332 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
How tlie Arrow Heads were Hade.— It 
lias always been a mystery how the Indians made their 
arrow heads. An antiquarian student lias put himself 
in the place of these ancients, and found that by the 
most skillful chipping of one flint with another, nothing 
like the shape or surface of the arrow head could be pro¬ 
duced. By chance, in trying various devices, he used 
pressure with a stick, when the peculiar, and character¬ 
istic surface was readily produced by this process, of 
“flaking” by pressure. 
The National Agricultural Congress will 
hold its licit (semi-annual) session at Rochester, N. Y., 
on the 15th inst. The early growth of this Association 
has been slow, but it has shown persistence, and we tiope 
that the agriculturists of the country will take hold and 
make it what ils title indicates it should he—a truly 
national body. That, sncli an association is needed, we 
think that there can be no doubt, and it should be the 
endeavor of those who have carried it so far, to increase 
its usefulness by enlisting as large a number of farmers 
as possible in its ranks. The President is Dock Thos. P. 
Janes, Atlanta, Ga , the efficient Commissioner of Agri¬ 
culture of Georgia. Of Vice-Presidents there is one from 
each State; the Secretary is Jonnlhan Periam, Chicago, 
Ill., and the Treasurer, Ezra Whitman, Baltimore. Md. 
One can become a member by sending $3 to the Treas¬ 
urer, and this entitles him to a copy of the Transactions. 
There seems to be a capital chance here to do something 
for the good of tile agriculture of the country. Let us do it. 
Our Fair 1,1st will be found upon pages 361 and 
362. Tlie value of a List of Fairs, depends of course 
upon its accuracy, and the only method by which this 
can be secured, is to give tlie dates and places from offi¬ 
cial sources. With this view, we, some months ago, re¬ 
quested the Secretaries of ttie various societies, to send us 
their announcements, as soon as their dates were fixed 
upon. A very much larger number have complied with 
this reqrest than in any former year, and for this, these 
officers will please accept, onr thanks. Kansas, which is 
far ahead of some older States, in everything that relates 
to agriculture, sends out through the most efficient Sec¬ 
retary of tier State Board of Agriculture,— the Hon. 
Alfred Gray, a list of all the fairs to lie held in the 
State; an example commended toother State Boards of 
Agriculture. Where official information has not been 
furnished, we iiave taken the announcements, as given 
in the leading papers of the States, etc. It will be no¬ 
ticed, that in some cases, we have given dates in August.; 
this is done to show that these fairs have already taken 
place, and to save trouble in looking up the date. To 
our readers, we say—go to your local fair, by all means, 
and to as many more as may he. Not only go, but ex¬ 
hibit something—your best, whatever it may be. 
To Those Wlio Send Us Papers, containing 
an article to which they would call our atlention, we 
must request that they direct the paper to “ The Editor,” 
or mark tlie article very conspicuously,—in fact it is bet¬ 
ter to do both. If a paper is merely directed to tlie 
American Agriculturist , or to the Orange Judd Company, 
the clerk who opens I be paper mail, can not know that 
it is not one of tlie regular exchanges. 
Root Cutters.— “V.,” Phillipsburg, N. J„ sends 
sketches, (see figs. 1 and 2.) of knives for cutting roots 
for a cow, either in a tub or a box. A bushel may soon 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 
be cut up by using one of these knives, fixed upon a 
shovel or spade handle, as shown in the second figure. 
We Give Kt Bp !—We really do not understand it. 
It is quite beyond our powers of guessing, why people 
should do so. Here is a strawberry grower who sends a 
carefully written letter, 1 lie “hand” being neater and 
plainer than often comes to us. He tells us his method 
of cnltnre, and complains that for three or four years he 
lias had poor crops, and says: “Now being the time to 
plant, I would like to know what you think is the trouble 
and how to remedy it.”—We could have answered these 
questions at. once on a postal card ; “ now being the time 
of planting,” lie wants his answer “ now ”—hut he mere¬ 
ly signs bis letter “ A. W. I,.” 1!_Another is in want 
of a book of recipes, lie gives us in full his idea of the 
kind of book he wants, and finishes his letter by “ J. II., 
City.” While an answer to this, being purely personal, 
would be out of place in our columns, we would have 
willingly sent it by mail—but “ J. II., City,” is scarcely 
definite enough. We have repeated it so often that it 
should be understood, that, letters or postal cards without 
full names, merely represents time and trouble lost, by 
the sender. We take “A. W. L.” and “ J. II.” as ex¬ 
amples of this most unaccountable omission, which is of 
almost daily occurrence. Why do people write careful 
letters and then omit, their names?—“We give it up.” 
