1878. J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
4,09 
oil. . It sometimes seems strange how frauds “ as old as 
the hills” to us, strike those to whom they are new. 
Ten or fifteen years ago the schemes for disposing of 
“ THE QUEER ” OB COUNTERFEIT MONET, 
were “ as plenty as blackberries:” indeed our humbug 
articles of those days were largely occupied by them. We 
have so often shown up the fraud that it seems like gal¬ 
vanizing a corpse to allude to it at this day after so long ago 
having explained the whole matter in the fullest detail. 
In brief, there is no law to prevent one from offering to 
supply counterfeit money. These shrewd chaps know 
that only those willing to be rascals will treat with them. 
They are too wide-awake to have any counterfeit money 
at all—not a dollar. Their whole object is to get hold of 
the good money of foolish knaves by promises, and give 
nothing in return, knowing that their victims dare not 
“squeal.” as they will expose their own rascality. The 
style of correspondence in this line has changed, and as 
the present form is so unlike the old style, we give here 
A SPECIMEN LETTER. 
My dear Sir. I wish to secure the services of a reliable 
person in your county to push the sale of a certain class 
of goods which I manufacture. I guarantee 100 per cent 
profit and over according to the amount of capital in¬ 
vested. The goods are used by every one and the busi¬ 
ness is strictly confidential as it, is the same as all other 
large-paying enterprises it is not exactly legitimate, pos¬ 
sibly you can guess its'nature? Should you be willing 
to engage let me know as soon as possible and I will 
send you full particulars. I am yours in confidence 
New York Citt N. Y. J. B. W.. Bowery 
This business is only for those open for most anything 
there is money in. 
It is an old story revamped. We have often exposed 
if, and could not but. be amused at the honest indignat ion 
of a gentleman in Delaware at receiving a proposal like 
the above, and at the earnestness with which he pro¬ 
posed to ns to have the Mayor set a “ detective ” on the 
track.This mention of detective reminds us of 
THE “SECRET SERVICE” HUMBUG. 
We have already warned our readers against having 
anything to do with the so-called “Secret Service” con¬ 
cerns wherever they may hail from. We are reminded to 
repeat this warning by the receiptof aletter, which says : 
“it has been reported to ns” that we have mentioned 
this company as “ illegitimate,” and done and left un¬ 
done various matters. As we find next to no signature 
to the letter, merely “ Sec’y,” we hardly take it as proof 
of the “legitamacy” of anything. We do not care 
whether any particular “Secret Service Company” is 
better or worse than any other, we shall warn our readers 
against having anything to do with any one of them. In 
the present condition of society, “detectives” are some¬ 
times necessary evils, as are scavengers and hang-men, 
but we do not mean, if we can help it, that the ranks of 
executioners, or the scavengers of material filth, or the 
scavengers of social filth—the detectives—shall be recruit¬ 
ed from among farmers’ sons. There are enough persons 
mentally and morally so constituted as to fit them to be 
detectives; such will naturally find their occupation. 
We do not approve of the scheme, and shall try in all 
proper ways to prevent our readers from being tempted 
by the promise of gain, from becoming living lies. A de¬ 
tective is only successful ns he appears to be that which 
he is not. He gains the friedshipcf a man—rogue it may 
be, but still a man—only to betray him. Whether it is 
morally right for the law to employ such agents, we will 
not discuss, but we are quite sure that they should be 
employed only by the law, and that no “ Company ” has 
any business with them. If this “ Sec’y” can, for money, 
buy the services of persons mean enough to go into the 
spy business—so utterly lost to all proper feeling as to 
engage in the business of man-trapping—we shall en¬ 
deavor that his detectives shall not come from the readers 
of the American Agriculturist. It only needs that the 
mean, sneaking character of your dirty business shall be 
known, for every honest young farmer to reject your 
offers—imperative subscription to your paper (price $2) 
included.—By the way, Mr. “ Sec’y,” what a high old de¬ 
tective shop you must keep 1—The only way your crew 
of spies and sneaks can succeed is through secrecy—yet 
you go and publish in your paper their portraits with 
their names 1! We only wish we had space to reproduce 
your “portraits.”—No one would ever join such a bad 
looking crew ! Did you not make a mistake and repro¬ 
duce these pictures from the “Rogues’ Gallery ?”—Wood 
engraving can not have reached a high development in 
your town, or you must have some remarkable people in 
your employ (paper $2 per annum). One man has one 
of his eyes staring like a peeled onion, while the other 
looks like a cranberry. What nonsense it all is, is shown 
up in capital style by the "Buffalo Express,” for they 
have or had—it is now shut up—a “ Secret Service ” shop 
in Buffalo also. The article is appropriately headed. 
