288 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
country Witch-Hazel is used, (but in this case “ witch” 
is from “ wych,” of very different meaning, and has 
nothing to do with sorcery), and sometimes metallic rods 
are employed. Electricity is made responsible for many 
absurd things, it being very common for people who are 
too conceited to say “ I don’t know,” to ascribe phenome¬ 
na that they can not explain, to electricity, and we have 
no doubt that the writer of the above letter is honest in 
his belief, that a rod can be so “ charged,” as to discover 
metals, and that the charge can be varied to suit the dif¬ 
ferent kinds of metals. Men of respectable standing in 
the community, even professors of religion, who have 
“renounced the devil and all his works,” have within 
onr knowledge employed “ water-witclicrs,” to point out 
the place for digging a well, and wo have even known 
persons, who have had what is called a “liberal educa¬ 
tion,” to believe—or say they believe—in the efficacy of 
the divining rod. When men who should know better, 
countenance such folly, we can not wonder that those 
with fewer advantages should believe in divination. 
The old fable of 
THE MONKEY, THE CAT'S PAW, AND THE CHESTNUTS, 
finds its application in some of our correspondence. One, 
in writing us about a swindling affair, says: “ Now I 
want to have you do your duty, and expose these rascals, 
or/ shall lose confidence iu you.”—The italics are his.— 
Just see what follows: “I do not want to have you re¬ 
veal to any ohemyname,as itmiglitgetine into trouble.” 
A jug-handle is not the only one-sided thing in this world. 
Our correspondent must not be got “into trouble,” but 
it is our “ duty ” to get into trouble by exposing the per¬ 
sons he says have swindled him. We fear that we must 
“ lose confidence,” rather than purchase it at that price. 
... .As a general rule it will be safe for 
FARMERS TO REFUSE ALL AGENCIES, 
as the risk of getting swindled is altogether too great. 
Traveling agents come along, and propose to farmers to 
take an agency to sell this or that tiling. The story is a 
plausible one; the farmer is to be the only agent in the 
vicinity, the goods are of a salable kind, and need r.ot be 
paid for until sold, while the profits, to the farmer who 
sees but little ready money, seem so liberal, that the of¬ 
fer is a really tempting one. Still we say, don’t do it. If 
all were as represented, it would be another thing, but 
there is quite sure to be a catch somewhere—some “ arter- 
clap,” as old Col. D. used to say, and the chances arc so 
gre it that a traveling agent of this sort is a swindler, 
that it is the safest to give them all a wide berth. One 
lady in Illinois writes that the agents of a washer of 
some kind were along, proposed to make her husband 
agent, and to leave two or three machines; so far all was 
right; but before they left, they wanted him to sign a 
note for two dozen more, which were to come. Having 
read our cautions, the husband would not sign the note. 
The fact that the agents claimed to be from Indianapolis, 
while letters must be directed to New York, and their 
circulars were printed in Iowa, made the lady think that 
they were too much scattered to be safe. 
THE SPRING BED SWINDLE 
is another of these ag ncy affairs that farmers should 
look out for. It appears to be mostly carried on in New 
England. A smooth-tongued chap comes along to estab¬ 
lish agencies on behalf of the manufacturer ; he finds 
some one willing to act as agent for the sale of the goods, 
from whom he gets an obligation to pay for the goods 
when sold, and an order for the goods to be sent. The 
beds come, the agent pays freight, and takes them home. 
In a few days a party claiming to be the manufacturer 
comes along to collect the bill. The agent says that the 
goods were only to be paid for when sold, but this is 
laughed at; they never sold goods in that way; no one 
had authority to make any such terms; there was the 
agent’s order for the goods, and there was the bill (some 
$200 or $300), and if it was not paid at once, it would be 
put in the hands of a lawyer for collection. The pre¬ 
tended manufacturer understands the bluff-game, and too 
often succeeds in frightening his victim into paying the 
bill, or in settling the matter by giving him $50 to take 
away his beds. One of our readers, who had accepted 
the agency, and was called upon and threatened, wrote 
us for advice in the case. Our advice was to stick to the 
agreement, and let him sue. We afterward s learned that 
a lawyer from a neighboring town came to collect the 
bill; finding he could not get the amount, he proposed 
to settle for $75, then for $50, and then for $25, and take 
the beds back, but our correspondent would pay nothing, 
and agree to do nothing, except take the beds to the de¬ 
pot, which he did, and comes out of the transaction mi¬ 
nus the freight he paid when he took them. This shows 
that in such cases 
FIRMNESS IS A GOOD INVESTMENT. 
We have heard of four instances in as many other 
towns, in which the victims were bullied into paying. 
