136 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
terrible words, Hereof fail not at your peril, 
Baldwin deliberately picks up the ink-stand and 
dashes it up-side down upon the commitment, 
the contents of which, like the recording angel’s 
tear, blotted it out for ever. There, says Bald¬ 
win : I shall be out of the county before you can 
boil down oak-bark ink enough to write another! 
—and before the astonished sage had recovered 
his sight, (for sundry drops of the murky shower 
had flown into his eyes,) the great expunger had 
mounted his horse, and escaped from the juris¬ 
diction.— Ibid. 
--- •—— 
HUMBUGS. 
Tooth Washes and Tooth Powders. —Sev¬ 
eral years since, while at work in the chemical 
laboratory, a man brought us a little vial hold¬ 
ing a half ounce, and bearing the following or 
a similar label: 
“ Tooth-wash—warranted to remove all dark 
color, &c., &c., from the teeth immediately, and 
give them a pearly whiteness. It preserves the 
teeth from decay, renders the breath sweet, pre¬ 
vents tartar from forming upon them, and being 
carried into the stomach, thus improves the 
general health of the system. A single vial 
will last for years.—Price only 25 cents.” 
We examined this valuable affair, and found 
it to consist only of water with a little common 
muriatic acid, (hydro-chloric acid.) Its only 
action upon the teeth was to dissolve off a por¬ 
tion of their surface, which of course removed 
the dark coating. The continued use of this 
wash would soon entirely eat away the teeth 
and destroy them. We estimated the cost of a 
barrel- full of this wash to be about 75 cents, 
and that this would fill about 7,500 of the 25 
cent vials, at a cost of about one cent for one hun¬ 
dred vials full. The cost of the vials, including the 
labels and filling, was about one and a quarter 
cents each. This “ Tooth-wash pedler” offered us 
a shining gold eagle to tell him how to make it, 
(which of course we declined doing,) “for,” 
and 1 i'selV thousand! of theirqTrie).ui m *n 6w g oi iig 
to the New-York State Fair, and can sell them 
like hot cakes to the green country chaps. Last 
year I made over $100, selling this same wash 
at one fair, and I want to make it myself.” 
We told him how injurious it was to the 
teeth, and he left us. We heard no more of 
him, till a few days since we met him at one of 
our Southern State Fairs, driving a brisk busi¬ 
ness. He had a boy on a stool before him, and 
was performing his dental operations (anti-dental 
rather) upon a dark colored set of teeth, and 
showing to a wondering crowd “ this black 
tooth by the side of that white one, made so by 
his incomparable tooth-wash.” A dozen or 
more of the ambitious crowd immediately 
walked up and paid their quarters, and carried 
home the prize. We stepped up to the pedler 
and reminded him of our former remonstrances; 
but he replied, “ It pays too well to give up the 
business, I make $1500 a year clear, and pay 
$50 a year to the State for the privilege of sell¬ 
ing. A hundred others are selling it all over 
the country. I got it for $10 a hundred after 
telling the manufacturer how cheaply you said 
it could be made.” 
We will only say in regard to tooth washes and 
tooth powders generally, that, whether dry or 
liquid, they usually contain some acid which 
destroys the teeth* It is safer to avoid them all. 
A good tooth-brush and water or some pleasant 
kind of soap, is the best and safest tooth cleaner 
we know of. The teeth should be brushed before 
• An intimate relative used one of these dry powders, 
and at ?5 years of age was oh'iged to get a new set of teeth. 
going to bed. Food remaining upon and be¬ 
tween them during the night, is apt to turn to 
acid, which eats away the surface. 
We have little hope of putting an end to the 
sale and use of these not merely useless, but 
positively injurious articles, but we shall con¬ 
tinue to do our part to expose them. We have 
several more to bring forward as we have op¬ 
portunity. 
FIRST ANNUAL SHOW OF THE VIRGINIA 
STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
We were present at Richmond last week 
during the entire continuance of this interesting 
exhibition, and made copious notes; but we 
reached home at too late an hour s Ivo a 
extending notice in this number of our paper. 
The Virginia farmers have come late into the 
field of agricultural enterprise ; but the result 
of their first fair gives good assurance, that 
any thing lost in time will be doubly made up 
by vigorous effort. They have availed them¬ 
selves of the experience of their brethren in 
sister States, and what others have accomplished 
by years of experimental trials they have almost 
reached by a single effort. We noticed some 
slight defects in unimportant details; but on 
the whole, the previous arrangements, and the 
carrying out of the exhibition were highly cre¬ 
ditable. They adopted a very wise course in 
first sending delegations to the fairs of other 
States, to gather such information as might be 
of practical use to themselves. The officers of 
the Society spared no labor in perfecting the 
multifarious arrangements required in such an 
enterprise. The city of Richmond is entitled 
to much praise for the liberal aid rendered to 
the Society. The city council granted the use 
of a large square for the show ground, and fitted 
it up at an expense of some $10,000. The en- 
office and show buildings and tents, all pre¬ 
sented a very tasteful appearance, equal to, or 
excelling any we have elsewhere seen, not even 
excepting the grounds of the Maryland Society, 
The neat whitewashed stalls with arched fronts, 
which encircled the whole ground, presented a 
fine appearance to the eye. 
