1871 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
127 
Gray’s Botanical Works. — “How 
shall I study botany ?” is probably asked a hundred times 
a year of the writer. The reply is essentially the same, 
hut modified according to the age of the applicant. For 
achild, “How Plants Grow for an intelligent youth, the 
First Lessons, and for an advanced student, the Structural 
and Systematic Botany are recommended. These books 
are all by Prof. Asa Gray, and admirably adapted to the 
different classes of students. These works all teach the 
structure of plants. After this is understood, the exam¬ 
ination and classification of plants may be undertaken ; 
for this we have the Manual of Botany, which includes 
all the wild flowering plants of the Northern States, 
and the School and Field-book of Botany, comprising 
the most frequently occurring wild and cultivated plants. 
Either of these may be had bound up with the lessons.” 
These works form the most complete botanical series 
ever published in this, or indeed in any other country. It 
is very fortunate that one who stands among the first of 
living botanists has given time and thought to the prep¬ 
aration of elementary works—a task too often left to 
mere book-makers. Even those who do not wish to 
Study botany, will find the “ Lessons ” of great interest, 
as they give just that information about plants and vege¬ 
table growth, which every intelligent person should 
possess,presented in a form at once attractive and simple. 
Homes in Kansas.— All who contemplate 
going West, will be interested in the advertisement of 
the “Kansas Emigration Society.” This Association is 
organized under State authority, and is designed to fur¬ 
nish just the kind of information desired by emigrants. 
Every Western and Southern State and Territory should 
not only have such an organization, reliably officered, 
but also advertise the fact as widely as possible. A small 
increase of population will indirectly make up all the 
expense, and mnch more; and multitudes of emigrants 
will escape a vast amount of uncertainty and swindling. 
Comstock’sHaiul Cultivator, Onion 
Weeder, and Seed-Sower combined, which we offer as 
premiums, will be found one of the most useful imple¬ 
ments in the garden. It affords to amateurs the right 
kind of muscular exercise, enabling them to accomplish 
a great deal of garden work without fatigue. By prac¬ 
tice the operator in weeding will soon learn to run it 
close to the rows without disturbing the young plants, 
and the implement works so easily and beautifully that 
it is a pleasure to use it. See our Premium List, No. 55. 
Descriptive circulars sent to applicants. 
SUNDRY HUMBUGS. — The list of 
swindlers, of which accounts have been received within a 
month past, is appalling 1 Sorting, sifting, andcatalogue- 
ing the bushels of letters, circulars, investigations, etc., 
before us, and condensing and classifying them, we find 
we have no less than alxtyfive (65) different swind¬ 
lers, and respecting the operations of single individuals, 
we have as many as fifty different letters detailing the 
attempt to fleece their several victims. If these 65 opera¬ 
tors have scattered on an average only 15,000 letters each 
(some #f them each send out 100,000 to 200,000 or more), 
they have tried their schemes on at least a million per¬ 
sons—probably many more. We will refer to a few. 
Medical.— J. H. Tuttle, who (or his namesake) has 
been in various enterprises, is now making the kindly 
effort to furnish “electric bandages ” for those weakened 
by self-abuse, etc. He says: “ it is a well-known fact 
among physicians, that no man sick or well should fail at 
times to wear a bandage,” etc., which is sheer nonsense, 
or worse. No man should wear any thing of the kind 
except after the examination and prescription of a reli¬ 
able physician. Never send your money for any thing of 
this kind except to a well known, reliable party, if yon 
expect to get what you pay for.It would be amusing, 
were it not sorrowful, to see the swarms of poor nervous 
mortals that flock in companies and regiments after every 
self-dubbed peripatetic “doctor” who wanders through 
the country, especially in the South and West, sticking up 
his shingle at a hotel temporarily, and scattering huge bills 
—proclaiming his superhuman skill, his great reputation 
in N. Y. and London, etc., and professing to have made 
wonderful discoveries by means of which he is able to 
infallibly cure about every disease that flesh is heir to. 
As a rule, this class feed up their patients on stimulants, 
and keep up t-heir hopes and faith, until their money is 
gone, and then the doctor moves on to “ fresh fields and 
pastures new.” Every suck traveling doctor is positively a 
quack and a swindler.The so-called “Benefactor 
and Medical Friend," issued at Albany, is a villainous 
sheet, and they will do the wise thing who at once burn 
the copies pushed into their hands through the mail. It 
abounds in falsehood as well as vileness and mischief 
.It is passing strange that there are enough people 
so ignorant as to afford patronage to the advertisers of 
medicines sent out from N. Y. City, and elsewhere, as 
the prescription of some old granny, or ye Indian savage. 
