240 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
recollect when it was a favorite garden plant. 
Clusters of this were generally offered by the Broad¬ 
way florists. Another weed appeared later in the 
windows, and noticeable from the fact that it is a 
native. The two plants mentioned above, are in¬ 
troduced from abroad, as are the great majority of 
the weeds of our •fields and gardens, but in Rud- 
beckia hirta, the “ Thorny cone-flower,” we have an 
undeniable native. This is supposed to have been 
brought from the West in baled hay ; at all events 
it is now thoroughly distributed throughout the 
meadows and pastures of the Eastern States ; it has 
come to stay, and makes itself more thoroughly at 
home from year to year. Like the Ox-Eye Daisy, 
it belongs to the great Sunflower Family. It is 
much larger and coarser than that; its flowers are 
much larger, with yellow rays, and the central por¬ 
tion, or disk, of so dark a purple that it is almost 
black. The stems and foliage are very coarse and 
beset with rough hairs. To 6ee this miserable 
w'eed, the increase of v'hich we have watched with 
dismay, offered for sale, and to see large clusters 
of it in the belts of ladies who had purchased it, 
produced a sensation far from pleasing. It will be 
curious to watch what effect this sudden bringing 
into favor of some of our most pernicious weeds 
will have upon the agriculture of the country. 
Every spring wonderful varieties 
are offered of seed wheat, seed corn 
or oats. Farmers and others are 
asked to invest in “Self-pruning” 
grape-vines, in strawberries which 
i grow on bushes, and in peach trees 
which can not be injured by borers because they 
are grafted on the “French Willow.” Where are 
all these wonders that have been offered with such 
a flourish at any time during the last twenty years ? 
Were the claims made for these well founded, our 
grain product, per acre, should have been doubled, 
while statistics show that it has really diminished. 
What has been true in the past, will also prove 
true with all the extravagant claims now made. 
We would by no means say that there may not be 
improvement in grains as well as in other plants, 
but real improvement does not take such enormous 
leaps as to double the yields of corn or wheat. 
When extravagant and improbable claims are made, 
we are safe in letting such wonderful things alone, 
no matter how strong the asserted claims, or how 
many recommendations may be shown from per¬ 
sons with names suspiciously resembling well- 
known trustworthy individuals. As a rule, such 
names are fictitious. 
We went where he was, and he wasn’t there. 
In a circular received from the West, one of the 
strongest and most effective recommendations of 
an article was signed by the name of a distin¬ 
guished citizen of high repute in New York City, 
but with a slight change in the initials, to avoid 
forgery outright. His place of business was given 
on Broadway. We went to call upon him and see 
what it all meant. The number given took us to 
Trinity Church grave-yard, where the street num¬ 
bers are omitted. The sexton told us, “ there 
might be some such person buried there, but it 
must have been a good while ago, and he guessed 
he’d gone out of business.” This is a common 
dodge of the swindlers, and with some quack 
medicine dealers, who furnish such long lists of 
cured persons. 
Secret Insect Remedies. 
Farmers, as a general thing, have not had an op¬ 
portunity to learn much about insects, and a num¬ 
ber have been victimized by offers of remedies for 
their destruction. One chap has picked up many 
dollars in one of the fruit-growing localities by 
selling some stuff to be laid in the crotch of the 
tree to keep out borers. Upon examination, the 
medicine proved to be only a very poor, dark- 
colored soap, made into rolls and wrapped in a 
showy label. The recipe man has been around 
again in some Western States. The recipe for 
borers costs $5—a good price for being told to mix 
a pint of Turpentine with a gallon of Soft-Soap, 
and rub the body of the tree with it. This applied 
to the tree would no doubt, as long as it lasted, 
prevent the female borer from laying her eggs. 
But the recipe says : “ It penetrates into the sap 
of the tree, and destroys all the insects that subsist 
upon the sap or on the leaves,” which is utter 
nonsense. 
Some Impossible Things. 
When a maker of imitation jewelry claims that 
his diamonds are just as good as real ones, as they 
are quartz crystals covered with a coating of real 
diamond deposited by electricity, we know that 
the statement can not be true. His imitation stones 
may be very good ones, but they are not produced 
in this manner. One concern makes a great flour¬ 
ish over its imitation diamonds, claiming that they 
“ are produced chemically,” and we have no doubt 
of it. They are a kind of glass; this lias to be melted, 
and as fire of any kind is a very important chemical 
operation—of course they are “ produced chemi¬ 
cally;” so is a Johnny-cake. When the Battery 
man tells us that his “ Electro-Medicated Glasses ” 
are produced by heat generated by electricity, and 
that the glass is “medicated,” and that the 
“chemicals keep the glasses perfectly cold,” it is 
very amusing, and very nonsensical. Some of the 
materials of which all glass is made, may be used 
separately as a medicine, and so far as this goes, 
all glass is “medicated.” Glass of every kind is a 
“chemical ” compound, and the use of this high- 
sounding term is very smart. 
“The Great English Sterling Cutlery Co.” 
