1873.' 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
125 
prices of au kinds have advanced. Quotations oj live 
hogs, 5'-c. © 53£c; city -dressed Western. H T d c @7 L 4 c. 
(or heavy to medium, and 7; a c © 7?^c. for light; 
Western dressed, 6 l / a c. @7c. 
3 
MONTHS. 
Three Months. 
There are yet three mouths remaining— April, -May, 
and June — during which any person who wishes to ob- 
tain one or more of the useful and valuable articles 
offered in our Premium List (of which a copy will be 
sent free to any applicant, see page 159) can easily get 
them. This has already been done by more than 14,000 
persons, who during years past have tried with success 
the raising of Clubs of Subscribers for our papers, and 
availed themselves of the liberal offers of Premiums 
made by the Publishers. 
Wc invite all our Subscribers to take hold of this 
work and secure a Premium while the offer is open. 
Specimen copies of both papers will be sent to any wish- 
ing to show them for this purpose. 
conUUntnrf a great variei '>j «" Kmix, Including many 
good lUnh and Suggestions which, ive throw into smaller 
type and condensed form, for want of space elsewhere. 
Remitting* 3Ioift<»y : — Oaeclt* on 
New York City Hanks or Bankers are best 
for large sums ; make payable to the order of Orange 
JTudd «.V «'©. ...Posl-Office Money Orders, 
for $50 or less, are cheap and safe also. When these are not 
obtainable, register letters, affixing stamps for post- 
age and registry ; put in the money and seal the letter in 
the presence of the postmaster, and take his receipt for it. 
Money sent in the above three methods is safe against loss. 
l*o»ta^e : On American Agriculturist, 3 cents 
a quarter, in advance ; on Hearth and Home, 5 cents per 
quarter. Double rates if not paid in advance at the 
office where the papers are received. For subscribers in 
British America, the postage must be sent to this office 
for prepayment here. Also 20 cents for delivery of 
Hearth and Home in New York City. 
Mound Copies of Volume Thirty* 
one are now ready. Price, $2, at our office ; or $2.50 
each, if sent by mail. Any of the last sixteen volumes 
(16 to 31 ) will also be forwarded at same price. Sets of 
numbers sent to our office will be neatly bound in our 
regular style, at 75 cents per vol. (50 cents extra, if return- 
ed by mail.) Missing numbers supplied at 12 cents each. 
CI ai 1>- can at any time be increased by remitting 
for each addition the price pad by the original members; 
or a small club may be increased to a larger one; thus: 
a person having sent 10 subscribers and $12, may after- 
ward send 10 more subscribers with only $8 ; making a 
club of 20 at $1 each ; and so of the other club rates. 
Delivery of" Cliromos. — We have de- 
livered all the Chromoe due to subscribers to the Ameii- 
can Agriculturist up to December 31st, 1S72. We shall 
continue the delivery with the utmost dispatch. 
To Inquirers. — The space devoted to the 
*• Basket" ie full, and yet a large share of the answers 
prepared is left out. We deeply regret it, as it is our 
desire and intention to treat all alike. It would help the 
matter much if every correspondent would write upon 
only one subject or on subjects of the same class. If 
pigs, poultry, manure, bees, fruit, flowers, and house- 
hold matters are all mixed in one letter, there is but 
little probability that we shall ever find time to disen- 
tangle them. We can not write treatises to order. When 
one requests us to tell him all about growing tobacco, or 
• an about 1 ' any other crop, it is asking rather too 
much. Those who send full post-office address stand a 
good chance to receive a reply by mail, in case one can 
not be made in the paper. We do not promise to do this 
always, but wo try to meet the wishes of our friends as 
far as possible. 
** Ijiiey Ivlaria," is a queer title for what 
we have no doubt will prove to be a queer story which 
begins this mouth in Hearth and Home. The publishers 
have engaged Mrs. A. M. Diaz— so widely known through 
her "William Henry Letters"— to write about "Lucy 
Maria,"' and wc have no doubt that it will be well worth 
reading. 
EL:ifl<* HCose Potatoes*— Last year wc 
mentioned the fact that unfortunately there were several 
varieties of potatoes in the market culled "Late Rose." 
