187 - 5 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
169 
Two Months More 
FOR PREMIUMS. 
May and June are good months in which to fill up club 
lists of subscribers already begun, or to make up new 
clubs, and secure a Premium. The List will 
not be withdrawn until July 1st. There will be found upon 
this Premium List for the year 1875, a large number 
of most useful and valuable articles, all of which are 
new and of the best manufacture, and any of which 
can be obtained without money and with but a lit¬ 
tle well diluted effort. Among these are: Beautiful 
Silver-Plated Articles — Fiue Table-Cut¬ 
lery—Gold Pens with Silver Cases—Chil¬ 
dren’s Carriages, Swings, etc.—Watches— 
Pianos — Blelodeons — Pocket-Knives — 
Guns—Cultivators—Sewing, Knitting, and 
Washing Machines—Books, etc., etc.— Send 
for our Illustrated Premium List,and see how easy you can 
obtain one or more of these good and desirable articles. 
■containing a great variety of Items , inc'udirrg many 
good Hints and Suggestions which we throw into smaller 
type and condensed form, for want of room elsewhere. 
Remitting Money: — Checks on 
New York City Banks or Bankers are best 
for large sums ; make payable to the order of Orange 
Judd Company. Post-Office Money Orders 
for $50 or less, are cheap and safe also. When these are not 
obtainable, register letters, affixing stamps for post¬ 
age and registry ; put in the money and seal the letter in 
the presence of the postmaster, and take his receipt for it. 
Money sent in the above three methods is safe against loss. 
[gp \.B.-Tlie New Postage Law, 
—On account of the new postal law, which requires 
pre-payment of postage by the publish¬ 
ers, after January 1st, 1875, each subscriber 
must remit, in addition to the regular rates, ten cents 
for prepayment of postage by the Publish¬ 
ers, at New York, for the year 1875. Every 
subscriber, whether coming singly, or in clubs at club 
rates, will be particular to send to this office postage as 
above, with his subscription. Subscribers in British Am¬ 
erica will continue to send postage as heretofore, for 
pre-payment here. 
Bound Copies of Volume Tliirty- 
three are now ready. Price, $-2, at our office ; or $2.50 
each, if sent by mail. Any of the last eighteen volumes 
(16 to 33) will also lie forwarded at same price. Sets of 
numbers sent to our office will be neatly bound in our 
regular style, at75 cents per vol. (50 cents extra, if return¬ 
ed by mail.) Missing numbers supplied at 12 cents each. 
Our Western <&fflice.— Our friends in 
the West are reminded that we have an office at Lake¬ 
side Building, Chicago, Ill., in charge of Mr. W. II. 
Bnsbey. Subscriptions to American Agriculturist are 
taken there, and sample copies of the paper and chromo 
are delivered, and orders received for advertising on the 
same terms as in New York. All our books are on sale 
at the Western Office. Please call and examine, buy, 
subscribe, and advertise. 
Lakey’s Village and Country 
Bouses. —This new and elegant work contains 56 de¬ 
signs in 84 plates, giving plans, elevations, perspective 
views and details of a great variety of buildings ; from 
the simple laborer’s cottage with two rooms on a floor, 
to the large sea-side or other villa. There is not only a 
wide range in the size of the buildings, but a great vari¬ 
ety of styles, and one must be very fastidious not to find 
something here to please him. We are glad to see on 
paper what we would like to see more of in reality ; 
houses in the construction of which the rough stones of 
the fields are largely used. Some churches and school- 
houses are given, and add to the utility of the work. 
Published by the Orange Judd Company. Price $6. 
'Trustworthy. —There is no doubt that, 
taken as a whole, no more trustworthy collection of busi¬ 
ness announcements was ever found together, than those 
that fill up tlie advertising pages of the American Agri¬ 
culturist. One of the oldest and largest advertising 
Agents, who has to do with all the newspapers of tins 
country, recently remarked: “No other journal, religious 
or secular, lias for a long series of years been so per¬ 
sistently strict in shutting out objectionable, or even 
questionable advertisements, as the American Agricul¬ 
turist. We hardly dare promise to insert any advertise¬ 
ment in that paper, no matter how good it is, until we 
have had it examined by the editors, to see if it don’t 
have something objectionable in it. It's no use trying to 
get any medical advertisement in for love or money.”— 
The publishers and editors are proud of such a statement 
from such a source, as it indicates the possession of a 
reputation they desire to he worthy of. Though they may 
once in a thousand times be themselves deceived in par¬ 
ties, they earnestly try not to he. They mean to protect 
their readers, in the business as well as in the reading 
columns. They also wish llieir readers to let advertisers 
know that they have a right to expect good treatment, 
and to secure this, it is enough to simply say, when 
writing to advertisers, in ordering, or sending for circu¬ 
lars, etc., that you read their advertisement in this journal. 
