1881.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
To Be Noted. 
First. —All Slew subscribers for 1882 
(volume 41). now coming in are entered at 
once on the Mail Books, and receive free 
the numbers of this year, issued after 
their subscriptions arrive. This applies to 
all neiv subscribers, whether single or in 
clubs, or in Premium lists, and will help in 
collecting names for premiums immediately. 
Second. —The large lists of Excellent 
Premiums announced last month, are open 
to all persons, everywhere. There is no 
competition, no uncertainty as to what some 
unknown party is doing elsewhere to carry 
off a premium you are aiming for. There 
will be premium articles for all wishing 
them. Any one can therefore select the 
premium most desired, and gather the names 
required to secure it ; Or, gather all the 
names possible, and now, or at any time 
during six months, select premiums cor¬ 
responding to the number of names sent. 
Third. —The premiums will pay well 
for the little time and effort needed to secure 
them. Look over the list. If any one de¬ 
sires another copy of the Premium Sheet, 
for himself or friends, send for it, and it will 
be promptly mailed free. 
Fourth. — Run through the Premium 
Sheet again, and see how many excellent 
and most desirable things there are : 
See “67 per cent,” on this page. The Family 
Bible offered is a beautiful and valuable one. 
The New $25 Sewing Machine is just like, and 
every way equal to, one of the most popular 
ones that, until recently, sold very largely for 
$60 to $70. The Compound Microscope will 
be a treasure to any one, fully equal to those 
previously sold for several times the price; 
and, besides, this one has the interesting 
and useful Camera Lucida attached. The 
Watches offered are good, trustworthy time- 
keeepers. The Silver-Plated Ware is of veiy 
superior, durable character. But not to spec¬ 
ify further, there are scores of excellent 
articles, some of which are desired and 
needed by every one, as the List will show. 
B>elivered at Your Home, anywhere 
in the United States.—Attention is called to the 
fact that a very large number of the articles in 
the Premium List will be delivered post-paid to 
any point reached by the United States Mails. 
Idll.in.il PRESENTS will soon be 
in order. Most of our readers can readily secure 
some desirable Token for a friend, without cost, 
simply by sending forward an early list of sub¬ 
scribers, and selecting a corresponding article from 
our Premium List. — Those who can not do this, 
will find in the list a good assortment to purchase 
from.—Send forward in time to receive them, 
despite any accident or delay in transportation. 
Will It Pay ? 
Perhaps no other three short words, when 
placed together, have a wider and more im¬ 
portant application. Whatever any one 
proposes to undertake, in work, in business, 
or in any course of conduct, the prime ques¬ 
tion is, Will it Pay ? The pay is not confined 
by any means to mere money profit. Very 
many transactions that bring large pecuniary 
returns are, in fact, terribly losing ones. In 
legitimate works and enterprises, the ques¬ 
tion of their paying is to be considered in ad¬ 
vance, and a man’s ability to foresee and cal¬ 
culate all the circumstances that affect profit 
and loss, and to thus know whether to go 
ahead or refrain, largely decides his success 
or failure. This applies no less to farming 
and kindred labors than to business or com¬ 
mercial pursuits. As between the farmer, 
and the importer or jobber or manufacturer 
or merchant in specific lines of trade, the 
latter classes have but a few leading points 
to consider, such as the probable demand and 
supply, while the farmer must not only take 
these into account, but also all the variations 
of soil, adaptability of crops, vicissitudes of 
climate, weather, etc. Hence 
To be a successful farmer requires a wider 
range of knowledge, better reasoning—in 
short, better trained mental faculties than 
any of the other callings named above. 
This is literally true, and a popular fallacy 
to the contrary" is responsible for the limited 
success of the mass of farmers, and the low 
estimate of their calling, not only by others 
but by" themselves and by their sons and 
daughters. 
