1878.] 
AMERICAN AG-RIOLIX/rURIST. 
4:7 
Albout the Microscope. 
Sundry Notes. 
I. —Disappointment.— An occasional note of dis¬ 
appointment comes from some one who has not got 
into the way of using his Microscope, so as to under¬ 
stand and appreciate its real value. To such we will 
say that it is all and more than we have promised for 
it, or about it, and we hope they will persevere in learn¬ 
ing how to use it until it becomes, what it ought to be, 
and can be, to all, a most valuable, most interesting, and 
most useful instrument. We know it may be made to 
every person, worth ten-fold the entire cost of both 
the Microscope and this Journal for a year, and in this 
we are confirmed by the united testimony of many scien¬ 
tific men and others, who have had long experience with 
microscopes of various grades.—To help the uninitiated, 
we first sent out a six-page description of its use. After 
the first few thousand, we added another slip with more 
minute simple directions (partly printed in Jan. No., 
page 9). Now we send with each Microscope a combina¬ 
tion of both sheets and other additions, in a 14-column 
sheet. Let any one still failing to make good use of the 
Microscope, send for this 14-column sheet, if he has not 
received either this or the first two. See page 66. 
II. —Delay iu Sending Them. — Despite 
the constant pressing of the work at the manufac¬ 
tory, and the employment of all the careful help we 
can make room for, in dispatching the instruments, 
the care and labor required to send them accurately, 
with the multitudes of directions to pick out of sub¬ 
scriber’s letters ordering them (often quite obscure and 
uncertain in specific directions), we have been from two to 
six days behind in filling several of the orders. Though 
we shall now keep pretty close up to daily orders, we ask 
our readers to always allow us a leeway of say 8 or 10 days 
from the reception of their letters to dispatch the instru¬ 
ments. Usually it will be but three or four days. The 
names and subscriptions must first be entered in the 
alphabetical mail books, next the paper mailed, and 
then the forwarders have to consult the express and 
other routes, pack them, enter them in two books, one 
for the express office, and take the receipts for them, 
etc., and this too, with calls for 800 to 1,500 a day. 
III. —Who fan Have Tiiem.— Every sub¬ 
scriber to the American Agriculturist for 1878 can have 
one of the Microscopes delivered free to him,in any part of 
the United States or Canadas, on payment of 55 cents, or 
40 cents if it be taken at the office, 245 Broadway. This 
is a good deal below the actual cost to us, but that we 
calculated upon at the start, though the expense and 
work is considerably more than we at first expected. 
IV. —Through News Agencies. —Those who 
take their paper through News Dealers, can have the 
Microscope just the same as subscribers on our own 
books, if their news dealers will assure us that they have 
paid him for (he paper through the year. Wo can not 
afford to supply it to those who take only an occasional 
number, or part of the Volume. In setting the price be¬ 
low the cost, it was based on a whole year’s subscription. 
V. -The Price to Non-Subscribers is invari¬ 
ably §1.65, if delivered, or$1.50if taken nttho office. Sev¬ 
eral who have larger microscopes, and have received one 
each as subscribers, have bought others at $1.50 to be used 
by their children, by classes of pupils, etc., and call them 
very cheap. Such sales help out on the general expense. 
VI. —A Loose Microscope — Remedy. — 
“Paterfamilias ’’writes: “....My large family of sons 
and daughters constitute a ‘ Microscope Club ’ of them¬ 
selves, and keep the instrument in almost constant 
use. Continual wear has loosened the lens tube a little 
upon the upright, shaft. How shall I tighten it ? ”— 
Press the tube in a little at any place, by inserting the 
point of a pen-knife between it and the rubber. Or, more 
simply, slip into the tube a very small fibre of silk, or 
cotton, obtained by untwisting and picking to pieces a 
bit of thread. The finest whole thread will be too large. 
Draw the fiber through the tube, and insert the upright. 
VII. —A General Educator of the People. 
— A distinguished scientific gentleman, iu a private 
note, says: “_Your Microscope is the finest thing 
in the. way of a newspaper premium enterprise that I 
have over seen. Ir. will prove a general educator of the 
people , inciting them to observe and study the wonder¬ 
ful world of small natural objects everywhere around 
as, and lead them on to further investigation. It will 
thus not only awaken interest in an important way, 
but multitudes of cultivators will find it eminently useful 
in detecting causes of disease in plants and animals.” 