High - E*i-ieeal Sticks. —Some time in 
March Mr. Roczel, the well-known plant-collector, con¬ 
signed 52 plants of a rare cycad, Zamia Hoezelii , from 
Buenaventura, to Young & Elliott, Seedsmen of New 
York. To an ordinary observer they looked like pieces 
of rotten wood, but when Mr. Elliott offered them at auc¬ 
tion, a spirited competition showed that they were “ dia¬ 
monds in the rough,” for the smallest “chips” brought 
50cts., while larger “ logs ” of IS inches in length brought 
$36.00 each. Mr. George Such, of South Amboy, N. J., 
was successful in monopolizing the rare lot, except one 
specimen. The aggregate value of the 52 plants was 
$405. They were bought mainly for exporting to Europe, 
where plants similar to these have commanded at retail 
two hundred guineas each. 
The Bogardus Mill.— Numerous inqui¬ 
ries as to where this mill may be had, will find an answer 
in our advertising columns. 
The Colorado Eliortgeulturist.— A 
quarterly of 16 pages, published at Greeley, Col., and 
edited by J. F. Foster, at the low price of 50c. a year. 
If anything in respect to the rapid progress of “ the west” 
could astonish us, it would be to receive a horticultural 
paper from a place like Greeley, which hut a few years 
ago was unbroken prairie. Only the first number lias 
come to our notice, but in this the editor shows good 
sense. Most new papers of tiiis kind, make the great 
mistake of publishing articles on wonderful things 
abroad, orthose discussing matters, interesting enough in 
a scientific point of view, but of no possible use to their 
readers. The Cororado editor wisely gives prominence 
to local matters, and shows that lie intends to make his 
paper what its title indicates, the Colorado Horticulturist; 
he wisely sees that to tell his readers, as he does in this 
number, that certain cabbages do not succeed in Colora¬ 
do, is of more value to his readers than an account of 
the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 
Hullcss Oats.- “H. S.” There has been 
in cultivation since very early times an oat known as 
skinless and naked, and in some parts of England as 
“peelcorn,” and we suppose, from the name only, as we 
have not seen it, that the “ Ifulless oat ” is the same thing. 
It is regarded as a distinct species (Arena nuda) from the 
common oat, (A. sativa), from which it differs in having 3 
or 4 flowers (and grains) in the spikelet, while that has 
but 2. In the common oat the palets of the flower en¬ 
close and closely surround the grain when ripe, forming 
tlie hull; in the other the grain is not thus surrounded, 
but free. In some parts of Europe, especially in Ireland, 
this oat is much cultivated for making oat-meal. It was 
tried in this country many years ago, and is offered every 
nowand then as something new and wonderful. So far 
as we are aware it has always degenerated ; had it been 
of any practical value, it would have kept its place among 
the generally cultivated grains. You ask if this oat is 
a “ humbug.” So far as there being such an oat, no ; but 
the claims made for it are such as we are quite confident 
experience will not sustain, and as to paying a dollar a 
pound for a grain that Is so common abroad as this is— 
if people do it, it will not be by our advice. 
Mowing-Machine Knives. —The ef¬ 
fect of a dull knife is to increase the labor of cutting 
grass 25 per cent. With a dull knife half of the force of 
one of the horses of a team is totally lost. In a day’s 
work this loss equals the cutting of two acres of grass. 
In fact two acres more of grass a day may be cut in a day 
with sharp knives than without. Five minutes work 
twice a day with a good hand-sharpener will keep the 
knives in good condition. The “ rhomboidal harvester 
sharpener ” made by Youse & Co. of Bryan. Ohio, fits 
the knives of a mower exactly, and sharpens them per¬ 
fectly. It is held in the hand just as a “ rifle ” or whet¬ 
stone for sharpening a scythe, and may be used while the 
team is resting. 
