1874] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
285 
SPECIAL PREMIUMS 
STILL OFFEREE. 
MULTtJM IN PARVO KNIFE, OPEN—WEIGHT 2 OZ. 
The General Premium List closed July 1st. The 
following Special Premiums are continued until 
further notice : 
TEac UEiiltaiBia iui Parvo Knife for 8 
subscribers to American Agriculturist at 81.50 each 
a year. (Knife sent post-paid.) 
The Beckwitlii Improved $13 Sew» 
isig-n^Sadaissc for 10 subscribers to American 
Agriculturist at 81.50 each a year. 
TIae ESeclcwSfli IPoa-talale Fiaasaily 
Sewing.llaeliiiie, price $20, for 30 sub¬ 
scribers to American Agriculturist at 81.50 each 
a year. 
BECKWITH PORTABLE 820 SEWING-MACHINE. 
To secure the Chromo, mounted and prepaid, 
25 cents must be remitted with each subscription 
for American Agriculturist. 
N. B.—Two 'tall'-ycar subscribers in all 
the above cases may count for one full year in a 
Premium Club List. 
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Please tell your Friends 
TIIAT THEY CAN SECURE THE 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
Six Months for only 75 Cts. 
In order to enable many persons to become acquainted 
with this valuable Journal, who have not hitherto taken 
it, the Publishers will receive subscriptions for it for the 
months commencing with July and ending with Decem¬ 
ber, 1S74, at seventy-five cents each. Will not each of 
our present subscribers speak “ a good word ” to friend 
or neighbor ?—Please note: We will send the American 
Agriculturist for six mouths, beginning with July, 1874, 
for seventy-five cents. This offer, of course, does not in¬ 
clude the beautiful chromo “Up for Repairs,” which is 
offered to all yearly subscribers free, when taken at 245 
Broadway, or twenty-five cents extra when sent prepaid. 
Give the paper a six month’s trial trip, or better still, 
try it a year. — 
• 4 • 1R 4 ^4 4 4 4 
Better Still! 
BEAUTIFUL $5 CHROMO, 
AND 
Half a Year’s Subscription, 
ALL 
For a Single Dollar. 
Considering the hardness of the times, and 
in order to meet the wishes of a great number 
who desire to have our beautiful chromo, 
“Uf» ISEFAMSS,” but who did 
not feel able to pay the $1.73 required to 
get it, the Publishers have decided to send 
the American Agriculturist , from July 1st 
to the end of the year, and to deliver, free 
of postage, a mounted copy of this beautiful 
Clirom®, which has given so much pleasure, 
all for $1, if promptly called for. 
Please make this known to all your 
friends and neighbors. 
■s-e- 1 
containing a great variety of Items , including many 
good Hints and Suggestions which we throw into smaller 
type and condensed form, for leant of space elseivhere. 
ESemiltitijs; Money: — Checks obi 
New York City fltanks or Bankers are best 
for large sums ; make payable to the order of Orange 
.J udd Company. I’ost-Office Money Orders 
for §50 or less, are cheap and safe also. When these are not 
obtainable, 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 his receipt for it. 
Money sent in the above three methods is safe against loss. 
N.15.—'Tlae IPostage Taw. 
—On account of the new postal law. which requires 
pre-payment of postage hy the publish¬ 
ers, after January 1st, 1S75, each subscriber, 
whose subscription runs over into the next year, must re¬ 
mit, in addition to the regular rates, one cent for each 
month over which his subscription extends in 1875, or 
ten cents for the whole year 1875. Every 
subscriber, whether coming singly, or in clubs at club 
rates, will be particular to send to this office postage as 
above, that is, at the rate of ten cents for the 
year, additional to the regular subscrip¬ 
tion. Subscribers in British America will continue to 
send postage as heretofore, for pre-payment here. 
Boinitl Copies of Tolwme TUirty- 
tivo are now ready. Price, $2, at our office; or $2.50 
each, if sent by mail. Any of the last seventeen volumes 
(16 to 32) will also he forwarded at same price. Sets of 
numbers sent to our office will he neatly bound in our 
regular style, at 75 cents pervol. (50 cents extra, if return¬ 
ed by mail.) Missi. numbers supplied at 12 cents each. 
©nr W rrtern Office.—O ur friends in 
the West are reminded that we have an office at Lake¬ 
side Building, Chicago, Ill., in charge of Mr. W. H. 
