4:6 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[February, 
ble that so stale a bait as this may catch some poor flat¬ 
fish. .. .Here is the Wyoming Lottery at Laramie; resorts 
to a remarkable trick. It lias a special drawing for 
agents. Only 5,000 tickets, each one to draw a prize 
given free to agents. This they do as a form of adver¬ 
tising, so that each agent can say that he drew a prize 
and thus “create more interest, and cause those agents 
to sell more tickets in our next Extraordinary Drawing, 
than $50,000 spent in advertising.” In this private and 
peculiar lottery. $31,546 are offered in prizes from 50c. 
up to $5,000. This is about the smartest advertising 
dodge we have known of. Had it been proposed at the 
east, it would have been ‘‘acute Yankee trick,” but in 
Wyoming it is done, as the head of the circular has it, 
“By authority of an Act of the Legislature.” No doubt 
the managers have a right to make a lottery all prizes, 
but this getting up a special drawing for agents, so that 
their exceptional “ luck” will cause them to sell more 
tickets in other lotteries, which have 8 blanks to one 
prize looks like—like—Mr. Governor, of Wyoming, who 
presided at one of these drawings—Mr. Mayor, of Lara¬ 
mie, who was on the stage—Mr. Judge, who, (of all re¬ 
markable things), administered an oath to the drawers. 
What does this proceeding look most like?... .No, we 
thank you, Mr. Topeka man, 
“hot any in ours,” 
You come to the wrong shop with your contract. He 
sends us a contract to fill up by which we are to agree to 
pTint his advertisement and give him notices in each 
issue “ of not less than ten or over twenty lines,” for so 
much money, and so much in tickets. We should just 
like to know if there are any papers in the country who 
take lottery tickets in pay for advertising... .Last month 
we referred to the great number of nonsensical and 
worse than worthless books that were offered, and we 
might have added that the dealers in these also offered a 
lot of equally 
WORTHLESS AND TRASHY ARTICLES. 
Boston, New' York, and Newark, N. J., appear to be the 
headquarters of these wares, if they are not all one con¬ 
cern, for their circulars read wonderfully alike. Among 
the things offered are $2. 50 sewing machines ; the Brazil¬ 
ian Perfume Stone—that thing you know that comes 
from “ a secluded ravine in the Andes.” Stuff to render 
(kerosene non-explosive, and prevent chimneys from 
■ftreaking : Photographs that show “your future wife or 
husband ; ” a preparation for the “Development of the 
Breast;” that “ Butter Compound ” again, and various 
other old, exploded, and worn-out humbugs offered to 
“ Agents.” One concern has on its circular of a trashy 
book, a slip saying: If you send this slip back with 25 
cents in a letter, we will send you something that will 
bring you in, honorably, over two hundred dollars a 
month, and not occupy more than half your time. Suit¬ 
able for both sexes.” These spurious promises must 
catch a great many unsuspecting persons; if we may 
judge from the number of these circulars sent us by per¬ 
sons who ask our opinion of them, there must be many 
more not so cautious who bite at once at the bait. Our 
readers may be very sure that if a business circular is of 
such a doubtful character that they are obliged to ask 
others about it, it is a very good business to let alone. 
_Circulars of attractive mining schemes are industri¬ 
ously circulated, and with a certain class there is nothing 
so fascinating as the idea of getting rich by 
GOLD AND SILVER MINING. 
There is just that element of uncertainty about it which 
makes it attractive to those who believe in “ luck," and 
even at this late day, when mining is in most localities 
reduced to a question of day’s work, there are those who 
believe that fortune has something in store for them. If 
those who are old enough to recollect the Californiafevcr 
of about 1849, when an individual really stood some 
chance to “make his pile,” will recall those who went to 
California and came back, or remained there, really bet¬ 
tered in condition through their mining operations, they 
will find that the proportion of successful ones even 
then was very small, compared with those who failed. 
Colorado is now the attractive mining region, and we 
cannot better reply to those who ask us about going there 
than by giving the following from a letter of a cor¬ 
respondent in the mining regions. He writes : “Read¬ 
ing your humbug articles reminds me, as I see thousands 
of “states’ people” rushing to our mines, that some one 
conversant with mines and mining should give the pub¬ 
lic a little advice regarding them. There is no greater 
humbug in existence than our mines, and none in regard 
to which the operators are more persistent in misleading 
and deceiving. We have living within twenty miles of 
us at least one hundred old miners, who have mined in 
California and various territories, not one of whom, to 
my knowledge, has visited the famous mines near here. 
