1809] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
EDY3 & <&X&M> (BDILITMHSo 
A Happy Wew Tear. 
Many thousand kindly greetings have already reachod 
us from the readers of these columns, while renewing 
their subscriptions for 1S69. We here return them with 
compound interest, and tender to all the boys and girls, 
old and young, heartfelt wishes for their prosperity and 
happiness during the new year now commenced. It 
warms the hearts of the editors to look out in imagina- 
tion upon the tens of thousands of faces that meet them 
with a smile as their monthly visits are made. Some of 
them are long-tried friends, who write that they have 
taken the Agriculturist the whole twenty-seven years dur- 
ing which it has been published, and that they have liked 
it all the time. Such testimony as this encourages us to 
continue to work faithfully in trying to interest and in- 
struct. We do not make promises to excite your hopes 
and please our vanity, but address ourselves at once to 
performing what we can find to do for our mutual im- 
provement. We cordially share the pleasure of the for- 
tunate ones who are rejoicing in their holiday gifts, 
which speak of the affection and prosperity of their 
friends. But it will please us most to bring a smile to 
the face of some poor boy or girl, left to neglect, and per- 
haps suffering by the indifference, thoughtlessness, or 
avarice of others. Cheer up, little one. This is God's 
world, made for you, as much as for the richest and 
proudest man you know. Sunlight, air, health, strong 
muscles, opportunities to work, to grow stronger and 
belter, and to make the world better, are all yours. 
Work and Wait! Take that for your motto, and your 
good time will come. All last summer, the bees worked 
through the sweltering heat, and now they are enjoying 
their feast ; trees and plants worked to store up nourish- 
ment for future use; now they are stripped bare and 
stand desolate in the wintry storms, but they are only 
waiting; spring buds, summer blossoms, and autumn 
fruit- 1 , will remind you that winter cannot last forever. 
And you who need no such comforting assurances, who 
have never known the hardships of friendlessness and 
poverty, do your part to lighten the load and brighten the 
lite of the less favored. Let your motto be Help and En- 
joy! Thus all may realize a Happy New Year I 
Premium Roys at the Fair. 
, The Ohio State Fair was a great exhibition. More use- 
ful and curious articles were gathered there than one 
could examine in several days. There were throngs of 
visitors, old and young, and it was as entertaining to 
watch them, as to look at the things brought on purpose 
to be shown. There were premium men and women, 
girls and boys there, although no prizes had been offered 
fur such. Two of this class interested us more than any 
thing else we saw at the fair. They were boys about 
twelve years old, and were busy examining a long line of 
fodder cutters. Most of those present merely looked at 
these implements, and could have told that such things 
were on exhibition. But these boys went from one to 
another, and carefully looked into the working of each. 
One had too much machinery to suit them; another 
worked too slow ; another was too hard to turn ; each 
was criticised, commended, or condemned, as it seemed 
to them to have good or weak points. The sparkle of 
their knowing looking eyes, the healthy glow of their 
cheeks, and more than all, their intelligent conversation, 
marked them as 1st premium boys. We have little doubt 
that they are active members of the great Agriculturist 
family, and fee! sure they will become thriving farmers. 
The l,obster at Home. 
A writer in a foreign paper thus pleasantly refers to the 
habits of this peculiar shell-fish : 
" A lobster is a particular fellow in his food. I have 
been watching one in my marine aquarium. If a portion 
of food be thrown to him, he immediately sets his long 
horns at work to ascertain the whereabouts of his din- 
ner. If he does not like it, he at once pushes it away 
from him with the attitude of an epicure, who bids the 
waiter take away a plate of meat he does not fancy. If 
the food is agreeable to him, he munches it up, moving 
his jaws in a peculiar way, like a weaver making a 
blanket. He tears his food into large pieces, leaving the 
actual grinding to be done by the very peculiar internal 
teeth which are found in the lining of the stomach. 
When the lobster goes out for a walk, and is not in a 
particular hurry, he carries his great claws in front of 
him, well away from the ground. He walks upon the 
little legs which are underneath his body, while he keeps 
his horns moving in front of his nose, like the blind man 
tapping the ground with his stick as he plods along, led 
by his dog ; hence I conclude the lobster is short-sighted. 