We have many inquiries as to this. “ Sterling ” 
is a term applied to silver, to indicate that it is of 
the fineness of British coin. In this country the 
coin consists of one-tenth of alloy; in England, of 
one-twelfth, and “sterling ” refers to silver of that 
degree of purity. It can only apply to cutlery so 
far as that is plated with silver. The term is also 
used to express excellence, and we may speak of a 
“ sterling man,” or a “ sterling boot-jack.” “ Ster¬ 
ling ” can only, in a figurative sense, be used to 
describe articles of steel. As to this English com¬ 
pany, if it offers Spoons at $1.00 a set, Cake- 
Baskets at $1.75 each, and so on, probably these 
prices are as low as they can afford them. If any 
one orders such articles, supposing that they will 
get things that are worth any more than the price 
asked, he has a poor knowledge of human nature 
and of the principles upon which the business of 
this world is carried on. A set of spoons for $1.00 
is 16t cents each, and if any one expects to get 
much over the value of a dime in silver on each 
spoon, he must be very innocent. We would re¬ 
mind all those inconsiderate persons who think 
they may get gold or silver articles for less than 
their real value, that there are in every city those 
who deal in these metals as a business. If any ar¬ 
ticle is offered for $1.00 that is really worth $1.10, 
they buy it up and have it in the melting-pot very 
quickly. In silver ware and jewelry, be sure that, 
whatever the price, it is never offered at less than 
its real value. 
That “ Washing Machine” 
has turned up again. Its career closed in New 
York soon after our explanation, with an engrav¬ 
ing of the “ machine,” a few years ago, but it now 
appears in full bloom in Boston, where it is no 
longer the “ United States,” but the “ New Home 
Washing Machine,” probably so called because it 
has taken a new home. The circulars (as before, 
printed upon Postal Cards,) are of a similar tenor 
(though differently worded) to those formerly sent. 
The recipient is told that, “ being informed that 
you are favorably known throughout your neigh¬ 
borhood, we have the pleasure of making you the 
very liberal offer found below.” Then follows much 
in praise of the machine, “ doing away with all the 
miseries of wash-day.” The “ special offer ” is on 
your promise “to show the machine to any five of 
your lady friends, and send 90c.” (It was only 
75c. in New York, but washing machines have 
probably “ riz ”), the machine will be forwarded 
with “confidential prices.” The “machine,”' 
when received by mail, will be found to consist of 
two rollers fixed to a handle, a contrivance to be 
used in rubbing clothes upon any wash-board, and 
in no sense a washing machine, as that term is 
generally understood. 
A Home-made Incubator 
has been advertised, or rather directions for mak¬ 
ing one, to be sent for three 3-cent stamps. One of 
our friends invested his stamps, and sends us the 
circular he received in return. Directions are 
given for constructing the affair; how practical 
they may be can not be told, unless one attempts 
to follow them, but the nub of the circular is just 
.here. After one has made his incubator, he is in¬ 
formed that he can get “ directions for managing 
it ” in a book which contains much other informa¬ 
tion, by sending $2.00. The same circular also ad¬ 
vertises eggs. It seems to be an “advertising” 
affair all through. 
Mutual Marriage Associations. 
We must answer all inquirers that we do not 
know that there is any difference in these as to 
“ responsibility.” In some States they have been 
stopped, as they have not complied with the laws 
regulating insurance companies, and so far as may 
be seen from the circulars, they are, in principle, 
insurance concerns. If in a marrying situation and 
mood, we should prefer to keep the management 
in our own hands, and save the stamps for family 
expenses, in preference to employing agents to 
handle the funds, on a promise of their growing in 
others’ hands. 
Cures by Faith and Imagination. 
Probably most of our readers have heard of the 
experiment tried by some medical men upon a gen¬ 
tleman in robust health, but who had a pretty 
lively imagination. Stationing themselves a mile 
apart along a road which he was to pass, each one 
meeting him inquired after his welfare, and ex¬ 
pressed great solicitude concerning his health, pro¬ 
fessing to see iu his countenance indications of ap¬ 
proaching serious illness. He rebuffed the first one 
with the remark, that “ he was never better in his 
life.” But as one after another talked in the same 
way, he became alarmed, grew dizzy, and before 
reaching home was thrown into a high fever, which 
lasted two or three weeks. In another case, a sol¬ 
dier condemned to be shot was reprieved at the 
last moment. But without informing him of the 
fact, he was led out and placed before a firing pla¬ 
toon, and saw their guns levelled at him. A dozen 
men simultaneously fired towards him with blank 
cartridges, and he actually fell dead through fright. 
We know a highly respected merchant who is in¬ 
telligent enough to have carried on a large busi¬ 
ness, amounting to many hundreds of thousands of 
dollars, with branches in other cities. Yet he has 
for many years carried a horse-chestnut in his 
pantaloons’ pocket,in the full belief that it keeps off 
rheumatism. We could give similar illustrations, 
almost without number, of the power of faith or 
imagination. It is this that lies at the foundation 
of the success of so many medical nostrums. Peo¬ 
ple imagine themselves ailing, and sometimes are 
so. The venders of these nostrums, by the skilful’ 
use of language, and of printers’ ink, so captivate 
the imagination and faith of this class of people; 
that their inert medicines, or stimulating mixtures 
made up of cheap whiskey disguised by coloring, 
and some bitter or slightly nauseous drugs, actually 
restore them to health—in some cases. But for the 
darker side, the great amount of good health de¬ 
stroyed by dosing with worse than useless drugs, 
and the habit of intemperance so often formed by 
the use of these alcoholic mixtures, frequently 
dubbed “temperance bitters,” we should be less 
inclined to wage unceasing war upon the whole 
“patent medicine ” business. 
Electricity and the Imagination. 
We conversed the other day with a highly intel¬ 
ligent business man, at the head of one of the 
largest establishments in the country, who said he 
was benefited by using an “electrical brush.’ 1. 