In addition to those preparations made en¬ 
tirely at the expense of the city government, 
the citizens themselves subscribed some $5000 
to the general fund of the Society. One or 
more of the single subscriptions for this pur¬ 
pose amounted to $500. The preparations for 
the comfort of the great number of persons 
called together by the occasion, are worthy of 
notice. The citizens, almost without exception, 
opened their houses to lodge and entertain freely 
all that could be crowded into them, and when 
these resources and the hotels failed, one or 
more large halls were procured and well fitted 
up with new beds, and other conveniences for the 
accommodation of several hundred persons. No 
charge was made for the use of these, but the 
expense was borne by the city council. Large, 
well-organized committees of citizens were in 
constant waiting at the hotels and elsewhere, to 
conduct strangers at once to comfortable quar¬ 
ters, so that none found themselves obliged to 
sleep in bar-rooms, on chairs, or leaning against 
lamp-posts. This example is well worthy of 
imitation elsewhere. The insufficient prapara- 
tions for the comfort of visitors at our County 
as well as State Fairs, too often leaves many to 
go home jaded,sleepy, and worn out, with little 
de^ff§. to undertake another similar campaign. 
In the report of the executive committee, we 
noticed some interesting facts in the history of 
the Society. A year since there were only about 
200 members, and a little over $200 in the trea¬ 
sury. A new effort was determined upon ; local 
committees were organized in the different coun¬ 
ties, and an agent appointed to travel at large 
and solicit memberships. The result was that 
at the opening of the fair this year, in addition 
to having the grounds well fitted up, the Society 
numbered over 4000 members, and had over 
$8000 in the treasury. 
On Wednesday evening, at a general meeting 
of the members, a proposition was made with a 
view of giving permanence to the Society, by 
oooui’ing a. fund to be permanently invested, the 
proceeds of which could be relied upon by the 
officers in any future arrangements. The pro¬ 
position was, that life memberships should be 
established by the payment of $20, and sub¬ 
scriptions from individuals solicited, not to be 
binding till $20,000 were thus pledged. Com¬ 
mittees were to be appointed to collect these 
subscriptions in the different counties. The 
project, was well received, and it was proposed 
to open the subscriptions at that meeting. Pa¬ 
pers were circulated through the house, and the 
result was, that, instead of a part only of the 
$20,000 being raised, with a large share re¬ 
maining to be collected afterwards, over THIR¬ 
TY NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS were 
pledged on the spot! A considerable addition 
to this sum was made the next evening, the 
amount of which we did not learn. The pro¬ 
posed sum of $20,000 was increased to ONE 
HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS, which 
we think will yet be raised. The future success 
and permanance of the Society may be put down 
as a fixed -fact. 
During these meetings of the members, allu- 
_ " ■»- - ' fnr-i. that the State 
legislature had frequently been importuned for 
appropriations in aid of the society, but that the 
cold shoulder had always been given; and a 
determination was manifested to show them¬ 
selves independant of politicians, who would 
appropriate millions for political purposes, but 
not one cent to encourage agricultural improve¬ 
ments. We shall be much disappointed, if the 
next legislature of Virginia does not contribute 
largely to make up the proposed $100,000 per¬ 
manent fund. 
The show of stock, agricultural productions, 
farming implements, and home manufactures, 
was very credlitable. We have not time for speci¬ 
fying individual contribution ? The principle 
stock producing counties, which are in the wes¬ 
tern portions of the State, were prevented from 
participating largely in the exhibition, by their 
distance and the want of facilities of communi¬ 
cation, though many western stock growers were 
present. The railroads rapidly extending west¬ 
ward, will by another year give greatly increased 
facilities in this respect. Some of the best stock 
and productions were left at home by the owners 
and producers, because having had no former 
means of comparison, they expected to be out¬ 
done by others. We heard many pledges of 
what would be shown another year, and in be¬ 
half of Virginia we give notice to other States, 
that next year they must look to their laurels. 
Several excellent addresses were made during 
the Fair, some of which we shall give in part or 
full hereafter. 
On Monday and Tuesday evenings, the Society 
met for oral discussions. The principle topics 
