1873.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
405 
(16 to 31) will also be forwarded at same price. Seta of 
numbers sent to our office will be neatly bound in onr 
regular style, at 75 cents per vol. (50 cents extra, if return¬ 
ed by mail.) Missing numbers supplied at 12 cents each. 
Clubs can at any time be increased by remitting 
for each addition the price paid by the original members; 
or a small club may be increased to a larger one; thus: 
a person having sent 10 subscribers and $12, may after¬ 
ward send 10 more subscribers with only $8 ; malting a 
club of 20 at $1 each ; and-so of the other club rates. 
©iif JBa,sli€4 is again full, and a part of it 
has overflowed and will be found on page -137. Notwith¬ 
standing that we answer a large share of inquiries by 
mail we still find ourselves with less room than we need 
to give all the replies we have in type. When the an¬ 
swer to an inquiry is of interest to the writer only, we 
prefer to answer him by mail, as we do not care to occu¬ 
py space with items that will i>ot be useful to a number 
of readers. Please observe: Letters without signatures 
will receive no attention. In asking for information 
make the questions as concise as possible. Do not mix 
widely different subjects on the same sheet—such as a 
question about a lame horse and one about a rose-bush, 
but write them upon different slips of paper or postal 
cards so they can be given out to the editors of the differ¬ 
ent departments. Do not crowd too many questions in a 
letter. If a letter, as is sometimes the case, contains ten 
or a dozen different queries it is apt to be put aside until 
all those that offer but one or two are disposed of. Espe¬ 
cially, do not feel neglected if an inquiry is not answered 
at once. We try to respond to the letters of our friends 
as far as possible, and when we do not there is some 
good reason for it. Some inconsiderate persons take it 
as a personal affront if their inquiries are not answered 
at once, when they were probably received long after the 
paper bad gone-to press. These and ail others should 
recollect that answering inquiries is a matter of courtesy 
and done through a desire to help our friends in every 
way that we can. We are conscious of using our best en¬ 
deavors to serve our immense number of correspondents, 
and if any are omitted it is not from any desire or willing¬ 
ness to neglect them, but through inability to .do more 
than a day’s work in 24 hours. 
Concrete SSunldiiiiig. — 11 J. C. M.,” 
Lafayette Co., Wis. The best material for concrete is 
the broken refuse from a limestone quarry, mixed with 
clean, sharp sand and cement. The proportions are two 
bushels of cement, three bushels sand, and live bushels 
of limestone chips. This makes the best possible work, 
hut it is costly. A very good concrete may he made by 
using only half the above quantity of cement, and we 
have even seen very strong buildings in which lime only 
has been used instead of cement. The whole process 
was explained in the Agricuttui'ist of March, 1872. 
Painting au<i Graining'.— “W.W. 8.,” 
Mansfield, O. The best hand-hooks on painting, grain¬ 
ing, and carriage painting are those of J. W. Masury— 
viz.: Masury’s House-painting, price $1.50; Grainers’ 
Hand-book, with handsome illustrative plates, $2.00; and 
the Carriage-painters’ Companion, with specimens of 
colors described, $1.00 These may he procured of the 
Orange Judd Company, mailed at the above prices. 
Butter a,n«3. Oteese Exclaiiiige.— 
We call the attention of dairymen to the establishment 
of a Butter and Cheese Exchange in the city of New 
York, in a central location on Greenwich street, of 
which W. S. Fairfield is president and H. A. Pierce 
secretary. When it is considered that the trade in 
dairy products centering in the district around this ex¬ 
change amounts yearly to 3.500,000 packages of butter 
and cheese, for a total value of 50 millions of dollars, the 
necessity for some regulating power is apparent. The 
good effect of this exchange upon the interests of dairy¬ 
men can not be questioned, if nothing more is done than 
the establishment of trustworthy quotations of prices 
and the providing a central place where sellers and buy¬ 
ers may meet at any moment. To country dealers and 
dairy factories it is especially needful, as by becoming 
members of the exchange they will he guaranteed just 
and honorable dealings by the commission men they 
employ, provided they employ fellow members of the 
exchange. The admission fee is $50 for the first year 
and $25 yearly thereafter. 
Prospects for Price®. —It is absolutely 
certain that the deficiency in the harvests of Europe will 
make necessary the purchase of 150 million .bushels of 
grain. It is equally certain that the largest proportion 
of this vast quantity must he sought in American 
markets. Without trespassing upon our own require¬ 
ments, at least as to wheat, we can not spare this vast 
amount, nor half of it. Prices are likely to advance be¬ 
fore next harvest, and many are the devices and tricks 
by which speculators hope to avail themselves of the 
profits which may result from the rise in price. There 
is a wholesome demand for grain now, and if fanners 
demand the value of their crops they will secure it. 