'-•».< q ri n »~C»- 
Cross of Slsortliorns uitd West 
Highland Cattle.— Mr. J. A’. Cochrane, the well 
known breeder of Hillhurst Canada, has recently experi¬ 
mented with a cross of West Highland heifers with 
Shorthorn bulls. The produce has been tested, and has 
been found very satisfactory. A steer 29 months and 10 
days old was recently slaughtered ; the live weight empty 
of food was 1,282 pounds, the dressed weight was 797 lbs. 
of beef; 73>£ lbs. of hide, and 67 lbs. of tallow; total, 
937jk pounds, or 73 lbs. to the 100 of live weight. While 
the weight is not equal to that of good specimens of the 
pure Shorthorn at that age, yet the small loss in dressing 
this half-bred proves it to he a very profitable cross. 
The steer was weaned at four months old, and since then 
was fed upon liny and turnips in the winter, and grass in 
the summer, until he was put up for stall feeding two 
months before lie was slaughtered. 
Progress of Settlement in Minne¬ 
sota.—The Sc. Paul Chamber of Commerce issue a card 
containing- statistics,prepared by the State Commissioner, 
by which is shown that the wheat crop for 1877 reached 
forty million bushels ; the total assessment for 1850 was 
$S06,473, and in 1S77 was $218,855,743; there are 3,600 
common schools, a school fund of 314 millions of dollars, 
and the population, which was 5,330 in 1850, is now 675,000. 
'Fite Messittn Fly.—“ J. A.,” Henderson, 
Ky. The pest of the wheat plant is now operating de¬ 
structively in many parts of the country. We hear of it 
in Michigan, Wisconsin, Canada, New York, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Kentucky, and localities be¬ 
tween. It is a small two-winged fly, which lays eggs upon 
the leaf of the wheat in August or September. These 
eggs hatch into small white grubs, which descend to the 
base of the stalk, and there suck the juices, causing the 
wheat to turn yellow, or to die. Soon after the grubs 
change to pupse, very similar in color and shape to a flax 
seed, and these remain until spring, when they change to 
the mature fly. The fly then deposits eggs in May, but the 
larvae is too late to do much injury to the wheat. The 
“ flax-seed ” condition is entered in June, and in July the 
second brood of flies appear. The remedies are burning 
the stubbles immediately after harvest, or plowing them 
under deeply so as to destroy the pupae which may he in 
hiding; to sow late in the Northern States, so that the 
flies may have laid their eggs before the wheat appears 
above ground ; rolling the young wheat, by which the 
eggs are crushed ; sowing salt, soot, or fine lime upon the 
young wheat, by which the maggots are killed, and gen¬ 
erally by good cultivation and fertilizing to stimulate the 
wheat so as to enable it to resist the damage. 
The Travis Wheat Hoe.—“ C. K. C.,” 
Oakland Co., Mich., sends the following statement of his 
experience:—I used a Travis wheat hoe on part of a 
field of winter wheat, early in May last. The field 
had already been harrowed, and clover seed sown on 
it. We hoed a strip through the field, leaving each side 
as it was. I have watched this strip closely during the 
summer. The ground on it was more soft and yielding, 
and the wheat had a ranker appearance. At harvesting 
we could see a plain difference. As we cut with the 
reaper directly across the strip, we could sec that the 
straw was brighter and stronger, and the heads plumper 
than on either side. Onr estimate was that it would yield 
twenty-five per cent more than the rest of the field. I 
believe it very important to give our wheat ground a 
thorough loosening in the spring, and if we ever equal 
the English farmers in producing wheat, we will have to 
resort to hoeing. The large yields of wheat of the last 
season demonstrates the fact that our soils will produce 
as large crops as theirs, if we give them a fair chance. I 
.am satisfied that the hidebound condition of our wheat 
fields in the spring of the year, requires a thorough 
loosening, and the common harrow does not do it deep 
enough. Timothy seed had been sown with the wheat in 
the fall, and the hoeing did not seem to injure it. 
Pipe IVn'tlie CoHveyamcc oi'Water. 
—“A. C.,” Carrol Co., Md. To convey water 1,000 feet 
with a fall of five feet only, the pipe should be 114 -inch in 
diameter the first 500 feet, and one inch for the re¬ 
mainder. If smaller, the outlet flow will he very small. 
Malt Comiis, or Sl» routs.—“ L. D.,” 
Lonsdale, R. I. The sample sent is malt combs, or the 
sprouts from malted barley and oats. This is from a 
mixed lot evidently, there beingoats, barley, cockle, and 
seeds of foxtail grass mixed with the sprouts. The malt 
has probably been made from a very inferior quality of 
grain having oats, cockle, and foxtail mixed with it. 
Malt combs, when clean, are a very nutritious food for 
milk cows, and are cheaper at one cent a pound than bran 
at one cent and a quarter. 
