1866.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
127 
Containing a great variety of Items, including many 
good Hints and Suggestions which we throw into small 
type and condensed form, for want of space elsewhere. 
FOIBTY-FOUIS, PAGES !—The pres¬ 
sure upon our columns, compels us to issue 44 pages, 
instead of the regular 32 ; and with the good advertise¬ 
ments and good reading matter still left over, we would 
gladly have made it 48 pages, only that it would increase 
the weight to double postage, and make trouble with all 
who pay postage by the year. The weight is stilt not 
above the 4 ounces, and no one has a legal right to 
charge over 3 cents per quarter postage. This increase 
of advertisements enables us to give sixteen extra columns 
of reading matter, which our subscribers will appreciate. 
Erratum. — By an error in printing, in a 
few only of the first copies of this number, some of the 
page-figures are wrong on one side of the middle sheet. 
Over One lluudred TlaoBssasid I — 
The first regular edition of this number, printed for sub¬ 
scribers, will exceed One Hundred Thousand copies ; 
and we shall continue on printing furtlier editions from 
the electrotype plates, so long as needed. The number 
of subscribers received up to tliis time, exceeds the re¬ 
ceipts of the same date last year, by 27,500; wliich indi¬ 
cates a total of over 125,000 for this year. This large in¬ 
crease and the enlarged size, have prevented the prompt 
mailing of all the copies so early as formerly; but this 
difficulty will be remedied next month, by the additioli of 
more presses—so that we shall be able to accommodate 
all who may come, up to half a million, if necessary. 
By the way, a subscriber informs us that his paper is 
regularly loaned around, so that twenty-three persons 
actually read every number, and that it thus gets about 
worn out. This is the case in a less degree, generally, 
so that our readers really amount to a full million ! 
Att Excellent Assortment of selected 
business items, conveying much useful information, wili 
be found in our advertising pages. We only regret being 
compelled to leave out several other good advertisements 
that came in after our pages were full. We believe it 
will pay every reader to look all through the advertising 
pages, and see what is offered, at what prices, and by 
whom. As remarked last month, “ business men seem 
to understand where.they can find an immense number 
of wide-awake, enterprising readers. Please return 
their compliment, when writing for circulars or cata¬ 
logues, or sending orders to them, by letting them know 
when and where their advertisements were seen.” 
Read llie “Hints about Worlc.”— 
At the present season we have such a flood of queries 
that, though we have given a large space to Basket mat¬ 
ter, it is impossible to reply to a fourth of the questions 
individually. In making up the Hints about Work, we 
endeavor to meet as many of these questions as possible, 
and this month a number of letters are there answered. 
Humbug’S—Seventy Swindling Con- 
cerns!— Since our broadside upon humbugs last month, 
letters have continued to pour in from all pans of the 
country, mostly from those describing frauds upon them¬ 
selves or their neighbors. The extent to which these 
operations are now carried, would astonish any one who 
had not previously looked into the subject. We have 
just been over a package of 214 of the iast letters receiv¬ 
ed, and in these alone find over seventy different concerns 
referred to, many of them run by the same oper.ators, un¬ 
der different names. These letters came from all parts 
of the country. As this journal goes to nearly every Post 
Office in the whole country, we hope the attention thus 
called to the subject, may be of extensive influence. Let 
every reader talk the matter over in his town, and espe¬ 
cially with his postmaster ; and this will do something to 
put people on their guard. 
This week, we have visited several of these swindling 
offices, in the guise of a green countryman seeking to 
collect some of the numerous “ prizes ” called for by 
tickets sent to us ; and the immense business we have 
seen doing, up in these attic rooms, was astonishing even 
to our experienced eyes. The “business” consisted 
mainly of sending out circulars, and opening great stacks 
of letters containing remittances of $1, or $2, or $5,15, or 
/Or $5.24, or $10, etc., etc. We saw no “ prizes ” going 
out, and but few on hand anywhere to send out. In three 
places alone there were eleven men directing envelopes 
and enclosing circulars, and there were at least fifty 
thousand of these circulars piled up ready to be forvvard- 
ed. In two places the chief man, or “ head center,” was 
“ out,” but would be in soon, and our tickets could not 
“ draw ” until said boss came in—the story always told 
to callers. At another place, a “ splendid hunting-case 
watch, marked $50,” our ticket called for, was shown, 
but $5 would not fetch it—we must pay $3.75 for the 
tickets. As we could get plenty of sucA watches at $3 a 
piece, we saved our $8.75 _We visited an up-Broadway 
depository of merchants and others (so-said), with a 
million or less “gifts” to be distributed. From the 
description sent out, this should be one of the most 
splendid establishments on the whole street ; we found, 
in the basement, only a contemptible “ gift shop,” like 
the one “looked into” last month (p. 8fi, last column), 
but with more silver-covered lead ware. See about 
“ Plated Ware,” on pp. 147-148 of this paper. 