Busbey. Subscriptions to American Agricultui'ist are 
taken there, and sample copies of the paper and chromo 
are delivered, and orders received for advertising on the 
same terms as in New York. All our books are on sale 
at the Western Office. Please call and examine, buy, 
subscribe, and advertise. 
Catsalognes aBitl USepoB*!*.—Several of 
these must wait until another month, as our crowded 
columns will not allow us to do justice to them. 
“TSic Acrobats.”—Look at the figures 
of Crandall’s Acrobats, on pages 316 and 317, the most 
amusing toys ever invented for children. A good laugh 
now and then, never hurts fathers and mothers any more 
than it hurts boys and girls. 
Alaout Masutscripts.—It has been de¬ 
cided in law that an editor or publisher is not responsible 
for a manuscript sent to him without solicitation. The 
English papers, and some of the New York dailies, give 
notice that no manuscripts will be returned. This rule 
is no doubt necessary in a daily, but as far as we are aon- 
cerned, we endeavor to return unaccepted articles when 
stamps are sent for that purpose, but it is a little too > 
much to expect us to pay 20 or 30 cts., for reading an 
article that we do not want—still some are so income 
siderate as to require this. 
WaiBBelcss People.—We have said in al- « 
most every issue that anonymous letters would not be 
answered, and that matters of interest to the writer only, 
could not take up space in the paper. If “ A Fanner’s Boy 
that is fond of work and pleasure,” had taken half the 
space required for that signature, to write his own, we 
should have sent him a catalogue of the machine he ■ 
wants. As it is, his letter goes to the waste basket. 
The “ boy ” should learn while young that it is impolite 
to write any one an anonymous letter upon any subject 
whatever_“Subscriber” in Suffolk Co., N. Y., can- 
get our Onion pamphlet for 20c., but under our rules 
we can not answer his other matters. Again we repeat, 
“ sign your name." It will not be published if another 
signature is used with it, or a line is drawn across it. 
<Srasslaoppen*s Sin Miiamesota.—A 
serious calamity has befallen several of the newer - 
counties of Minnesota ; they have been visited by grass¬ 
hoppers, in such quantities as to completely lay bare ■ 
large districts, and by eating up every green thing, have 
brought much suffering, and even ruin in their train. 
Those who have never seen a district that has been 
devasted by this scourge, can form no idea of the com¬ 
pleteness of the destruction. So sudden, severe, and 
wide spread has been this affliction that the Governor of 
the State has called for aid, both from the residents of 
Minnesota and from others. It is expected that the 
Patrons of Husbandry will extend some relief through 
their organization, but there will be plenty of oppor¬ 
tunity for the exercise of benevolence by others. Food, 
or the money to purchase it, is the pressing want. 
Though the severity of the calamity will have been 
relieved, by the time this readies our readers, there will 
still be a great need of food and seed for next season-- 
Contributions may be sent to Gov. C. K. Davis, or Gee.. 
II. H. Sibley, St. Paul. 
Ottlier Basket Stems on page 313 
SA’.YBEY IISJMSiajdg.— 1 The honesty- 
of farmers as a class is proverbial, and being simple- 
hearted and honest themselves, they are slow to suspect 
others of dishonesty or wrong intent. Hence it is that' 
humbngs and swindlers of all kinds find their most- 
numerous dupes among agricultural communities, and a 
list of the names of the well-to-do farmers in every thriv¬ 
ing section of the country is something that these sharp¬ 
ers are willing to pay well for. And circulars of all ■ 
kinds, from those of counterfeit money venders to the 
latest quack-medicine maker, find their way to the post- 
offices in every rural district. Besides these general hum— 
bugs, there is a class relating particularly to matters con¬ 
nected with farming, which we may class as 
AGRICULTURAL HUMBUGS. 
We have exposed from time to time the tricks of the 
rascally venders, who sell farm-machinery, and take notes, 
which are so ingeniously worded, that the buyer finds, 
his name affixed to a very different document from that 
he supposed he had signed. One of the minor annoy¬ 
ances, not only to fanners, but to every one who lives, 
in the country, are 
THE LIGHTNING-ROD MEN. 
These glib-tongued fellows delight to find only women 
at the house, for they think they can soon so work upon 
their fears, as to make them feel that their safety not on¬ 
ly depends upon Laving a lightning-rod, but the par- 
