1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
4<£9 
1874. 
1874. 
FOR THE NEW YEAR ! 
New and Popular Features 
GREAT IMPROVEMENTS ! 
Better* tliari Ever ! 
HEARTH and HOME 
For 1874. 
The Publishers have great pleasure in announc- 
ing that their arrangements for the coming year 
are such as to warrant them in promising the read- 
ers of Hearth and Home such attractions as can 
not fail to render it the very 
BEST FAMILY PAPER IS THE ¥0SLD. 
Among the attractions for the New Tear will be 
a regular succession of the 
CHOICEST STORIES, 
written expressly for this paper by the ablest 
American and foreign writers. 
Hearth and Home Stories 
will be distinguished for their purity of tone, their 
elevating influence, and the entire absence of any- 
thing that could in the least degree olleiul a cul- 
tivated moral or literary taste. Their constant 
aim will be to interest, to instruct, and to elevate, 
so that no one can read them without bring the 
better for it. While they will be so full of interest 
as to enchain the reader's attention from first to 
last, they will be entirely free from whatever could 
pander to a depraved and vitiated taste. Their 
influence will be always on the side of the pure, 
the good, the beautiful. 
EDITORIALS. 
Hearth aud Home will discuss every week 
such questions of living interest as may at the 
time seem to demand attention. Tl ese questions 
— whether moral, social, or political — will be in- 
variably treated from an independent stand-point, 
unbiased by partisan or sectarian influences. 
TOPICS OF THE TIMES. 
Under this general heading we will present dur- 
ing the year a most interesting and valuable series- 
of papers from some of the ablest thinkers and 
writers of the country upon questions of 
Political Economy, Finance, Literatche, Re- 
ligion, Science, Art, etc., etc. 
These papers will be distinguished by clearness, 
conciseness, perfect candor, and independence, 
and we take pleasure in commending them in ad- 
vance as a new and most valuable feature of the 
paper for the coming year. 
Answers to Correspondents. 
This is another new and most interesting feature. 
In it will be included answers to questions from 
our readers on any subject upon which they may 
desire to be informed. It will be a very cyclopedia 
of valuable information, will be accurate and reli- 
able, and will embrace a fund of knowledge not 
otherwise obtainable without careful and laborious 
research. We are sure our readers will be de- 
lighted with this new department. 
THE HOUSEHOLD. 
This has long been a popular department of 
Hearth asd Home, and it will be better than ever 
the coming year. It will be crowded every week 
with practical information upon subjects of inter- 
est to every housekeeper, young or old, and its 
constant aim will be to make more bright and 
cheerful and happy every hearth and home to 
which it may come. 
For the Young People. 
We are preparing a rich store of good things — 
the very best that can be fouud anywhere. Their 
bill of fare will embrace a large number of the most 
intensely interesting 
STORIES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS 
ever published in any paper or magazine. These 
stories, specially written for this di partment of 
Hearth and Home, cannot fail to be read with 
profit and delight by boys and girls of every age 
from four to four score. Besides, we shall present 
in this department lively sketches, bits of fun and 
frolic, beautiful poems, interesting and instructive 
puzzles, muddles, charades, etc., etc. Then there 
will be a Question Corner specially for our young 
friends, in which they will find from week to W3ek 
answers to questions on any subject upon which 
they may desire information. This is another new 
feature, and we know it will be one of great inter- 
est and value to our readers young and old. In 
short, it is onr determination to make this depart- 
ment of Hearth and Home superior to anything 
of the kind ever offered to young people. And we 
are confident they will appreciate our efforts iu 
their behalf. 
Literary and Miscellaneous. 
We shall give regular weekly notices of new 
books, telling our readers plainly and frankly just 
what a book is, whether good, bad, or indifferent. 
Our announcements of forthcoming books also 
will be of interest to all book readers. 
Then in all other departments of literature we 
shall give the very best that can be obtained, some 
of the Illustrations giving place to the most inter- 
i ; Stories, etc. ; and our aim will be to present 
each week so rich a variety of good things as to 
place LTeakth a>-d H021B above all competitors 
us a Literary and Family Paper. Subscription 
price only $3 a year. 
