368 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
The Publisliers' Special Xotice 
To AH Subscribers. 
This paper fills out the subscription of a large num- 
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time beyond this dale, and many thousands have recent- 
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j^5r day, or a week, except when clubs are making "©ft 
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Never Before have we dared, or been aijle, to 
promise so much for a future volume, as we can now 
promise for the Agriculturist for 1666 — the 2ot.U volume. 
We mean to make this Quarter-Century Volume one 
untqualed in value. Our advertising patronage is now 
so large that we are able to pay for the best help, the best 
information, the best engravings, etc., that can be ob- 
tained in the country. We expect to expend about $1000 
for every number of the paper on the reading matter alone, 
before it goes to the printers' hands— in collecting, sifting, 
condensing, and preparing information, engravings, etc. 
The editorial force already engaged will equal in ability 
and number that of half a dozen or more other good 
journals. Elsewhere we announce a valuable addition to 
our editorial force. The business is all systematized, and 
two heads instead of one will be employed in overseeing 
it, leaving the long-time Editor and Publisher much more 
leisure than in the past five years to devote to the editorial 
columns. Every subscriber will actually receive back 
what costs as much as his subscription money, that is, we 
shall expend in preparing and issuing the paper all the 
money received for subscriptions. We know the next 
volume will be an exceedingly valuable and interesting 
one, and we invite all our present readers not only to 
renew their subscriptions now, but also to make known 
its character and prospects to their friends and neighbors, 
and invite tliem to become readers. 
Respectfully, ORANGE JUDD & CO. 
Save tlie Index — Stitclt tlic I^itni- 
bers.— Every copy of this month's paper contains a 
loose, four-page sheet, which gives a Title Pag-e to the 
Volume, and a full Table of the Contents. We put in this 
extra sheet at a large expense (at present cost of paper), 
to save trenching upon the reading pages, which are 
thus left as full as ever. It is inserted unstitched, so as 
to be conveniently removed, and place<l at the beginning 
of the volume, in binding or stitching, and should be 
carefully preserved, or it may get lost. Those u ho do 
not bind the volumes, piay preserve the numbers In 
a convenient form for reference, by laying them to. 
getlier in order, and after making a hole through the 
backs with an awl, or any sharp point, fasten them with 
strong thread, put through several times. Pieces of paste- 
board, or of any thick paper, may be used for a cover, if 
desired. A few moments work will fix up a valuable 
volume for reference, and prevent the loose numbers 
from being lost, or being used by Biddy for " kindlings.' ' 
{^=•566 Publishers' other Notices on page 364. 
Xlseful Books.— Since wriiing tlie above, we 
concluded to insert with the index a list of some of our 
good books, to which we invite attention. Farmers can 
not read too much about tlieir business. If a book 
furnishes a single hint that saves an animal, that in- 
creases the product of a whole field by only a bushel or 
two per acre, that saves ten dollars in building, or other- 
wise, of course it is a good investment, and tt;erR are fpw 
books that will not do so much. Besides, it adds to one's 
satisfaction, and lightens his toil, if by reading he ac- 
quires more information, and a larger store of thoughts. 
He thus sees more in the rocks, the stones, the soil, and 
the plants he works among. Let the young people see 
and read books and papers on the business of the farm, 
and they will esteem it higher, and be more contented 
at home. Gifts for the Holidays may well be selected 
from these books. 
Tw^o Excellent Annuals.— We arc hap- 
py to announce in press, and to be published this month, 
two very valuable Annuals, both of which are worthy of 
a place in the hands of every cultivator in the country, 
viz: The Register of Rural Affairs.hy John J. Thomas, 
Associate Editor of the Country Gentleman, and the 
Rural ^;mwa/, by Joseph Harris, hitherto Editor of the 
Genesee Farmer, but henceforth on the American A gri- 
caJturisty (as noticed on page S64). The two works are 
entirely different, and are both filled with excellent prac- 
tical matter. Editions of each are issued at X^^g Ia gricul- 
turist Of^CG. Rural Register, 30 cents ; tlural Annual, 
25 cents. Sent by mail post-paid at the same prices. 
•-i — ia>w *~^ 
The Agriculturist Strawberry, 
In sending out many tens of thousands of a new plant to 
as many different people, it was to be expected that some 
would he disappointed, either through their own want 
of skill, or from eaufies ontitcly UeyouU Xtit control of 
any one. As some would never succeed with any 
kind of a plant, their failures are not surprising, but 
there are instances in which the plants sent out failed 
this year to inultipiy, and these deserve notice. We 
have for some time kept a file of all the favorable and 
unfavorable reports concerning the strawberry, and are 
glad to know that it has generally done so well. The 
following is selected as a specimen of the complaints : 
"My strawberry plant was received about the middle of 
May, and it has grown to a large plant, covering nearly 
the space of a half bushel, but no runners have appear- 
ed." And of course the writer wishes to know what is 
the matter. Strawberries make two kinds of branches, 
short branches arising erect from the main stock, and 
long slender ones which lie upon the ground. In the 
first case the plant forms " stools,'' and in the second, 
'"runners." Plants do not generally do both largely, and to 
induce them to stool, we clip off the runners. The 
"Agriculturist" has a remarkable tendency to form 
large stools, and though it usually makes abundant run- 
ners, there seems to have been some peculiarity about 
the past season which directed its energies, in many pla- 
ces, to multiplying its upright rather than its running 
branches — to stool rather than to run. We ascrilie this 
to season rather than to soil, for the reason that plants 
on the same ground where they ran abundantly last 
year, have done nothing but stool. We know of no help 
in these cases but good culture and patience. That they 
are the exceptions, and not the general rule even this 
season, we are convinced. We give now some instances 
in which the plant has multiplied abundantly; Mr. E. 
