128 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
Our New Office Arrangements. 
Our friends visiting the American Agriculturist Office 
hereafter, will find us in more pleasant quarters than dur¬ 
ing ten years past, viz.: in the light and airy suite of 
Rooms on the first floor above the Street of 245 Broadway. 
The leading Business Office, (1, 2,) fronting 25 feet on 
Broadway, and extending back 50 feet, is reached by a 
broad easy flight of stairs. Running back of this, 64 feet, 
and then around to Murray St. are rooms 3, 4, 5, 5}, occu¬ 
pied by the Managing Editor, business and mail clerks, 
otc. The Mailing and packing rooms are in the base¬ 
ment, connected by parcel “Elevators” with this floor. 
The Fifth Story rooms, 16 to 19, are occupied by the As¬ 
sociate Editors, and the Sixth Story, 20 to 23, by the En¬ 
gravers and Printers. The Directors of the Company are: 
Orange Judd, President. I D. W. Judd, 1s< V. Pres't. 
A. W. North, Treasurer. Wm. Anderson, 2 d V. P't. 
Sam’l Burnham, Secretary. | Robert Cunnington. 
The Ground Floor is occupied throughout by Messrs. 
Foote & Richardson, who will be happy to fit out all call- 
era with good honest suits of clothing at prices in accor¬ 
dance with the times. (See their adv’nt, p. 149.)—The Of¬ 
fices (6 to 15,) are occupied by G. M. Plympton, Counsel¬ 
lor in Patent Cases and Solicitor of Patents; J. N. & W. 
S. Worl, Artificial Stone and Contractors; Herbert A. 
Lee, Collector and Dealer in Municipal Bonds ; James 
R. Angel, Attorney and Counsellor at Law, and others. 
The whole American Agriculturist Building is 
probably the best model of a new and superior method 
of obtaining abundant light for all the interior rooms 
and Halls, and in response to frequent requests, we will 
briefly explain it. The engraving above is a sectional, 
cut down through the different floors, from Broadway, 
hack 114 feet. As the room value decreases with the in¬ 
crease of hight, the light-admilting openings, L,L', start 
with a narrow glass-covered opening over the first story, 
and expand as they go upward, until at the top the larg¬ 
er, or L opening, is 20 by 24 feet, and throws a flood of 
light down into the side rooms, and upon the first floor 
as through a lens. Glass-floored passages connect rooms 
1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in one suite, without materially obstruct¬ 
ing the descent of light to the 1st floor.—The walls, a, a, 
a , of all the interior rooms, are of corrugated or waved 
transparent glass, which admits abundant light, and as 
these rooms are away from the street noise, they are 
most desirable, quiet offices for any purpose. The rooms 
1, 6, 11, 16, 20, are lighted from Broadway. The rooms 
5, 10,15, 19, 23,extend 50 feet, with sub-division, to Mur¬ 
ray St., and receive light from the fronton that street, 
and through the glass walls on the side of L • This plan 
may he adopted in all blocks of buildings. The waved- 
glass of the interior walls, obtained from England speci¬ 
ally for this building, while shutting out direct observa¬ 
tion, does not intercept any light passing through them, 
as is the case with ground or stained glass. 
Itnlletin of tSie Itiisscy Institu¬ 
tion.— Part I. of Vol. 2, like its predecessors, contains 
articles of permanent value. The Bulletins can now he 
purchased, at 75 cents a Part, of the publisher, John 
Allyn, Boston. 
Fine l.igl>i Brahmas.— Mr. G. S. Jos- 
selyn took the prize for these fowls at the Buffalo Poul¬ 
try Show held last month, the judges commending his 
as the best average collection of this breed by one ex¬ 
hibitor that they had ever seen. One of our associates, 
who saw the birds, quite agrees with the judges. 
Irrigation — Where and How—A 
New Work.—The popular notion that irrigation is 
only needed in California and other far Western locali¬ 
ties, where the rainfall is not sufficient to sustain the 
crops, is rapidly changing. The great damage caused 
by occasional drouths, the great need of and difficulty 
of establishing never-failing meadows, so necessary to 
successful agriculture, and the uncertainty of market¬ 
farming in the older States, are rapidly convincing culti. 
vators who live east of the great plains, that irrigation is 
important to them. One can hardly take up an agricul¬ 
tural paper, whether published East or West, without 
finding some reference to irrigation, not only as applied 
to agriculture in its broader sense, but to fruit-growing 
and market-gardening—in fact, gardening of all kinds. 
