AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
o<; 
kiuiw exactly whatjs to appear, till Uie carrier delivers 
Uie payer at the appointed hour. And then the interest 
felt, as one after another takes it up, and passes his com¬ 
ments on it, or expresses his surprise at some important 
announcement! 
This is a great deal better than what is called “com¬ 
position writing,” and gives the writer practice in de¬ 
scribing the occurrences of every day life. It is better 
than “ keeping a journal,” because it allows greater va¬ 
riety, with less stiffness. And as a matter of family his¬ 
tory, we know nothing to equal it. A plan like this pur¬ 
sued for years, even with occasional interruptions, will 
give one a tile of documents which will be worth' their 
weight in silver, as time rolls on. 
For Uie encouragement of beginners, we will only add 
that years ago a lad whom we knew pursued the plan here 
described, and not only conferred great pleasure on others 
out derived personal advantage from it. We are not at 
liberty to mention his name, but we know that he “ holds 
the pen of a ready writer,” and bids fair to exert a wide 
influence as an editor of papers more widely circulated 
trian tnose he prepared so long ago. On the other hand, 
1 school boy whom we know, has just brought in his paper 
for Oct. 24, which discusses among other things “ file 
weather,” “boat-building,” “school items,” and the ser¬ 
mons he heard on Sunday. And to show what he thinks 
if ttie plan, and how successful he is, we copy two of his 
articles ; a thing he had no idea of when he wrote them. 
From “ Our Home Journal," of Oct. 21 
REFLECTIONS ! 
Yes, ’Lis time, this is the sixteenth number of my paper, 
f never thought it would last so long and give me so much 
pleasure. The first number was written one afternoon 
soon after 1 came here : I felt, very homesick and wanted 
something to do. Little did I think what w ould follow 
less do I thing that l ever repented the writing of that 
first copy or the consequences which you see every week. 
From Ike Some. 
TUBE ROSE. 
It has flowered 1 Seven beautiful w hite blossoms are on 
its stalk ;one has just been picked ; two bid fair to open 
to-morrow and two the day after. No flower ever gave 
me so much pleasure as this tube rose. I never had one 
before, in fact, never saw one. i have watched it with 
great care and 1 feel fully repaid. Oh! how sweet it is 1 ! 
Many, many thanks, to Miss. H. 
Sec Were SSoys ami tiirla-all of You ! 
We do not offer any special premiums to grown up 
people—we can not afford it without giving them a poor¬ 
er paper. But we have just concluded, for once, to make 
a special offer to the Boys and Girls, even if we lose a 
little money by it the first year. 
We have on our table a great copy of Webster’s Un¬ 
abridged Dictionary—as large as a large Family Bible, 
and containing nearly 1,400 pages. This book we could 
not do without, it contains so much information about 
almost every word in the English language It cost—w e 
do not remember how much—but we can buy some of 
them now at $5 each, and we wish every boy and girl in 
the country had one. This is a great sum for a boy or 
girl to raise for even so great a treasure. But you can 
earn one. Suppose you start out with a copy of the 
Agriculturist, and show it to the people in your neighbor¬ 
hood, and ask every one to subscribe to a club of ten or 
more, at 60 cents each. Get all you can in your own 
place, and if your number is not made up, then go over 
into some other neighborhood where you are acquainted, 
and if necessary, write to your uncles or acquaintances, 
and tell them what you know about the Agi iculturist, and 
ask them to send you their names. (The papers need not 
all go to one or two Post-Oflioes.) If you do tlii?, and get 
40 names, and send them to us with SOcentseach, wc will 
buy a new copy of this large Dictionary and send it to 
your house without cost —no matter where you live—and 
w ith your name written in it. If any of the subscribers 
rou get, think the paper is worth a dollar to them, and 
they are willing to pay you that much, you can keep all 
over the 80 cents apiece. 
Let us tell you also, that if you try this plan you will get 
more than the Dictionary—you will get business experi¬ 
ence, and learn the art of persuasion, which is of great 
practical use to every one. 
Who will get the Big Dictionary ? llow many must we 
send to Mr. Merriam for ? Shall wc write to him to print 
an extra edition, right off ? 
Tlie Problems. 
We have received nearly a peck measure full of letters 
containing replies from Boys and Girls, to former prob¬ 
lems, and have a number of fine engravings to present, but 
Ihe Index, Title page, and other matters necessary to the 
closing number of the volume have left us no room. We 
shall, in future numbers, have a whole page at least, of 
matter specially interesting to our younger readers. 
