236 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Things that ake Coming. —Manhood will 
come, old age will come, and the dying bed will 
come, and the very last look you shall cast upon 
your acquaintances will come, and the time 
when you are stretched a lifeless corpse before 
the eyes of weeping relative will come, and that 
hour when the company will assemble to carry 
you to the church-yard will come, and that mo¬ 
ment when you are put in the grave will come, 
and the throwing in of the loose earth into the 
narrow house where you are laid, and the 
spreading of the green sod over it—all will come 
on every living creature who hears me, and in a 
few years the minister who now speaks and the 
people who listen, will be carried to their long 
homes, and make room for another generation. 
Now all this you know must and will happen ; 
your common sense and common experience 
serve to convince you of it. Perhaps it may 
have been little thought of in the days of care¬ 
less and thoughtless and thankless unconcern 
which you have spent hitherto; but I call on 
you to think of it now, lay it seriously to heart, 
and no longer trifle and delay, when the high 
matters of death and judgment and eternity 
are thus set so evidently before you.— Our 
Drainer. 
A Model Speech. —“ Fellow citizens: I am 
no speech-maker—But wdiat I say, I’ll do. I’ve 
lived among you twenty years—if I have shown 
myself a clever fellow, you know it without a 
speech; if I’m not a clever fellow, you know 
that too, and wouldn’t forget it with a speech. 
I’m a candidate for the Legislature—if you 
think I’m the clear grit, vote for me; if you 
think Major It. of a better stripe than I am, 
vote for him. The fact is, either of us will 
make a good Representative ?” 
- # - 
Served Him Right.— A man was fined five 
dollars on Saturday, for bringing into Rochester 
a load of live calves, with the head of one of 
them hanging down by the wagon wheel. 
“We commend this wholesome example to the 
authorities of our city, where market calves and 
sheep are habitually maltreated, with a cruelty 
which would be disgraceful to savages,” says 
the A r . Y. Courier. 
-«« «- 
Bank Presidents Wanted. —A good story is 
told of a Michigan man who recently went 
down into Indiana to buy a drove of horses. 
He was longer than he intended to be absent, 
and failed to meet a business engagement. On 
being rather reproached for not being at home, 
he made due apology. “ I tell you how it is, 
Squire, at every little one-horse town, they 
wanted me to stop and be President of a Bank.” 
-e « e-• 
Long Lease. —A certain land speculator hav¬ 
ing a piece of land to let, had a placard stuck 
up which read as follows : “ This good and de¬ 
sirable land to be let on a lease of one hundred 
and twenty-five yards long !” 
A Hot Place. —The most curious specimen 
of all Fthe ’Arabic adages is, perhaps, the fol¬ 
lowing : 
“ There are no fans in hell.”— Am. Union. 
-* • ♦- 
Small Souls. —Among the curiosities, lately 
added to the Schenectady Museum, is a mos¬ 
quito’s bladder containing the souls of twenty- 
four misers, and the fortunes of twelve printers— 
nearly half full. 
Tiie Japan Expedition. — Commodore 
Perry hns succeeded in obtaining the condi¬ 
tions of a treaty opening the commerce of Ja¬ 
pan to American enterprise. Two ports are 
to be opened—Simodi, in Niphon, and Haka- 
tam, in Japan. American vessels visiting the 
coasts will be supplied with water and provi¬ 
sions, and also coal for the steamers. Com¬ 
modore Perry proposed that the benefits of the 
treaty should extend to all nations, but this 
was refused by the Japanese. 
-»• ♦- 
Famine at the East. —The Boston Daily 
Advertiser states that measures are about to 
be taken for the purpose of affording relief to 
the starving inhabitants of Zante and Cephalo- 
nia, in the Ionian Islands. It is hoped that 
every one will contribute his mite to so worthy 
an object. Mr. A. S. York, the American 
Consul, in a letter dated Cephalonia, May 10, 
says: 
“There is not a single corner in the fre¬ 
quented parts of these cities which is not 
thronged with haggard and emaciated faces, 
imploring charity. Men are driven to madness 
by want. I am compelled to keep the door of 
my house constantly shut, for they all—I do 
not know why—look up to the American Con¬ 
sul for help. But what can a poor Consul do 
to a famishing population ? A few days ago a 
number of them, finding my door open, rushed 
into my presence, crying out, ‘ For God’s sake, 
sir, give us bread!’ I really did not know 
what to do. My heart bled for them. The 
crop failing this year also, as it most probably 
will, I do not know what is to become of these 
poor people. May God have mercy upoD 
them!” 
We learn, from an extract of a letter from 
Palestine, published in the Courier, that the 
Jews of the Holy Land are also suffering great 
distress from destitution. Their sufferings 
have been occasioned partly by the failure of 
the last harvest, and partly by the present po¬ 
litical disturbances, which have cut off their 
sources of supply. Famine and pestilence 
walk hand in hand among them, and all classes 
of society have become united in the brother 
hood of woe. Learned rabbis and heads ol 
synagogues mix with the others in the crowds 
ro supplicate a crust of bread The fathers 
and mothers even sell their children, so that 
rheir offspring may be spared death from 
starvation. 
