AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
71 
Democratic corn has to weigh a few more pounds 
in the bushel, and yield a few more bushels to the 
acre, in order to be equal to a competitor’s of the 
opposite party. Black Republican butter, though 
up to the Orange County stamp, stands no sort of 
a chance heside an inferior article, if it was made 
from Democratic cream. And because a few men 
carry their prejudices to this extent, and try to 
buy votes to get themselves into the legislature, 
by this petty trade in premiums, at the Fall fairs, 
there are some addled enough to believe that all 
our Society affairs are managed upon this princi¬ 
ple 
Our Hookertown folks did not go up to the an¬ 
nual meeting last year, thinking that the Society 
had got along where it would take care of itself. 
But things do not take care of themselves in this 
world. If you do not plant hoed crops, briars and 
thistles will grow. If the friends of an Agricul¬ 
tural Society do not follow it up and shape its 
policy it will go wrong. We have no right to put 
our hand to the plow and look back. If we do, 
we are in very poor business to grumble, that 
others stand at the plow tail in our place. About 
the meanest thing a man can do is to grumble. 
If he cant help it, grumbling will do no good. If 
he can, he ought to go to work and stop chafing. 
I had to work about a month, before the meet¬ 
ing, riding round and talking with grumbling peo¬ 
ple, before I could get things into the right shape. 
I have always observed, that there was great vir¬ 
tue in talking. If you have a good cause and keep 
it before the people perseveringly, you are cer¬ 
tain to carry it in time. I knew if we could have 
a full meeting, from all parts of the County, and 
talk matters over, we could come to a good un¬ 
derstanding, and make the Society efficient in do¬ 
ing its appropriate work, which I take to be 
horse raising and other kind of growth, and not 
horse racing , and the razing of industry an 1 good 
morals. The people who had the management 
last year, followed their own tastes without mean¬ 
ing any harm to the Society. They would have 
done better, if they had had better advisers. If the 
friends of good order wont take the pains to be 
in their places, and make their influence felt, they 
have no right to grumble when things go wrong. 
The result was, that we had the largest annual 
meeting we have ever held, and a new board of 
officers was put in, without much division of sen¬ 
timent. The Colonel's friends were so much 
ashamed of their own folly, that they did not make 
uny show of opposition. These County Fairs are 
doing so much good, that I think every good citi¬ 
zen ought to make sacrifices, if necessary, to sus¬ 
tain them. If they arc attended with some evils, 
as much can be said against all other forms of as¬ 
sociated effort. Themillenium has not come yet, 
and no wheels move with so little friction, that 
they do not need grease sometimes. Apply oil, 
and stop the squeaking. Our Society has done 
more to set folks to thinking about the principles 
of farming, than any thing we ever had among 
us. There has been a steady gain every year, in 
the variety and excellence of almost every thing 
exhibited. The farmers see this and understand 
it, while city people and careless observers think 
every show is just alike, a chaotic mass of cab¬ 
bages, turnips, and other roots ; corn and other 
grains; horses, cows, pigs and poultry. But the 
farmer recognizes at once, the new Wining- 
stadt, or Enfield among the cabbages—the Ash¬ 
croft among the turnips, the Rhode Island Pre¬ 
mium among corn, or any newcomer amongkine 
or swine. There is something to be learned every 
year. I have no doubt that Seth Twiggs, Jake 
Frink, and uncle Jotham have done more think¬ 
ing aho»t their business, the last two years, than 
in all the rest of their lives. And when folks be¬ 
gin to think about raising stock, and cultivating 
the best crops, they soon discover their own ig¬ 
norance, and seek light. They want to talk and 
read. I guess there are ten agricultural papers 
taken in ibis town, where there was one, two 
years since. The Farmers’ Club is well attended 
at the school house every week, and the discus¬ 
sions are a good intellectual treat to every body 
that has a rod of land to cultivate, and that is 
every body here. The minister, the lawyer, and 
the doctor, the schoolmaster and the judge are 
generally there, and the farmers come in from the 
whole neighborhood. Now all this has come of 
the County fairs. The Society has left its mark 
in everybody's yard or garden, dropping young 
shade trees, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, 
grape vines, and flower borders. The home¬ 
steads look more cheerful, and the people are more 
thriving in their business. This year the Society 
has offered a premium for every shade tree ,set 
out in the streets. We mean to line every road 
side in the county, within five years. Even Jake 
Frink is beginning to dig holes to set out trees 
this Spring. Flis old friends will hardly know 
Jake, or his establishment, in a few years more. 
Yours to command, 
Timothy Bunker Esq. 
Hookcrlown, Feb. 8th, 1859. 
- -*>-* — -► - 
The “Honey Blade Grass” Swindle!! 
