46 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[FKBTfUAKT, 
quite a list of swindles practised npon himself and neigh- 
bors. Had he read the Agriculturist for past years, he 
would have seen all those humbugs lie Bpeaks of, and 
many hundreds of others, shown up in their true colors. 
His account could be repeated in almost every neighbor- 
hood in the entire oountry where this journal has not 
been read for years past by a sufficient number of per- 
sons to act as centers of information to the community 
generally H. H., of Baltimore Co., Md., and a good 
many others, are " definitely" informed that not only the 
*' Spanish Policy " a 699 Broadway affair, but every other 
case is a positive swindle, where parties profess that a 
" $200 " watch or any other prize has been drawn which 
can be had by the paymont of 5 or 10 percent on the valu- 
ation. There have been very many operations of this 
kind, mainly by parties claiming to be "receivers" for 
some exploded gift enterprise. We have had many $5 
and $10 bills sent us to pay such assessments, which have 
of course been returned. Multitudes have caught at the 
plausible bait ; their money has lie ver been heard of after- 
wards. In some instances operators have sent a cheap 
pinchbeck or gilded or silvered watch, costing $2 or $3 
to get up. instead of the " $100," or " $165," or " $200 " 
watch, said to have been drawn. The professed " Spanish 
Polity' is an outrageous swindle Most of the. 
professed "agents" of " Havana lotteries," now oper- 
ating in this country, are swindlers, using counterfeit 
tickets ; nothing is ever heard of the money sent to 
them ; and the cases are so rare where one gets any thing 
from the genuine tickets, that none but very ignorant 
people or lunatics, will ever invest a dollarin them 
The Pocket Time-keeper for $1 is an absolute fraud— no 
better than n chip of wood with a string tied to it. The 
seller may well say "it can never go wrong," for the 
reason that it never goes at all. Rocks may just as well 
be said to be " never out of time "— " never too fast nor 
too slow." The seller gives his business place as 
"Broadway, N. Y." Said street is some six or seven 
miles lone, and has over 1,500 numbered buildings, 
with five to fifty rooms in each ; so the defrauded one 
would have a long search to find this man. And, by the 
way, the reader may always consider any man a 
swindler who fails to give his street number in any city 
or village large enough to have the buildings numbered. 
But the giving of the number is no certain indication of 
reliability. A private dodge is to give a picture of some 
large buildirg, with the operator's name on the front. 
You go there and hunt through 30 or 40 rooms without 
finding the name you are looking for ; or if found, it is in 
small letters on a door, which is kept closed except to 
the letter-carrier or some green dupe, whose character is 
studied through a small invisible aperture before the 
door is opened. Perhaps more frequently a boy or clerk 
is found, while the chief operator is behind a screen, and 
the said clerk answers that the Proprietor is or is not in, 
according to a secret signal from the hidden boss, who 
judges from his retreat whether or not he has a goose to 
be picked Never buy professedly cheap jewelry, of 
any kind, except from a well-known, skilful, and reliable 
dealer, or upon his judgment. These cheap diamonds, 
"equalling in brilliancy real diamonds," are poor glass af- 
fairs, worth nothing except to make the wearer appear 
ridiculous in the eyes of people who know any thing of 
genuine articles. Many thousands of glass things, cost- 
ing a few cents to make, fitted into a galvanized setting, 
are sold at $5 to $10 each, and represented to the buyer 
as " equal to diamonds valued at $100 to $600. " Axl this 
cheap jewelry business is sheer humbug, as every one 
will find who touches it, " C.O.D." or otherwise 
An Old Subscriber in Cuyahoga Co., O., writes us to 
caution the farmers of that State against the operations 
of a so-called Cleveland Roofing Company. He says they 
go into a place, select their man, offer to put on his roof 
free, as an advertisement, get his signature to an order 
for the material, and then use this in concocting a forged 
note, which is sold to confederates, after which, threats 
of law are used to frighten farmers into paying black- 
mail. We know nothing further than is gleaned from 
the letter before ns, but it will be well for farmers to look 
out for any such swindles. We remember in old times 
of having a new patent fanning mill left for a few days 
as a sample to be seen by the neighbors— rather against 
the protest of the farmer. The next thing was a bill for 
it of $30, and then a suit— but the result was, they paid 
$6 storage aud took their mill away Once again, we 
earnestly caution our readers against heeding the circu- 
lars or letters of any advertising- Doctor, or his medi- 
cines. Listen to no advertising eye or ear or lumr 
doctor. But our space is full, and we must leave over, to 
the next paper, several humbugs now in hand. 
