<t6 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
those foolish and depraved enough to want and order 
these things, we say first, that almost invariably, your 
money will be coolly pocketed and nothing returned; and 
second, that the articles, if sent, are not as represented, 
and are dangerous to yourself, morally and physically. 
To Parents and Guardians we again say, be very careful 
to know what those under your care receive through the 
mails. Multitudes of reports come to us from parents 
who have found their sons (sometimes daughters, too) 
patronizing these vile, seductive swindlers.AWiscon- 
sian writes us that he sent $2 to a Maine concern, on the 
promise of, post-paid, or express paid, a canvasser’s out¬ 
fit of 200 papers, samples of splendid cliromos, etc., but 
after three letters of inquiry can get no response; 
that a neighbor, a lady, wrote for the same and received 
a box with a C. O. D. bill of $4, and express charges of 
§ 2.25 .A Salem, Mass., subscriber writes us regretting 
that so good a paper as the Youth’s Companion should 
not be more careful in what it admits to' its advertising 
columns, and we join in the regrets—which extend to 
many other good journals. 'We hope the complainants 
will write directly to the editors of such papers, and let 
them plainly understand what their readers think about 
the matter, and what they intend to do about it if per¬ 
sisted in.Tlae “Queer” operators still find 
dupes enough to keep them going. This month we have, 
among others, J. P. Strang, alias J. D. Wolston, 10 South 
Fifth avenue, N. Y., who pretends to I. O. 0. F.ship— 
and under other names circulates the “ Spanish Policy ” 
humbug circulars ; Noah Judson & Co., 109 William St., 
N. Y., alias F. Drake & Co., 51 Liberty st., N. Y. ; Hud¬ 
son, Wood & Co., 44 Liberty st.; Jno. flood, Jr., Wil¬ 
mington, Del., whose letters are forwarded by express to 
19S Broadway, N. Y., where he has his head-quarters, as 
a protended collecting agent. The same man operates 
under the name of Amos Wainwright, 170 Broadway, N. 
Y., and same street and No. in Trenton, N. J., with 
Masonic and I. O. O. F. symbols, his letters being post¬ 
marked at N. Y. City. 
E' B K €> FIT-A® IL E „—Money can be easily 
made by any one, old or young, with little time or atten¬ 
tion required. How it is done will be learned by a careful 
reading of what is said on page 'S'3. 
Those Doh“Sle«ls.—‘‘ H.,” Rilevville, Pa., 
thinks the sleds figured in. the American Agriculturist of 
December last, would come to “pi” if a stone was 
struck when they had a heavy load on. This may seem 
so, but such sleds are extensively used in the great pine¬ 
ries in Wisconsin and Michigan, where the logs are much 
larger than the Pennsylvanian logs, and are found to be 
strong and durable. 
■Wasliisag - MacSniattcs arc commonly used 
only for the storage of articles sure to be found in every 
family, which are not good enough to keep, and still a 
little too good to throw away. They must be put some¬ 
where, and what place so appropriate as the washing 
machine, which is often just the same kind of property? 
The Continental washing machine is not one of this 
kind. We have triedit, and found it to work rapidly, 
easily, and effectually. It is a great labor-saving machine, 
and it would prove a blessing in any house that is not 
already furnished with a good washing machine. 
!>« 'Wss.ter-BSaircasi Waste any Wa¬ 
ter “ J. C.,” Kansas, asks if water-rams waste any 
water? Undoubtedly. The water elevated is raised by 
the power gained by the fall of a certain amount of wa¬ 
ter, depending on the bight to which the water elevated 
is raised, and the fall from the spring. A large quantity 
of water is used to raise a comparatively small quantity. 
Simali-Firtail CoSes' am«l I^uories.— 
“C. S.,” La Porte, Ind. A single question (or two) is 
usually answered at once. A perfect swarm like yours 
must wait. We will try and condense: Wilson's Black¬ 
berry. —The fruit is imperfect because -the flowers are 
sometimes incomplete. They arc not “ the poorest toe 
ever tasted,” but very good. Still valued at the East as a 
market berry. Philadelphia Raspberry.—\f yours are of 
superior flavor to the Clarke, then you can not have the 
right Clarke, or tastes unaccountably differ. No variety 
in the New York market equals the Hudson River Ant¬ 
werp. Mulching Grape-Vines. —Wo should notadvisethis 
except upon a very light soil. The roots of a vino need 
to be warm and dry. Mulching Strawberries— Leave the 
mulch on until after the fruit is.gathered; pull up such 
large weeds as force their way through the mulch. When 
the crop is off, remove the straw and cultivate. Rogers's 
Hybrids. —No. 15 is Agawam ; the other numbers men¬ 
tioned have not boon named. 
