1874 ] 
AMERICAN AG-RICTJLTURIST. 
4r5 
bushel off highest figures for Spring. Corn has been 
offered very sparingly, and with a brisk inquiry, largely 
speculative, has been quoted decidedly dearer. Oats and 
Buriey have also been actively sought after, and prices 
have favored sellers, closing buoyantly.Provisions 
hove attracted more attention, but closed quiet and 
somewhut unsettled.Cotton has been selling freely 
at bnoyant rates.Wool has been in more request at 
improved prices, closing firmly.Hops, Hay, Straw, 
ami Tobacoo have been selling moderately, on a general 
steady basis as to values. Seeds have been quoted 
higher, with a readier market noted, particularly for 
prime Clover for export purposes. 
Kew York Live-Stock Markets. 
Bound Copies of Volume Thirty- 
two are now ready. Price, $2, at our office; or $2.60 
each, if sent by mail. Any of the last seventeen volumes 
(16 to 32) will also be forwarded at same price. Sets of 
numbers sent to our office will be neatly bound in our 
regular style, at 75 cents per vol. (50 cents extra, if return¬ 
ed by mail.) Missing numbers supplied at 12 cents each. 
Cluhs 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 ; 'making a 
club of 20 at $1 each; and so of the other clnb rates. 
RECEIPTS. 
week ending Beeves. Cows. Calves. Sheet). Swine. Tot'l. 
Deoembcr 15....:.. 
.. .7,113 
69 
Deocmber 22. 
...7.796 
61 
Deoember 29. 
...5,914 
51 
January 5. 
61 
January 12. 
. .6829 
68 
Total for 5 Weeks. 
.35.219 
310 
do .for prew. 4 IFeeA:s26,0j2 
311 
Beeves. 
Average per Week . . 7,0-12 
do. do. last Month.... 6,513 
do. d o. preo's Month.. 9,159 
626 23,073 42,332 73,533 
670 25,061 40,828 7-1,416 
676 18,178 35,764 6l),5S3 
611 16,909 22,735 47,566 
652 17,S75 30.2S3 55,707 
S,23S 101,093 171,942 311,805 
4,514 90,097 215,911 337,545 
Cows. Calves. Sheep. Swine. 
62 617 20,219 34,338 
78 1,136 22,674 53.9S5 
74 1,71G 30,397 47,142 
Beeves.— The irregnlar receipts of last month have 
created a somewhat irregnlar market, and prices have 
changed up or down with less or greater supply. The 
year’s business closed np with receipts of 442,744 head. 
against 425,275 head for 1872 and 3S0.934 for 1871. The 
Closing prices of 1S73 were fully V/ 2 c. to 2c. lower than a 
year previous, ami preminm cattle dragged at the price 
of extra, bringing 131,c, against 1514c. a year ago. Dur¬ 
ing the last month the prices have been maintained only 
by moderate supply, and gave way whenever the supply 
equaled the demand. Prices may be marked down fully 
%c. during the month ; choice steers selling at the close 
at 12Xc. @ 12%c. $ lb. ; first quality steers at llXc. @ 
19c.; native cattle, oxen, and cows, 9c. ©ll.t^c.; and 
Texans at 7Mc. @ 10Xc. 
Prices for the past five weeks were : 
WEEK ENDING 
January 5... 
Mange. 
Large Sales. 
Aver. 
7 @18%c. 
10K©nXc. 
10^-c. 
7 @13MC. 
10 @11 c. 
10Kc. 
7>6@1S^c. 
10'A@UHc. 
lOjtfc. 
7>.@13 c. 
10 ©It c. 
10Mc. 
7M@12Xc. 
10 @11 c. 
10Mc. 
Milch Cows.—There has been fair inquiry for good 
cows, with light snpply, and prices have remained steady. 
$90 was paid for an extra cow and calf, but the range has 
been from $40 to $80 for cow and calf.Calves.— 
For this stock we have no change to remark; the supply 
has fallen off since last month nearly one-half, yet there 
has been no advance in prices to notice. Fair milk-fed 
calves sold at the close for 8c. @ 11c. $ To., and grassers 
at $8® $12$ head. Hog-dressed calves are arriving and 
selling at 10c. 13c. for milk and 5c. @ 9c. for grass and 
fed. Sheep and Lambs.—' The arrivals are 
below the average, and, with good demand, the quota¬ 
tions are advanced somewhat, bnt the market is dull. 
