450 
AMERICAN AGRICULT URIST. 
[December, 
cases, however, stand upon a different footing from those 
downright swindles of the class of Blunderbuss & Co. 
•‘THE GREAT AMERICAN LITERARY ASSOCIATION'’ 
of Ohio, proposes to “ furnish applicants on short notice 
with all kinds, styles, and grades of literary exercises/ 
consisting of essays, lectures, orations, sermons, sal uta- 
tories, valedictories,” and much more. Those connected 
with the “ Association ” are graduates, and “ having 
gone through ’the mill, 1 know just what kind of exercises 
students need and desire.’ 1 —While we have no reason to 
doubt that this “ Great American 11 concern will do as it 
agrees to, it deserves a place in the humbug column, as 
an accessory to the meanest kind of fraud. A “ lunk¬ 
head 11 at college, whose parents furnish him with plenty 
of money, but no brains, can send to this shop for “ ora¬ 
tions, essays, lectures, etc., intended for Commencements, 
Anniversaries, Contests, and Society Meetings,” for 
“they know just what kind of exercises students need 
and desire.”—The class dunce with money, can strut in 
borrowed plumes, and perhaps take precedence of the 
honest, hardworking student, whose performance may 
not be so brilliant, but it is his own. If it were not for 
advertising this aider and abettor of getting literary 
credit under false pretenses, we should give its location, 
and express to the president and faculty of the college in 
the same town, our regrets that such a literary nuisance 
exists in their vicinity. The concern thanks the various 
persons, including “ministers of the gospel,” who have 
“ patronized us so extensively,” which we regard as a 
libel upon a class of hard-working men, and we hope 
there is not a minister of the gospel in the country 
capable of the practical lie of buying a sermon at this 
“ Great American 11 shop, and standing up before his peo¬ 
ple and preaching it as his own. .. .The various subjects 
upon which our advice is asked in the course of a year 
would make an amusing catalogue; we probably have 
more in relation to change of location for farming than 
on any other topic; but those about going into business 
of all kinds, especially the purchase of certain patents, 
are numerous, and it is not unusual for our advice to be 
asked in regard to mining. 
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SIGN. 
In former articles we have exposed the swindle of pre¬ 
tended venders of mowers and other agricultural imple¬ 
ments, who show samples and take orders; they ask the 
farmer to sign an agreement to take the article when de¬ 
livered, at a certain price; lie unthinkingly does so, and 
in 30 or 60 days receives a notice from the bank in the 
next town that his note for a certain sum falls due on a 
given date: the astonished farmer, upon investigating the 
matter, finds that the bank has his note in due form, and 
signed by himself. The “agreement” was so ingeniously 
arranged, that cutting off an inch or two from the end, 
left a regular promissory note. Of late we have complaints 
that operators in some kind of a “fire-proof roofing” 
have been playing the same game in some parts of the 
country. Let every one be careful what he signs; 
in a transaction of this kind, there is no need of signing 
anything. If thought desirable to buy an article in Ibis 
way, if your word, in the presence of witnesses if need 
be, is not sufficient, ict the vendor go his way; if he is 
really honest, and wishes to make a trade, he can easily 
satisfy himself of your responsibility. The number of 
WALL STREET OPERATORS, 
who are advertising all through the country and Canada, 
seems to be on the increase, and they must be doing a 
fair business to pay for their paper and printing; they 
are fairly flooding the country with all sorts of documents, 
from a simple card or circular, up to reviews and treatises 
on money making. A large number of letters of inquiry 
are at hand, some requesting us to show up this or that 
firm as humbugs, and others ask if it will be safe to send 
money to some particular firm as an investment. The 
whole matter is surrounded by difficulties, as there are 
brokers in good standing, who advertise to operate for 
persons at a distance; at the same time, there are others 
of no standing at all, who make a great flourish of adver¬ 
tisements and circulars, and this class no doubt includes 
some downright rogues, who take advantage of the fact 
that much interest has been created in the country at 
large in Wall street operations, to carry on a regular 
scheme of swindling. We find it very difficult to get any 
positive information in regard to the various parties who 
are making themselves so prominently known through¬ 
out the country by the great inducements they offer. It 
is not our custom to write down a person—or a firm—as 
dangerous, unless we have positive proof of our state¬ 
ments. As yet, the matter is undeveloped; those persons 
who have been swindled in operations of this kind, 
“pocket the loss,” and keep quiet about it; they think 
that they will forfeit their reputation for shrewdness if 
they let it be known that they have, even by proxy, been 
“ on the street” and lost. We can at present only speak 
of the matter in general terms. These persons who ad¬ 
vertise so loudly are, to say the least, not among the best 
known brokers in Wall street ; they arc not, so far as we 
have inquired, members of the regular “Board of Bro¬ 
kers.” Even the best brokers, and the men best known 
on “ the street” for their thorough knowledge of all its 
“ ins and outs,” the shrewdest and longest headed, often 
make serious and disastrous failures. Moreover, and 
mark this. If a person in regular mercantile business is 
known to he “ dabbling in stocks,” his credit is at once 
impaired, both at bank and in the line of trade in which 
he is engaged. If a business man, usually regarded as 
prosperous, suddenly makes a had failure, and the state¬ 
ment of his affairs offers a bad show for his creditors, the 
remark is likely to be, “lie lias been on Wall street.” 