-* • •- 
The Plains of Chaldea. —Layard says 
that these plains produce some of the finest 
fruits in the world. A very delicious peach 
has lately been introduced into England, which 
has created a good deal of excitement among 
nurserymen. The plains, in the spring of the 
year, are covered with gorgeous flowers. 
Truffles grow there in great abundance, and 
are quite extensively used as an article of 
food. 
The hanging gardens of Babylon, Layard 
says, were no fiction. He has found pictured 
representations of them in his researches. 
APPEARANCE OF THE CROPS. 
The wheat crop in this section will be very 
light. The fall rains and the freezing and 
thawing have injured it extremely. A few 
pieces look well and promise for a crop. Spring 
grains, notwithstanding the backward spring, 
are looking fine. Grass, about medium. Fruit 
trees very full, especially peaches. 
S. A. Collins. 
Sodas, Wayne Co., N. Y. 
■ -» • » ■■ ■ 
THE TOBACCO CROP OF VIRGINIA 
Must be a short one. “In Albemarle and 
adjoining counties,” to adopt the words of a cor¬ 
respondent—an oral one, if we may be allowed 
the phrase—of the Richmond Enquirer, “the 
frost destroyed the first crop of plants, the fly 
the second, and the third sowing will come too 
late to allow a hope of planting in time to make 
more than a partial crop.” 
And another correspondent of the same paper 
says, that in Dinwiddie, Nottoway, Brunswick, 
and Lunenburg, (of course in Mecklenburg and 
Halifax, which are in the same range and have 
been subject to the same casualties, and we 
know from report on the spot, that it is nearly 
or quite as bad in Amelia and Powhatan,) he 
has seen numbers of beds without one plant in 
them. From the best information he could get, 
he is satisfied that the crop must be a short one, 
and also inferior. In many places, he saw to¬ 
bacco land plowed up for corn, and in one in¬ 
stance, hills ready to be planted were being 
plowed down for corn. 
So says the Southern Planter. 
- -• • •- 
HOW IS WOOL? 
As every thing in the market has an “up¬ 
ward tendency,” as the brokers say, it is fair to 
infer that wool ought to rise in proportion to 
other merchandise. Manufacturers, however, 
have started the idea that wool must be an ex¬ 
ception, and instead of rising must fall a peg or 
two from last year’s prices. They assert that 
the cause of this is owing to the great amount 
of woolen cloth that is to be forced into our 
markets at a cheaper rate, from Germany. 
They say the manufacturers in that country, 
anticipating trouble from the surrounding wars, 
are pushing their goods into sale, and hence 
wool will be reduced in price some ten cents 
lower than last year. May-be so—we shall see 
what we shall see. It is best not to be fright¬ 
ened because the Germans are in trouble. It is 
pretty evident that wool, though it may be de¬ 
pressed some at first, will be in good demand 
before fall, and although it may not go beyond 
the average of prices for the past year, will come 
up to it before winter.— Maine Farmer. 
-- 
SPECIAL NOTICE TO ALL SUBSCRIBERS. 
Bound Volumes. —We have a few sets (26 
numbers) of volume eleventh, bound and un¬ 
bound. The price, at the office, of the unbound 
volumes is $1.00. The bound volumes are neatly 
put up in cloth covers, gilt backs, at $1.50. 
We can also furnish the covers separately, 
gilt and all ready for putting in the paper, for 
twenty-five cents each. With the covers thus 
prepared, any bookbinder can complete the 
binding for twenty-five cents. Volumes sent to 
the office will be bound complete for fifty cents. 
We are having printed a new edition of the 
first ten annual volumes of the monthly Agri¬ 
culturist, which can be supplied for $1.25 per 
volume or $10 for the set of ten volumes. 
We find that by using such good paper, our 
volume of 832 pages will be quite large to bind, 
and especially large for those who wish to stitch 
their paper together with an index, without be¬ 
ing at the expense of binding. To obviate this, 
we have concluded to be at the expense and 
trouble of making out an extra index with No. 
26, so as to form a complete volume of the first 
26 numbers. The index for the next 26 num¬ 
bers will be given at the end of the year, or with 
No. 52. This arrangement will make it conve¬ 
nient for all, as the 52 numbers can be stitched 
or bound in two volumes with an index for each, 
or in one volume with the double index at the 
close. 
We hope all will preserve their numbers, for 
there are many single articles each of which will 
be worth the price of the volume, for future ref¬ 
erence. When the paper arrives from the post- 
office, a good plan is to see that it is properly 
folded, and then pin or sew it through the mid¬ 
dle and cut open the leaves. It is very easy to 
stitch 26 numbers together. To do this, arrange 
them in regular order, and with an awl punch 
several holes about one-fourth of an inch from 
the back, and through these run a strong thread 
two or three times with a darning-needle, and 
the work is done. We have scores of volumes 
of papers, pamphlets, and addresses, thus pre¬ 
pared, which serve all -the purposes of a bound 
volume, and occupy less room in storing and 
carrying. We would, however, prefer to see 
volumes of agricultural papers neatly bound and 
laid upon the book-shelves or tables of farmers. 
They are much better and more appropriate or- 
