[Januaet, 
10 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Aiioilier As-riciiltBirisi Editor. — 
We have an announcement to make which will doubt¬ 
less gratify our readers, as it does ourselves. It has 
been the policy of the Puhlishors of this journal to secirre 
the best possible Editorial aid to be obtained, at what¬ 
ever cost, and the result has justified the policy. One 
man, of even moderate ability and experience only, may 
collect enough readable matter of some Tdnd to fill up 
a weekly sheet; but to prepare a thorough-going journal 
varied in its matter, pruned of superfluous words and 
sentences and full of condensed thought, reliable in all 
its teachings, and treating on subjects so multitudinous as 
are embraced in the labors of the Farm, Garden, and House¬ 
hold, there is needed the combined thought, experience, 
and observation of a considerable number of first class men 
—the more tire better. If every page or two has the en¬ 
tire thought and investigation of one such man, the pa¬ 
per must certainly be far superior to what it would bo 
if only one man spread his thoughts and repeated himself 
over twenty or thirty pages each month... . .While the 
Agriculturist will continue to have the editorial labors of 
our Associates, Messrs. Tiiuiibeii, Weld, IIaeeis, Fitch, 
and others, who have done so much to make the pa¬ 
per what it has been, we have at length prevailed upon 
Rev. Wm. Clift to join our Editorial Corps, and he will 
enter upon his duties here soon after the present number 
goes to press. Mr. Clift became widely and very favora¬ 
bly liuown by his “Carriage Views of Farming,” and 
other valuble contributions to the press, some twenty 
years ago, and he has given us occasional editorial aid 
during the past fifteen years ; but his practical labors as 
a cultivator, his pastoral and other public duties, and the 
care of the extensive Woodlawn Cemetery, of which he 
has been Comptroller or Superintendent for some time 
past, have left him little time to devote to his pen. In the 
wide and influential field upon which he now enters,he will 
doubtless do good service to the country.— Publisiiers.1 
Eapital, B£elisi5>le Aalverliseisieiits 
fill all the space we can spare to that department. 
Many more good parties, late comers, wanted room which 
ive could not give, and a multitude was shut out raider our 
rules, which exclude all secret and deceptive things, and 
rcQ^uirc evidence that the advertiser has both the iuteutiOTh 
and ability to do what he promises. It is a good time to 
study these business columns ivell, and find out what is 
for sale, by whom, and make arrangements for the spring 
stock of needed implements, etc., and the other things 
wanted now. It will please the advertisers, if in writing^ 
to them for catalogues, or circulars, or sending orders, 
they are informed where their advertisements were seen. 
They like to know where they find the largest number of 
wide-awake, enterprising readers. One man telis us that 
last year he advertised in just 300 papers, received 2900 
orders, and that he knows that over 2000 of them came 
from the Agriculturist readers.—Another says ho set aside 
just $ 10,000 for advertising, and that the $600 paid the 
Agriculturist brought him more good business than the 
$0,400 paid elsewhere. Many others talk in the same way. 
!^ 5 >ccia.l to Adlvcrtiscvs.—Our new adver¬ 
tising terms are announced in the proper place. A little 
advance is made, but not so much as the increased circula¬ 
tion would really warrant. Our basis for ordinary adver¬ 
tisements is, one cent, or less per line for each thousand 
subscribers, as we expect to print 150,000 to 200,000 or 
more copies the present year. The subscriptions so far 
are 80 per cent above the same period last year. If this ratio 
continues a little while longer, we shall exceed 200 , 000 . 
Based on circulation alone, our terras are the cheapest in 
the world, to say nothing of the fact that our advertise¬ 
ments are select, and arc trusted by the reader; that they 
are before the reader a month at least; and that they are 
beautifully printed on small pages and are thus easily 
seen.-To merely print 130,000 cards containing 5 square 
inches of reading matter, would cost at least $600. To 
print that card in this paper, and have a copy sent into 
150,000 families, one in a place, costs less than $60. At 
our old terms the advertising would not pay much more 
than the expense of the paper they are printed on, as any 
one acquainted with the cost of such paper can readily cal¬ 
culate. (See note on “ Capital Advertisements ” above.) 
“ l?a'opci* —A “Eural” paper, pub¬ 
lished not a thousand miles from Rochester, annually, 
about the close of its subscription year, makes itself ri¬ 
diculous and annoys its readers, by a billions overflow 
toward the Agiicidturist and one or two other journals. 
This year its groans indicate almost expiring agonies. 
Its latest special cause of complaint arises from the fact 
that some extra copies of the Agriculturist were sent into 
half a dozen tovras in Western New York, where the 
Genesee Farmer, which wo purchased, formerly circulated. 
