1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
279 
Dr. Churcliill’a Restorative Remedies. 
To those inquiring about them, we say, let them 
alone. The circular gives the melancholy picture 
■of the fellow “ before taking,” and the cheerful 
picture of a fellow “ after taking,” and a vast 
amount of reading calculated to make a nervous 
person miserable. These “Churchill remedies” 
belong to the same class with the Inman humbug. 
They propose, very frankly, to tell how they are 
prepared, and while, unlike Inman’s prescriptions, 
they call for well-known articles, the directions for 
their preparation are simply absurd. Indeed, the 
apparently learned instructions given with the 
prescriptions are laughable to those having any 
knowledge of such matters. But the Churchill 
fellows, knowing that no mortal man can fix the 
stuff, come to the rescue, and offer to do it all for 
a price, and this is the whole end and aim of their 
circular. Churchill’s stuff has become a nuisance. 
“World-wide Blessing: to Womankind,” 
is the advertised name of a certain contrivance, 
and the advertisers better look out. Their circu¬ 
lar, though somewhat ambiguous, indicates what 
they mean—which is mischief. This notice is not 
intended to be at all ambiguous, when it advises 
them to stop that “ syringe ” business. 
A Pernicious Proposal. 
We have a most rascally circular, claiming to be 
issued by the “-Corresponding Club.” The 
blank may be filled by the name of a Massachu¬ 
setts town, but we are not doing that kind of ad¬ 
vertising. The correspondence is to be “ with a 
view to Mutual Improvement, Amusement, of 
Matrimony.” The juice is 25 cents, and the cir¬ 
cular says that “in no other way can you get 
them (correspondents) so easily and with so little 
expense.” The details, giving the rules of this 
club, are sufficient to make parents shudder at 
the thought that such a thing may come into the 
hands of their children. Worse yet, the circular 
offers to send for 25 cents a book, “ How to Write 
a Letter; a Complete Guide in Business, Friend¬ 
ship, or Courtship.” This “- Correspond¬ 
ing Club ” may suddenly find itself in trouble 
some July morning. 
The Electric Eight. 
Electricity is a wonderful agent. The men of 
iscience who have studied it most thoroughly make 
the fewest claims regarding it. But electricity is 
a grand thing with which to impose upon the 
people. We have had all sorts of useless toys 
•called “ Batteries,” to be worn next to some part of 
the body. These claim to possess curative proper¬ 
ties, and no doubt some honest people think that 
•they have. Those who have examined them know 
that they can have no more efficacy than a leather 
medal of the same size. There are so-called 
“Electric,” “Magnetic,” “Magneto-Electric,” and 
“ Galvanic ” affairs in great variety, to be worn 
under the sole of the foot, or against a part of 
the body. Electricity has been quite thoroughly 
■applied as a medical humbug. When electricity 
began to be used for illumination, we expected 
that the swindlers would find some way to turn 
this to their benefit. The bogus “ Electric Lamp ” 
has turned up, but in a miserable shape. In some 
of the manufacturing towns of New Jersey, the 
•agent of the “ Edison, McCandless Electric Light 
Company ” has appeared. He is described as 
“well dressed,”—whoever heard of a swindler 
who was not? The “ well dressed agent” has a 
“ powder,” a remarkable powder, which has only 
to be put into the kerosene of an ordinary lamp, 
when forthwith said powder will convert the com¬ 
mon lamp into an “ Electric Light.” Besides 
transforming the lamps in this manner, there were 
offers of gifts of furniture, which should have put 
people on their guard. It did not, and sundry 
persons in Newark and elsewhere have paid out 
their dollars for that “powder,” which is worth 
nothing, and for promises of furniture, which, if 
possible, are worth still less. It was bad enough 
for these fellows to sell, some years ago, pinches 
of common salt, at a high price, to put into the 
lamps, to prevent the breaking of chimneys, but 
that a powder could be sold to convert a kerosene 
into an electric lamp, seems incredible. 