Prices at the close reached 5Xc. @ 7Jfc. $ lb. for ordin¬ 
ary stock ; 7Xc. @ 714c. for selected; and 8c. for fancy 
Canada wethers. Swine. —Prices have again ad¬ 
vanced, with continued light receipts, although the mar¬ 
ket has been constantly dull. Live hogs were quoted 
nominally, without sales, at the close of the week at 
6Mc. @ 5%c. $ fi). Dressed hogs were moving uneasily 
in an unsettled market at C),(c. @ 6%c. for Western, and 
6Hc. © 7!4c. for City. 
<2> 
containing a great variety of Items , including many 
good Hints and Suggestions nitich we throw into smaller 
type and condensed form , for scant of space elsewhere. 
Remitting Money: — Checks on 
New Yorlc City Banks or Bankers are best 
for large snms ; make payable to the order of Orange 
Jndd Company. Post»Office Money Orders 
for $50 or less, are cheap anil safe also. When these are not 
•btainabie, register letters, affixing stamps for post¬ 
age and registry; put in the money and seal the letter in 
the presence of the postmaster, and take liis receipt for it. 
Money sent in the above three methods is safe against loss. 
Postage : On American Agriculturist , 13 cents 
a year, and on Hearth and Home , 20 cents a year, in ad¬ 
vance. Double rates if not paid in advance at the 
office where the papers are received. For subscribers in 
British America, the postage, as above, must be sent 
to this office, with the subscription , for prepayment here. 
Also 20 cents Tor delivery of Hearth and Home and 12 
C6nts for delivery of American Agriculturist in New 
York City. 
©as* Fisse Chromos.— Read all about 
them on third cover page. It is easy to seenre one or 
both. 
FME.-Fine CSoltl Perns, with 
SiSvei* Cases—The ESest Silver-plat¬ 
ed Table Articles—Tahle Cutlery— 
Children’s Carriages and Toys— 
Floral Sets — CTardew Seeds and 
Flower 15ulbs—Sewing Machines— 
"Washing Machines and Wringers 
—Pocket Knives—Fine CJold and 
SilverWatches—Melodeons—Pianos 
—Guns and SRitSes — Cnltivators — 
ISooks—etc., etc., etc.; all these are among 
the valuable articles to be found in the Premium List 
for 1S74 on page ^3. Any person can, with a little effort, 
secure one or more of these valuable articles. Thou¬ 
sands have done it. There is. room for thousands more. 
It is very easy to obtain clubs of subscribers for the two 
popular papers, the American Agriculturist and Hearth 
and Home. Try it. 
0^° See Fag’es 7«1 and 7-1. 
Take 55oth Papers.— If both the 
American Agriculturist and Hearth and Home are 
taken together they may bo had for only $4, and $4.50 
pays for both papers and a Chronio with each. 
The German Agricnltnrist is pub¬ 
lished at the-same price as the English edition, and is 
mainly a reproduction of that paper, with a special de¬ 
partment edited by the non. F. Munch. Will onrreaders 
kindly mention this to their German friends ? Perhaps 
some who employ Germans as gardeners, laborers, etc., 
would be glad to supply them with useful reading matter 
by subscribing for the German edition for them. 
Farms for Premiums.— A most liberal 
offer of farm lands as Special Premiums is made by the 
Publishers to those who will seenre cluhs of subscribers 
for the American Agriculturist and Hearth and Home. 
See particulars on fonrth cover page of this paper. 
Henry A. ©reer.— The announcement of 
the death of this most estimable man came upon bis 
friends with a startling suddenness, ne died at his res¬ 
idence near Philadelphia on the 21st of December last of 
a disease of the heart. Mr. Dreer was one of the leading 
seedsmen of the country, and at the same time an en¬ 
thusiastic lover and cultivator of plants. He was an in¬ 
fluential member of the Pennsylvania Horticnltnral Soci¬ 
ety, and as he was also eminently a working member, 
his helpfnl presence will be sadly missed by that body. 
Of a singularly even and genial temperament, he made 
hosts of friends, and bis strict integrity secured him the 
esteem of all who had business relations with him. We 
learn that the business will be continued under the same 
name by Mr. Dreer’s son, Wm. F. Dreer, and his nephew, 
Wm. H. Smith, who have been associated with him for 
several years. 
Tlie Use of Postal Cards.— The Rus¬ 
sian who when he first saw a pair of snuffers thought 
them very handy, as he illustrated by snuffing the candle 
with his fingers and putting the snuff into the snnffers, 
has passed into history. He is rivalled in a degree by 
the American who found postal cards a great convenience, 
as he had only to write his message on it, pnt it into an 
envelope and send it off without any trouble. We have 
a correspondent who excels both in ingenuity. He en¬ 
closes ns six postal cards with a distinct question upon 
each, and asks ns to answer “ through the Agriculturist." 
To make the matter sure he scratches ont his address 
from his letter and fails to pnt it on the cards. 