Wo guarantee that neither the Mail clerk, nor his employ¬ 
ers, when sending those papers, had the least thought of 
“ disturbing ” or “ displacing ” the “ Rural.” They have 
too much compassion for their Weakly friend. They were ] 
not thinking of him at all, or they would have remembered 
that he had a mortgage on, owned, and possessed, all the 
farmers of Western New York, or claims to.—-But why 
is he so disturbed at the apparition of an extra copy or 
two of our beautiful sheet in that region, where thousands 
of copies go regularly f Oh! we see.—One of his scat¬ 
tered subscribers by chance saw our paper. Is he so 
afraid of the comparison f Perhaps his conscience 
troubled him lest that subscriber should see how exten¬ 
sively the Rural has copied from our paper and books— 
transferring our beautiful and costly original engravings, 
and ideas, without a word of credit.-Pray, keep cool, 
friend Rural; we will sin as little as possible, though it is 
hard to suppress the wish to let your readers occasionally 
see a real, live, finished, original paper, that has had a 
whole month’s work of preparation, and is not hastily 
throivn together and illustrated with borroived or stolen 
engravings. If you don’t stop scolding, you will get down 
toward a par with your competing “Rural” whoso editor 
will fume at us until he dies, because we wont notice 
him, wont advertise for him, or exchange with him, and 
because we once showed up his sales of patent “Bee¬ 
hives” without any patent, and his soiling the address of 
young ladies for sixpence each. Harris Brothers’ “gift 
enterprise” is helping that “Rural” to subscribers. 
Pray don’t get down to its level. 
“ Timi ISaiaaliei-.”— Old readers of the ^ 50 - 1 - 
culturist will be glad to know that a spicy letter from our 
old friend, of racy, practical, homely wit and wisdom— 
Timothy Bunker, Esq., of Ilookertown, Conn.—is in type 
for our next number. ’Squire Bunker has been so much 
occupied of late, that it has interfered with the claims 
which readers of the Agriculturist seem to have upon 
him. We can now congratulate our readers on the prom¬ 
ise of a letter from him every month or two. 
Clo|»eIsxiid.’s Eoimti’y Eiffe.—When the 
new and enlarged edition of this work appeared, wc re¬ 
commended it as a useful cncyclopiedia of rural affairs. 
A further examination of the book has resulted in our 
purchasing it and adding it to our list of standard publi¬ 
cations. There is scarcely a topic relating to the manage¬ 
ment of gardens, green-houses, orchards, and all the mat¬ 
ters pertaining to small farms and country places, that is 
not intelligently and pleasantly treated. It does not 
profess to be a work upon agriculture proper, but it is one 
that will meet the wants of a large class who live in the 
country. We do not mean to say that it would not be 
useful to the fanner, for it would be, in teaching him how 
to give his home pleasant surroundings. The work is 
abundantly and well illustrated. A now issue is now 
ready, on fine paper, in beveled boards—912 pages. Price 
$3.00. Sent by mail post-paid. 
TTSae AaaiericaBi CJardeiaea*’s Assist¬ 
ant. —By Thomas Bridgeman. New Edition, Revised, 
Enlarged and Illustrated, by S. Edwards Todd. New 
York: William Wood & Co. The work of Mr. Bridge- 
man first appeared many years ago, and was in its day a 
standard authority. The name is an honored one in 
American horticulture, and when a new edition of his 
work came to hand, we felt glad that the Gardener s 
Assistant” still lived. Upon looking over the volume, 
we found illustrations taken boldly and bodily from the 
Agriculturist, and from books of which we hold the copy¬ 
right . We were astonished to find that honorable dealers, 
like William Wood & Co., had thus taken the property of 
others. Our astonishment was at an end when we turned 
to the title page, and found by whom the work was 
revised. A committee of twelve men may decide on 
this matter of illustrations, and we will turn to the 
literary portion of the work. We doubt if so many 
blunders were ever before enclosed in one cover, and one 
hardly knows where to begin to notice a work, claiming 
to be “ revised,” in which old errors, thought to bo truths 
in their time, are so mingled with modern blunders. As 
a specimen of the recklessness with which names are 
handled, we are told under Cabbage, p. 5.5, “ The lirassica 
rapa, or Turnip-Cabbage, produces its bulb or protuber¬ 
ance,” etc., and on page 13G we have JBrassica rapa, given 
as the name of the Turnip.—The “reidser” is even loss 
at homo among fruits than he is among vegetables, and 
the article on the grape is of about as much use in the 
present state of grape culture, as an almanac of thirty 
years ago. As a matter of curiosity, we copy, the names 
of the grapes treated of. We first have, on page 105, a 
“ Select Descriptive List of Native Grapes,” which gives 
notes on Alexander, Blond, Carolina Perfumed, Catawba, 
Cunningham, Elsinburgh, Hides Eliza, Isabella, Luf- 
borough, Maddox, Norton’s Virginia, Pond’s Seedling, 
Scuppemong, Warren and Woodson. A ""select' list 
truly! Evidently pleased with the amusement of mak¬ 
ing grape lists, the “reviser” gives us a few pages 
further on another (p. Ill) “ Select Descriptive List of 
Native Grapes,” in which wo have this time Diana, Gil 
bert’s White Shonga, Lenoir, Missouri, Ohio, Shurtleff’s 
Seedling, Uchee Grape, and White Scuppemong. The 
pears present a most melancholy array of antiquated 
varieties, with a number of illustrations, only one of 
■which is referred to in the text. The list of strawberries 
gives some twenty-four varieties, not one-fourth of which 
are now extant; the Wilson, Triomphe de Gand, Scott’s 
Seedling and Trolloppe’s Victoria are represented by bad 
engravings, but not a word is said of them. The flow¬ 
ers are still worse managed, as witness the Dahlia, in 
which a gentleman who has been dead a number of years, 
is quoted as if he had given recent information. It were a 
waste of time and space to point out the errors of omis¬ 
sion and commission in a work, that in competent hands, 
might have been made valuable. The heirs of Mr. 