Bairs sag f5<fflaaeati©MsaI Institutions. 
—It is rather difficult to fix the exact purpose for which 
agricultural fairs are held. If the associations under 
whose auspices they are instituted were questioned they 
would probably reply: “ We wish to educate and amuse 
the farmer, and combine business with pleasure.” Some 
of them succeed very fairly in their endeavor to do both 
things, and some educate and some amuse. Amongst 
the latter class we must include the New Jersey Agricul¬ 
tural Association, who certainly amused if they did not 
instract the visitors by the very funny nomenclature of 
the poultry and email animals on exhibition. For in¬ 
stance, we studied with great interest over a “ Kocheen 
rooster” and a pair of “ rabbeets.” By whose ingenuity 
these new readings of old matters were permitted is not 
known to us, but if amusement is not altogether the aim 
at this fair it would be well to have the animals correctly 
labeled. 
TiEe Aincrscam Sialteaifiei'gefi Pnanpo 
—Several of our neighbors have this pnrnp in use in 
wells, cisterns, and for greenhouse purposes, and all 
speak in high terms of its utility. Aside from being an 
efficient machine for raising water for domestic use, it is 
a powerful force pump. Being able to throw a good stream 
to a considerable distance, it has proved itself of great 
value as a fire engine in checking a number of conflagra¬ 
tions that threatened to he disastrous. Our advertising 
columns give information where this pump may be pur¬ 
chased. 
Slobbering SEorses. —“ W. G. S.,” Spen¬ 
cer Co., Md. On examining into tho cause of severe 
cases of slobbering in onr colts and horses when turned 
into clover stubble, we found the stubble quite full of 
lobelia, which had been crowded down by the first crop 
hut had sprung tip thickly as soon as the field had been 
mown. The second crop of hay cut from another field 
was found to contain much of this acrid weed, which 
caused the horses to slobber whenever the hay was fed to 
them. The clover in a field in which we could not find 
any of the lobelia had no such effect. We therefore attri¬ 
buted it to the weeds, and do so still. St. John’s wort 
has a similar effect on horses and colts. 
One Weelk 9 s BiasinesSo —The immense 
amount of business doing in produce may be realized 
when we consider the quantity exported from the single 
port of New York in one week, the last one in September. 
There were 32,000 barrels of flour, 1,390,000 bushels of 
wheat, 200,000 of corn, and 35.000 of rye ; 284 barrels of 
pork, 481 of beef, 5,000 of lard, 5,000 boxes of bacon, 
18,500 boxes of cheese, 050 kegs of butter, 3,500 hogs¬ 
heads of tobacco, and 4,500 hales of cotton. 
For other Bsaslket Steins seepp. 437and 438. 
A •Jumping' Colt.—“ S. F. S.,” Neoga, Ill. 
We know of no way of preventing a colt that will jump 
over a ten-rail fence from doing so except keeping him 
in a stable. It would he better to sell him for work in a 
town or city, where he could not exercise his bad habit, 
than to be troubled with him upon a farm. 
IBsaeSiwBaestt Straw for B^eeiE.— 
“ S. F. S.” Buckwheat straw, either green or dry, is the 
very poorest feed. It should be used for litter. 
Cradle Petroleum.— ' l F. H. E.,” Carlisle, 
Ind. The very simple meaning of the term crude ought 
to he sufficient to designate crude petroleum as entirely 
distinct from the refined oil. The ernde oil is just as it 
comes from the well. We were never in any place yet 
but what crude oil could be procured there. It is most¬ 
ly used for lubricating machinery. The crude product 
of the oil wells is a thick, semi-liquid, dark colored, 
almost black oil. It has a great amount of “body” in 
it, which when it is refined remains in the still as paraf¬ 
fine and a sort of bitumen. When this crude oil is used 
to paint the outsides of barns, sheds, or other buildings 
or fences, it sinks into tho pores of tho wood and fills 
them with the most effective preservative against mois¬ 
ture and consequent decay. Its natural “ body” makes 
any solid addition to it unnecessary, and also makes it a 
very valuable ground upon which to lay a coat of ordin¬ 
ary paint. Its remarkable cheapness is also a great ad¬ 
vantage, and we know of no other method of painting 
farm buildings so cheap or so convenient as to give 
them a coat of crude petroleum at this season of the 
year, followed by a coat of Chemical Paint, which may 
he purchased already prepared of any desired shade. 