Statements in other papers, as well as letters in our pos- 
session, accord with our own experience that the variety 
kuown as " Thorburn's Late Rose" has proved itself 
remarkably satisfactory, being very productive and of 
excellent quality. 
How to Commence Botany.— 1 ' W. C. 
G." A young man— or girl cither for that matter— can 
have no better introduction to the study of Botany than 
Gray's " First Lessons." The first principles as set forth 
in this should be thoroughly comprehended before the 
classification and naming of plants is undertaken. For Ibis 
work you will find " Gray's Manual " indispensable. We 
can send the two bound in oue volume, for $4. 
Mount Slope Nnr series. — Messrs. Ell- 
wanger & Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., send out with their 
spring catalogues some Interesting statistics in regard to 
their immense establishment. They have now in culti- 
vation as nursery 650 acres. In the busy season they 
employ about 250 men and 25 horses. The business is 
divided into several departments with a competent fore- 
man to each. An important feature in this establishment 
is the extensive specimen grounds where one or more 
examples of the different fruit and ornamental trees, 
shrubs, and herbaceous plants, may be seen in perfect 
cultivation. We know of no more interesting and in- 
structive place for a lover of trees and plants to visit 
than the grounds of this celebrated establishment. 
French Correspondence. — We have 
I already mentioned the desire of the Cercle Horticole 
I Lyonnais— the Horticultural Circle of Lyons, France— to 
I enter into friendly relations withour horticulturists. M. 
Jean Sislcy, a zealous amateur, writes that he is ready 
to reply to questions concerning new plants, where to 
obtain them, and to give any other information that may 
be in his power. M.S. is not a dealer, but a devoted hor- 
ticulturist who wishes to be useful in this respect. His 
address is M. Jean Sisley, Secretaire General du Cerclo 
Horticole Lyonnais, Rue St. Maurice Monplaisir, Lyon, 
France. 
Liberal Potato Premiums* — Messrs. 
B. K. Bliss & Sons offer ($503) five hundred dollars in 
premiums for the best results in the cultivation, during 
the coming season, of the "Early Vermont" and 
" Compton's Surprise." These varieties were figured 
by us last nionih. For circulars giving the conditions 
of award send To the firm above named. 
Soaper's Waste. — "T, B., n Morristown, 
N.J., is offered the refuse from the kettles of a soap factory, 
which purports to be bones, lime, and potash. He asks 
its value.— The bones are the most valuable part. After 
the boiling in the lye, they are easily crushed, and would 
be worth one cent a pound. The lime and potash left in 
the kettles are not of much value, if the soap has been 
made economically. As a material for composting with 
muck, this part of the refuse would be worth the cost of 
hauling, perhaps, but not much more. 
Xo Manage a Peat Swamp.— Isaac 
Lea, Sacramento, Cal., writes for the benefit of E. G. H., 
that if ho will set fire to his peat land when it is dry, he will 
have no trouble in raising the best of crops on it.— This 
is a quick and ready but a destructive way of managing 
peaty swamp land. Limo is the best application, and if 
applied heavily, say two hundred bushels to the acre, 
will make it fertile. 
Underground Poultry-House.— 
"E. J. D.," Edwards Co., III.— The greatest difficulty 
with cellar poultry-houses is that they are generally 
damp, ill-ventilated, and uncleanly. If these pernicious 
possibilities are prevented, there can be no objection to 
having part of the apartment below the surface of the 
ground. On the whole, we have found the light Brahmaa 
the most profitable and agreeable fowls on the farm. 
SU1DI.Y IMJ.MBUCJS. — The budget 
of humbug material, though bearing the tame general 
aspect, presents each month some features more promi. 
neutly thin others. Ordinarily dealers in *" the queer" 
have predominated, but this month these arc outdone by 
LOTTEKIfcS IN VAIUOt'S FOKMS. 