The letters of inquiry concerning irrigation have been 
numerous, but it is as impracticable to treat of a system, 
the fundamental principles of,which are not generally un¬ 
derstood, in brief articles in a journal, as it is to describe 
a surgical operation to one ignorant of anatomy. Nor 
could we refer inquirers to any suitable book upon the sub¬ 
ject, as these, if not in other languages, are written for Eng¬ 
lish readers, by authors having no appreciation of our pe¬ 
culiar needs and conditions. Under these circumstances, 
we announce, with special satisfaction, the comple¬ 
tion of a work adapted to the wants of American culti¬ 
vators, by our associate, Henry Stewart, Esq., and just 
published by the Orange Judd Company. In the present 
work, whatever in foreign treatises is applicable to our 
own circumstances is made available to the reader, while 
much information in regard to American methods, gath¬ 
ered from personal inspection and practice, is brought 
together in a systematic form. The author has special 
qualifications for such a work, being an experienced engi¬ 
neer as well as a farmer, and is thus enabled to make the 
work thoroughly practical, pointing out such methods of 
operation that an intelligent person can perform himself, 
and showing where the services of an engineer will he re¬ 
quired. The various methods of irrigation are discussed 
and the book is intended to meet the wants of gar¬ 
deners, fruit-growers, and those farmers who have only 
a meadow to water, as well as those who would irri¬ 
gate their whole farm, while surveyors and civil engi¬ 
neers, who may be called upon to provide the means by 
which water from springs, wells, streams, or reservoirs, 
may be made available in irrigation, w’i 11 find here a 
useful guide. It is plainly written and copiously illus¬ 
trated ; is thoroughly practical, and sufficiently sugges¬ 
tive to meet almost any possible case in which water 
may be used for the benefit of the crops. It treats very 
freely of the formation and management of irrigated 
meadows and pastures, and of the management of crops 
usually grown under irrigation. It is, in short, a prac¬ 
tical manual of irrigation, which will be useful in a wide 
diversity of instances. It is handsomely printed and 
bound, and will be sent post-paid from this office for 
$1.50. T. 
New .lersey Ag-riculture.—The N. J. 
Legislature is making encouraging progress in the pro¬ 
motion of agriculture. Four years ago it established a 
State Board of Agriculture, which is already making its 
usefulness manifest, and its reports should be in the 
hands of every farmer in the State. The attempt to es¬ 
tablish an Experiment Station failed this year, but it is 
sure to succeed. Ex-Gov. Wm. A. Newell is President, 
and Prof. Geo. H. Cook Secretary. 
Catalogues. —The list on pp. 154 and 155 
contains all that reached us up to March 15—two days 
later than the pages are usually closed. We regret that 
a number of later ones must wait. 
Look to tire Mowimg.Macliincs.— 
A day lost in making repairs, at haying-time, may make 
a serious loss in the crop. A poor knife or a broken 
guard causes a great waste of power. We notice that the 
makers of the “ Buckeye ’ ’ machines have so reduced the 
prices of knife-sections and guard fingers to all styles 
of their machines, that repairs can be made at a very 
small outlay. It is economy to keep a supply on hand. 
Tlie First Strsi wbcrries received in 
the New York market from the South arrived on March 
8th, from Jacksonville, Fla. They were sent in quart 
boxes and enclosed in the Zero Refrigerator made by A. 
M. Lesley, 226 W. 23d street. New York. These refriger¬ 
ators, which have a high reputation for the family, arc 
now put to a new use. The fruit was consigned to Chas. 
H. Gibbs & Co., at whose store, 102 Warren street, we 
examined the fruit, and found it in remarkably good con¬ 
dition, after a week’s journey. The first arrivals met 
with a ready sale at $4.50 and $3.50 a quart. 
Nitrate of Soda for Potatoes.—“A. 
S. N.,” Brandon, Vt. The directions given on page 95, 
American Agriculturist for March, ought to be sufficiently 
explicit. Chemical fertilizers should always be well 
mixed with the soil, and never put in contact with the 
seed. There are 4,840 hills to an acre, when 3 feet apart 
each way. As a tablespoonfnl of nitrate of soda is about 
one ounce, it will require 300 lbs. to go over an acre with 
one ounce to the hill. The price of nitrate of soda and 
other fertilizers is given in the market reports. 