... . D. J. Henry Hodge of Owensville, Robertson Co., 
Texas, alias some other place, offers “Magnetic balls” 
for certain purposes, which they will not effect even were 
the results desirable. Better put the $5 in your pocket, 
and pick up the first round stone ; it will be just as good, 
and a deal cheaper, than this humbug’s pretended nos¬ 
trum. T. L. H., of Penn., and other inquirers, are in¬ 
formed that we have no medicine or medical advice to 
sell or give away. No man can prescribe for disease ex¬ 
cept a thoroughly educated physician who can personally 
examine the patient 
Gift Enterprises. —Aid for the suffering French 
should be sent direct to the Relief Committees, and not to 
any pretended Grand Diamond Gift Concerts, said to be 
open at Washington, D. C., but for which the money is 
to be sent to parties in Broadway, New York. You are 
more in danger of being struck by lightning, than of ever 
seeing one of those “ $9,650 sets and separate articles, all 
in diamonds,” offered to ticket-buyers at $6 each. 
Another of these “Grand Gift and Musical” schemes, 
alias grand humbugs, is announced as to come oft' at 
Keene, N. II. If any new hands want to try their luck in 
this, let them first ask the advice of those who have been 
through the mill in San Francisco, Hamilton, Ohio, etc., 
etc.A Gift Enterprise, alias lottery, is advertised at 
Denton, Caroline Co., Md., also at Wilmington, Del., 
offering engravings, farms, watches, sewing machines, 
etc., etc., and a paper, called the Caroline Pearl , is issued 
to advertise it. It is of a piece with several gift enter¬ 
prises, which have so disgusted the participators during 
a year past. None but foolish people invest. Most of 
the gift enterprises in the country resemble one started 
in this city some time ago. A man tried to selfto various 
publishers (to those of this journal among others) some 
plates and lithographic stones, for print ing large pictures, 
which had not sold on their own merits. The printed 
sheets would have cost, perhaps, 25 or 50 cents each, but 
they were not sold. Shortly after, a grand gift enterprise 
was announced, in which these same pictures were 
puffed to the skies, and purchasers invited at $5 each, 
with the bait thrown in, that each purchaser would re¬ 
ceive a ticket, entitling him to a chance (one in 15,000 
or 20,000), to draw a great farm, or something else, at¬ 
tractively described....If one wants pictures, the cheapest 
way is to 6ee the pictures, and buy on their real merits, 
and not trust to exaggerated printed descriptions. 
The “ Queer,” or pretended “ counterfeit money ” 
operators still abound. William Lewis & Co., 59 Cedar- 
street, N. Y., is a new name for James Fisher & Co., be¬ 
fore exposed.B. F. Cramer, Brooklyn, N. Y., is of 
like character.Francis Ogden, 131 Fulton-street, 
alias Horace L. Austin, 5 Park Place, ditto, ditto, with 
the offer of tobacco stamps. The following are also of 
the same class; they make great pretensions of “deal¬ 
ing on the square,” etc., etc.: James A. Holt, 9 Beek- 
man-street; James Reed & Co., 62 Broad way, alias James 
Goodwin & Co., 67 Exchange Place; William Wade & 
Co., 59 Cedar-street; Albert J. Hackett, 85 William- 
street, and 11 Ann-strect;'William Cooper, 688 Broad¬ 
way ; R. II. Foster, alias B. W. Howard, Fourth-street, 
Wiiliamsburgh. Smith & Co., 22 Ann-street advertise in 
the Tribune for “Agents,” and to inquirers they send 
circulars with tempting offers (to the dishonest) to buy 
their pretended counterfeits. All these parties either 
make no return for money sent them, or send off a box 
of saw-dust and old paper, C. O. D. ; or, if they get their 
victims into their dene, fleece them out of all the money 
they have, as previously described by us (see Oct. No., 
p. 365). No one corresponding with them, or calling 
upon them, dares to complain, or appear as a witness, lest 
he implicate himself as one trying to deal in counterfeit 
money. So the swindlers go on safely, cheating other 
would-be swindlers.W. F. Langdon, agent of the 
U. S. & Canada Express, at Plymouth, N. II., writes us 
describing the r.ceipt of C. O. D. boxes for parties 
with $50, etc., to be collected. The boxes, after being 
paid for, are opened, and found to contain old papers, 
chips, etc. This is a sample of multitudes of similar 
reports from all parts of the country. The victims are 
scarcely to be pitied, as they are trying to secretly get 
counterfeit money to circulate.—Many letters, to and 
about these chaps, we have no room for. 
Various other Swindles. — A pretended 
“ Watch Company,” with a great show of names of offi¬ 
cers, and a picture of a “ manufactory,” pretends to give 
for $4, a watch guaranteed to keep correct time for two 
years, in cases undistinguishable from gold, and for all 
practical purposes just as good as gold; all of which is 
sheer bosh printed on paper. There is not a new watch 
sold any where for $4 or $5, that is worth a dollar to 
any body but the seller. No one can now safely buy 
a watch, except of a well-known, responsible dealer, to 
whom he can surely return it, if not good, and get it put 
right, or his money back.Every vinegar recipe of¬ 
fered for sale is to be avoided, no matter by whom recom¬ 
mended. One of these was unwittingly indorsed by two 
college professors ; but we have their own letters, posi¬ 
tively withdrawing their indorsement.Don’t send a 
dime to any recipe-seller, no matter how plausible he 
writes and prints. This applies to a score or more. There 
is no money to be made with any of these recipes, except 
as you temporarily humbug others into buying them of 
you.Very many of the advertisements “Agents 
Wanted at $50, $75, $100 a week,” and upward, contain 
a cat in a meal-tub, that will scratch you badly if you 
touch them—so beware. In no case advance any money 
for samples, or accept them C. O. D., or to be paid for 
afterward.Frank Lewis, 103 Ludlow-street, N. Y., 
promises a valuable secret for 25 cents, but “ no atten¬ 
tion is paid to you, unless 25 cents is first inclosed to 
him.” This is cool. We suppose there are people green 
enough to send 25 cents on such unsupported claims 
and promises; but such people ought to be scarce 
for their own good, and the good of the world. 