Burning Corn-Stalk*.— "R. T. P.," 
who has a river-bottom farm in Ohio, writes : " I do not 
cut up my com fodder, but in the spring I hitch a horse 
to each end of a railroad iron rail, and drag down the 
corn fodder and plow it under. In cultivating the land 
afterwards this fodder is sometimes pulled up. What 
benefit are the stalks to the soil when turned under, and 
would it be considered wasteful if they were raked up 
into piles and burned?"— With us, we should consider 
the stalks worth from $2 to $3 per ton for manure. On 
rich, bottom land, abounding in organic matter, they 
may be of little value ; and in such a case, if they can bo 
burned with little labor, we should not regard the prac- 
tice as altogether reprehensible. 
Another Good Advertising Me- 
dium.— The circulation of Hearth and Home has been 
increased more than twenty percent since its publication 
from this office, while its advertising rates remain (for 
the present) the same as formerly. The same rule as to 
character of advertisements is observed as in the Ameri- 
can Agriculturist. It is read by a buying doss, and at the 
rates charged (40 cents per line), is one of the cheapest 
mediums in the country. 
House and. Barn from Designs in 
the Agriculturist.— Mr. Ales. Kinmout, Defiance 
Co., Ohio, in renewing his subscription to the American 
Agriculturist ', writes : " I have taken it for several years, 
and find it a very valuable paper. I have followed hints 
from it in building my barn and house, and am well 
pleased with the result. The barn is a bank barn on the 
level with bridge. It Is very satisfactory. My house is 
a one-story house, from plans in the American Agricul- 
tural for January, 1867. It is all I cau desire for ease and 
comfort." 
How to <*et Itid of Rats and 
Itlice.— A gentleman of large experience, and fully as 
humane as most of us, says he gets rid of rats by patting; 
jtotash in their holes and runs. The poor wretches gel it 
on their feet, and over their fur, then they lick it, and 
don't like the taste of it; it burns them somewhat, and 
the more they see of it, the less they like it; so they 
clear out almost as soon as the application is made. To 
get rid of mice, the same person uses tartar-emetic, min- 
gled with any favorite food ; they take it, take sick, and 
take their leave. 
Preserving - Egg*. — This subject has been 
so thoroughly discussed at different times in our pages, 
that many persons must have made careful trials, and be 
able to report their success or failure in the use of differ- 
ent recipes. It is much easier to preserve eggs in au- 
tumn, to keep until February, than to preserve spring 
and summer eggs to last through moulting time. 
Unloading' Potatoes ov Corn— A 
Good Idea.— R. W. Twitchell, of Kent, Ohio, writes: 
"In unloading corn in the ear or potatoes, when you 
wish to shovel them out of the wagon box, it is general- 
ly a vexatious job to pick out two or three bushels by 
hand before there is room to begin to shovel. Now, by 
taking a rather wide board, about three feet long, and 
placing one end on the bottom aud the other on the end- 
board, you have a chance to begin shoveling at once. 
The board should he somewhat wider than the shovel, 
and of course must be put in before loading. 
** What is the Best Sub-oil Plow?" 
—We cannot tell. There are several patterns that onswer 
a good purpose. Let us hear from those who have used 
them, especially in regard to ease of draft and effective- 
ness of work, as well as those adapted to light work on 
sandy subsoils, and those suited to heavy clay subsoils, 
with more or less Btones to strike against. 
Scours in Sucking Pigrs.— "Farmer" 
writes from Goldsboro, N. C. : "I frequently lose young 
pigs by scours before they are old enough to eat. Can 
you not give your readers a simple and efficient remedy?" 
It would be guesswork to prescribe without a knowledge 
of the cause. This probably lies in the food of the sow, 
but very likely in the treatment of both dam and farrow. 
Is the sty warm, dry, and well littered ? and does the 
sow have, both before and after farrowing, wholesome, 
cooked food consisting largely of roots ? 
Cotton-Seed Meal.— "G. R. A., 1 ' of Bid- 
deford, Me.— This is used quite extensively in this sec- 
tion of the country for milch cows, and for nothing else. 
When used in connection with meal or shorts, it is con- 
siderad superior to all meal or any other grain feed. 
Use of Ashes with Bones, etc.— 
Wm. Eppinger, of Morgan Co., W. Va., asks : " Will it 
pay to buy bones at one cent per pound and ashes at 
twelve cents per bushel, to dissolve the bones with ?"— 
Ans. — $20 a ton is dear for bones ; they dissolve slowly 
in either manure or ashes, but the ashes will probably 
be worth 12c. per bushel. That is enough to offer for 
good hard-wood ashes, such as soap boilers would use. 
lfc Will the ashes e<*1 i he ammonia free V—Ans. — Yes, nn- | 
less the heap is carefully manipulated, and kept covered 
with a layer of earth or peat. " Is it good to mix ashes 
with hen manure, to be applied to eorn in the hill?" — 
Ans.— No; much better mix dried earth with it, and 
work it over thoroughly once or twice. 