But what kind of a lawyer was that who was aiding and 
abetting a swindler from another State in trying to 
squeeze money out of his own neighbors ! It strikes us 
that a highwayman who boldly demands your money is 
rather the more respectable of the two... .Here is an 
OLD SWINDLE REVISED AND IMPROVED. 
We some months ago showed up the nice little ways of 
the “ Mercantile Prize Association,” which sent out no¬ 
tices all over the land, in which the one who received the 
document was informed that he had drawn a melodeon, 
valued at $125, which would be forwarded upon the re¬ 
ceipt of $7.50 for express charges, packing, etc. We 
have not heard of the concern of late. Can it be that 
that was the grub, of which we have now the full-blown 
beautiful butterfly of the 
GREAT PRIZE DRAWING ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA ? 
The other was only a poor one-horse Yankee concern ; 
this is of the Dominion of Canada, a part and parcel of 
that Empire, whose “morning drum-beat” * * “circles 
the earth,” etc., etc. None of your trumpery melodeons 
this time, but a full-rigged piano—worth no paltry $125— 
but a round $500—and all to be had for sending $5. Yan¬ 
kee swindler, bow down in deference to the immense su¬ 
periority of your Canadian brother. The gentleman 
who sends us the circular is indignant that it should have 
been sent to his son, “ who never had any such ticket.” 
—Good sir, these swindlers know poor human nature 
better than you seem to; they know that these circulars 
appeal to the cupidity of those who receive them; they 
know that hundreds will not stop at the fact that they 
never had a ticket, and admit a lie, in the presence of 
the offer of something worth $500 for $5. Hundreds 
send them $5—get no return, and feel that they have 
been swindled. As they were willing to take advantage 
of the statement that their ticket had drawn a prize, 
when they knew that they had no ticket, we do not think 
it much better than a case of the pot and kettle—Hav¬ 
ing heard nothing of late of 
“THE SILVER MOUNTAIN MINING COMPANY," 
when a couple of months ago every mail brought inqui¬ 
ries, we supposed it had gone the way of all such things. 
But recently the “ N. Y. Times ” has devoted special at¬ 
tention to the company, and as we get so little help in 
the Humbug war, we with pleasure acknowledge that it 
has treated this case very thoroughly and exhaustively in 
its issues of June 25th and July 2d. It seems that the 
office of the concern has been moved from far up Broad¬ 
way to far down the same street, and has continued to 
send out the same attractive circulars, and issue certifi¬ 
cates of stock, which represents lots of mining going on 
in the engravings, even if there is not so much as a hole 
in the ground at Silver Mountain. The investigations of 
the “ Times ” reporter show that it is simply an old foe 
with a new face, another devel ope-ment, (as Agassiz used 
to say,) of an old deviltry. That 
THE SILVER MOUNTAIN MINING COMPANY, THE WYOMING 
LOTTERY, AND OTHERS, 
are all off of the same piece of goods, and the same per¬ 
sons are concerned in all these, and perhaps olher swin¬ 
dles. The heads and front of all, according to the 
“Times,” is Pattee, widely, if not well known in Wyo¬ 
ming, Kansas, and there away ; and Elias, with a more 
Eastern, if not a more aromatic reputation, is another. 
When such men are connected with an enterprise, the 
“Times” is safe in saying that it is “a swindle of the 
most impudent character,” and that “ their mine is in 
the pockets of the unwary.” 
MEDICAL MATTERS 
seem to go down as the mercury goes up—of course we 
don’t refer to the medical “ marcury,” but that in the 
thermometer—and supreme dullness reigns. Every now 
and then wo hear from some one who says that ho or she 
has been acting as an agent for some stuff, is threatened 
. with prosecution for money due, and ask us to send 
proof that the medicine is a humbug, We do not profess 
to give legal opinions, but common sense would dictate 
that such persons should comply with whatever agree¬ 
ments they have made. If they took the stuff and con¬ 
tracted to sell it on certain terms, we doubt if any court 
would “ go behind the returns,” as the politicians say, 
and consider the character of the medicine. We advise 
all such persons to settle according to the terms of their 
bargain, and never thereafter engage in the sale of any 
quack medicine whatever... .We have alluded above to 
the pathetic aspects of our correspondence relating to 
humbugs; no where are these more frequently exhibited 
than in those relating to medical humbugs. The harm 
these do is not solely bodily, but they are the cause of 
much 
MENTAL ANXIETY AND DISAPPOINTMENT, 
as the circulars relating to them are filled with assertions 
so positive, and set forth the special virtues of the stuff 
in terms so glowing, that the reader, not knowing that 
the same is done in a hundred or more others, feels that 
he would do wrong not to heed them. We have before 
us a letter, which shows in form and manner that the 
writer is of more than ordinary intelligence. He says : 
“Consumption has made sad havoc in my family, the 
last victim being a daughter of 19 years of age, and the 
end is not yet.”—Seeing a medicine attractively adver¬ 
tised, he sent for a circular. The circular came, and he 
wrote to a number of the persons whose certificates were 
printed iu it, asking about the medicine, and in every 
case, save one, his letters were returned as uncalled for. 