Had we time and room we could give a dozen pages 
of descriptions of the fifty odd swindling concerns in this 
city. Nassau street, and certain parts of Broadway 
abound in them—the lotteries, the (brass) gold pens and 
jewelry, the pianos and melodeons sold at $2 each, the 
cheap valueless photographic apparatus, the prize pack¬ 
ages, the cigar machines, the cheap, or rather low-priced 
sewing machines, etc., etc. There are plenty of similar 
concerns in other cities and towns. The misdirected ex¬ 
press parcel humbug is run by J. C. Smalley, at Hope, 
N. J.; and by others elsewhere. Here and elsewhere 
are Eye Doctors, offers of great wages to Agents, Love 
Perfumeries, Journal of Medical Science, Magic Moni¬ 
tor, Paris Lotteries, etc., etc. “Albert Hall & Co.” (no 
place) ask $10 through the mail for a sewing machine 
sold by others for $5. We judge by what we have seen, 
that tens of thousands of circulars are sent out daily as 
letters. Most of these parties make no return for money 
received by mail. When found, and called on personally, 
they furnish something ; but in the numerous applications 
with the “ prize tickets,” we could not find a single thing 
worth the money asked. 
A few hints is all we now have room for. There is 
not an article of gold or silver to be bought in this city at 
less than its coin value. The great failures described in 
so many of the circulars, have nowhere occurred. Be¬ 
lieve no statement, however plausible and well told, 
that comes to you by circular through the mail. There 
is not a single gift enterprise that is not directly or indi¬ 
rectly a swindle. The fellows that advertise obscene 
books, instruments, or medicines, are, without exception, 
swindlers. Every watch or similar thing offerred to be sent 
by mail, is not worth sending for, even if you are sure to 
get it, which, in nine cases out of ten, you will not. 
Most of these parties, on being followed up, pretend 
that the money sent them has been lost by mail. We 
know that there is not a single establishment in the coun¬ 
try that offer articles or money for distribution by tickets, 
that is not a down; ight cheat. 
A Petroleum and Eantl Advertise¬ 
ment is tor the first time admitted to these columns, 
though many thousands of dollars worth of “Oil Com¬ 
pany” aiivertisemeuts have been previously offered and re¬ 
jected. This is done now, not so much for the pay it brings, 
(plenty of other good advertisements were ready to fill 
the same space,) but because we had become sufficiently 
impressed with the prospects of the Reno Company, to 
make a small investment of our own ; and we could not 
well refuse to place the matter before our readers, that 
they may also investigate, and if they then desire to do 
so, they can also take an interest. Our own inducements 
to subscribe were derived from what we learn of the 
character of the parties interested, and from the large 
profits that may be derived from the small sum actually 
risked in the investment. Should the enterprize not 
prove as profitable as it promises, and we wish to with¬ 
draw the money, the utmost loss on $1000 will be $50, and 
the interest of the money until withdrawn. So it looks 
to us, but we do not urge any one to see with our eyes. 
Special to Advertiser-^.— As we are so 
far into the volume as to be able to know about the reg¬ 
ular circulation, the advertising rales are now fixed for 
the rest of this year (see headings of Advertising pages). 
The minimum terms are based upon one cent per 
line for each thousand readers ; that is to say, it costs only 
about $1 to place an advertisement of 100 lines, or ~K 
inches, before each full thousand of our readers. A 
consultation with any printer will show that separate 
cards of a few lines, or even of a whole page in size, 
would cost more than the same number of cards printed 
in this journal, where they are fixed and sent out, one to 
a family, while the loose cards could only be distributed 
at great extra expense, and a large proportion of them 
would be lost.—In a journal of this kind, the advertising 
cards are before the reader at least a month, while many 
thousands of volumes are preserved for permanent refer¬ 
ence. With the care exercised in admitting advertise¬ 
ments, as noted below, they have a peculiar value in the 
Agriculturist, All things considered, this journal is un¬ 
doubtedly by far the cheapest medium of advertising 
anywhere to be found, even at our highest rates. The 
circulation certainly exceeds that of any other journal in 
this country, if not in the world, except perhaps the N. 
y. Ledger, and that admits no advertisements. — So 
well is this understood by our oldest advertising patrons, 
that they continue year after year to be our largest cus¬ 
tomers. Several of these, who had engaged space for 
the first five or six numbers of this year, have withdrawn 
their cards from the present number, simply because they 
have already sold the w hole stock they had provided for 
the entire spring trade.—So much for the value of these 
columns to advertisers ; and to secure these advantages, 
we require something more of them than mere pay for 
space. Advertisers unknown to the editors personally, 
or by good repute, must furnish good references or other 
evidence that they are reliable—that they have both the 
disposition and ability to do just what they promise. Our 
aim is, to admit no advertiser to whom we would not our¬ 
selves unhesitatingly send money or orders, if we chanced 
to want what he advertises, and at the price asked. No 
patent medicines, or secret remedies are admitted, and 
no advertisement deceptive either in form or substance. 
