Nov, 1859 . 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
345 
Bump went our head against a low beam, frightening 
a rat some—and us more—he scampered, and we rub¬ 
bed our head. Next we discovered a barrel, and ex¬ 
ploring it, plush went our hand into the soft soap, and 
immediately after into a pan of milk. That gave a land 
mark, and we stumbled along to the stairs, and reached 
home safely, after an absence of some fifteen minutes. 
WHAT IMAGINATION WILL BO. 
While looking over what we wrote for the boys and 
girls in September, about ‘building castles,” and the 
freaks of imagination, and the misery it often leads us 
into, we are reminded of several incidents illustrating the 
power of this faculty of the mind. A French criminal, 
condemned to death, was given to the medical men to 
experiment with, on condition they saved his life. They 
informed him that he was to be bled to death. They 
brought in large vessels as if to catch the blood, showed 
their instruments, then bandaged his eyes, tied up his 
arm, and pricked it as if lancing a vein. A stream of 
warm water was poured upon his arm to drop off into 
the basin, and sound like running blood. As the ex¬ 
periment went on, they felt of his pulse, talked about the 
large amount of blood drawn, and spoke to each other of 
his being nearly gone. The result was, the man actually 
died, though not an ounce of blood was drawn.—In an¬ 
other case a deserter from the army was condemned to 
be shot, but afterward reprieved. Wishing to punish 
him somewhat, the officers did not inform him of his 
pardon, but at the previously appointed time, led him 
out before the drawn up file of armed men, bandaged his 
eyes, made him kneel down, and then had the soldiers 
fire over his head. Though entirely untouched the man 
fell dead. So it is, we imagine a thousand evils, and suffer 
as much as if they were realities. Don’t let this faculty 
of the mind run away with you , and lead you into wild 
vagaries... .Don’t cultivate it unduly by reading novels or 
works «f imagination. 
MORE SCARED THAN HURT. 
Appropos to the above we will relate a circumstance 
that came under our own observation. A man was cut¬ 
ting wood in the forest ; his ax glanced upon his foot mak¬ 
ing a hideous gash. He saw the gaping wound, quickly 
bound it up with his handkerchief, dragged himselfto the 
sleigh, and w ent home almost fainting with fear. Reach¬ 
ing Ihe house, he called for help, w as carried in and 
placed upon a bed, where he lay groaning as if in extreme 
pain. While the physician was sent for, his wife re¬ 
moved the boot. The gash was indeed a severe one, but 
only to his boot and stocking, which being thus cut, ex¬ 
posed to his frightened view some red flannel in which 
he had wrapped his feet that morning to keep them 
warm, and which he had thus mistaken for his own flesh. 
His groaning was soon changed into laughter, in which 
all present joined very heartily. 
ABOUT THE PROBLEMS. 
Correct answers to Rebus 42 were received—too late to 
be noticed in the Oct. No.—from John E. Zeublin, J. M. 
Bradbury, (Thank you for your efforts to get subscribers), 
Rena S. Tibbals, (Rebus sent is good for a beginner.) Fi¬ 
delia R. Lord, E. F. Pearsall, and Ann Walton. 
Fig. 1. 
No. 44. To arrange the pieces in Fig. 1 to form a 
square. Answered, 
as in Fig. 2, by: 
Harry La Fetra, 
(Your pleasant let¬ 
ter is on file for at¬ 
tention), W. Row- 
ena Noble. The 
following have 
found two other 
ways of placing the 
pieces in a square, 
which we have not 
room to iRust-ate : 
Caspar W. Dean, 
CorneliusVan Hou- 
ten, Joannah Cre- 
mer, S. H. Ward, 
Jno. H. Thompson, 
(The puzzles sent 
are very neat), Ed- Fig. 2. 
ward W. Marsh, C. 
II. Clark, Mary Campbell, William D. Aivcry, Jonathan 
E. Jones, John Smith, Mary Wilson, John E. Schluter. 
New' Problems.—No. 45. Illustrated Rebus. This is 
very difficult, and has puzzled old heads to w hom we have 
showed it. There will be all the more credit in reading 
it. It is a line of poetry. 
AGRICULTURAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 16 letters : 
My 10, 12, 14, 6. 8, is produced on every farm. 
My 6, 9, 15, and 12, 11, 3, 4, is necessary to the growth 
of all vegetables. 
My 1, 2, 7, 16, 8, 5, is the product of the dairy. 
My 2. 5, 15. is a bird found on almost every farm. 
My 13, 11,4, often holds the farmer’s dinner. 
My whole is an imported plant frequently spoken of in 
the American Agriculturist. Aunt Sue. 
(Sraiidmotlicr with l!»e ILittle Girls. 
REPORTED BY COUSIN MARY. 
Dear Mr. Editor: —Grandmother has just returned 
after being away on a visit for several weeks, and you 
may be sure we were all glad to see her again. We had 
a great many things to tell her about ourselves and our 
companions. While we were rattling away twm or three 
at a time, she began to laugh, and upon our asking the 
cause, she gave us the following pleasant talk. 
ABOUT THE TONQUE AND SO FORTH. 
“ I love to hear your cheerful voices again my dear 
girls ; they are pleasanter to me than the prettiest notes of 
the robin or the canary, but you are all so eager to be 
heard and all have so much to say, that it sounds more 
like the twittering of a flock of birds, than anything else. 