Forest-Ti-ec S5«<‘«ls.—“ D. A. S.," Belle¬ 
vue, O., asks about raising chestnut, sugar-maple, 
hickory, and white oak from seeds. Unless he can find 
seeds that have been properly preserved in sand, he can 
do nothing next spring. Seeds that have become thor¬ 
oughly dried will not germinate. The first two may 
be sown in drills and covered with leaf-mold, and trans¬ 
planted when one or two years old. The hickory and 
oak are best planted where they are to grow, putting two 
or three seeds together, and when they have started re¬ 
moving all but one. They do not transplant readily. 
IF.—If you persuade a neighbor to take and 
read a wide-awake, instructive, reliable journal, treating 
specially of his business, you set him to thinking, yon 
elevate iiim and his family. He will experiment, and 
you will have the benefit of his experiments. His family 
will read and be more intelligent neighbors. The tone 
of socieiy will improve; and your own property even will 
be improved in value. Every additional reader in the 
place will have a like tendency. Scatter annually in any 
neighborhood $50 worth of good periodicals and books, 
on agriculture, horticulture, and domestic ecouomy, and 
it will change the character of the neighborhood, and 
increase the intelligence and the desirableness of the 
place, and raise its product, many hundreds of dollars in 
the aggregate every year. One easy, cheap way of accom¬ 
plishing this is, for the people to unite, raise a club, and 
each receive this journal, or Hearth and Home , or both, 
and get one of the book premiums as a library for com¬ 
mon use by all. It only needs some wide-awake, enter¬ 
prising, public-spirited man or woman—young or old— 
to start the enterprise in each neighborhood. See pre¬ 
miums 94 to 10G, pages 73 and 74. By a little effort any 
man or boy may secure'quite a lot of good books for him¬ 
self as a premium without money. 
Foal Ashes, — “ G. D. C.,” Philadelphia. 
Coal ashes are worth so much less than wood ashes that 
we can not give their relative values. Coal ashes are use¬ 
ful on some soils, and the more wood or charcoal is used 
in kindling the coal the better the ashes. They are not 
worth carting far. Wo use them on roads and paths, for 
which, in our sandy soil, they answer a good purpose. 
“Insects Sent.”— “C. S.” Ind. The “in¬ 
sects ” sent in a quill arc not properly insects, but 
crustaceans. They are popularly known as Sow-bugs, and 
belong to the genus Porcellio. As they live upon decayed 
wood and other vegetable matter, it is probable that they 
do no injury. 
Mistletoe. —R. H. Dixon, Canandaigua, N. Y. 
Mistletoe can not be grown from slips.. The English 
propagate it by means of the seed, raising a sliver of 
bark upon the underside of a branch, and inserting a 
berry beneath it. We have not known the European 
Mistletoe, which is quite different from our native one, 
to be grown in this country. 
“ Smilax.” —“J. F. F.,” St. Paul, Minn. 
The proper name of this plant is MyrsiphyUum. Your 
want of success is doubtless due to your not having heat 
enough. It does best in a warm greenhouse. Your tem¬ 
perature, 35° to 55°, is cool. 
Steaming Feed willi Mot Water.— 
“A. C. W.,” Washington Co., Md., asks, “Will it do to 
steam feed in a tight box, by pouring hot water on and 
covering until cool, where there is no steaming appara¬ 
tus?” It will answer to some extent as a substitute for 
proper steaming, and will be found proportionately but 
not equally useful. 
BAiac BBnsiacs.—“ A. -W.,” Randolph, Wis. 
It is the nature of Lilac bushes to spread. You may be 
able to keep them within a certain space by digging a 
trench, removing all roots outside of it, and filling up the 
trench with coal ashes. 
Apple Orcliard. —“O. W.,” Newfane. 
If your orchard has been manured “ heavily ” every year, 
you probably have stimulated a growth of wood at the 
, expense of fruit. Let it rest for a few years ; then use lime. 
Mouse mini Garden is the title of a 
monthly made up from the weekly columns of the Ohio 
Farmer. Published by Geo. E. Blakeloe, Cleveland, O., 
at 80 cents per annum. 
Calalpnges after {Potatoes.— “J. H. G.” 
(some-kind-of-town, can’t read it), Md.—Cabbages may 
follow potatoes. Use a plenty of manure. 