A Special Favor Asked. 
Il will be a matter of special convenience if our readers 
.will renew their subscriptions for the coming year, and send 
in new names, as early this month as possible, since, at the 
best, we shall be overrun with work for a few days tow. 
aids the close of this month, and the fore part of the next- 
Farther, the clerks begin correcting the lists and writing 
wrappers for the next month, as soon as the number of the 
preceding month is mailed. It will be no more trouble to 
sit down and write your name. Post Office, County and 
State, (all that is necessary,) and enclose the subscription, 
when you read this item, than it wiil be to do it at Christmas 
or Netv-Y'ears. Please oblige us in the above matter, 
and we too, may, perhaps, have a holiday at New-Y r ears, 
which will be a novelty to us. Last New-l r ears our re¬ 
spite consisted in helping to open 503 letters, to prevent 
their crowding upon a larger number the next day. 
Ail i'or EigSity CentsS!! 
We ask attention to ‘lie last two pages of this number, 
containing a summary of the contents of this volume. The 
Prospectus promised five hundred articles in a volume— 
the Index contains over one thousand references, though, 
of course, many of them relate to short answers, &c., but 
all give information. 
So much for the past volume. The next volume will 
be ONE THIRD LARGER, or allowing the same space 
for advertisements, market reports, and such like mat¬ 
ters, the reading matter of the next volume will be nearly 
or quite DOUBLED. 
The character of the matter will be correspondingly 
improved. 
The number of useful, instructive, and pleasing engrav¬ 
ings will be very greatly increased ; indeed, we intend to 
furnish from two hundred and fifty , to three hundred illus¬ 
trations, if not more, in the next volume alone. 
Now, with all the above improvements, and others not 
enumerated, the entire Volume, (XVII.,) will furnished 
to subscribers for Eighty Cents each, where ten or more 
copies are taken by one person or by a Club. 
Or, Six Copies for Five Dollars. 
Or, One Copy for One Dollar. 
Will not this be a paying investment, to say nothing of 
the seeds offered free to all subscribers for 1858 1 
Remember, also, two extra copies (this and the preced¬ 
ing) to all new subscribers desiring them. 
We make the above promises and offers only after suffi¬ 
cient experience to know that we can certainly fulfill 
them. 
We can do more if every present subscriber renews, 
and brings along as many friends and neighbors as pos¬ 
sible. Will not this be done 1 We think it will. 
3,078,792 «ems.» 
The piece of type metal upon which the letter m 
stands is nearly square, and printers estimate their work 
by the number of thousands of m’s (or ems) which would 
stand in the space occupied by the type set up. Thus, it 
would take 1,150 ems to fill the space occupied by this 
item, Including the smaller letters and the spaces be¬ 
tween words, there is more than twice as many letters on 
a page as the estimated number of ems. On a page of this 
type ( Nonpareil ) there are about 10,500 ems. On a page 
of Brevier type, like the middle pages of this paper, there 
are 0,000 ems of reading matter. In Bourgeois type, like 
t he first page, there, are 5,700 ems. In Agate type, like 
the next page, there are 15,000 ems. It will be seen then, 
that the number of ems indicates the amount of reading 
matter.... We have just taken down from our shelves six 
of the best books we have, which are sold at a dollar each 
and are worth the money—and on measuring the pages we 
find the books average 444,000 ems each. The November 
number of the Agriculturist contains 252,566 ems. As 
that number is a fair sample of the future numbers, the 
measurement shows that estimating only twelve numbers, 
the next volume will contain 3,078,792 ems, or about 
the same reading matter as scvesi good books costing 
each. This does not include the two extra numbers 
given to all new subscribers... .We leave our readers 
to say how the Agriculturist compares with most books 
offered to the public, as respects the quality of paper 
printed upon, the number and value of engravings, and 
especially in a careful preparation of the reading matter. 
Everybody an “Agent.” 
Many publishers Offer Premiums to persons acting as 
agents. We follow the same course, only we consider 
everybody an agent and pay two premiums to every one, 
viz.: Premiumjfrst, the best possible paper that can be 
afforded at the subscription price ; and Premium second, 
three packages of seed to every one. We therefore “ by 
these presents,” as the lawyers say, do hereby constitute 
and appoint every present and future reader of this paper 
as a special authorized agent to forward the interests of 
the Agriculturist, in his or her neighborhood. 
Wc now consider the work intrusted to good hands and 
shall rest assured that it will be well done. 
