86 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
elected. Having written the names of the to-be officers 
on a ticket, the committee of twenty-four, headed by 
their chairman, return to the meeting. The constitution 
says the officers shall be elected by ballot. This is ac¬ 
complished as follows: All the names are written on one 
single ballot, and some gentleman is appointed. “ pro¬ 
vided therebeno objection ,” to cast the ballot for the meet¬ 
ing. There never is any objection, and so the ballot, is 
cast into a hat—and the officers are pronounced duly 
elected “by ballot.” Some dignified gentleman then (sit 
2:30 P. M.) rises and says, “Mr. President, I propose that 
this meeting now adjourn, to meet here at 7:30 P. M.” 
This is carried, and the members have thus five hours 
for a good dinner and mutual congratulations. 
In the evening Mr. J. R. Dodge, of the Department of 
Agriculture, read an interesting paper on the “ Prospects 
and Present Condition of Sheep Husbandry,” followed, 
not by any discussion of the subject—there is no time for 
that—but by a lecture on the Principles of Breeding, by 
Professor Law, of Cornell University, which showed a 
commendable acquaintance with the facts collected by 
Darwin in Animals and Plants under Domestication , and 
also that the learned Professor kept ahead of the “ ad¬ 
vanced thinkers” in regard to “ protoplasm,” &e. 
Special Premiums, 
For a renewal and one new subscriber to 
American Askicui/turist, or one subscriber to 
Hearth and Home. 
TropDy Tomato has proved so far superior to 1 
others that we desire to have it widely distributed, and 
we have made such arrangements with Col. Waring as to 
enable us to oiler pure seed from headquarters, with his 
trade mark guarantee of genuineness. 
Japan Lilies. —We offer from the gardens of A. S. 
Fuller, Esq., several of the beautiful Japan Lilies, some 
of which have been sold by seedsmen within the last two 
years as high as $5 each. Any one of these is an orna¬ 
ment to any garden, and they can be had free as premiums. 
Humeian Grape-Vines.— Hasbrouck&Bushnell, 
proprietors of the original stock, will supply us with 
vines of this most excellent variety, and we wish all of 
our subscribers would try at least one. 
I-—To every subscriber who, after this date, sends 
$1.50 for American Agriculturist for 1871, and 5 cents for 
postage, we will send 1 Package (100 Seeds) of Trophy 
Tomato Seeds. 
n.—To every old subscriber to Amei'ican Agriculturist 
who after this date renews, and sends one new subscrib¬ 
er, with $1.50 for each, and 5 cents for postage on the 
premium, we will send any oue of the following eight 
articles that may be chosen : 
1 Package (200 Seeds) of Trophy Tomato Seeds. 
Or:—1 Bulb Red Japan Lily, Lilium speciosum rubrum. 
Or :—1 Bulb While Japan Lily, Lilium speciosum album. 
Or:—1 Bulb Golden-bandecl Lily, Lilium auratum. 
Or:—1 Bulb Long-flowered Lily, Lilium longiflorum. 
Or:—1 Bulb Gladiolus, or Sword Lily, named varieties. 
Or:—2 Bulbs7Vg7YGtea,or Mexican Tiger Lily.difter’t kinds. 
Or:—1 Eumelan Grape-Vine No. 1. 
IH.—For or.e subscriber, received after this date to , 
HEARTH AND HOME, for one year, at $3, with 5 cents 
for postage on the article, we will send any desired one 
of the above premiums. Subscriptions taking these spe¬ 
cial premiums will not be counted in other premium lists. 
amtairiing a great variety of Items , including many 
good. Hints and, Suggestions which throw into smaller 
type and condensed form , fm want of space elsewhere. 
Postage 13 Cents a Sear iw Ad¬ 
vance. —The postage on the American Agriculturist 
anywhere in the United States and Territories, paid in 
advance , is 3 cents a quarter, 12 cents a year. If not paid 
in advance, twice these rates may be charged. 
How to SSei!iit:-Cltecks on A'ew- 
Vork ISauks or Hankers are best for large sums ; 
made payable to the, order of Orange Judd A: to. 
I’ost-Office Money Orders may be obtain¬ 
ed at nearly every county-seat, in all the cities, and in 
many of the large towns. We consider them perfectly 
safe, and the best means or remitting fifty dollars or less, 
as thousands have been sent to us without any loss. 
Btegistcred Blotters, under s!««- new 
system, which went into effect Oct. 1, 1888, are a very 
safe means of sending small sums of money where P. O. 