One of the most desirable shades, to onr fancy, is a 
light brown, which does not show the peculiar marks 
or color common to farm dirt. 
Beef to 12siiglaiM«l.,—One huudred and 
thirty head of beef cattle were recently shipped on one 
steamer to a British port. This fact is significant. 
With beef retailing at thirty cents per pound in our 
Eastern cities, we are called upon to spare part of our 
supply to feed foreign nations. With the homo market 
supplied so barely that prices of the better portions of 
the carcass are beyond the reach of those of moderate 
means, wo have now an additional demand. We have 
many a time called attention to the fact that beef-raising 
can not for a long series of years he less profitable than 
it now is, and that it is one of the best paying branches 
of agriculture. If we are to feed the world with beef wo 
must raise more than we now do. 
•Jersey Stoelk:,,— A very short time ago $300 
was thought an extravagant price for a Jersey cow. Far¬ 
mers were heard to say that no cow could be worth so 
much. But recently we heard tho plain tale of a plain 
farmer whose extra butter, truly “ gilt-edged,” we were 
admiring at the tables appropriated to the dairy depart¬ 
ment at the New York State Fair, and which took the first 
premium. lie is Mr. Wm. V. S. Beckman, of Saugertieg, 
N. Y., the owner of a small dairy of six cows, who does 
all his work himself, farming, milking, and churning, 
and who reads and studies the AgrwullurUt. His butter 
sells for 05 cents a pound in ttie city of New York. Hifl 
cows are pure Jerseys, and his pure pedigree Jersey 
bull was on exhibition at the same fair. Sixty-five cents 
is exactly double the price of extra Orange Co. pails in 
the market at that time. Tho difference goes to express 
the value of the Jersey over the native cow; and if some 
enterprising individual had not imported at some timo 
the stock from which Mr. Beckman’s cows are descended 
at possibly a cost of $1,000 or over per head, a great many 
such farmers as Mr. Beeliman could never have possessed 
a Jersey cow. 
Premimnn JLIsts will he found on pages 
433 to 430. 
SUNDRY HUI1TOS.— 1 The old butter 
powder humbug is revived again. Our Western corre¬ 
spondents inform us that swindlers are operating this 
time in Indiana selling for $5 a recipe to make 
EIGHT POUNDS OF BUTTER PROM A GALLON OF MILK 1 
It almost passes belief that any one can be found so 
simple as to be caught by so hare a hook as this. As a 
gallon of pure milk weighs about pounds, the ab¬ 
surdity of converting all hut about half a pound of it into 
butter has only to be stated to be exposed. What very 
shallow, thoughtless people they must be who pay their 
money for such a transparent humbug.A large num¬ 
ber of circulars of a furnishing store in Chicago have 
been sent us, and we are asked to state whether the 
affair is a humbug or not. Sales are made by ticket, and 
there is a great deal of circumlocution about the whol© 
matter which seems to be quite unnecessary. All we 
can do in the present ease is to advise our correspondents 
to buy their goods of dealers whom they know and upoa 
whom they can rely, and to always hear in mind that 
really good articles are rarely sold for much less than 
they are worth . Several complaints have come to ua 
of R. II. London, who sends out a circular efiering 
“Combination Needle-book and Portemonnaie,” “Sta¬ 
tionary Package,” etc., ana also announcing himself aa 
keeping a “ purchasing agency.” Our correspondents 
state they have sent money and get no returns nor replies 
to repeated letters of inquiry. The circulars date from 636 
Broadway, but no such person as R. H, Loudon can he 
found at that number. 
DEALERS IN “goods” OR “QUEER” 
seem to he jealous of one another, to judge from the 
pains they take to secure their customers. Formerly 
they gave their victims minute directions how to find 
them, hut they now play a different game and call upoa 
their customers. 
As it is so long since we exposed this fraud in detail it 
may be interesting to newer subscribers to have a speci¬ 
men of the unblushing audacity of these counterfeit 
money dealers. The circulars sent ont are, for the most 
part, the same ; these are accompanied by a lithographic 
circular or a loose slip of paper upon which is given a 
name and address. The names show a wonderful variety, 
but they are for the most part written in the same hand 
and sent out with the same circular. Here is the bait : 
“In the first place, I wish to inform yon that I am an 
Engraver, and said to he by those who are competent of 
judging, the most expert one in America. I have been 
employed by the U. S. Government for twelve years. I 