If you talk just to hear yourselves, I suppose it will do 
very well, but if you wish me to hear, it will be neces¬ 
sary for only one to speak at a time. You haven’t learn¬ 
er how to keep your tongues in proper bounds yet. In¬ 
deed I don’t know many people who have. I don’t un¬ 
derstand anatomy, but I think the nerves and muscles 
that move the tongue must be connected with every part 
of the brains, for the very minute anything pops into the 
head it seems to set the tongue going, and it takes a long 
schooling to control it. 
I don’t believe what some folks say, that little girls 
should be seen and not heard. I wouldn’t have them 
dumb for anything; but I want them to know how to talk, 
znilwhen to be silent. 
I wish I could invent something to put in people’s 
mouths, like what I saw fastened on to a water pipe the 
other day. They called it a filter. The water was quite 
muddy, but when it passed through the filter it came out 
as clear as crystal. Oh ! if we could only strain out all 
the naughty, passionate, careless, silly and unkind words 
from conversation, what a pleasure it w'ould be to listen. 
I’m afraid some people would not have much to say, and 
I’m quite sure the filter would want cleansing pretty 
often. 
It’s curious how people’s tongues will run when they 
talk about others. I’ve been in company sometimes, and 
all was quiet and dull, nobody knowing what to say, until 
a remark was made about some absent person, and then, 
my ! what a rattling. It made me think of dogs hunting rab¬ 
bits. They run round among the bushes very quietly un¬ 
til one of them spies the game and gives a bark, and then 
they all seem to try out-bark each other. If you will try 
my dear girls, to see how much good you can say about 
your companions, you will find it far pleasanter. One 
secret of happiness is to look on the bright side of things, 
and every body has a bright side. How foolisii it would 
be to walk through a garden and look only at the weeds, 
leaving the beautiful roses and pinks and other flowers 
unnoticed. There a good many weeds among people in 
this W'orld, but for my part I prefer looking for and talking 
about Ihe flowers. Speaking well of others will also 
make us many friends, while tattlers and gossips are 
always getting into difficulty. But I see you begin to 
think I have talked enough, and you would like a chance 
yourselves, so I’ll keep what more I have on this subject 
until another time. 
A Preinitamii So r Boys and Girls. 
Many premiums have hitherto been given to our young¬ 
er readers for getting new subscribers, and nothing has 
given us more pleasure than to pack up and send off to 
some distant boy or girl one of those splendid Unabridged 
Webster’s Dictionaries. This book is more attractive and 
useful than ever, as it has recently been still further en¬ 
larged by the addition of many hundreds of illustrations, 
engravings, tables of synonyms (words of similar meaning) 
besides many thousands of new words. In its old or new 
form it is a prize worth having, and we shall be glad to 
distribute hundreds of copies the coming Winter, partic¬ 
ularly to our young friends. Many of them can with a 
little effort get 45 subscribers at 80 cents each, or 25 at 
$1 each, which will secure the Dictionary. 
- 4 -- 
Our Exposure of Humbugs. — A physician, who 
stands among the first in his profession, and who edits 
a leading Medical Journal, writes: “....Allow me to 
thank the Agriculturist for exposing the cheats of adver¬ 
tising humbugs. So far as they are in the medical line, 
they do not harm the medical profession ; on the con¬ 
trary, these advertised quack medicines really make 
more work for physicians ; and yet we can not but regret 
that so many persons waste in the use of such nostrums 
all that time in which a cure is possible bjran intelligent 
physician. But the “ laity ” do not believe us when we 
tell them such homely truths, because they think (that we 
think) our craft is in danger. You they will hear— perhaps 
Professional Pomposity on both sides.— 
English Dentist —“Well mariner, what dental organ 
do you wish to have extracted 1 Is it a molar or incisor? 
Sailor (sharply and short)—I want you to pull that 
marline-spike sticking out in the upper tier on the lar¬ 
board side. Bear-a-hand, you swab, for it is nipping my 
jaw like a lobster. 
Into which are thrown all sorts of paragraphs—such as 
Notes and Replies to Correspondents, with. Useful or 
interesting Extracts from, their Letters, together with Glean¬ 
ings of various kinds from various sources. 
BEiisimcss Questions.—A great number of these 
in regard to Premiums, Seeds, extra numbers, etc., will 
be found answered in sundry business notes on pages 
348, 349, and 352 of this number, to which please refer. 
ESeliintl Time.—An unusual number of communi¬ 
cations on various topics have come in since the pre¬ 
ceding pages were provided for, and planned out. 
Millet.—J. E. Hall, Westchester Co , N. Y. The 
seed stalk you sent is evidently a species of millet, but 
what kind wrn cannot quite determine, without seeing the 
ripened grain. W’e judge it will make a good fodder, if 
cured as hay. 
Oil for Harness.-J. D. Bristeau, Dubuque Co., 
Io. Neat’s foot oil is the best application that we know 
of for keeping harness pliable. The leather should be 
washed clean and left well dampened before putting on 
the oil. This oil is obtained by boiling feet of cattle. 
Planting' Seeds off Forest (Trees.— H. A. B. 
Douglas Co., Nebraska. The seeds of most forest trees. 