We have already advised our own readers to 
be careful about purchasing any professedly new 
plant or seed, for which extraordinary claims are 
put forth, until they see it noticed or at least ad¬ 
vertised in these columns. We can but hope they 
have so far heeded this advice that none of them 
have been “ taken in and done for” by the spe¬ 
cious humbug now abroad in the land. We refer 
to selling Hungarian Grass seed at exorbitant 
prices under the assumed name of “ Honey Biade 
Grass.” We regret to find that any of our re¬ 
spectable cotemporaries have given it so much 
countenance as to admit this deception into even 
their advertising columns. It must certainly have 
been done unwittingly, for we can but believe 
that no respectable publisher would knowingly al¬ 
low his readers, in whom he should have a per¬ 
sonal interest, to be cheated out of their hard 
earned dollars, for the sake of the paltry few cents 
he may get for an advertisement. [The adver¬ 
tisement was offered in this office, and was in¬ 
stantly rejected with the reply that it could not 
be inserted for a thousand dollars a line.] 
With regard to this “ Honey Blade Grass,” we 
will make a statement or two, and hereafter, if 
it be necessary, show up the parties who are en¬ 
gaged in it, particularly the prime movers in St. 
Louis, and this city. It amounts to simply this : 
A species of Millet , said to have originally come 
over from Hungary in the pocket of an “ exile,” 
has been propagated at the west for several years 
under the name of “ Hungarian Grass.” This 
last name has become so common that we have 
used it in designating the article. 
It is grown like the old millet from which it 
does not materially differ, and like the old kinds 
may be cultivated for the ripened seed, or cut up 
green and cured as hay or straw for feeding. If 
ripened for seed, the straw is probably about as 
good for feeding as well cured oats straw—per¬ 
haps a trifle better. We have for many years 
advised farmers to grow the ordinary millet for 
seed, and especially as a soiling crop—that is, 
to be cut green and fed either green or in a dried 
state. 
The “ Hungarian Grass ” has become so wide¬ 
ly disseminated, that the seed is now abundant 
and could recently be obtained as low as St a 
bushel. Wishing some to distribute to such of 
our distant subscribers as might desire to try a 
little of it, we engaged a dealer in this city to 
procure a lot of as pure and good quality as he 
could get in the country. After paying him for 
his trouble in addition to a profit, it cost us only 
$2 a bushel (of 51 lbs.) delivered at our office. 
Scarcely had our last number gone to press be¬ 
fore a host of letters came in from subscribers 
and others making inquiries as to a wonderful new 
seed offered as “Honey Blade Grass.” We im¬ 
mediately investigated the matter. Our first 
movement was to send two outside parties who 
would not be suspected, to the head quarters or 
“agency ” in this city. The seed obtained which 
(we have now in possession) proved to be precisely 
like the Hungarian Grass we had previously obtain¬ 
ed at the west. Further investigation has shown 
that one or more parties, having St. Louis as head 
quarters, have secured a large supply of the Hun¬ 
garian Grass or Millet, dubbed it “Honey Blade 
Grass,” issued some hundreds of thousands of 
pamphlets to farmers, setting forth extravagant 
properties and merits, and patronizingly offering 
it in $3 bags (no less quantity). We have one 
of these bags now in our office procured directly 
from the “ agency ” in this city. It weighed 
just 15J- lbs, including bag, and measures 9^ qls. 
This we purposely purchased for examination, 
and paid the regular price of $3 per hag. This is 
at the rate of over $10 per bushel! (It was bought 
for us by one of our associates who chanced to be 
unknown at the “agency.”) Any one can call and 
compare this with the Hungarian Grass. The 
“ agent ” was recently shown a sample of each 
laid upon two similar pieces of paper, and could 
not pick out his own “ Honey Blade.”* We re¬ 
monstrated with him for attempting to gull the 
community by the assumed name and extravagant 
claims. He unwittingly confessed that the name 
Honey Blade Grass, was merely a “ trade 
mark,” and attempted to justify his course, by 
this and other subterfuges. 
But enough on this subject now. If what we 
have stated be not enough to utterly condemn 
this attempt to get $10 per bushel for a common 
article, of which the market price is $2.00 and 
downward, we will give it another “lift,” and not 
spare the offenders either. 
*A subsequent close examination reveals sundry “foul 
seeds ” in this pure “ honey blade seed ” which the pam¬ 
phlet so urgently advises farmers to purchase instead of 
the common Hungarian Grass, which it says is an entire¬ 
ly different article. It is indeed, different, if our bag 
from the “N. Y. Agency” is a fair sample. 
Plowing Beep—Plowing Shallow 
At first thought it would seem surprising, that 
practical men should differ as they do on this 
topic. For instance, we have before us a dozen 
well written communications, about half of which 
contend strongly in favor of “ going down to the 
bottom,” while the other half assert that to plow 
below four or five inches is not only useless, but 
actually injurious to most crops. We can not 
give these communications in detail, but we ven¬ 
ture the assertion that both parties are correct in 
their conclusions. They reason from different 
points of observation. Let us examine the mat¬ 
ter a little. 
1. All plants consist of three parts—the main 
stem and its branches; the leaves whose office 
is to collect the principal food or nourishment 
from the air ; and the roots which collect water 
(sap) from the ground to keep the plant moist, m 
supply its juices, and to act as a vehicle for car- 
