo, like hundreds of other places, had been 
poorly supplied with florists. We at first issued a price- 
list, and then a catalogue, which we have done now for 
six years. We have acquired something of a shipping 
trade, and on the whole are astonished at our general 
success. Four years ago {1S70) at WiUiamsviTle (market- 
ing in Bufi*alo), my sales of florist plants amounted to 
$r>0. In 1871, also at W.. $700. In 1872. at W,, with 
some shipping trade, $2,200. Last year (1873) at Buffalo, 
$6,700, and for the present year (1874) our sales of fiorist 
stock will reach near $11,000. All this time I and my 
three brothers have done nearly all our own work. It is 
with a deep sense of gratitude that I say, that without a 
doubt our attainments in our business are almost wholly 
due to my having interested myself in the advantages 
you offered to the young as well as old. in devoting their 
spare time to working for the reliable, old A?ne?'ican 
Agriculturist."' 
Osii'dening; fbr tUe Prophets.. — 
Deacon is a ruling elder iu one of the leading 
churches of . Being on a vi^it to Chicago, he was 
commissioned to get a work on the Prophets for the use 
of the Simday-school in whieh lie was a teacher. On the 
Sunday iu question the Deacon was absent, but was re- 
presented by his eight-year old boy, of whom the super- 
intendent asked if his father had brought that work on 
the Prophets; the yoiuigster promptly replied yes 1 I 
know he has, and he has been reading it all day. I know 
it is the book, for I saw on it '^Gardening for the 
Prophets," by Peter Ilendcrson. The story spread and was 
rather hard on the Deacon, who had heretofore, as a 
Deacon should, set his voice against all secular reading 
on the Sabbath. 
XHe Catalogues. — Our friends are slow in 
getting out their catalogues, or at least slow in sending 
them. A list of those received was made up at the usual 
lime, but by the time this was in type, others came to 
hand in such numbers, tliat it was not possible to get 
them all into tlic present number. We therefore defer 
the whole list until next month. Wu would therefore 
suggest to those who wish to have their catalogues 
enumerated, to send them along early. We try tf? avoid 
all partiality in this matter, and it is not our fnult if the 
catalogue of a dealer fails to appear. 
Basket Items con- 
tinued on pagre 73. 