We are not arguing that every farmer 
should necessarily be highly educated men¬ 
tally, but we do claim that the more knowl¬ 
edge any farmer acquires, by reading about 
his business, by study and observation, and 
the more he trains and develops his thinking 
and reasoning faculties, the better will he 
forecast and plan for the future, and the 
more successful will he be. In this view of 
the subject, reading and study will pay the 
farmer even more largely than those in most 
other business pursuits. 
Every book or journal he reads brings him 
something of the thoughts, experiences, 
and observations of others. These are often 
of direct practical application to his own 
work; and if not, they at least increase his 
general knowledge, stimulate thought, and 
strengthen his ability to reason well, and in¬ 
directly, at least, pay" a hundredfold. 
The cultivators of the soil far outnumber 
those in any other pursuit, in this country. 
Is it not remarkable that, while there are 
many hundreds of publishing houses, some 
of great extent, and thousands of book 
stores, and about ten thousand periodical 
newspapers and magazines, yet a single pub¬ 
lishing house, and a score or so of journals, 
mostly of very limited circulation, are able 
to supply nearly all the reading about their 
478 
own pursuits, yet desired or called for by 
the great class engaged in soil culture. 
Sixty-seven Per Cent—or More. 
A Good Joint Stock Company for Every Neials- 
borliood. 
The owners of about $800,000,000 are so 
glad to get Government bonds paying four 
per cent a year, that these have rim up to a 
premium of $15 or $16 on every $100. Other 
good securities yielding 5 to 10 per cent are 
eagerly sought after. 
But in the October American Agriculturist 
Supplement, on page 436, there is an opportu¬ 
nity offered for realizing 66 2 / 3 per cent on a 
small investment, that ought not to be over¬ 
looked in any neighborhood in the United 
States, and it is available in many places in 
other lands. We refer to it because of its 
importance outside of any pecuniary gain. 
The proposition is, that if any ten or more 
persons form a company, and put in $1.50 
each, the Publishers will return the value of 
their money, by mailing to each one a regulai 
copy of this Journal from now to the end of 
1882, and, IN ADDITION, they will supply 
One Dollar's worth of Good Books for each 
member ; that is 66-/3 per cent on all the 
money contributed. If the company num¬ 
bers ten. twenty, fifty, or a hundred, there 
will be from $10 to $100 worth of books sup¬ 
plied. These books can be owned in common 
—one of the members acting as Secretary or 
Librarian—and can be passed around until all 
have read each book, and then be kept for fu¬ 
ture reference. (OR, any one person can 
gather the names and subscriptions, receive 
and own the books himself, and loan them at 
his pleasure.) 
If a company consists of, say 25 members, 
each member will, at an outlay of $1.50, have 
the paper, and the use of $25 worth of Books 
perpetually, or until they are worn out. 
Such a library should contain one book 
each on Diseases of Horses, of Cattle, of 
Sheep, of Swine, and of Poultry, to be re¬ 
ferred to whenever any animal in the neigh¬ 
borhood is sick. 
This Enterprise is an important matter .— 
As shown in the previous column, reading 
pays for every cultivator. To say nothing of 
the reading of the Journal for a year, even a 
small collection of practical, useful books, for 
general use in any neighborhood, will have 
an elevating influence, will stimulate thought 
and investigation, will make the young as 
well as old think more highly of a calling 
that has present before them a literature 
of its own. It will tend to make better and 
more successful farmers. In fact, instead of 
the 67 per cent which we have taken for a 
text, we believe such a collection of books 
will pay a thousand per cent, and more. 
The plan is a practicable one, everywhere. 
There is hardly a town or Post Office in all 
the country where ten or more persons can 
not be found willing to unite in such an en¬ 
terprise, and in many neighborhoods 20 to 
100 or more of them. 
It only needs one or tivo enterprising, pub¬ 
lic-spirited young men, or others, to take hold 
of it, and it will be quickly accomplished. 
Will not the reader of this start the enter¬ 
prise ? An Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue 
of 200 or more books to select from, will be 
sent,post-paid,on receipt of two 3-cent stamps. 