Feeding Calves. —Young calves will thrive far 
better if a mouthful or two of mixed food be given to 
them occasionally. When running in a pasture by them¬ 
selves, or with a few dry cows for company, they may be 
fed by the means of a small-handled box shaped in the 
manner shown in the engraving. With a pound or two 
of meal (bran, cotton-seed, and linseed, in equal parts), 
in the box, the owner may go among bis calves (iambs 
may be treated in the same way), and call them to him, 
giving each one a mouthful or a nibble in turn. This will 
tame the young things as well as help their growth. 
Notes on Fences.— The farm fences of the United 
States, are estimated to cost 1,350,000,000 dollars, and re¬ 
quire 250 millions of dollars, annually, to keep them in 
order. Besides the direct cost of fences, the land which 
they occupy, and render worthless, is an important con¬ 
sideration. The zig-zag rail fences, with stakes and 
riders, on an ordinary farm, occupy five per cent of the 
land, or five acres in every hundred. In view of this, a 
straight fence, other things being equal, is the-cheapest. 
The wire fences of various styles, now used, are to be 
commended as economizing space, and being durable. 
Sundry Humbugs. 
In writing of the humbugs 
of which farmers in particu¬ 
lar are made the victims, we 
have often repeated the cau¬ 
tion : “ Farmers , be careful 
what you sign," and have 
given cases in which farm¬ 
ers incurred heavy losses 
from not observing this cau¬ 
tion. This has caused sev¬ 
eral to write us to this ef¬ 
fect—we put the substance 
of several letters in our own 
words. “ Wliy do you take 
so much trouble to caution 
farmers about signing their 
names? If any farmer is 
foolish enough to sign his 
name to any paper without 
knowing what he signs, lie 
deserves to suffer for it, and 
to lose his money.” Such a 
view of the matter is all very well for those wtio have a 
sufficient knowledge of the wickedness of the world to he 
always on their guard against “the ways that are dark 
and the tricks that are vain ;” but those who write in this 
manner have very little knowledge of the average farmer, 
as we find him tlie country through. The very fact that 
THE AVERAGE FARMER IS HONEST 
himself, and consequently unsuspecting, makes him all 
the more liable to be selected as a victim by sharpers. 
Those who write thus must know several farmers of this 
kind. Farmer Williams, for example, is a farmer, and 
nothing else: his farm is his world. His father was a 
farmer before him, and his chief hope is that his oldest 
son may be a farmer to follow him. His family circle is 
to him liis foretaste of Heaven, and his farm and his 
family the objects to which he gives his best thoughts, 
and for which he works so long as there is any work in 
him. To such a man, the idea of wronging another is 
just ns foreign as the idea of murdering his wife and 
children. He couldn’t measure his grain in a false meas¬ 
ure, or weigh his but'er with light weights. Being with¬ 
out guile himself—it being something utterly foreign to 
his nature—we do not think it all remarkable, but alto¬ 
gether to his credit that he does not suspect wrong In 
others. Therefore, 
WHEN HE IS ASKED TO SIGN HIS NAME, 
such a man thinks of no wrong. That enormity which 
will induce him to put his name to what he supposes to 
be an order for some article, but which turns out to lie 
a note, it is something of which he has no idea. We 
do not blame the honest farmer because he is defrauded, 
but regret that he places too much confidence in stran¬ 
gers. It is not because the farmer is ignorant, that he is 
so often selected as the victim of sharpers, but because, 
being honest himself , he is unsuspicious of others. With 
this view of the matter, we begun our warnings: "Farm¬ 
ers, be careful what you sign," which in view of recent 
developments we have changed to ; 
FARMERS, DO NOT SIUN YOUR NAME TO ANYTHING. 