Money Orders cannot he easily obtained. Observe , the 
Registry fee, as well as postage, must be paid in stamps at 
the office where the letter is mailed, or it will be liable 
to be sent to the Dead-Letter Office. Buy and affix the 
stamps both for postage and registry, put in the money, and 
seal the letter in the presence of the postmaster, and take his 
receipt for it. Letters thus sent to us are at our risk. 
BEojaisd Copies of ToJtime 30 are 
now ready. Price, $2, at our office; or $2.50 each, if 
sent by mail. Any of the previous thirteen volumes 
(18 to 28) will also be forwarded at same price. Sets of 
numbers sent to our office will he neatly bound in our 
regular style, at 75 cents per vol. (50 cents extra, if return¬ 
ed by mail.) Missing numbers supplied at 12 cents each. 
Cl sail* can at any time be increased by remitting 
for each addition the price paid by the original members; 
or a small club may be increased to a larger oue ; thus : 
a person having sent 10 subscribers and $12, may after¬ 
ward send 10 more subscribers with only $8 ; making a 
club at $20; and so of the other club rates. 
'File l£est Aid. for the approaching spring 
and summer work on the farm, in the garden, etc., will 
be a careful reading of this journal and Hearth and Home. 
We hope our readers will remind their friends and neigh¬ 
bors of this, and induce them to supply themselves with 
one or both journals. The premiums are still open to 
those who make up clubs, as noted on page 84. 
IBosi’t! write to ask if this or that “ Doctor,” 
who advertises to cure this or that disease, is “ trust¬ 
worthy,” or our opinion if such or such an advertised 
medicine is likrly to help a particular case. We have so 
frequently written down all such “doctors,” and all such 
medicines as humbugs, that our opiniou ought to be 
pretty well known by this time. We shall, in future, an¬ 
swer no letters making private inquiry on the above 
millers, as we have a much better use for our time. 
American 3®oaa!o2«”'5cal Society.— 
The President, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, informs us that 
he has designated Sept. 6th as the time of the next bien¬ 
nial meeting, which will be held at Richmond, Va., and 
continue for three days. It is expected that the meeting 
will he a large one. and that many Southern pomologists, 
who have not of late attended these gatherings, will be 
present. The sum of $2, remitted to Thomas P. James, 
Treasurer, Philadelphia, will make one - a member, and 
entitle him to a copy of the Transactions. 
JLurcii from Seed.—“ H. Solomon, 
Ivan., asks where the European larch-seed can be ob¬ 
tained, price, and how to sow it.-The seed is sold by 
all our principal seedsmen. The first catalogue we turn 
to has the price at $2.50 per lb. It is of no use to try to 
raise seedling-larches, or other conifers, unless means 
are provided for shading the young plants the first year. 
This is usually done by a lattice-work of laths, raised a 
foot above the seed-bed. Brush may he used for the 
same purpose. The soil must he light, and rich, and 
free from weed-seeds. The iarch-seed is sown in drills 8 
inches apart, and the young plants kept carefully weeded. 
BSelp Wanted—Employment Want- 
ed.— At this season, especially, many persons write or 
call at our office in pursuit of workmen, and of employ¬ 
ment.—It is impossible for us to attend, personally, to 
the multitude of inquirers. Any persons of either class 
may write out, on a foolscap sheet, and send us a state¬ 
ment of just what is desired, and we will put all such 
statements in a book, or portfolio, where they can be 
mutually examined by employers and employees. Those 
wanting places should state clearly their desires, ayd ex¬ 
perience, and references. When any want is supplied, 
the application should be immediately canceled in the 
portfolio.—It will be kept in our front office, and should he 
always referred to, instead of making personal inquiries 
of persons in the office. This request is important, as 
the time of the publishers, editors, and several clerks, is 
frequently absorbed by the multitude of inquirers. 
ISuir.ilo Jisitl IBiiifflaSo Beef.— We have 
had large quantities of buffalo beef sent to our Eastern 
markets during this winter. Not a little of it has been of 
the poorest and toughest quality imaginable, being the 
hams only of those patriarchs of the plains who, having | 
been worsted in their battle with the younger and more 
vigorous hulls, are to be found more or less solitarily 
wandering or hanging about on the outskirts of the great 
herds, and easy victims of any oue who can creep up and 
blaze away with an old army musket. The ouly portions 
taken is their hams, and these are used as dried or jerked 
meat on the plains, or shipped East. Mr. Rankin, 
of Kansas, brought on a car-load of very different 
meat in January last. The entire shipment consisted of ; 
the hind-quarters of young cows, and heifers with several 
fine calves. The meat was most delicious; it woke New- 
York people up to the realization of what buffalo beef 
really is. The meat was consigned to Mr. Thurs¬ 
ton, of West Washington Market. It seems that a new 
and profitable trade may be thus established, and this 
suggests to us an idea which we hope some one, or many 
persons, may follow up. It is well known, that after buf¬ 
falo calves are two or three weeks old, when the herd is 
“stampeded,” the calves will be left behind. They will 
follow any man or horseman who comes near them, or 
who approaches and pets them a little. Would it not be 
easy to secure thus a herd of bull calves, turning the 
heifers back to find their dams again—as they would. 