“ HUNDREDS OF FOOLS,” 
and gives the whole thing a first rate exposure. The 
“Express” is rather severe though on the foolish chaps 
who have applied for employment on this “ Secret Ser¬ 
vice,” in giving their letters with names and dates. One 
poor fellow refers to his neighbors, “ they never noing 
me to reviel a secrit yet to enny pursson ; ” another says : 
“ i think i would Bee qualified to fill the place, i never was 
noan to tell a secret in mi life.” This “ International 
Secret Service Company ” consisted of just one man- 
one Hopkins—and when Hopkins was arrested and put 
in jail as a fraud, they had the whole " Company.”—“ In¬ 
ternational ” Hopkins was unlike some other companies, 
as he asked $3 for his paper. He had at the bottom of his 
letter sheets “ All Communications Strictly Confidential ” 
—which is a good thing to have—ain’t it now, Mr. Sec’y ? 
MEDICAL HUMBUGS. 
seem, as the market reports say, to have an “ upward 
tendency,” and we have several very interesting ones, 
hut as our space is limited, we take the briefest pam¬ 
phlet, that of one “ Magnetic cure,” a name not indicat¬ 
ing originality, by one Heath. It is of only 16 pages, 
each of the size of a small letter envelope, 8 pages being 
devoted to the business of getting agents, and the others 
to “A Chapter of My Own Life,” etc. We have seen a 
great many quack medicine stories, but never one quite 
so stupid as this—Heath is evidently a green hand. He 
“ was born with a good constitution,” but as he fails to 
tell the street and number, we may doubt whether he 
was bom at all ? Heath grew up, became a doctor, had 
fever and ague, had it bad, and “ at last guided as I 
firmly believe, by the hand of Providence, I 
OBTAINED A COMBINATION, 
which, when tested on my own person, at once brought 
relief.” Was there ever anything more prosaic? No 
Indian squaw, no picking up the recipe on the sea shore 
enclosed in a bottle, no old woman, no nothing. “ The 
effect is like Magnetism” his wife remarked one day, 
and it was called the “ Magnetic cure.” And “Agents 
are wanted in every town in the U. S.” It is a very dull 
pamphlet, lut its peculiarity consists in its pictures. 
We have as a frontispiece a female standing on nothing 
in particular, scattering flowers. Then we have a cut 
Of the plant that furnishes black pepper, for the sake of 
variety probably, placed sidewise instead of upright, 
then lastly we have a very dark view of a landscape 
labeled, “ Where the Cerasin grows.” The funny thing 
about it all is, that there is no reference to the pictures 
in the pamphlet. As “Cerasin ” is the name of “ Cherry- 
tree gum,” we cannot see why we should have a picture 
of the place where it grows in a fever and ague pam¬ 
phlet, which wo only notice as being quite the most 
stupid of anything in this line of literature, that has 
fallen under our notice—and that is saying a good deal. 
Til© New York Horticultural Society 
held its Autumn Exhibition, beginning Wednesday, 
Sept. 25th, and continuing for the rest of the week. As 
a whole, the show was the best the Society has yet held, 
and while choice plants were its strong feature, the fruit 
was more abundant and finer than on any former occa¬ 
sion. The only draw-back was in the horrors called 
floral designs, some of which were so distressing as to be 
“ Horticultural Absurdities,” and are referred to in an 
article elsewhere with that title. We have seen no re¬ 
port of the prizes ; the competition in some classes was 
very close.and it would be interesting to know the awards. 
The collections that most interested us, were those of 
wild flowers, made by the sons of Doct. F. M. Hexamer, 
of New Castle, Westchester Co., N. Y., who appear to in¬ 
herit the tastes of their father. This Society has yet to 
learn the value of printer's ink. Its exhibitions are not 
properly announced, and are not sufficiently advertised; 
the daily papers give them but little attention, and 
after the prizes are awarded, no report of them appears— 
so far as we are aware. It should be recollected, that 
those who send fruits, flowers, etc., from a distance, do 
it in part for the publicity it gives their establishments. 
As now managed, it is too much like a close corporation. 
Horse-Shoe Nails. 
