108 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[J TINE, 
The I>e»tli oi'Dr. Win. Darlington. 
Tins distinguished man died at Westchester, Pa., on 
the 93d of April at the ripe old age of 81. He was a rep- 
resentative of that class of old school gentlemen of 
whom we unfortunately have too few left, bringing the 
attainments of the profound scholar into an active life 
anil participation with passing events. He was among 
our oldest botanists; about 40 years ago, he published 
the Flora of Chester County, which passed through sev- 
eral editions, each one keeping pace with the progress of 
the science, and it is still a standard work. Dr. Darling- 
ton was untiring in his efforts to arouse agriculturists to 
a sense of the dignity of their calling, and to inspire them 
with a love for the sciences connected with it. This is 
9hown in his numerous addresses before Agricultural and 
Horticultural Societies, and in his Agricultural Botany, 
which, in its revised form, is now popularly known as 
American Weeds and Useful Plants. The interesting 
Pitcher Plant of California (Darlingtonia Californica), 
will keep his name fresh among scientific men, and his 
many useful labors will commemorate him in the com- 
munity in which he lived. Though a Scholar, Patriot, 
and Statesman, he was at the same time, from his genial 
sympathy with those around him, a lovable old man. 
Gray's Manual of Botany— (Fourth 
Edition).— Ivison, Phinney & Co., N. Y. When the first 
edition of this work appeared, it at onee became the 
standard authority upon the flora of the Northern States, 
and it has through subsequent editions confirmed its title 
to that position. The works of Doct. Gray have the rare 
merit of being in a clear and popular style without depart- 
ing from scientific accuracy. An intelligent person who 
carefully reads Gray's First Lessons in Botany, will have 
a clearer idea of the structure of plants than can be ob- 
tained from any other work in the language. The vol- 
ume before us contains these First LeSsons, a section on 
Garden Botany, and the Manual proper, which gives de- 
scriptions of the native and introduced plants growing 
North of Virginia, and East of the Mississippi, and in- 
cludes the discoveries made since the last edition. An 
important addition has been made to the present edition 
of eight beautiful plates, illustrating the genera of Grass- 
es. The study of these interesting plants, which is gen- 
erally considered difficult, will be greatly facilitated by 
the help of these accurate delineations. The Lessons 
and Manual are sold separately, or bound in one volume, 
and will be found in our book list. 
Prices of Books.- The cost of printing 
paper has remained nearly stationary for a month past, 
and the prices of hooks have not varied materially as will 
be noticed in the list on page 186. Until the paper market 
becomes settled, the publication of sundry books will 
cease as the editions previously on hand becomes ex- 
hausted, and prices of others will be advanced. There 
is no prospect of any decrease until long after the war is 
over, and it will be expedient to secure early, any book 
likely to be wanted. The prices in our list are good only 
for the month In which they are published. We do not 
keep a " bonk store," but usually have on hand or pro- 
cure as needed, books relating to the Farm, Garden, and 
Household, for the convenience of our subscribers, and 
mail them post-paid at the usual retail price, though this 
affords but small profit — sometimes none at all. 
Investing: Money — S^ast Ulontli of 
tlic Five-Twenties.— We referred last month (page 
133) to the value, etc., of the U. S. Six per cent Bonds, 
called *' five-twenty " because they are payable in 20 
years, but the government reserves the right to pay them 
after 5 years. If this reservation were not made they 
would command a large premium. The same kind of 
Bonds not payable until 1681, are now selling at $108, or 
8 per cent, premium. The reason of this is, that foreign- 
ers and others, prefer a loan having a long time to run. 
A good farm mortgage of 20 years will sell for more than 
one of 5 years. We think these 5-20 Bonds are the best 
sure investment now in the market. It will be noticed 
fh:ut the privilege of taking these bonds at par expires With 
the present month. For further particulars, see last 
month's notice, and especially the full advertisement on 
p, 186,of tlie Government Agents, Messrs. Fisk & Hatch, 
who are careful, accommodating, and reliable Bankers. 
Those having funds in Savings Banks will do well to 
note llie closing paragraph of their advertisement. 