SUNDRY HUMBUGS.—A gentleman 
in Philadelphia incloses ns a circular of the LouisviHe. 
Ky., Library Lottery, and asks us if it is a humbug. It 
is probably no more so than any other lottery. We hold 
that 
ALL LOTTERIES ARE HUMBUGS, 
no matter bow fairly managed. Their main object is t<® 
make money for their proprietors, and the pretense of 
benefiting some public or charitable institution is a mere 
bait. Within the recollection of many, lotteries were 
tolerated, and even legalized, in almost every state in the 
Union, but of late years the moral sense of'tlie commu¬ 
nity has demanded that they be suppressed, and now 
most states have laws prohibiting them. Take this 
Louisville affair, for instance, which seems to be profita¬ 
ble, or it would not be kept tip so long; we showed a 
year ago, in a quotation from a Louisville paper, that the 
purchasers of tickets paid nine dollars to put one dollar 
Into the library fund. Then litre is the Gift Concert for 
the Reform Sciiool of Leavenworth, Kansas, which we 
have already noticed, and which is mainly a plan to help 
the projector to sell bis house at a good price, that being 
one of the prizes. Even Utah lias gone into the lottery 
business, and proposes a “ Gift Concert ” for the benefit, 
of a free school in the city of Corinne. No matter un¬ 
der what pretense these tilings are advertised—and we 
consider those cloaked under charitable disguises more 
reprehensible tiian bold and barefaced lotteries—they aE 
hold ont temptations, that the few may get something at 
the expense of the many. It is gambling in its meanest 
form ; and no honorable man, whether lie be governor, 
mayor, merchant, or priest, should allow bis name»to be 
used to promote any such scheme. 
THE $4 GENEVA WATCH 
dealers have received a check. Wc have long had them 
in our list of humbugs, but now the law has interfered 
with their little game. The watches were advertised by 
J. Wright & Co., 609 Broadway, but the Post-office au¬ 
thorities found that letters thus directed were received 
by one Robinson at 599 Broadway, and that the real 
place of business—if business it could be called—was at 
49 Amity street. Here the letters were opened, the 
money taken ont, and a circular dispatched informing 
the sender of the money that his order would be filled in 
turn. Robinson has been arrested and bailed in $35,000, 
to appear for trial upon the charge of getting letters front 
tbemail nnder false pretenses. 
DANGEROUS ^BURNING FLUIDS. 
We have before set forth the dangerous character of sev¬ 
eral of the articles offered as cheap illuminators. That 
. these will give an excellent light and at a low cost, we 
do not donbt; bnt we feel it a duty to warn all our read¬ 
ers not to use benzine, naphtha, gasoline, or any of these 
light oils in any form; no matter how compounded or 
mixed np, they are dangerous in themselves and danger¬ 
ous in all their componnds. Nothing is safer than gun¬ 
powder in the hands of an old hunter, because he knows 
its danger ; but he would not trust his children with it. 
These articles will not themselves explode, and those 
who sell them convince the ignorant that they are safe 
by showing that they will extinguish a lighted match. 
Bnt the trouble is witli the vapor which they give oft' at 
ordinary temperatures, and this, when mixed witli air, is 
highly explosive and dangerous. No liquid is safe to 
burn that gives off a vapor that will flash at a lower tem¬ 
perature than 110°.“I. I. A.” sends us a circular of 
a “ Chemical Fluid Gas Light,” and asks our opinion, 
bnt as he does not send the formula, we can only say 
that, from the circular, we infer it is no gas at all, bnt 
merely a contrivance for burning tlie vapor of some 
highly volatile and consequently dangerous liquid. 
DUBIOUS CASES 
are mere numerous this month than usual. We have & 
pile of circulars, in some of which goods are offered at 
remarkably low prices, generally requiring $5 to he sent 
with the order. In others all sorts of knicknacks are of¬ 
fered for sale by agents who are requested to send a stmt 
to procure an outfit, and others offer to sell at a very low 
rate the secret of making wonderful perfumes, medicines 
to cure various diseases, hair restorers, and the like. 
While it is probable that any one who invests in any of 
these enterprises will regret it, we can not show that the 
proprietors will not do as they agree to, and we are not 
warranted in setting them down by name as humbugs. 
We have complaints against one of these concerns from 
persons who write ns that they have sent money to one 
of these “companies” and got no return. Not finding 
tlie name in the directory, we sent one of our associates 
to the place advertised, who found the “ company ” in an. 
ohsenre upper room, with samples of the goods they send 
ont, and several persons busy in preparing circulars fop 
the mail.After all that has been said upon the mat¬ 
ter, we can not feel a great deal of pity for persons who 
send money to unknown parties and receive no returns. 
People should recollect that no really good article is ever 