One of the most prominent of all causes of lameness 
in horses is the slivering of poorly made nails, a por¬ 
tion of which pierces the sensitive part of the foot. Fig¬ 
ure 1 illustrates how this may occur, even without the 
knowledge of the shoer, as part of the nail follows its 
proper course, and is clinched on the outside of the hoof, 
as if it were the whole nail. Even if the splinter has so 
pricked the horse, as to convince the shoer of the fact, 
and he attempts to draw the nail, it will often break off 
and leave a piece in the foot, to remain a festering canso 
of lameness, it maybe for life. In figure 2 is represented 
a nail which has splintered in the foot, and broken when 
being drawn out It is said that this nail was made from 
cold rolled iron, and slivered when being driven by a 
shoer in Providence, R. I. C represents the part which 
was clinched on the outer surface of the hoof; A that 
which was driven through the soft lamina lining the 
hoof, and into the coffin bone, where it was broken off. 
Lockjaw followed, and resulted in the loss of a $1,000 
horse. There was less difficulty of this kind in the days 
when blacksmiths made their own nails from the best 
Norwayiron ; butof late years, since machine-made nails, 
costing but a fractional part as much, have come into 
use, lameness from this cause has been frequent and 
Fig. 1.— SPLINTER PIERCING THE COFFIN BONE. 
expensive. To make a horse-shoe nail by machinery, 
which would be equal in texture to the hand-made nails, 
and could be sold at a low price, has been the effort of 
the Putnam Nail Company of Boston, Mass. After years 
of experimenting, they perfected machinery which, es¬ 
sentially, is a series of small hammers that, in operation, 
pound upon a rod of hot iron, turning out a finished, 
pointed nail, in every respect equal to any made by hand. 
It is well known that iron shaped by machinery, when 
cold, readily splinters, as may be shown by twisting a 
piece of wire; and it is now claimed, because ordinary 
Fig. 2.— KILLED A $1,000 HORSE. 
machine-made horse-shoe nails are cut and pressed out of 
cold iron, that they splinter from that cause ; while those 
hammered out of iron at a welding heat, do not so splin¬ 
ter, and hence are superior to any others. The “ Putnam 
hot-forged and hammer-pointed horse-shoe nails ” are 
recommended by many of the most prominent horsemen 
and farriers in the country, who corroborate the state¬ 
ment of the manufacturers that these nails do not sliver 
in driving, and that they combine strength, toughness, 
firmness, and freedom from flaws to a remarkable degree. 
Some Rifle Shooting Notes. 
A large number of queries about guns, rifle shooting, 
etc., have accumulated on our table. The following will 
answer two score or more of them :—[I.] The new long- 
range bullet weighs 550 grains, the same as its predeces¬ 
sors, and only differs in length and point. Fig. 1 is the 
exact size and 
form of the old¬ 
er one (diame¬ 
ter 44 / 100 ths of 
an inch, and 
length 1^-inch). 
Fig. 2 is the 
Dew one (diam¬ 
eter 44 / 100 ths; 
length lVis- 
Tj,. 2 inch). The lat- 
‘ ter aleaves the 
air more readily, requires 3 or 4 minutes of a degree 
less elevation for 1,000 yards, and is a little less swayed 
by the wind on account of its greater velocity. The 
pointed bullet would have greater penetrating 
power, but less “ smashing ” effect in striking 
an animal than the blunted point ...[II.] Experts 
are using harder bullets than formerly. 1 part tin 
to 15 of lead was generally adopted, but most now use 1 
to 11... [III.] The “ best shots ” are those who regularly 
keep up a high score. Extraordinary scores may occur 
in anyone’s experience. Within two months after mak¬ 
ing the first shot at 1,000 yards, the writer put 18 out of 
20 successive shots into the bull’s-eye and the two other 
close to it, and this in a wind which required aiming 7X 
feet to the left, a steady wind, however; but we would 
not like to guarantee being able to repeat that score, 
once in every ten or twenty trials. Mr. Selph, of New 
Orleans, acquired much reputation for a great score or 
two, but the writer easily excelled his score when shooting 
with him on the same target. Prof. Dwight madea noted 
score at Pittsburg, but fell much behind at Creedmoor. 
Mr. Partello, of Washington, has made the highest score 
yet, viz., 44 bull’s-eyes out of 45 shots, at 800, 900, and 
1,000 yards. He will be cheerfully awarded the cham¬ 
pionship by all riflemen when he repeats the 
score, or makes three or four more scores anywhere 