I^or the ISaiulMii'tt' Show — Free 
FrelgUt. -The lout steamer for Hamburg, by which ar- 
ticles can leave in lime Cor the Great International Show, 
will sail from New-York, June 13th we believe. It may 
not he generally known thai the Legislature of New-York 
appropriated $1000 to be devoted to paying freight on ar- 
ticles manufactured in Ibis Stale. This was placed under 
the direction of the Slate Agricultural Society, and the 
-)fncera have decided to pay the .expenses from the point 
of shipment to Hamburg, including freight to New-York, 
and transferment in the city. This places parties in all 
sections of the Slate upon a par. The articles are to be 
forwarded to the care of Austin Baldwin & Co., 72 Broad- 
way, N. Y. Only the $1000 can be so expended, which 
will be applied to the articles in their order of entry. For 
further particulars address Messrs. Austin Baldwin& Co. 
Farm Help Wanted— and Coming. 
A letter from Illinois says : " So many have gone and 
are going to the war from the patriotic West — we mean 
to open the Mississippi at least, if all have to go— that we 
can not get help to plant the extra acre you advise in the 
American Agriculturist, and if planted, we are not sure 
of help to cultivate it, or to gather the harvest. Can you 
not send us men from your over-crowded cities at the 
East ? They can here get plenty of work at good wages, 
and abundant cheap food for themselves and families." 
Reply.— The East is patriotic too, as the records of the 
War Department will show. For months past we have 
seen no men worlh anything who have gone begging for 
work. Common laborers readily get $1 to $1.50 per day 
(without board,) which, deducting board and stormy days, 
is equivalent to $13 to $18 per month. We should hardly 
know where to look for a dozen men to send to the West. 
But the demand far farm help is in a fair way to be at 
least partially supplied, within the next two or three 
months. Never before has there been such an influx of 
able-bodied men from Europe — from Germany, and es- 
pecially from Ireland. So great is the emigration from 
the latter country, that the British Government recently 
addressed a note to the American Minister, intimating 
that our Government must be using special influences to 
attract them away to our armies. Mr. Adams replied 
that no official influence had been used, but naively in- 
timated that it was not surprising (hat so many were leav- 
ing oppression and want, and flying to a country where 
there is abundant cheap food and well-remunerated em- 
ployment. We learn that this emigration is only limited 
by want of ship-room and the means of paying passage 
hither. The shipping facilities are being rapidly in- 
creased. We suggest that the German and Irish resi- 
dents of this country be encouraged to send for their 
friends. They can still get here before the close of the 
harvest season, if they come by steamer. Let them un- 
derstand that foreigners coming to this country will not 
be subject to the draft, unless they voluntarily take upon 
themselves the duties and privileges of citizenship ; while 
their coming now will be a benefit to the country as well 
as to themselves. A man in Ireland, or elsewhere in Eu- 
rope, with a dependant family, and with no prospect there 
but poverty and want, can by coming here earn enough 
the present year to send for his family, and place them 
where with cheaper and more abundant fond he can not 
only support them, but lay aside something to build up 
for himself a home in the West ere long. 
The Homestead Law allows any one who may hereaf- 
ter become a citizen to choose a free farm from the pub- 
lic domain, where lie can settle in a home of his own. 
There was never a more favorable time for the teeming 
population of the Old World to come to the New. In- 
dustrious men of good habits will be welcomed by farm- 
ers, at almost every point throughout the Northern States. 
Let these facts be properly set before the foreign popula- 
tion in our midst. A few dollars loaned to a servant girl, 
to be added to her savings, may often enable her to send 
for a father, or brother, or relative, whom she is now help- 
ing to support in poverty on the other side of the Atlantic. 
No doubt many farmers would find this a good way to 
secure additional help for harvest and Autumn work. 
— . mm ^ — *-* 
Tlie Crop Prospects.— The result of the 
returns being gathered at the Agricultural Bureau, on the 
state of the growing crops, will not be ready before the 
publication of our next issue. From all we can glean 
from our correspondence and from exchanges, up to this 
dale the general prospects of the crops are very good. 
There are some exceptions here and there, but these are 
confined to limited localities. The winter grain proved 
to be less injured by the open weather than we feared it 
would be. The late opening of Spring kept back the 
crops, and it retarded spring work so much that fanners 
are now greatly driven, but the May weather is hastening 
forward the growth of all crops in the ground. The fruit 
trees have bloomed very freely, and if no untimely frost 
occurs, the fruit crop will be very large. After two suc- 
cessive years of fine crops of almost all kinds we could 
hardly hope for a third one, yet that is the present prom- 
ise. The result will depend upon the weather between 
now and harvest time. The only unfavorable thing for 
our country, is the apparently prosperous condition of the 
crops on the other side of the Atlantic, If this continue 
until harvest, it will largely diminish the foreign demand 
upon us, and perhaps depress the market prices here. 