W.Clark called to say that he had one plant last fall, 
which produced 426 young ones, and in running covered 
a bed 4 feet by 22 feei, almost entirely. Mr. G. Herbert, 
a strawberry grower of Peekskill, N. Y., says : " I con- 
sider it the most vigorous plant I ever saw." H. G. Sa- 
bin, Milwaukie, Wis., put out two plants last spring, 
and on Sept. 1 1th he writes : " they have now increased 
to 132, and before winter I think I shall have double the 
number," Mr. G. L. Brunton, Centralia, 111., set out 
one plant Mav 1st, and Sept. lOth had HO young plants. 
Mr. Wm. Parry, of Cinnaminson, N. J., well known as 
a gentleman of large experience in fruit culture, writes 
as follows : "The first plant we had was rather dry and 
unpromising when it ai'rived, nnd in order to promote a 
rapid growth, it was treated to a double dose of guano, 
\\liich QO(npleted the wprk, and the plant failed to make 
a start. Another lot of 300 were obtained in bad order, 
many of tliem having but little, if any, vitalily when set 
out ; less than one-third of them survived, but those that 
lived are now making a fine growth and spreading well 
on heavy loam land. Another lot of 500 v\ere received 
from Mr. Carpenter in good order, and planted on 
light sandy soil, four feet apart, in rows six fi^et from 
eacli other, allowing 24 square feet for each plant. The 
whole surface is now liteialy covered, so as to make it 
difficult to walk among them without treading on the 
plants. It far surpasses in vigorous growth any other 
strawberry we have similarly treated, except its parent, 
the Green Prolific. It promises to be well ad;i|ited to 
our light sandy land, where most of the large fruited va- 
lieties, such as Triomplie de Gand and others, proved 
worthless H. Johnson, Windham Co., Conn., reports 
250 plants from one plant received and set in open gi ound, 
Sept. 3d, 1864 Last spring 37 berries set on the original 
plant- Tif oiown (Nov. 0), Started uew flow ers and fruit, 
one berry as large as a walnut Others report similar 
results, and we have received from different persons a 
number of specimens of autumnal fruit, the result doubt- 
les of the warm, dry season. 
History of a Loaf of Bread, (page 376.) 
We have the gratification of presenting to our readers 
the final pictuie of the series which we have named the 
" Pictorial history of a loaf of bread." Such a picture is 
the product of the combined talent and skill of artist, en- 
graver, and printer, each of whom owes to the others, we 
may say, everything of success. The artist, Mr. Gran- 
ville Perkins, faithfully studied his theme in all its de- 
tails, conceived the beautiful scene which he makes the 
centre piece, placed it upon the boxwood block, sur- 
rounding it by the frame work of appropriate vignettes, 
which illustrates the eventful history. He has mannged 
his lights and shades so as not only to bring out the gen- 
eral features of the scene, but to impress every one \\ ith 
the cheerful warmth of the sun-shine, the coolness of 
the shadowy recesses of the brook, and the babbling, 
dancing lightness of the liberated waters, which have 
done their work and are free to play. This is what is 
colled "feeling" in a picture; it is a leflex of the soul of 
the artist, and is by no means a purely mechanical art. 
The engraver takes the block, and he must catch the 
feeling of the artist; he must know the style of engrav- 
ing which the paper will bear, how to produce his effects 
with such lines as win print well, and witli the very Con- 
siderable rapidity necessary for us. Had he failed to 
catch the feeling, though he might have taken great pains, 
and placed his own nnme, as he has done on the cut. Mr. 
Perkins would very wisely have insisted that the initials 
"G. P." should be taken off. Finally, the printer has to 
study every picture, to see which parts are intended to 
print heavy, and which light, and by what is called over- 
laying, so to regulate the pressure that more or less ink 
will be taken up by the different parts, that the lines shall 
not be hard and black, nor faint and imperfect, and so 
that the drawing, delicate shatiing, and the pervading 
feeling shall be preserved and placed upon the paper. 
In the October picture we left the corn thieshed and in 
bags. If a grist is sent to mill direct from t!ie farm, the 
good housewife may soon be kneading and moulding her 
white loaves from the new wheat; but the bread which 
most people eat lakes a longer course. There is an im- 
mense inland commerce which exists in a great measure 
solely to convey the western wheat to eastern markets. 
This is shown in the upper right-hand corner; while in 
the opposite corner, the great foreign commerce in bread- 
stuffs is indicated, where the floating transfer Elevator is 
taking the cargo of a canal hoat and placing it on board 
the ship at the wharf. All the various Iransferrences, 
storages, cleansings, kiln-dryings, etc., are managed by 
thousands of merchants, who employ millions of capital, 
and for their convenience, in the great cities, they asso- 
ciate themselves in so called produce exchange boards. 
In New York, they meet dally in the fine building on 
Whitehall-st., known as the Produce Exchange, repre- 
sented on the right side of the page. Heie transactions 
amotinting to millions of dollars in a single day are made, 
the corn (wheat, barley, oats and Indian corn), flour, etc., 
being sold by sample. On the opposite side of the pic- 
ture, we see some of the great flour and grain stores, 
and below this, we look in upon the two floois of a city 
bakery. The point which is of especial interest to the 
printer, (who may be at the extreme end of this chain (d 
events, the farmei' being at the other,) is quaintly indica- 
ted by the youthful Franklin in Philarlelphia. trudging 
along with his two loaves, taking his first breakfast in 
the Quaker City. Our artist appropriately crowns his 
picture with a group of fancy and stibi^tantial 501 is of 
bread, twists, rolls, bretzels, hard-bread, cake. etc.. be- 
sides the queenly, frosted and ornamenled bride's rake. 
The picture in all its details furnishes a pleasing and 
instrqctive subjeqt to study. 