By living up to these requirements, we aim to make the 
advertising pages very valuable to the reader, as well as 
to the advertiser. 
The Officers of the Cattle Hreetler’s 
Association for the current year, 1866, are; President; 
E.. H. Hyde, Stafford, Conn. Vice Presidents: J. F. 
Anderson, South Windham, Me.; J. 0. Sheldon, Geneva, 
N. Y.; Burdett Loomis, Suffield, Conn. ; J. W. Freeman, 
Troy, N. Y.; E. D. Pearce, East Providence, R. I, 
Secretary and Treasurer: J. S. Allen, East Windsor, Ct. 
The Committees on Pedigrees and Stock Registry are 
as follows : On Shorthorns ; S. W. Buffum, AVinchester, 
N. II.; S. W. Bartlett, East Windsor, Conn. ; P. Sted- 
man, Chicopee, Mass....On Devons: H. M. Sessions. 
South Wilbraham, Mass. • B. H. Andrews, Waterbury, 
Conn.; E. H. Hyde, 2d, Stafford, Conn ...On Ayrshires 
and Herefords: George B. Loring, Salem, Mass. ; 
Thomas E. Hatch, Keene, N. 11.; W. Birnie, Spring- 
field, Ms.. ..Alderneys : John Brooks, Princeton, Ms.; C. 
L. Hayes, Unadilla, N. Y.; Jonathan Forbush, Bolton, Ms. 
The Committee on Devons commence a new volume 
of the Amer. Devon Herd-book, for which they are now 
receiving pedigrees. Those wishing these recorded, 
should apply to the President, or Chairman of this Com, 
Wall-Il«il<iler and Stump-Puller.— 
Mr. Packer, of Mystic, Conn., in working among the 
rocks of New London Cdunty', found the necessity for .a 
machine to lift heavy rocks, transport them, and deposit 
them in walls, or wherever needed. So he invented one, 
—a pair of shears, on strong wheels, held apart by two 
powerful curved reaches, giving room for a stone to be 
swung high between them. For a wall layer, when 
large stones, say from 1 to 10 tons, are to be moved, it is 
doubtless an excellent thing, and has done first rale work 
in New London County. As a slump-puller,it must de¬ 
monstrate its own excellence. 
Rivers’ Uliuiatnre Fruit Gardem.—* 
We have in press a reprint of this charming little book 
on the garden culture of Fruit Trees. Ready early In 
April. Price 75 cents. 
Garden Hanures.—J. Haines, Tazewell 
Co., Ill., wishes to know what to put on a sandy garden. 
Muck, composted with lime or ashes, is one of the best 
applications to a soil of this kind. Gas lime is not safe 
to use until it has been long exposed.D. B. Graves, 
Clinton Co., Pa. There is much difference of opinion as 
to the value of salt as a manure; but it is used with ap¬ 
parent benefit on Asparagus, Cabbages, Beets, and such 
plants as naturally grow near the sea, at the rate of five 
or more bushels to the acre. 
Plants Named.— J. M. Shaw, of - Co., 
Maine. No. I is the common Crab-grass, Panicum San- 
guinale. No. 2 is a Beard-grass, Andropogon furcatus. 
_W. Maud, Mill Co., Wis. The specimens appear to 
be unusual forms of the Red Cedar, which, when yo<ing, 
has long and sharp leaves ; and it is not unusual to find 
on old trees limbs which bear leaves quite different from 
those on the rest of the tree.“ Subscriber,” Auburn- 
dale, Pa. The grass from the North of Italy is the 
Feather grass, Stipa pennata. It is hardy in the gardens 
around New York. The seed is sold at the seed-stores, 
but it requires heat to start it. The plant is peren- 
ni;il.Israel Sanborn. The seeds sent as Japanese 
Wheat are evidently of something closely allied to 
Sorghum, Guinea Corn, etc. We cannot tell precisely 
what, from the cle.aned grain. A whole fully grown, but 
not over-ripe, cluster or head is needed to determine it. 
....“K.” The leaves probably of Tree Houseleek, 
Sempervirum arboreum ; it needs to be quite old to flower. 