These are disguised under the various names of Prize 
Associations, Ticket Bales, Grand Gift Concerts, and 
some, more honest In this respect at least than others, ad- 
vertise themselves openly as lotteries. Do the readers of 
the Agriculturist need to be told what a tottery ie f It is 
under the ban of the law in most States, and among all 
right-thinking people it is classed with other species of 
gambling. Even where regnlnted by law, as It used to 
be, the lottery is a swindle, and every one who purchases 
a ticket virtually makes a bet that some one else will 
lose something. Perhaps the worst form of lottery is 
that in which the thing [a "sugar-coated," it being osten- 
sibly held in the interest of some charitable object. Here 
is an illustration iu the 
"MINERS' hospital and ukand gift concert, 
for the benefit of the Miners 1 Hospital Association, of 
Pennsylvania," at, Shenandoah, Schuylkill Co., Pa. The 
necessity for a hospital to treat those who suffer from ac- 
cidents in the mines, is set forth in terms of which wo 
admit the force. But the form and manner of establish- 
ing this hospital are in the highest degree objectionable. 
$100,000 are to be delivered in prizes, but we see no inti- 
mation as to the number of tickets to be sold, and strong 
inducements are offered to agents to sell tickets. The 
whole affair— should it happen to be honest as euch 
things go— is managed ill appearance just as bogus con- 
cerns are. All this expensive machinery for establishing 
a hospital is probably unnecessary, except that for one. 
who is to make money out "f it. Iu Wyoming Valley 
and at quite as much of a coal center as Shenandoah, a 
young surgeon a few days ago told us that he had only to 
suggest to the people the need of a hospital, and aid in 
all forms came to him so abundantly that he was over- 
whelmed with gifts of money and supplies. The object 
of this young man was to help needy miners and not to 
make money out of gift concerts. 
THE LOUISViLLi; LIliUARY LOTTERY 
has been before the public for some time, and two con- 
certs have taken place. According to the Louisville 
Commercial, the receipts from sale of tickets to the first 
concert were $350,000. After paying all expense. , 
u the expert who got up the concert and managed it di- 
vided with the Library Assuclation the remainder, the 
share of each being $22,700"I The receipts for the sec- 
ond concert were $750,000, and the managers and the 
Library divided $00,000 each. If these figures of the Com- 
mercial are correct, about nine dollars of the people's 
money were expended in getting one dollar into the treas- 
ury of the Library, and this where Governors and all 
sorts of dignitaries had a hand in the matter. This may 
be taken as a fair sample of all lotteries for charitable 
objects. "We have gone thus at length into this mailer 
as wc hope not to be called upon again, as we are nearly 
every week, to give an opinion as to this or that lottery 
or gift, concern, for whatever object The Omaha 
State Orphan Asylum " Enterprise " is getting desperate 
It guarantees two prizes iu every package of twenty 
tickets. What is tlte matter lu Omaha that a new bait is 
needed ? 
GIFT AND I'lilZE ASSOCIATIONS. 
What can be the trouble at 003 Broadway ? Only a 
short time ago it was the address for some twenty or 
thirty dealers in " the queer," but now it is out with a 
prospectus of the American Prize Association, where all 
sorts of nice things, from Rosewood Pianos to gold pens, 
are to be disposed of— Tickets only $1— and a " liberal 
discount made to those who buy to sell again— large favors 
gratefully received and smaller ones in proportion." If 
any one loses money by this or by the " Mercantile Prize 
Association" in Nassau st., they need not come whining 
to ns about it. 
S1LK.S GOING CHEAP. 
The troubles of David W. Eugle, of 4th avenue, are such 
as would move the stoniest heart. In short, he bought 
1,200 yards of silk of a man who stole it at the Boston 
fire. David expected to take the silk Westaud sell it, but 
alas 1 he was taken sick, and alas I alackaday t ho has 
been sick ever since. The good wife took the silk to a 
pawnbroker—" spouted it," in short, for $100. The bro- 
ther in Cuba sent him $100, but still he is sick, and can't 
go out to sell that silk. David in afraid to offer the silk 
in New York, but he will sell it to a man in Illinois for 
25c. a yard, provided said man in Illinois will only send 
him $10. There is ever so much more to this pathetic 
story, but that is the amount of it. It must be true, 
because David sends the man in Illinois the pawn- 
broker's ticket and a sample of the silk. 
O David! how could you lithograph such a touching 