A Muas.se For S-’owis.— “W. R. M.,” 
Morris Co., N. J. To accommodate 150 to 200 fowls, it 
would be best to have two houses, or rather 0110 so 
divided in the middle as to make two with a door at each 
end. A very cheap and good house may he made of 
boards; 4 feet high at the back, 10 feet in front, 16 
feet wide, and 36 feet long. The roosts should be made 
at the rear, and in the form of a ladder, sloping hack 
from the floor to the roof. In the middle there may he a 
room for nest boxes. If the front, which should face the 
south, is of glass, it will be much improved. As large a 
yard as possible may be provided, and fenced with lath, 
so that the fowls may he kept in when desirable. The 
'materials for such a house need- not cost more than $20, 
and $12 additional for sash for the front. 
- — i ti — - 
Sundry Humbugs. 
The Editors, who do not, 
of necessity, know much 
about the business affairs of 
the paper, can judge fairly 
of the character of the sub¬ 
scriptions by the editorial 
correspondence. One of the 
straws which show that we 
are receiving many new sub¬ 
scribers, is the Humbug cor¬ 
respondence. If soon after 
the beginning of the year, 
we receive a large number 
of letters relating to hum¬ 
bugs that have been exposed 
long ago, we are quite sure 
that a great many persons 
make the acquaintance of 
the American Agriculhtrist 
for the first time, and grati¬ 
fied to learn of a quarter 
where their complaints will 
be listened to, we at once find our humbug budget rapid¬ 
ly increasing. It does not matter that the great majority 
of these complaints have been already noticed, they are 
new to those who send them, and we are glad to see them, 
as one of the indications that we are receiving new sub¬ 
scribers and making new friends. The old circulars of 
“ A DECISION AT LAST,” 
that variously worded story of a supplementary drawing, 
in which people get gold watches and lots of jewelry— 
by paying for them. We have heretofore mentioned 
“Russell & Co.,” and “ Iletherington & Co.,” as “eing 
mixed up in a way we could not understand. In all the 
cases, so far as we recollect, the “Decision at Last” cir¬ 
culars say that the “ Gold Watches” and “ Jewelry” are 
to be had by paying tiie assessment to “ Russell & Co.,” 
but many applicants would get letters from “Hethering- 
ton & Co.,” referring to the same business. Lately, there 
appears the firm of “ Clark & Co.,” who write to a cor¬ 
respondent; “We have been appointed by the Finance 
Committee, instead of Messrs. Russell & Co., to Ship the 
Goods, collect the Percentage money, and forward it to 
New Orleans.” Can it he that, like Othello’s, “Russell 
& Co.’s ” * 
“ occupation’s gone ? ” 
Those who have had no tickets in the “Consolidated 
Lotteries’’—and the great majority of those who receive 
circulars have none—need not care whether “Clark & 
Co.,” or “Iletherington & Co.,” are other names for 
“Russell & Co.,” or who is who, in the matter. Some 
persons—in the chance of getting for $15 (or any other 
sum) “ Gold Watches,” and lots of “Jewelry,” “valued 
at $150,” (or any other stint)—are willing to admit the 
statement of the circular, that “ the interest you held in 
one of the Lotteries represented by the Committee on 
Unclaimed Prizes, lias resulted in your drawing ” so and 
so. Now, every one knows whether, lie had or did not 
have an “ interest” in one of these lotteries. If lie had 
110 ticket or “interest” in any lottery whatever, every 
honest man knows that the circular does not mean aim , 
and there’s the end of it. If one is tempted to accept a 
statement (that he had an interest in some defunct lot¬ 
tery) which he knows is not true, and sends $15 (or any 
other sum) to get Watches or Jewelry valued at $150 (or 
other sum), and gets these—and afterwards finds that the 
articles are not worth the money he paid, he must go 
somewhere else for sympathy. He may be disappointed, 
hut as lie was willing to take advantage of a statement 
he knew was not true—the verdict of every honest man 
will he—“Served him right.” 
“THE ItOYAL DOMINION GIFT CONCERT” 
is new as to time, hut old as to wicked ways. Can there 
be any graduates from the “ Wyoming ” and “ Topeka ” 
swindles running the thing ? Though it exists underan 
“effete monarchy” it has all the airs and graces of a 
Gr-r-r-eat and Glor-r-rious Republic. Just as those 
“Wyoming” and “Topeka” chaps did, so does this 
“ U-r-r-oyal ” thing. It sends a private (lithographed) 
letter, to people in the States, informing them, if they 
will send $5, for a club of five tickets, their names are 
booked for a prize sure pop. They may find some 
Americans fool enough to play the part of “ stool 