They say there is no doubt that very rich mines exist 
here, but it’s only one of many who will strike a “good 
thing,” and he, for the want of capital and machinery, will 
be forced to sell to the capitalists when be has partially 
developed his claim. The capitalist understands this, 
and practices what is known as the 1 freeze out ’ game, 
and after one or two years gathers in all the desirable 
claims at very low figures. Our old miners say they 
would as soon take their chance in a lottery at once, and 
thus escape all the work and hardships; and they say 
that, though a few lucky ones make their pile, thou- 
sands'work for their Jioard, many not even making that. 
Taking all the mining here as a whole, there is more in¬ 
vested in labor and capital than the mines ever repay. 
When a person is lucky, though, it is harped upon for 
years; stock jobbers and newspaper men never lose an 
opportunity of mentioning the case as an inducement for 
others to try. Our papers are perfectly reckless, their 
only aim being to draw immigration here, well knowing 
that if a man is once here, they have him for life, for by 
the time he gets his eyes open he is too poor to get away. 
Why eastern men of moderate means who can make a 
living where they are, will come here upon an uncertainty 
I cannot see, and if the American Agriculturist can be the 
means of keeping a few of the many at home, it will be 
doing them a good service.” 
MEDICAL MATTERS 
do not open very brilliantly with the new year. It is 
hardly possible that these ingenious gentlemen—oh. yes ! 
and ladies too, for we must not forget dear Mother No¬ 
ble and Ma’am Legget—will let the opportunity pass and 
not have a grand Centennial cure-all of some kind. Just 
now it is very dull, but perhaps it is only the lull that 
precedes the tempest. Still we have a few interesting 
cases under consideration, and it is not at all likely that 
medical quacks will in future numbers escape the ex¬ 
posure they merit_Several inquiries about Wall-street 
stock brokers are referred to last month's humbugs. 
Potato Crops.— Last spring Messrs. 
B. K. Bliss & Sons offered premiums for the largest 
yields from one pound each of Snowflake and Eureka, 
two of their new varieties of potatoes. The awards have 
been made, and a full report of the committee will soon 
be published. The returns are simply astonishing, but 
they are thoroughly substantiated by evidence and affi¬ 
davits. Such large yields were of course obtained by 
evory legitimate aid ; the eyes of the potatoes, greatly 
subdivided, and soil already very rich, pushed to its ut¬ 
most with fertilizers. The report gives many interest¬ 
ing particulars ; here we can only give the yields and the 
awards. Largest yield of Snowflake from one pound of 
seed—1st prize to P. C. Wood, Esther, HI., 1,417 lbs., 
$100 ; 2nd prize to J. L. Perkins. Little Sioux, Iowa, 
1,304 lbs.,$50; 3rd prize to E. II. Seiler, Verona, Essex 
Co., N. J., 1.125 lbs., $40 ; 4th prize to J. I. Salter, St. 
Cloud, Minn., 1,090} lbs., $30 ; 5th prize to Alfred Rose, 
Penn Yan, N. Y., 1,089} lbs., $20; 6th prize to Henry V. 
Rose, Penn Yan, N. Y., 1,009} lbs., $10. Largest yield 
of Eureka from one pound of seed—1st prize to J. L. 
Perkins, Little Sioux, Iowa, 1,666} lbs., $100 ; ,2nd prize 
to P. C. Wood, Esther, Ill.. 1.403 lbs., $50 ; 3rd prize to 
Alfred Rose, Penn Yan, N. Y., 1,149 lbs.. $40; 4th prize 
to Milton M. Rose, Penn Yan, N. Y., 1,145 lbs., $30; 5th 
prize to J. I. Salter, St. Cloud, Minn.. 1,087 lbs., $29 ; 6th 
prize to Henry V. Rose, Penn Yan, N. Y., 1,066} lbs. $10. 
Tlie Illustrated tnmia! Kcgistei- 
of Rural A flairs, by J. J. Thomas; Albany, 
Luther Tucker & Sons. These little volumes come but 
once a year, but that is quite too often for us to find some 
new form in which to express our commendation of them. 
We can only say that this is as good as the others, and 
that they are all good, useful, and of real value, and well 
worth the 30 cents for which they may be had of the 
Orange Judd Co. 
Tlie Metltodist, which was advertised in 
the January number, is now under the editorial manage¬ 
ment of the new editor, Dr. Wheeler. The Methodist 
takes high rank among religious journals. It is spicy, 
intelligent, and liberal. 
One Bad B5esialt of Hard Times— 
“Religious Journals.”— Among some good 
effects produced by the hard times, such as economy, 
thrift, etc., we have to deplore the course taken by sun¬ 
dry “ religious journals ” to eke out a subsistence, or ex¬ 
istence, and by some, in fair circumstances, to keep up 
an income We refer to the recent larger admission of 
advertisements of quack medicines and quack doctors. 