Are the Implements Ready ?— A Scarcity 
of them Probable. 
The present short supply and the high price of labor, 
may in part be remedied by securing more or better labor- 
saving implements. Two men with a mowing machine, 
horse-rake, and horse-pitchfork, will gather as much hay 
as eight or ten men using only the scythe, hand-rake, and 
common pitchfork. The same is true in regard to the 
reaping machine, the horse cultivator, etc. The more 
rapid gathering of a crop, at just the right time is a strong 
reason for using these implements. As we have often 
urged in the American Agriculturist, a man with a first- 
rate plow, hoe, ax, etc., will do nearly double the work 
in a week that can be performed by another man using 
poorer implements, while the extra cost of Hie former will 
often be less than the price of a single day's work. — An- 
other suggestion. Those who intend to get new or im- 
proved implements this summer, should look out for Ihem 
at once. Owing to the uncertainty in business matters, 
manufacturers generally did not provide their usual stock, 
while it is very probable that the demand will be great*! 
than ever before. Indeed, the dealers in implements and 
seeds tell us that their business is already far exceeding 
any thing in past years. It will not do this year to put 
off the buying of a mowing or reaping machine, fnr ex- 
ample, until the week it is wanted, or there may not be 
one to be bad at any price. Better have the orders in at 
once, that the manufacturer may prepare to fill them. 
Our advertising columns will indicate some of the present 
sources of supply. A note to the different ticklers and 
manufacturers will obtain the terms etc., when not fully 
given in the advertisements. No lime should be lost now. 
About Advertisements— Explanation. 
Numerous letters from subscribers seem lo render an 
explanation necessary. The advertising pages, which 
are usually not supposed lo be edited at all, are the most 
difficult labor assumed by the Editors of the Agrind- 
turist. The reception of advertisements is alio ted to one 
of them, who is instructed by the Publisher to exclude all 
unreliable men, or those believed lo be so; ;»)1 unknown 
parties who cannot give satisfactory references ; all 
humbugs, secret remedies, patent medicines, etc.. — in 
short, everything likely to deceive the leaders. In these 
times, this is a hard rule to lire up to. We are really 
giving back to our readers all their subscription money, 
and even a part of our advertising receipts, in the paper 
which wc furnish them. It is also difficult for us to com- 
pete with other journals, almost all of which — not ex- 
cepting the religions Press — admit to their advertising 
columns, things which the publishers would not have 
read aloud in their family circles. These semi-obscene 
advertisements, as well as those of humbugs, are of the 
most profitable kind ; for those who make but a small re- 
tarn to their customers can best afford lo advertise largely* 
and those who make their living out of Hie morbid cu- 
riosity of the youth of both sexes pay well for the 
privilege of bringing themselves to notice. We are some- 
limes offered $2 or $3 a line to insert such advertisements 
in the Agriculturist, — We still continue to follow the rule 
mentioned above, but would state, in answer to several 
letters, that we do not specifically endorse whatever ap- 
pears in our advertising pages. Take, for instance, the 
manufactured manures, superphosphates, phosphatic 
guanos, etc. We do not buy or use many of these, and 
do not advise others to do so, — yet as many persons have 
a degree of confidence in these compounds, wo allow re- 
sponsible parties to advertise them. Again, with regard 
to new fruits, tree cotlon, and recently-introduced plants 
generally, these may be desirable, or of doubtful utility, 
or even worthless. When we believe the parties are 
offering them for experiment in good faith, we admit the 
advertisements for the benefit of those who can afford to 
try them. Well-known public journals advertise with us. 
and these are of widely differing character. We ol 
course do not endorse the politics or the specific re- 
ligious views of any particular paper that uses our 
columns to make itself more widely known, if published 
by responsible parties. Excluding all whom we know to 
be dishonest or unreliable, we allow our advertisers to 
present their wares to the readers of the Agriculturist, 
presuming that they will exercise their own judgment 
upon them. Our advertising columns are well worth 
perusing; they keep the intelligent reader posted as to 
the recent improvements in agricultural Implements,, 
new plants, seeds, etc., and other matters of interest. 
We strongly repeat our standing request that (hose 
who order of or write to our advertisers, will let them 
know where their business cards were seen. It will 
please the advertisers, ami be a material aid lo our busi- 
ness department, as it is the success of this part of our 
paper that enables us to supply it at so low a rate. 