It is well known to business men, that a very large pro¬ 
portion of the bad failures that have taken place in New 
York of late years, have been due to the fact that the 
person, or in case of a firm, some member of it, lias been 
engaged in Wall street, or other speculations outside 
of their legitimate business. The fact is, that a large 
shave of stock operations are, when divested of all 
externals, nothing more or less than gambling, and 
they are regarded as such by the solid portion of 
the business community. So far as we have seen 
and understand the circulars with which these Wall 
street brokers are loading the roailsjthey arc invitations 
to participate in stock gambling. To the many who 
have written us letters of inquiry in regard to this matter, 
we cannot do better than repeat the well known dialogue 
between the farmer and his son, who were engaged in 
hoeing corn : Son, “Father, t he fish will bite right sharp 
this afternoon.” Father , “ Yes, my son, but if yon keep 
on hoeing corn they won’t bite you." — There are many 
who inquire about the extensively advertised 
GENERAL AVERAGE SALES, 
which have before been described; it is a sort of prize 
package lottery over again. If any are foolish enough 
to believe that through this or any other machinery, the 
runners of the machine will give a dollar’s worth of any¬ 
thing for 50 cents, they have a poor knowledge of the 
world, and can only he taught better in the school of 
experience. 
QUEER, OR COUNTERFEIT MONEY' 
dealers arc still at work. They have improved in the 
style of their circulars, but use so many different names 
and addresses, that it is of no use to keep the run of 
them. Those who can he caught by these dealers are 
as big rascals as they are, and it is useless to waste time 
and space in warning persons against that which it re¬ 
quires two parties to make a crime of. Ever since green¬ 
backs were first issued, this offering for sale—for there is 
no selling—of counterfeits has been going on, and though 
we have given a full history of the matter from the begin¬ 
ning, and there has been hardly a month passed without 
some allusion to it, there are still persons to whom this 
best known of humbugs is a novelty. We frequently 
receive letters from excellent persons who are highly 
indignant that they should be the recipient of such a 
proposition, and write us in hot haste to show such a 
man up as “ a bad character,” while we may have 20 of 
seif-same circular, with a different card in each. The 
good, honest man who writes in this way does not know 
that his name is on a list, collected in one way or another 
in his town, which is for sale to every scamp who wishes 
to send out circulars for any purpose whatever. 
MEDICAL MATTERS, 
though they present little novelty, appear to be “look¬ 
ing up,” as the market reports say, and the old and 
familiar humbugs seem to show signs of activity. The 
various methods taken by quacks to bring themselves to 
notice, show great ingenuity on their part, but what shall 
we say of corporations and papers which lend themselves 
to such uses ? The great Erie Railway allows its depots to 
he used as distributing points for the circulars of one of 
these advertising “ Doctors,” and the “ Dutchess Farmer” 
issues a 4-page supplement in the interest of another, who 
modestly calls himself “ undoubtedly the most successful 
physician living, and has been during the past 16 years.” 
These phenomenon do not often live long, but this one 
has stood it for 1G years, and may reach manhood if lie 
keeps on.... Our exposures of humbugs bring us more or 
less of annoyance, more especially the medical ones; but 
it is gratifying to know, that our warnings arc productive 
of good, as we often learn from unexpected quarters. A 
lady in Louisiana writes: “A friend of mine (who now 
reads (lie American Agriculturist ), says she is angry with 
herself, every time she thinks of sewing to make money 
to buy ‘ Old Mother Noble 1 for an invalid husband; and 
who, since he lias quit taking so much physic, is now a 
heal thy man. B-s Cordial is all the rage here now, but 
my children have never taken a dose of patent medicine 
in their lives.” That is right, Mrs. T., never give your 
children, or take yourself, any stuff whatever, the compo¬ 
sition of which you do not know all about_The “Cen¬ 
tennial Year” is likely to be made a harvest one by the 
“ swindling fraternity ; ” we are “ sharpening our stick ” 
anew, and shall take as much care as possible, tiiat 
the readers of the American Agriculturist are duly 
warned against humbugging schemes of every kind. 