Large Hen Esl ablishiuents.— G. L. 
Hurst, Chicago. We know of none successfully carried 
on where more than one or two hundred fowls are win- 
tered. There may be such. On Mr. Warren Lelaud's 
farm some thousands are kept, but these are eeattered, 
and have the range of twenty-ceres. There is no doubt 
about the profit in it, provided the stock remains healthy. 
Hiring Men by the Month-— Tbo 
same writer asks: " If a man employed by the month 
for a certain number of months lose time, can he he re- 
quired to make it up V — We think not. If he was hired 
for $26 per month, and either from sickness, or with the 
consent of the employer, lost three days* time, $3.00 
might be deducted from his wages, but he could not be 
compelled to work three days longer than the time he 
was hired for; neither could he, in such a case, compel 
the employer to let him ' L work out his lost time." This 
is not a legal opinion, but we think it is common sense, 
and the law is supposed to be based on Justice and com- 
mon sense. 
Plaster in Manure BHeaps, — A corre- 
spondent asks: "If plaster is put into a manure heap, 
and the manure is spread on the land next spring, will 
the plaster do ns much good as if put on separately, or 
does it lose its power by being put in the manure heap ?'' 
—If any portion of the plaster is converted into sulphate 
of ammonia, the ammonia will do more good than the 
plaster. And the plaster not acted upon, will not he in- 
jured. It is plaster still. 
Rabbits and Young Xrees.— 4< S.," 
Georgetown, Ohio, succeeds in keeping rabbits from in- 
juring his trees, by rubbing the trunks with hog's liver, 
as high up as the rabbits can reach. It seems that an- 
imal matter is repulsive to the rabbit. Many Western 
orchardists sprinkle their trees with blood. Some shoot 
a rabbit, split it open, and rub the tree with the raw flesh. 
fls fi>it<*1iisfl« Farm Work? — A corre- 
spondent writes: "If a farmer employs a man by the 
month to work on a farm, can he require him to ditch a 
part or all of the time as farm work?"— If he hired him 
simply to do farm work, and said nothing about requir- 
ing him to die ditches, it is somewhat doubtful whether 
he could compel him to ditch most or all of the time. 
The question would turn on the common custom. Dig- 
ging ditches is certainly ordinary farm work, but it would 
be unfair to keep a man at it all of the time. 
What Kind of Stock:?— Wm. Webb, 
Huntington Co., Ind., writes: "Our farms in tbie vicin- 
ity are on river bottoms, especially adapted to corn, grass 
or roots. What kind of stock should I raise to mak-' the 
most of a given amount of labor— whether horses, cattle, 
swine, or sheep V — Ans. : Grass, corn, and roots indicate 
clearly beef or mutton, or both We should say stock 
with cattle first at any rate, and feed for beef either rais- 
ing Shorthorn steers to turn off at 3 years old, or bnying 
stock to fatten up for market. After a while you can go 
into mutton sheep, raising both green fodder crops and 
roots for them, and increasing the size of the flock as 
they prove profitable. Of course long wools of some 
kind would be the class to select. 
Seed Corn for Soiiing Crops.- The 
result of our experiments last year with Soiling Com, in- 
dicates that what is known in the New-York trade as 
"Western mixed" (a small grained corn of mixed 
color), is the best. Sweet corn we found hard to buy, 
aud the variety we used had a very small growth of 
stalks. Probably the "Dexter'" and the "Stowell" 
would have done better, but we could not buy these for 
less than $8 per bushel. "Southern White/' which pro- 
duces on enormous growth of stalk and leaf, seems — at 
least when grown at the North— to be deficient in sugar 
and other nutritive matter. The "Western mix»d" 
grew to a very good size, about 7 or 8 feet high, and 
the rows, which were 3 feet apart, interlaced thickly 
at the top. In quality we could not perceive (judging 
from the condition of the stock and the produce of the 
dairy) that it was inferior to sweet corn. How much 
allowance is to be made for the very dry aud hot weather 
of last summer we cannot say, but while we shall exper- 
iment again this year with the Southern variety (sweet ia 
out of the question on account of the difficulty of getting 
seed), we shall plant nearly our whole crop with the 
Western, using 5 bushels of seed per acre, in 3-foot drills. 