If the least thing alarms him, he scuttles backward on 
his little legs, which move with the rapidity of a centi- 
pede. If he does not go fast enough in this way, he sud- 
denly snaps his tail toward him, like a man suddenly 
closing his hand, and flies backward with a jerk, like an 
india-rubber band snapped in half. He always goes into 
his cave tail foremost, and he takc3 the most wonder- 
fully good shots at the entrance. I really think the lob- 
ster must have an eye in his tail somewhere. Our pet 
lobster is not willing that the secret of his toilet should 
be exposed to vulgar gaze, go the first night he was in 
the tank he artfully collected cockle and oyster-shells, 
and made a trench around himself, after the fashion of 
the Romans when they took possession of a hill-top. 
A branch of sea-weed forms a canopy over his head, and 
there he isat this minute, in a house of his ownmaking. ,, 
Agricultural Advice. — Punch advises farmers to 
sow their P's, keep their U's warm, hive their B's, shoot 
their J's, feed their N's, look after the potSos I*s, and 
we might add, they should O's every opportunity to 
improve, and then take their E's after work is over. 
A Powerful Whistle. 
Horace Mann used to tell a story of a conversation he 
once had with an inmate of the lunatic asylum at Wor- 
cester, Mass., whose peculiar mania resulted from an in- 
ordinate development of the bump of self-esteem. 
"What's the news? nas anything unusual happened of 
late, sir?" inquired he, with a consequential air. Mr. M. 
happening to recollect that a furious storm had occurred 
a few days previous, gave him some account of it, men- 
tioning that, on the sea-coast it was very severe, several 
vessels having been driven ashore and wrecked, with the 
loss of many lives. "Can you remember, sir, what night 
iu the week all that happened?" eagerly inquired the 
listener. Mr. Mann said he believed it was the night of 
Tuesday. " Ah !" said the lunatic, with an air of solem- 
nity, mingled with triumph, and lowering his voice to a 
whisper, "I can account for it, sir! That is the night I 
whistled so. I must be more careful in the future I" 
A man living in the activities of the nineteenth cen- 
tury may properly be called a condensed Methusaleh. 
Youug; Punster. — A friend recently heard 
two boys wishing aloud for what they saw over the fence 
in a neighboring yard. " I'd like to have that hen," said 
one little fellow. " I'd take that dog," said the other. 
"That would be first-rate," replied the first speaker. 
'* My hen could lay eggs, and your dog could lay down!" 
New Puzzles to l>e Answerrd, 
No. 335. Illustrated Rebus. — A desirable accomplishment. 
No. 33G. Mathematical Problem.— \ certain number di- 
vided by 10 leaves 9 for a remainder; divide by 9 and 8 
remains ; divide by S and 7 is left, and so on ; dividing by 
each of the nine digits, the remainder in each case will 
be one less than the divisor; if the number be divided 
by 11 there will be no remainder. What is it ? 
Answers to Problems and Puzzles. 
The following are answers to the puzzles, etc., in the 
Dccembernuraber, page 459 No. 332. Illustrated Rebus. 
—Aching teeth are ill tenants. (A king 1 1 hare rill X ants.) 
No. 333. Illustrated Rebus.— No one too wise to learn. 
{Xol'Hyy's stool urn). The following have sent incor- 
rect answers to puzzles previously published. Salina E. 
Sanborn, Frank L. Whitcomb, O. O. Brown, Isaac T. 
McLain, John Milton Snyder, James Polk Harmony, 
Wetumka, Mosheim Weills, John Lehdes, E. Leonard, 
Mantis Heighton, Emma Waterman, Jackson Brown, A. 
E. Lewis, Nellie C, O. R. Goodale, "Crescent and Star," 
W. Wettit, John E. Holmes, Mrs. Rebecca Rickel, Robert 
Simpson, Eva Gray, Frank L.Smith, Hattie E. Hawley, 
S. F. Higley, Mira A. Lick, Thomas Wellings. 
No. 334. A Puzzle for Fishermen. — The first picture shows the bait, whicli is to be cut into pieces, as shown 
>y the lines. Then by fishing with them in the pond shown in the second engraving, you may catch a fine 
pickerel. It will require skillful angling to accomplish it. Instead of cutting the piedes out of the paper, which 
would spoil u number, lay a thiu piece of white paper upon the engraving, trace the outlines, and cut them up for bait. 