The “ Sunlight Oil,” of which circulars, etc., still 
come, was exposed by us as a humbug in May, 1870. 
The “Great American Oil” is of like character. The 
$35 a week promised is “ all in your eye.”.Advance 
no money for Ink recipes or Powders, Tobacco- 
Substitutes, Corn-Extractors, etc.; the money will never 
be seen again.Isaac H. Hitchcock, of Philadelphia, 
is sending out circulars, offering for $15 to sell a secret of 
saving 80 per cent of seed potatoes. We make this offer 
to him : If he will send us the secret, we will examine it, 
and will keejvit secret, and if it seems plausible, we will 
tell a good many hundred thousands of farmers so, and 
how the $15 will flow in to him 1 Until he accepts our 
proposition, we advise all our readers to hold on to their 
$15. We would willingly invest the $15, and get the 
secret, but we have no security that it will come, if we 
send the money. So, though we spend any amount of 
money freely for information promising to be useful to 
our readers, we can ’t make up our minds to this trial—it 
do n’t look right 1.We repeatfor the twentieth time, 
give a wide berth to all Destroyers of Insects on Trees 
by any powder, etc., no matter how well fortified by 
bogus recommendations. The devil himself could 
get up a number of recommendations of character—fic¬ 
titious and otherwise. We once heard a clergyman say, in 
the pulpit, that the devil was a gentleman, and understood 
good manners, because he was brought up in good 
society—that he would enter no man’s house (or heart) 
where he was not invited!.The (rhubarb) wine- 
plant humbug is alive again—a swindle that has cost the 
farmers of our country hundreds of thousands of dollars, 
and not a few have lost their farms by it, loo. As a hum¬ 
bug, it bei^s the morus multicaulus “ all to pieces.”_The 
so-called “Enterprise Publishing Company” of Broad¬ 
way, N. Y., will be advoided by all decent people, and 
they will take care that their sons avoid it. Any one 
sending his money there, ought to lose it. Swindling 
soldiers , is about the meanest act we can think of. Parties 
here and there, especially at the West, advertise to collect 
their bounties, and ask soldiers to send them a dollar or 
two for this purpose. Of course they pocket the money, 
and answer no further inquiries. Soldiers should con¬ 
sult with no one but a well-known lawyer of first-class 
character. Such men will give advice freely, and if they 
undertake the collection of bounties, will at most charge 
only a very small sum for necessary expenses. Some 
Railroads allow peddlers to go through the cars and sell 
prize packages for 50c. guaranted to contain silver or gold 
coin of 5c. or 10c. to $10. These parcels contain 4c. or 5c. 
worth of candy, and very seldom over 5c. or 10c. It is a 
small lottery swindle, that ought not to be allowed. We 
have recently seen these operators on the Erie, and the 
N. Y. & New Haven railroads. The news agents on some 
roads constantly thrnst into the faces of respectable 
ladies the basest sort of semi-obscene illustrated journals. 
The nuisance ought to be obviated by the railroad officers, 
without requiring the public to come to the rescue. 
A so-called “ Spanish Policy,” is advertised (by mailed 
documents) by G. B. Chappell & Co., 680 Broadway—a 
swindle.A book, called “ Silent Friend ” extensively 
advertised, is to be let alone severely except by those 
who are anxious to buy the sheer nonsense.For 
the “Royal Havana Lotteries,” many persons advertise 
themselves, as “Agents.” Nine-tenths of these are 
swindlers who pocket your money, and give no answer, 
and your chance, through any real agent is not worth a six¬ 
pence a ticket. None but the lunatic or insane will in¬ 
vest a dime through any agency real or pretended. 
Galvanized wire for clothes-line, if of good quality and at 
a reasonable price, is useful. Some who have acted as 
agents complain of receiving it of poor quality from those 
issuinggood certificates. We have hardly time to investi¬ 
gate all these cases, and only insert this paragraph to put 
buyers on their guard.“Co-operative” Insurance 
Companies are, in our opinion, not worthy of being 
patronized, whether advertised by reliable parties or not. 
We have seen some bogus advertisers of them who of 
course pocketed all the funds received.But our space 
is exhausted and we must wait until next paper before 
finishing the pile of swindling schemes before us. 