A BEAUTIFUL 0HE0M0 
is given to yearly subscribers, as advertised on the 
last cover page of this paper. 
OUR SPECIAL PREMIUMS! 
TWENTY FARMS 
TO BE GIVEN AWAY! 
SECURE A GOOD HOME, 
AlvD 
SECURE IT NOW! 
The Best Chance Ever Offered 
FOR 
Men and. Women, 
Boys anci Grivls 
TO 
Secure G-ood Homes ! 
Read llir Particulars on Page 
•471 of this Paper. 
Dairymen's Association of Fiexr 
York.— T he third annual convention of the New York 
State Dairymen's Association, will bo held at Sinclair- 
ville, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., ou the 10th and 11th of toil 
month. Various papers ou practical matters connected 
with dairying will be read, and discussions thereon will 
follow the rending. The conventions already held have 
been made very Interesting, and the valuable information 
which has been elicited by the discussions amongst 
noted dairymen, has been a gratifying feature. The ad- 
mission to the meetings is S3 cents for each, and the sum 
of $1 constitutes the contributor a member, and entitles 
him to a seat in the convention, the use of the Board of 
Trade rooms on market days, and various other privi- 
leges. A dairyman can hardly afford to deny himself the 
opportunities here presented to him. 
Vermont Dairymen's Association. 
The fifth winter meeting of tins associaliou will be held 
at Esses Junction, Vt., on the 21st, 22d, and 23d days of 
January, 1S74. This association is composed of practi- 
cal men, and hitherto its meetings have been of the most 
interesting character. "We understand that all are in- 
vited, not only to attend, but to communicate any valu- 
able information upon dairy matters they may be pos- 
sessed of. There will also bo an exhibition oi dairy 
products and implements. 
Sales of ILaracl. — The Union Pacific Rail- 
road sold during the month of September 20,281 acres of 
land at an average price of .$'5.27 per acre. The total 
sales by this company to October 1st, 1873, are 790,748 
acres at an average price of $ l.r.O per acre. 
Ogdea Farm Papers.— No. 46. 
While in England a short time ago I found 
that much attention was being given to a sub- 
ject that should be of interest to more than one 
class of the readers of the Agriculturist — that 
is, the liability of milk to act as a means for 
conveying contagious diseases, especially ty- 
phoid fever. Numerous cases have recently 
been investigated in London and elsewhere 
whitl have clearly established the alarming 
fact that, however carefully guarded may be 
the sanitary arrangements of ourown dwellings, 
we are all of us liable if we use milk from care- 
lessly managed dairies to suffer the effects of 
typhoid contagion. The cases in point have 
been so numerous, that in the present discussion 
of the question the evil effect is undisputed, 
and the sanitary authorities universally advise 
the boiling «f nil purchased milk (a boiling heat 
destroying the germ of fever). The following 
recently reported case will serve to show the 
extent to which the contagion may spread from 
a single dairy. 
A Mr. Jcssop, occupying a dairy farm in 
England, died (of heart disease) while recover- 
ing from typhoid fever, and his young son was 
ill with the same disease. Sufficient reason for 
the infection was easily found in the soakage 
of the contents of the privy vault, through the 
soil, into a well about 18 yards distant. Be- 
tween the privy and the well was the dairy, 
which received its supply of water from the 
latter. For some time previous to the investi- 
gation the water was so bad that it was not 
used for drinking, but it was used for cooking, 
for washing, and for cleansing and cooling the 
milk cans. To follow all the details in such a 
case would be difficult if not impossible. It 
can not be asserted that Mr. Jessop contracted 
the fever from using the impure water of the 
well, which is most likely. It is possible that 
typhoid germs contained in his excrement, by 
following the ooze into the well, first caused 
the infection of the water. But however it 
ma}' have originated, the infection went from 
the well to the milk cans, and poisoned the 
whole supply of milk to such a degree that the 