Obtaining: Money under False Pretenses. 
Some of the journals in the western cities and 
towns have been badly bitten in taking advertise¬ 
ments from every one who could raise enough 
money to get a regular circular printed ; we are 
glad to see that they are getting more cautious, and 
of late, instead of inquiries after they have pub¬ 
lished the advertisements, we have inquiries be¬ 
forehand. The latest case of this kind is that 
OF J. CUDNET & CO., 
who claim to be “Advertising Agents ” in Broad¬ 
way, N. Y. J. C. & Co. send to a Wisconsin jour¬ 
nal a remarkable advertisement of J. A. Vail, of 
Philadelphia. The biggest kind of the most be¬ 
jewelled, and the solidest sort of hunting-cased, 
and everything else that can make a watch valu¬ 
able, all for $19.63 (though the figure in one place 
is $19.65—but what are 2 cents in buying “ A Solid 
Gold Watch, the Opportunity of a Life Time ?”) 
As we wished to do our Wisconsin friend a good 
turn, our steps first went toward the number on 
Broadway, given by Cudney & Co. We went where 
they were, but they were not there. Next our 
representative in Philadelphia sought the man 
with the watches—Mr. Vail. To say that 
OUR EFFORTS WERE UX-A-VAIL-ING— 
makes a miserable pun, but tells the truth- 
no Vail, no Cudney, no nothing. We advise our 
Wisconsin friend to get cash in hand before he 
prints the advertisement. Better still, we would 
suggest that such advertisements as this of Vail 
should not be published at any price. The great 
army of swindlers would be greatly diminished if 
all papers at a distance, especially those at the 
West, take example from our friend in Wisconsin. 
Pensions.—The Fitzgeralds and The Fitz¬ 
geralds. 
Our call in the May Agriculturist for information 
regarding the Fitzgeralds, has elicited replies from 
the Fitzgeralds, and from many parties who have 
dealt with the Fitzgeralds. Altogether, the infor¬ 
mation received to date is both spicy and of a 
character to interest, if not amuse, somebody. 
Meanwhile we keep the matter open for another 
month, that testimony may be received from still 
others, as regards their Pension transactions with 
the Fitzgeralds. Please forward your communica¬ 
tions immediately, condensing the facts, and mak¬ 
ing them brief for publication. 
Farming at the “Front.” 
Never before have there been so many people of 
all classes taking a strong, direct, personal interest 
in the agricultural situation and prospects. Busi¬ 
ness men, bankers, capitalists, stock brokers, mer¬ 
chants, mechanics, manufacturers, operatives, and 
day laborers even, are watching the daily bulletins 
and reports of the weather, with especial reference 
to how it is affecting the growing wheat, corn, and 
oats, and the further planting of corn. Never be¬ 
fore have they seen so clearly that farming is the 
real basis of all other business, and that upon it 
rests the prosperity of the country. They now 
comprehend the fact that it was the good crops of 
1878, 1879 and 1880, from the export of which we 
received so many hundreds of millions«of dollars 
from other lands, which changed the financial de¬ 
pression of 1873, and the years following, into a 
prosperous activity extending through all branches 
of trade and manufacture. Every extra bushel of 
wheat or corn, or pound of meat, cheese and but¬ 
ter that went to market helped turn the scale. The 
hundreds of millions of bushels of grain that came 
from the interior to the seaboard, gave profitable 
employment to the railroads. These bought and 
used more cars, more iron, more steel, and the 
makers of these, from head director to the lowest 
laborer, received more wages and more constant 
employment, and they purchased more freely those 
articles that go to supply the necessities and com¬ 
forts of every day life. This stimulated and in¬ 
creased the mercantile trade, and made heavier de¬ 
mands upon all kinds of manufactured commodities. 