Before us is a religious newspaper, considered high- 
toned, edited by a college professor, and a paper of con¬ 
siderable Influence. Yet in this one number are a score 
of advertisements of an objectionable character ; of such 
a character that they could not get admission into the 
American Agriculturist on any terms. The advertise¬ 
ments are inserted because it pays the advertisers to do 
so. Yet every dollar they receive from customers is for 
that which is either of no benefit, or positively injurious, 
usually the latter. Now the plain question is. are not 
the editors or publishers of papers advertising such 
things participes crimimrum— aiders in the fraud? 
Their only defense can be that they don’t care for the 
well being of their readers, or that they do not know that 
such advertisements are injurious. If they take the lat¬ 
ter ground, it may be well queried whether they have the 
•requisite qualifications to occupy the position of con- 
servitors and promoters of the public welfare. N. B. 
The journal above referred to is not the New Y r ork Inde¬ 
pendent, which justifies itself in advertising “ patent 
medicines, etc.,” but another journal, one of a consider¬ 
able class. If the reader will turn to his religious paper, 
and find it free from this species of advertisements, then 
that is not the paper we mean. 
Allen’s Patent Seed Drills and 
Wlieel JHioes.—These implements have been in the 
market for several years, and have been used with satis¬ 
faction by many experienced gardeners, both for sowing 
seeds, and for cultivating the crops after they were up. 
From the experience of last season, we were induced to 
place this implement upon our premium list, which is as 
positive a recommendation, as can be given, as nothing 
but articles of real merit are offered there. In our garden¬ 
ing directions we often say, “not a weed should bo 
seen ;” the cultivator part of this implement renders it 
easy to carry out this injunction, as it may be used among 
the crops with most “ killing effect” on the weeds. 
Tlat^ New Excelsior Lawn Mower 
is the name given to the latest production of 'Chadborn, 
Colwell & Co. It may be that they will produce a mower 
that will do the work better, with less expenditure of 
strength, than is required by this, but until they do, we 
shall have to regard this as, taken altogether, the most 
satisfactory among the many good lawn mowers. 
Our Premium Target I’ 3 He.— Among 
the numerous valuable Premiums offered for clubs of sub¬ 
scribers to the American Agriculturist for 1876, is one 
(No. 61) of a Target Rifle , designed for hunting as well as 
target shooting. The other day Mr. Judd took one of 
these out to his country residence to lest it. After firing 
half a dozen times to get the new bead-sight adjusted in 
the manner described last month (page 5), he made the 18 
successive shots marked on the annexed sketch, which is 
an exact copy of the 6-inch “bull's-eye" of the target, 
reduced to one-sixth. It will be seen that no ball hit 
over 2% inches from the 
central point. This was at 
a distance of 200 measured 
yards, (nearly 40 rods 1) To 
give the gun a fair show, the 
firing was from a rest—on 
the end of a plank. The 
firing was stopped by dark¬ 
ness coming on. Mr. J. says 
he knows no reason why a 
hundred or more successive 
bull’s-eyes might not have 
been made equally well, as “ the gun carried just where he 
held it, every time." —When we compare the work of these 
guns with that of those in use only a few years since, 
they are certainly worth securing. [The Publishers will 
be happy to present such a rifle to each person, who 
will collect a club of 68 subscribers at the regular rates, 
$1.60 each, postage included. It can be easily done 
during this leisure month. (For any further particulars 
see the Illustrated Premium List, which will be supplied 
free to any one not having it already.) See also page 73.] 
“Answer In Tour Next Paper,” 
says an Ohio correspondent at the bottom of his letter. 
He describes his place, and asks advice as to its adapta¬ 
bility to poultry raising and other questions, of interest 
to no other living mortal, and then says : “ Ans. in your 
next paper in Dec.” But he is very careful to avoid giv¬ 
ing his name. Please notice, everybody. We can not 
fill the paper with merely personal matters. We do not 
reply in the paper to anonymous letters, and we of course 
can’t reply by mail. 
Baldwin’s American Fodder Cut> 
ter.— The makers of this cutter claim that it is “The 
best in the world.” We can not say how just this claim 
may be, never having tried all the machines “ in the 
world,” hut of the considerable number wo have used, 
we regard this as by far the best. We have used this for 
some months, and for ease of working, and rapidity of 
cutting, it is eminently satisfactory. It is not always a 
fair test of a machine that hired men like it, but they 
take to this at once, and look upon the cutting of feed 
with tliis rather as play than as work. 
Importation of Clydesdale Hares. 
—Mr. William Crozier, of Northport, L. I., has added to 
his stock a pair of Clydesdale marcs, imported from Scot¬ 
land by Mr. Simon Beattie, of Toronto, Canada. These 
mares are four and five years old, dark bay in color, 16 