Aii honest man stands no chance against dishonest 
sharpers, ami it is safer for farmers to forego all pros¬ 
pective profits from any transaction than to risk the 
troubles that may follow the signing of any paper what¬ 
ever. Travelling agents come along and offer Farmer 
Williams great inducements to take the sale of some im¬ 
plement or gimcrack for his neighborhood. We say, 
Farmer Williams, don’t. Stick to your farming, and 
don’t undertake tlie sale of patent spring beds, new mow¬ 
ing machine knife grinders, new and wonderful plants, 
marvellous oats, or any other implement or seed what¬ 
ever. The glib-tongued travelling agents will show you 
that you must have 1 heir tilings for yourselves, and to 
sell to your nighbors. Let these all alone.—Those who 
think it serves the farmer right if he suffers because he is 
inveigled into signing what is offered as a mere receipt, 
but turns out to be a note, do not know tlie farming com¬ 
munity so well as we do. Not only are farmers made vic¬ 
tims of this fraudulent note business, but there are several 
HUMBUGS ESPECIALLY DESIGNED FOR FARMERS. 
founded upon farm operations,or in the shape of trees and 
other fruit plants, presented with claims as to wonderful 
productiveness or g-eat superiority in other respects. In 
this latter class we have had “ self-pruning grape vines”; 
strawberries that grow upon “ bushes ”; peaches budded 
on the “ Canada Willow”, and others free from all dis¬ 
ease, and other things, of like character. The latest 
special fraud upon farmers is William V. Horton and 
his Stump Clearer, . William V. is in New York, in fact 
in Nassau St., and he advertiseth in the country papers 
to the following effect. William V. says: 
“STUMPS! 
REMOVED WITHOUT 
BORING, BLASTING, OR BURNING. 
By our process, new and old stumps can be effectually 
removed from the land the first three months at a cost of 
less than half a cent per stump. Enough material to kill 
and remove 250 large new stumps, with instructions to 
apply the same sent on receipt of $1.00. A boy ten 
years old can apply the material to kill and entirely re¬ 
move from the land 250 large new stumps per day.” 
More than this, William V. sends out circulars which 
sets forth the excellence of this method of stump extract¬ 
ing in full. If one half these claims were true, the read¬ 
ers of th & American Agriculturist, ought to know it, es¬ 
pecially as the head-quarters of the “Stump-puller" 
were not very far from our own office. The matter was of 
sufficient importance for one of onr editoral staff to 
make a personal examination. He went to the place in 
Nassau St., and found the usual narrow stairways, the 
numerous offices, the array of motley signs, but no “Hor¬ 
ton ” or “ Stump-puller.” Then commenced a search up¬ 
stairs and down stairs ; he was told that there was no 
Horton in the building; was informed that there was a 
Mr. Hoyt. At last, somebody recollected that a letter 
had been directed to a Mr. Horton on the floor below, 
and after much search, the 
LOCAL HABITATION OF HORTON WAS FOUND. 
We give our associate’s report of his experience: “ I 
found myself in the presence of a young and plump¬ 
looking man.”—“ What will you have sir,” he said in a 
very welcoming tone.—” I wish to inquire for Mr. Hor¬ 
ton,” I said. — ” William Y ? “ Yes—the man who has 
a way to pull stumps fast.”—” Well, he is not in [they 
never are]. He is out in Piedmont, New Hampshire 
[there is no such place in the Gazetter or P. O. Directory], 
but we do his business in his absence; and if there is 
anything special, can send it to him.”—“I only called to 
inquire about the method of pulling stumps and see some 
of the material which you use, if it is some sort of chemi¬ 
cal. ”_Wm. V’s. authorized agent then took me back in¬ 
to his little office and gave me a chair. He said: “The 
substance which we use is a white powder.”—" I should 
like to see some, as a friend of mine is greatly troubled 
with stumps,” I said, growing interested.—“ Well, we 
have none it here to-day, we expect some every hour: 
our orders are supplied directly from the factory ; onr 
letters come here, and we open them and send them di¬ 
rectly to the factory to be filled.”—! thought I saw the 
factory , which stood near iny chair, and it was filled. I 
felt so sure of it that no questions were asked on this 
point. “ How is this powder applied ? ” I asked the sage 
of stump-killing.—“ Yon drive two nails, one at the root 
of the stump, and the other at the top, and connect them 
by a wire, then a pinch of the powder (he showed me 
how to take it up with his hand).is put right on the head 
of the upper nail, and this produces a current of elec¬ 
tricity, and in a short time, about three months, the 
wholeot the interiorof the stump disappears.”—“That is 
quite wonderful, and it must be a great saving of labor, 
for we find it takes a large stump several years to rot 
down, and it ie hard at the bottom.”—” Yes. it is a great 
discovery and invention— you see it is electricity that does 