Mow to Use Feus most I*roait- 
ably.—A “ Subscriber ” has two barrels of gray peas 
and wants to use them most profitably. We do not know 
of a better use than to sow them with oats and feed the 
crop to stock, either green or dry. It is an excellent crop 
for soiling, or feeding green to horses, cows, or hogs. 
FSSI3E.—Tlie very SSest TsaTtoSe Cnt“ 
lery—Silver-pHatcdl Talale Articles 
— CS-olkl Ferns—ClaiMrem’s Toys— 
Fioweraad Marslesa Seeds—Anrsery 
Stocls—Sewing »sa«l WasEalng Ma¬ 
claines and. Wringers—Melodeons_ 
IPiasaos—American Watclics—Slsoot- 
img Irons—Tool ©laests—Ibrawing 
Instruments — ISarosmeters — Astral 
©it — May Mowers — fflorse-Forlcs 
and Blocs—PnBnps—Family Weigh¬ 
ing Scales—Cyclopedias—BMction- 
aries — BSoolcs — Grape » Fines — Toy 
Steam - Engines— etc., etc., etc., 
are among the things that we are distributing very largely 
all over the countny to our friends who send in clubs of 
Subscribers. Some report as getting as many as fifty sub¬ 
scribers a day. Others get one, two, or three, or more, as 
opportunity serves. Some make this their sole business, 
and sell their premiums received, and thus get large 
wages. There is no humbug or claptrap about this. At 
least Fourteen Thousand persons have received these pre¬ 
miums with great pleasure, and still, not one in ten of 
those who ought to read the American Agriculturist and 
Hearth and Home for their own pleasure and profit , is 
yet supplied with it. So there is abundant room for 
thousands of others to obtain these valuable premiums. 
This work can go on all winter. Full particulars will be 
found in the Advertising Columns, pages 73 and 74. 
Sfiaiso at 'Will.— Mr. Edward Powers, a civil 
engineer of Chicago, finds that battles both in this coun¬ 
try and in Europe have been followed by rain which he 
attributes to the effect of cannonading. He petitions 
Congress to allow him the use of 300 cannon with pow¬ 
der for the purpose of experimenting. 
King - ISone. —“C. W. P.,” W. Va., has a 
horse lame of ring-bone in the fore feet, and wants a 
cure. If of late appearance let the horse rest, feed liber¬ 
ally, and apply a hot bran-and-water poultice, with one 
drachm of camphor. Afterwards rub with an ointment 
of iodide of lead, one part to eight parts of lard. Con¬ 
tinue this for two weeks. An old ring-bone is incurable, 
but rest will relieve the lameness. 
Most-Hole I>igger„ — “ T. S.,” Green¬ 
wood, Miss., wants the best post-hole digger. Where 
there are no stones to interfere, the common post-auger 
is the best; where there are stones, the post-spoon 
and a crowbar to loosen the earth are the best tools. 
Feacli-Trees and Canker-Worms. 
—“ J. A. H.,” Roxborough, Mass.—We do not think a 
“ little salt ” would injure your peach-trees, nor do we 
think it will do any good; better use ashes oriime. It is 
doubtful if any application can be made to the soil to 
destroy canker-worm. 
ISreeding from a Young Sow.— 
“ II. H. S. II.” asks if it is wise to breed from a sow that 
is only five months old. Hardly. Her growth will he 
checked and the pigs will not he worth raising. Better 
wait for pigs until September next. 
Size of Ox « Yokes. —“A Subscriber,” 
Wis., gives the size of timber necessary for an ox-yoke, 
used iu the Western pineries, viz., 8 x 12 inches. There, 
where heavy draft is common, a wide yoke is used and 
two-inch bows. 
The Copper-Strip Slay-Cutter,— 
“W. H. P.” asks if the copper-strip hay-cutter is the 
best. We have used it, and for a small stock think very 
highly of it. 
Lime-Spreaders.- 1 ' S. &Co.,” Bellefonte, 
Pa., asks who makes lime-spreaders, and if a plaster- 
sower, mentioned in the N. Y. Tribune, is able to do it ? 
That plaster-sower is useless for spreading lime, however 
much the N. Y. Tribune may recommend It. It can only 
sow plaster and finely ground materials in small quanti¬ 
ties. No plan of spreading lime is better than from a 
sled that will hold 25 bushels, with a long-handled shovel. 
To Prevent Skippers in Hams. 
— “Z. D. R.” keeps hams free from skippers by tying \ 
them closely in a paper sack and hanging in a dry room. 