These might be raised by hand, and as steers, thus gain¬ 
ing at two or three years’ old much larger size than the 
heifers, and making better beef than the cows, while the 
existence of those splendid herds would not he imperiled. 
On the first page our artist has pictured the head of one of 
the patriarchs, which was brought on with the beef 
mentioned above. 
SUNDRY HUMBUGS. - That the 
swindling fraternity are busy with new schemes is evi¬ 
dent from the efforts now in progress to get revised lists 
of the names and post-office address of people generally 
throughout the country. It may as well be understood all 
over the country, by every man having a name and local 
habitation, that not only his own name, but frequently the 
name of Ills wife, if he have one, and of all his children 
old enough to read, are recorded on a list kept by some 
swindler in one or more of the larger cities—New York, 
Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, etc. 
Some swindlers get one list, others get another, and these 
lists of names are sold or exchanged, so that every per¬ 
son is exposed to the fire of from one to a dozen different 
operators. Certain of these swindlers direct theii 
efforts toward the young especially, sending to them the 
circulars about counterfeit money, time-pieces, love-pow¬ 
ders, “ French ” appliances tending to the worst immoral¬ 
ity, obscene books and pictures, etc. It is important for 
parents, guardians, and teachers of seminaries and hoard¬ 
ing-schools, to keep careful watch over what is received 
through the mails by the youth under their care. We 
frequently receive very painful accounts from parents of 
young men, and even small lads, led away by these vil¬ 
lainous circulars. One of these name-collectors, at 85 
Nassau-street, pretends to he preparing a new edition of 
tlie United States Directory, and offers ten cents a name 
for lists of farmers, etc., etc. We hear from many who 
have furnished large lists, but can get no answer to 
inquiries after the promised pay, One of these estab¬ 
lishments was broken up by the police, but the names 
obtained are doubtless in the hands of various swindlers 
who are sending out circulars, and the name-gatherer is 
probably operating elsewhere. Another operator pre¬ 
tends to hail from a farmer’s paper in New York (which 
cannot be found here), asking, in a well-executed litho¬ 
graph letter sent to editors and others, for information 
about any published “ Directories ” of farmers, and offers 
to pay for manuscript lists—apparently a dodge to swell 
the list of victims to Circular Swindles.An ingenious 
“Sovereign ” swindle has been worked by one who calls 
himself Daniel D. Titus, 6SS Broadway. lie gets up a 
showy and very complete price-list of various kinds of 
tobacco, snutf. etc., and sends it out to various parties in 
the Canadas and along the border where people are 
acquainted with English money. With this he sends an¬ 
other, unsigned, offering Aluminum Counterfeit “ sover¬ 
eigns so perfect as I defy detection,” and oflering to send 
them packed in tobacco, duty paid, and makes many 
plausible statements to disarm the recipient of any sus¬ 
picion or fear of being caught. These “ perfect coun¬ 
terfeits ” he offers at cost, or less, one-half cash and the 
rest in thirty ulays, etc. Of course those sending money 
to him never hear of it again—and never ought to— 
though he has doubtless received thousands of dollars. His 
letters are stopped, but probably ere this lie has adopted 
a new name and location, and will continue to change as 
often as the character of his letters is discovered at 
the P. O. The transparency of this humbug tvi). he seen 
at once by those who know that the specific gravity (or 
weight) of Aluminum is only about 2*4, while that of gold 
is over 19, or about, eight times greater.And here 
we will advise that no one hereafter send a dollar or 
dime for any thing in the shape of “Aluminum” or oroide 
watches or jewelry. There are so many swindlers in this 
line that it is entirely unsafe to do so. no matter how 
enticing the descriptive circulars orpromises. Those who 
have sent to Williams for the $2, and $3, and $4. and $5 
Aluminum watches, have lost their money. He is not to 
be found. (This note must answer for a letter to many 
parties who have asked us to help them get back their 
money. The fellow never intended to send any thing or 
answer any letters after he go his victim’s money). 
R. H. Foster, “Fourth-street, Williamsburg, N. Y.” 
(there arc three Fourth streets in Williamsburg, but this 