The farmers who received the proceeds were able 
to reduce debts upon their farms ; to buy more and 
better implements ; to pay up their store debts, and 
to buy more freely from the merchants. The mer¬ 
chants and shop keepers were in turn able to pay 
up their debts to wholesale houses, brokers in man¬ 
ufactures, and importers, and to buy larger stocks 
of goods for cash or on short credits. The carry¬ 
ing of these goods increased the transportation bus¬ 
iness, and stimulated the building of five to ten 
thousand miles of new railroads per year. 
This brief glance at some leading points shows 
the great and far-reaching influence of prosperity 
to farmers. On the other hand, the unfavorable 
winter and spring and the summer drouths cf 1881 
cut down the surplus wheat and com and meat and 
dairy products and cotton, may score millions in 
value. This of course diminished exports, and has 
started gold abroad ; it has decreased the ability of 
farmers, and all classes of workers,to buy goods and 
manufactures. The decliue in the demand for iron 
and steel, and the fall in prices, prevent the pay¬ 
ment of the wages asked for, and there is now pre¬ 
vailing or.e of the greatest “strikes” ever known 
in this country, of laborers who demand higher pay 
to meet the increased cost of living, due in part to 
the advance in breadstuffs, consequent upon the 
lessened crops of last year. Is it any wonder that 
this state of things has opened the eyes and en¬ 
lightened the understanding of that half of the 
people who are not engaged in agriculture, and 
who have hitherto been inclined to look upon farm¬ 
ing as of inferior importance, and suited for clod¬ 
hoppers ? Farming has come to the front, and it 
is going to stay there. 
A Bushel, More or Less—Its Immense 
Influence on the Country. 
There are now growing in this country,about Forty 
Million Acres of Wheat. A bushel, more or less, 
at harvest will make a difference of Eighty Million 
Bushels in the aggregate crop. At $1,25 per bushel, 
the value would be $100,000,000. That sum diffused 
through the country, three-quarters to the produc- 
ingfarmers, and one quarter to the railways, canals, 
lake and river shipping, and dealers—and from all 
these classes, passing from hand to hand, to mer¬ 
chants for goods, to manufacturers for their pro¬ 
ducts—from these to the workmen, and from these 
again to dealers in provisions, goods, etc., would 
be a wonderful stimulant to the entire business of 
the whole Country—an influence sufficient to turn 
the scale from prosperity to depression, or the re¬ 
verse. But the above is for a single product. 
There are over Eighty Million Acres in Com and 
Oats. A difference of a bushel more or less per 
acre in the yield of these, at an average of only 40 
cents per bushel, counts up Sixty-four Million Dol¬ 
lars more. Then, of say Sixteen Million Acres in 
Cotton, the difference of only 50 lbs. per acre, more 
or less, at 10 cents per lb., counts up Eighty Mil¬ 
lion Dollars more. Passing over the Dairy pro¬ 
ducts, an immense interest, the Potato, Barley, Bye 
and' Tobacco products, we have in the previously 
named crops, a difference of Two Hundred and 
Sixty-four Million Dollars, from so small a change 
in the yield, as a single bushel of grain per acre. 
—And a single week of favorable or unfavorable 
weather throughout the country, between this 
time and the in-gathering of the crops, will easily 
make all the difference we have noted, and chus 
affect the interests of the whole Nation. 
In this connection we may add, that, if the Gov¬ 
ernment Weather Bureau can in the slightest de¬ 
gree help the farming interests by early reports 
widely diffused, of the state of the weather, and 
the probabilities for a day or two in advance, and 
thus aid the cultivators of the soil in their plans 
and operations, Congress should not haggle a day or 
an hour over a few hundred thousand dollars ap¬ 
propriation to the Bureau to make it more efficient, 
while they vote away, without hesitation, tens of 
millions to clearing out diminutive mud creeks, and 
the erection of costly public structures where their 
chief use is to put money into the pockets of “ con¬ 
stituents.” 