This made him suspect the genuineness of the certificates, 
and he wrote to ask our opinion as, if not his own, the 
hopes of some members of his family are strongly fixed 
upon this medicine as a relief from a dreadful disease. 
One can not dispel such hopes without a deep feeling of 
sadness, and a keen regret that for the mere sake of mak¬ 
ing money, any one should be allowed to raise such anti¬ 
cipations in a grief stricken family. It is hard in such 
cases to be obliged to say what one thinks, and thus 
cause great disappointment, but it is better that that 
should come in this way, than at the end of a long and 
fruitless trial. The loss of money is one of the least 
evils that these quacks cause... Who has not experienced 
the joy of meeting a long absent friend 1 Who has not 
felt the keen pleasure of a return after a prolonged ab¬ 
sence from home, these make the heart leap, but for a 
real thrill of pleasure, that shall make the blood course 
rapidly, and tingle every vein, artery and nerve, from the 
top of the scalp to the largest toe, he should see his na¬ 
tion’s flag in a foreigu land ! A combined sensation— 
long lost friend, long deserted home, and the American 
flag, all rolled into one, comes upon us as we once more 
gaze upon the long unseen, but by no means forgotten 
PORTRAIT OF EDWIN EASTMAN. 
There you are Eddie, boy, the auburn locks gracing 
your marble brow 1 there are the marks each side of the 
Apollo-like mouth, where the cruel salvages branded you. 
Then there is your signature, just as you have written it at 
our desk, when yon hadn’t any marks on your face, and 
hadn’t much of a marble brow to speak of, and told us 
how you and that other fellow got up the story.—But why 
spoil the narrative by saying that you have no wife? 
Don’t tin? book say that you were captured with your 
young wife, and isn’t there the picture of “The Medicine 
Man,” which his name it is Wakometkla, who looks as 
if he had eaten too many cucumbers, but who taught 
Eddie to make the Bloody Indian Syrup—or Indian Blood 
Syrup, or something. While keeping the run of the 
wickedness of the world, as one must who records the 
humbugs, the work has its compensations, and one of 
these is to know that Eddie Eastman still lives. 
Artificial Coloring- for Butter.— 
We have tried various preparations for coloring butter, 
including the ordinary annatto, as kept iu the drug 
stores, and several of the liquids put up ready for use by 
different manufacturers. While customers insist on a 
higli color, it is necessary for dairymen to use artificial 
coloring, and the butter of some cows is so devoid of 
tint, that it is unsalable without coloring, although the 
flavor may be faultless. Some people taste with the eye, 
and for them appearance must be considered. While ar¬ 
tificially colored butter brings 5 or 10 cts. per pound more 
in the market, than that pure from the cow, coloring 
matter will be used. Carrot juice is objectionable; most of 
the preparations of annatto are made with potash, and the 
unprepared paste is difficult to manage properly, although 
we have procured the finest tints by its use. We have 
recently tried a preparation made in oil, by Mrs. Smith, 
of Arch St., Philadelphia, an experienced dairy manager, 
which gives an unexceptionable tint, and being free from 
alkali, will the better please those who object to the* al¬ 
kali preparations. It is well to avoid too high a color, 
and in praclice we have found that one half the quantity 
recommended to be used by the makers of the. prepara¬ 
tions, is sufficient. There never was red butter, and an 
excess of coloring produces this shade. A fine lemon- 
tint is the proper one, and in using coloring, it is best to 
err on the side of economy rather than excess. 
Profit in Blackberries. — As an in¬ 
stance of the profitable use of one of the small accesso¬ 
ries of the farm may be cited the business of gathering 
wild blackberries in the town of Salem, N. C. From 
this small town, of about 2000 inhabitants only, over 
three million pounds of this fruit was shipped last year, 
bringing into the town about $500,000. To utilize in 
this°profl table manner one of the frequently neglected 
resources of the fields and woods, might add consider¬ 
ably to the income of thousands of families in various 
parts of the country where this fruit abounds. 
Varieties of 'Wheat.—“T. K. M.,” Mer¬ 
cer Co., W. Va. , There are some varieties of wheat that 
are hardier than others, and better resist the attacks of 
fungoid diseases, such as rust and smut, and of insects. 
Amongst the old hardy wheats are the Treadwell and the 
Touzelle, and a newer variety, which has been very suc¬ 
cessful, is the Clawson. The first of these is a light am¬ 
ber wheat which makes an excellent flour; the latter are 
white wheats. As a rule, we have found the red and 
amber wheats the hardiest, and the white to be tender- 