Bridgeman must indeed feel chagrined to see their name 
connected with such a jumble, and certainly must feel that 
an alteration is not always an improvement. 
Tine Agriculturist ISoolt I>epart- 
ment.— A few years ago, in response to their oft- 
repeated requests, the Publisher commenced supplying 
his subscribers with such books as they desired, sending 
them by mail, post-paid, without additional charge. The 
retiring of C. M. Saxton & Co., who were the leading 
agricultural Book Publishers, cut off the supply of many 
books, and it became necessary for Mr. Judd to issue 
some of these books in order to meet his engagements to 
furnish them. Subsequently, at the urgent request of 
many booksellers, and others, Mr. Judd purchased all the 
plates, rights to publish, etc., previously owned by Messrs. 
Saxton & Co., and increased the stock by other purchases, 
until he had control of a very large proportion of all the 
Agricultural and Horticultural books published in this 
country. A careful weeding was made, and more than 
half of the books were condemned, and their stereotype 
plates consigned to the melting pot, where it could bo 
done without infringing upon the vested right of authors. 
Mr. Chase, an experienced Boston publisher, was asso¬ 
ciated in the business, so that there should be no lack of 
business and editorial attention to the Agricilturist, but 
rather greater efficiency secured.-The Firm, and all 
associated with them, are ambitious to have the credit of 
supplying good books. With the large editorial power 
employed upon the Agriculturist, good old books are 
being revised, and first rate new books, edited with the 
same care that is expended upon the Agricidtw'ist, are 
being constantly prepared. The field is an extensive one. 
Cultivators of the soil are waking up more and more to 
the importance of studying their business in all its bear¬ 
ings, and to meet the demand for good reliable Books, 
Pamphlets, Annuals, etc., is an important work. The 
Publishers say in their circular, that “they aim to exercise 
so much care that their Imprint upon any book shall be a 
guarantee of its value.” The AgriciUtwlst is entirely in¬ 
dependent in its sphere, though its issue by the same pub¬ 
lishers gives it additional resources, financial and other¬ 
wise, so that this business connection makes it possible 
to furnish it to subscribers at a lower rate than could be 
done without this aid. Those who understand the mat¬ 
ter, will readily see that the subscription money paid 
cannot of itself cover the cost of supplying such a paper. 
Our letters, for four 
weeks past, describe 8 5 individuals, or firms, engaged in 
14 different modes of swindling, or of corrupting morals. 
An analysis, and somewhat detailed exposure, is prepared, 
but we have not room for it this month. Several of these 
parties are consigned to the magistrates or policemen. 
Th^ writers of over 200 letters, now before us, will please 
understand that those who have inquired about reliable 
parties will be answered by mail; all not thus answered 
may put down the parties inquired about, either as swin¬ 
dlers, or as being under investigation to be reported upon 
hereafter.-^While waiting room to speak more particu¬ 
larly, we advise our readers to beware of all tempting 
offers coming by circular through the mails; of all gift en¬ 
terprises, however sugar-coated by pretending to aid 
soldiers and their orphans, or needy artists; of all watch 
and jewelry tickets; of Gold and Silver Mining Compan¬ 
ies ; of rc«ipes for washing, ink, vinegar, honey, etc.; of 
applications for catalogues of Female Seminaries, and 
lists of names of ianners and others; of lovr-priced sew¬ 
ing machines hoc item elsewhere); of cheap burning 
fluids; of map publishers asking money for something 
to be issued hereafter; of wonderful new discoveries 
where money is to be sent; etc., etc.——Please continue 
to report to us all new schemes, as soon as they appear. 
3,0®0 Goo«I Words.—Our Assistant who 
receives, examines, and sorts the large number of news¬ 
papers regularly received, says that during the past 
vear alone, more than two thousand different editorial no¬ 
tices have appeared in tliese journals, strongly commend¬ 
ing the Agriculturist. Our space is too valuable to allow 
repeating sucli notices. 