'FaiE BAKI5IS7S BOHEN ©FFKB 
Will be continued through this year; that is, every new 
subscriber for 1858, desiring them, will be furnished with 
this and the preceding number withqut charge. 
Sc Mail Postage Stamps and Eoltg. 
We have received thousands of stamps which were 
badly injured or spoiled by being stuck to one another, or 
to the enclosing letter. It is always better to fold up 
stamps with a double thickness of thin paper between the 
gum surfaces. Then, in case of getting damp, they can 
be separated, and the paper adhering to each sticking sur¬ 
faces can be removed. If only one thickness of paper be 
put between, both pasted portions may stick to this, in 
which case theyAiannot be separated without injury. 
Never let the gummed side of stamps come in contact 
with the printed side, as ten to one, the figures will be de¬ 
faced and the stamps rendered useless. 
To mail gold, a good plan is to take a card or bit of 
pasteboard and split it open in the middle, drop in the gold 
coin, and close it with a wafer or paste, then enclose the 
card or pasteboard and seal the letter tightly. 
It is seldom safe to trust money to the scaling or closing 
of ordinary “self-sealing envelopes.” A little extra paste, 
or a split wafer put in beyond the usual seal will render a 
letter difficult to be opened. If you know your postmaster 
to be honest this is enough ; if you do not know this 
fact, then “ register” the letter. 
EanJk Bills. 
liie bills on most unbroken banks of the country are 
now passably good here, or approaching that point. For 
our use lure, bills on the unbroken Banks ofNew-York. 
New-Jersey and New-England, are much the most desir¬ 
able, but when these, or 3-cent stamps, or gold can not be 
forwarded, please send along the best bills you have, on 
Banks in good credit at home. The following table ol 
the discount necessary to be paid before bills can be used 
here, will give some idea of their pi estnt value to us_bu' 
the rates are growing better almost daily. 
Banks in Discount 
O., Ind., Ivy., Mo.2i<5>3 
West-Jersey. 3 
Baltimore. 3 J <®4 
Interior Penn. 3 i(ffi 4 
Rhode-Island.' . 4,1 
Interior Maryland . i(3>5 
South and West. 5(&7 
III. andWis. 7 (®g 
Banks in Discount 
New-York State.J 
New-England.J 
East-Jersey.J 
Canada...] \(5A> 
Philadelphia . 2 i(a> 2 ( 
Delaware.2(021 
Two Pieces of Paper—Tairee Suggestions. 
1. Mr. Oren O. Stewart, of Union. Conn., well suggests 
that “each subscriber when renewing should send along 
a contribution to the general stock of knowledge, such 
as : ..he best mode of cultivating a particular crop, a good 
recipe, the result, whether good or bad, of the trial of a 
costly or dangerous recipe on experiment.” The whole 
aim of the Argiculturist is to collect and disseminate use¬ 
ful information! One valuable hint from you, reader, if 
published in these pages, will reach thirty to fifty thou¬ 
sand persons direct, and perhaps a million others by be¬ 
ing copied, into other journals. How much good vou mav 
thus do by a few lines ! 
2 . Please write on but one side of a sheet, and let all 
business matters be on one page or sheet, and other items 
on a separate one, putting your name and address on 
both. 
3. It is always better to name at the beginning of a 
money letter, just how much money is enclosed, and fol¬ 
low directly with a statement of what it is for. 
Postage only Six Cents a Year. 
The law expressly says that the postage on periodicals 
weighing not over three mmcesshall be one cent per num¬ 
ber, and only half that sum when paid quarterly in ad¬ 
vance by the subscriber. The papers are to be weighed 
dry, and without the ivrappers used in mailing. We shal 
take care to have each number just below three ounces 
so that only one cent per number, or 1 j- cents per quarter, 
or 6 cents peryear can be charged for postage. 
Back Numbers of Vol. XVI, 
We shall be able to supply from our stereotype plates, 
all the back numbers of this volume, that may be wanted. 
The entire volume_will be supplied in numbers, at the 
office, for $ 1 , or sent post-paid for $1 12 . 
•To new subscribers who have the November and De¬ 
cember numbers as a premium, the ten preceding numbers 
will be furnished for 84 cents at the office, or sent post¬ 
paid for 94 cents. 
Volumes Xfl, XIII, XIV and XVI, (not XV,) will be 
supplied neatly bound for .$1 50 each. They are too bulky 
to go by mail. 
Ready prepared covers for these volumes can be had for 
25 cents each. The numbers can be put. in by any book 
binder for 25 or 37 cents per volume. The covers arc not 
mailable. 