Moss and House Plants.—Mrs. G. R. 
Percy. If the soil is in proper condition, no harm will 
be likely to come from covering the surface with moss 
from the woods. Tlie soil of house plants often becomes 
what the gardeners call sour, from being too compact, 
and the drainage imperfect or lacking altogether. 
N. T. City i^ulmrhnn Monies—Cost 
of Beaching Them.—The number of people re¬ 
siding in the country or neighboring villages, who go t« 
New York City daily to engage in business for them¬ 
selves, or others, is very large. There are at least a dozen 
Railroads that furnish good and rapid facilities and com' 
mutation tickets. In comparing the rates on these rail¬ 
roads, we find the average cost of travel, allowing the 
commuter to go each way 300 times a year, to average 
about as follows for each mile traveled. Those residing 
10 miles from the city pay 1 cent per mile. Those living 
20 miles distant, pay 6 5 /„ mills per - mile. At 30 miles 
miles distant, 5 ! /3 mills per mile. At 40 miles distant¬ 
ly,, mills , and at 50 miles distant, 4 3 / 5 mills per mile. 
Boole on the Horse.—“ A. C.,” Ne^ 
Haven, Mo. Dadd’s Reformed Horse Doctor, will be 
found a very useful book for any one who keeps a horse : 
it treats on tlie management of a horse, its anatomy, it? 
diseases, and the treatment and medicines proper for 
them. Tlie price is $2.50. 
“ Thoroughbred, ” and “ Fiilf 
Blood.”—“ J. F. L.” There ought to he no distinc¬ 
tion between these terms, they m-an the same thing 
Either means the progeny of animals on both sides, that 
are accepted as thoroughbred, and are entered in the 
various herd books. Animals may be entered in the 
English Short-horn Herd Book, that have four crosses, 
that is, that are descended directly and consecutively foi 
four generations, from herd book or thoroughbred bulls- 
but in this country such stock would be considered only 
as high grades, or having fifteen-sixteenths of fall blood 
They are not in reality full blood, and how many crosses 
constitutes a full blood, lias not yet been settled here. 
Hints about Work.— Scores of enquiries 
as to matters about the farm, orchard, and garden, are an¬ 
swered in the bints about work, given in the Agriculturist 
every month. These “ Hints ” are very carefully studied, 
and are intended to include all the important work to be 
done in the month. In the present month will be found 
information about rolling ground, barley, oats, fodder- 
crops, and many other matters in relation to which we 
have many letters now before us, and to which we can 
not give separate replies. 
How to Grow Flax. —“ J. B. B.,” Maple' 
ton, Kansas. Flax is a good crop for rich bottom lands. 
When grown for seed, one bushel per acre is enough, as 
it then branches and yields more grain. It should be 
sown as soon as danger from frost is over, and may be 
harvested with the reaper when the seed-bolls begin to 
turn brown. It may be threshed in the ordinary machine, 
and cleaned in a sieve made purposely for it. There is 
no more labor about it when grown in this way, than 
with a crop of oats. It leaves the ground in good con¬ 
dition for fall wheat. 
Apple Pomace for Manure. —“E.W. 
S.” Apple pomace is not worth anything as manure 
until it is thoroughly rotted. It is then worth about as 
much as ordinary swamp muck. 
Make Home Beautiful. —Read the ad¬ 
vertisement on third cover page of this number, “Beau¬ 
tiful Pictures, and How can I get one of them ? ” 
Effect of Food upon Milk.—“J. S. 
C.” If one would think but for a moment, there would 
be no need to ask if a cow well fed will produce more 
butter than one poorly fed. The butter comes from the 
food and nothing else, and tlie better the food, the richei 
the milk. Read the articles on “ Science Applied to 
Farming,” in the Agriculturist for the present and the 
past four months, for valuable hints on such matters. 
Floor for Basement of a Barn.— 
“S. L. R.” A cement floor fora barn basement, is pre- 
ferrable to a plank floor. It is cleaner and harbors no 
vermin. A paved floor is described in the Agriculturist 
of November, 1873, which we have found to be the best 
for this purpose, as it is clean and permanently durable. 