Piitent 4Joa-ia..B>]i-oppei*»—“E. W. W. ” 
Caroline Co., Mu. There are several hand machines, tbr 
dropping corn and covering it at tiie same time, that, have 
been patented and are in common use in the west. 
A Suckling' Squash, Yvhicli may beat 
“ the squash in harness.” A Boston paper says: “A 
farmer at Orriugton, Me., lias been for some time feeding 
a squash, in the hope of being able to bring it up to 200 
pounds. The feeding is clone by cutting off the vine 
about six feet from the squash, and placing the end in a 
pan into which fresh milk is daily poured. By this 
means the vine absorbs about two quarts of milk per day, 
and the squash gains about a pound a day in weight.” It 
does not say which end of the vine is cut off. If the butt 
end, this might be fastened directly to the teat by an in¬ 
dia-rubber attachment, the vine trained over the cow’s 
back, 'with the growing squash secured between the 
horns. The squash should somehow be fed on eggs with 
the milk, and thus furnish” pumpkin” pies ready grown. 1 ’ 
Averill’s tClscsaiical Faiut was of 
course intended when last month we had it “Avery’s.” 
The ChemicalPaiut is so generally and favorably known as 
Averill’s, that no harm can result from the slip of the pen. 
ISaiS(<>!•, Egg, ami Fmit«j»i*eserv* 
ins Processes.— Several circulars offering to sell 
recipes, or the articles for preserving butter, eggs, and 
fruit, have been sent for an opinion, but as these date 
from some far distant localities, we are unable to inves¬ 
tigate them. It may be that some “Butter Restorative” 
will render rancid butter sweet, hut we should prefer to 
go without butter, which wo always do, unless the article 
is good, to eating tiiis restored product. The claims of 
some of tiie egg-preservatives do not look unreasonable, 
for by any one of several methods of closing the pores of 
tiie shell, eggs may he kept for several months... .As we 
do not know the composition of the fruit-preserving 
powder exhibited at tiie St. Louis Fair, we cannot answer 
the questions of a correspondent. Wo know that a fruit¬ 
preserving powder was made in New York several years 
ago, which gave satisfactory results, and apparently a 
harmless addition to the fruit. 
AoMittaMts’ i1«v Chemistry, by Prof. 
E. L. Youmans. N. Y. : D. Appleton & Co. When the 
previous edition of this work appeared in 18G3, we com 
mended it at the time as the only popular work which 
gave tiie student a glimpse of the newer views of chem¬ 
ists, and the modification which the old theroies were 
undergoing. The present edition keeps up with the 
most advanced state of the science. As the author says, 
it is not intended as a hand-book for the laboratory, or a 
manual for special students in chemistry, hut to give 
such an outline of the leading principles and most im¬ 
portant facts of the science as shall meet the wants of 
the higher schools, and those persons who would have 
that acquaintance with the subject which is a necessary 
part of a liberal education. We do not know where the 
modern views are so compactly and clearly presented as 
in this little volume. That wonderful aid to modern 
chemical research, the Spectroscope, is popularly ex¬ 
plained in a very full and abundantly illustrated chapter 
on spectrum analysis, and the later views on heat, and 
other physical agents which have so close a relation to 
chemistry, are introduced. The mechanical appearance 
of the work in paper, type, and engravings, is excellent. 
BSaiss daaag-e.—“ J. J. L.,” Turner’s Falls, 
Mass. A rain guage was described and illustrated in the 
American Agriculturist for June, 1873. It consists of 
a receptacle of a certain area of surface, in which the 
rain is collected as it falls. The rain is conveyed into a 
reservoir—closed so as to prevent evaporation—and of 
the same, or some readily calculated proportionate, area 
as the receptacle, in which the depth of water serves to 
denote the amount that has fallen. 
A Cement E£o»f.—“ J. M. R.,” Camptown, 
Pa. For a cement roof the roof boards should be laid as 
usual, but the roof should have hut little slope. The 
hoards should be well seasoned and laid close. Lath 
should be nailed across the hoards to furnish a hold for 
the cement, or broad headed nails should be driven in, 
leaving half an inch and the head projecting. Cement 
mixed with three times its hulk of fine clean sand, may 
be laid upon the.roof, and a “floating ” coat laid fora 
finish. When dry, thoroughly saturate the roof with hot 
gas tar. This makes a fire-proof and durable roof. 
B’eeslisig- Sttock sapom a. Wlaeat 
Field.—“ E. C.,” Huntington, O. It would bo of no 
advantage to the wheat, hut probably an injury, to herd 
and food stock upon it during the winter. It would be 
far better to feed the stock in a yard, and save the ma¬ 
nure to spread it upon the wheat in spring, or even dur¬ 
ing the winter, although the former would he preferable. 