Lands in Virginia.-" W. C. E.,” New¬ 
ark, N. J. In the advertising columns there are frequently 
to be found notices from persons in Virginia, offering in¬ 
formation about lands. It is too much to expect that we 
can find time to reply by mail, stating this or a similar 
fact. Moral —read the advertising columns before mak¬ 
ing inquiries. This will apply to many letters now be¬ 
fore us, in regard to ditching machines, butter-workers, 
poultry of different kinds, etc,, etc. 
Sundry Humbug's. 
It seems strange, after 
the repeated declaration of 
our views concerning lot¬ 
teries, that persons should 
still write us, asking our 
opinion about this or that 
particular lottery. Yet a 
number of such letters have 
come of late, and we pre¬ 
sume they must be from 
new readers, who have not 
seen what has been said in 
former numbers. To such 
we reply in brief: That we 
hold all lotteries demoraliz¬ 
ing, no matter how honestly 
managed. That the major¬ 
ity—indeed, the exceptions 
are hardly enough to be 
counted as a minority—are, 
from the bottom upwards, 
out and out swindles, con¬ 
ceived in iniquity, and carried on in fraud. Besides 
this, all lotteries are illegal. The laws of the United 
States prohibit them, as far as they can do, by excluding 
all lottery schemes, circulars, etc., from the mails, and 
make the sending of these a penal offence. Most of the 
States have laws prohibiting lotteries within the States, 
and the sale of tickets from elsewhere. It is true that 
this law, like others, is often disregarded, and especially 
in the city of New York have lottery tickets been 
sold in open defiance of the law. But lately these- 
LOTTERY DEALERS CAME TO GRIEF, 
and on March 10th last, some 30 or 40 of them were ar¬ 
rested, and their places closed. Mr. Anthony Comstock, 
the Special Agent of the Post-office Department, and an 
officer of-the Society for the Suppression of Vice, ob¬ 
tained warrants from the United States Court against 
those who illegally used the mails, and from the City 
Courts, warrants of arrest for selling tickets in violation 
of the law, and thus doubly armed, he, with sufficient 
aid, visited the leading places, the “high-toned,” Brus¬ 
sels-carpeted, rose-wood-furnished offices, where the bus¬ 
iness was carried on with all the forms and respectability 
of a banking-house. All these elegant proprietors and 
their gentlemanly clerks -were trotted off to the Tomb's, 
where they were committed, generally under assumed 
names, or gave bail to appear for trial. A large amount 
of stock in trade was seized, including 41,200 tickets, 
124,000 circulars, 50,570 addressed envelopes,-containing 
circulars for mailing, 7,400 letters, etc. The articles of 
their stock in trade these chaps value most highly,are their 
BOOKS OF ADDRESSES. 
Of these records, 88 hooks were seized, containing 
some 75,000 names. The good people who “ wonder how 
they got hold of my name,” would no doubt find that it 
was on more than one of these lists. These arrests, 
while including the leaders, by no means comprise a 
large share, even, of those engaged in the lottery busi¬ 
ness, but they have had the effect of closing the rest, 
until the results of this raid are seen. The chaps thus 
arrested are able to make a hard fight. Their chief hope 
is in finding a defect in the law, and they will employ the 
most acute counsel to do this. Heretofore they have es¬ 
caped through some weak spot in the statute, and it re¬ 
mains to he seen if amending the law has made it strong 
enough to hold rogues who have a plenty of money. 
STUDENTS ARE NOT NEGLECTED 
by these lottery scamps. In one of the offices which 
were cleared out w r as found a collection of catalogues, 
including those of nearly every college in the country. 
.We have on former occasions stated that we con¬ 
sidered it a great misfortune for a person to draw a prize 
in a lottery, having in mind several sad instances within 
our own knowledge where men were 
RUINED BY “ GOOD LUCK.” 
A clerk in one of the offices that were shut up told a 
reporter of the “Tribune” the following: “Last fall a 
young man paid $25 for a ticket in the Havana lottery, 
but about a week before the drawing came off he found 
himself without money, and sold the ticket for $10 to 
an old farmer from Onondaga County. The ticket drew 
a prize of $75,000. The farmer was already in very com¬ 
fortable circumstances, hut this good fortune turned his 
head, and coming to New York ho invested most of the 
money in the January drawings, receiving in return only 
