1874.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
327 
the end of it. The only machine of the make now most 
advertised, that we have seen, is a very funny affair, a 
very burlesque on machinery; the parties advertising 
are, or were a short time ago, in a very obscure upper 
room, without any sign to indicate their whereabouts. 
The look of the affair is suspicious, and the complaints 
that we have had are so numerous, that we feel it a duty 
to warn our readers against sending money to any un¬ 
known parties, who offer cheap sewing machines. 
THE C. o. D. SUPPLY CO. 
is still operating, apparently devoting itself especially to 
the Southern States. Let them alone, there is altogether 
too much machinery about it, and there is great danger 
that you will get your fingers pinched.Our correspon¬ 
dent C. T. S., in West Va., can not have long been a 
Teader of the Agriculturist, or he would not have asked 
ius to get his prize from the 
METROPOLITAN PRIZE ASSOCIATION. 
We could not think of it. What these people want, is 
your $7.50, and then you may get your $250 melodeon— 
and then again you may not—probably not. Our corre¬ 
spondent evidently fears that he may run some risk in 
■sending his money, so he writes to ask us to get his 
prize. No, we thank you. .. Here is a correspondent in 
Tennessee, who asks us if our laws can not stop these 
Prize Associations. Certainly. We have laws enough, 
and upright judges, but laws do not put themselves in 
■operation ; there must be complaint and proof of wrong 
■doing, in order to convict. On account of the fact that 
the victims of city swindlers reside at a distance, these 
evil-doers stand in little fear of the law. If one who 
Jives in a distant State, merely asserts that he has been 
■•swindled by some one in New York, the law can do 
nothing. The only thing that has any effect upon these 
^fraudulent schemes, is the exposure that the Agriculturist 
has given them these many years, and in which it has 
had but scant assistance from other papers. Were every 
paper, agricultural or otherwise, to refuse all doubtful 
■advertisements, and to keep their readers warned against 
mil suspicious schemes, the occupation of the whole horde 
■ of these swindlers would be at an end. 
IN THE “MEDICAL” LINE. 
The advertising dodges of these quack-medicine fel¬ 
lows are numerous, and some of them ingenious ; thus 
there is one in Buffalo, who advertises that he will send 
;a “ prize-picture ” free. “ An ingenious gem, 50 objects 
to find.” Many a boy or girl will invest a stamp for the 
sake of getting a puzzle-picture—ora picture of any kind. 
In return they get a card with a very poor puzzle-picture 
upon one side, and upon the other side an advertisement 
of a book on sexual matters, which will be “ sent secure, 
post-paid, for 10 cents.” The book is like all of its class, 
intended to work upon the imagination, and excite the 
fears of the young—and then it follows as a matter of 
■course, that the only safety of the reader lies in placing 
himself in the hands of this wonderful Abbey, at $10 per 
month. He is a high old fellow, this Abbey—as he says, 
"“none living know my present remedy.” What would 
become of the world, if this Abbey should die ?—Ilis pre¬ 
cious pamphlet goes into our collection of curiosities. 
Don’t take the road leading to that “ Toll-Gate.”... They 
get the news slowly out in Wisconsin, for here is one at 
this late day, who asks about 
OLD MOTHER NOBLE. 
It is so long since that we heard of the dear old “ crit- 
tur,” that she had quite gone out of mind. Onr cor¬ 
respondent can find “ what we think of” Old Mother N. 
by consulting these columns for two years back, but a 
particularly touching account of him is given in Decem¬ 
ber last. He was last known as Dr. Clark Johnson, Ed¬ 
win Eastman, and the rest of her.Then here is an¬ 
other from a Kentucky friend, who thinks we ought to 
expose 
UNCLE BEN JO’S BELL-TONGUE SYRUP. 
This is also an old affair. It seems a waste of good 
space to devote it to such shallow nonsense. We have 
already given all needed attention to this particular hum¬ 
bug. If there is any live mortal who can read, who will 
believe the statements put forth in this pamphlet, nothing 
that we can say will prevent him from being a victim. 
We are sorry for the “poor, susceptible farmers,” but 
what can we do other than to caution them against all 
such things. If a “subscriber to the Agriculturist ” is, 
as you state, an agent for this quackery, we are sorry, 
but there is no knowing how much worse he might have 
■done, had he not taken the Agriculturist. 
INSTITUTES AND UNIVERSITIES. 
We must again repeat what we have said so often, that 
there is no such thing, properly speaking, as the “N. Y. 
Medical University.” One or more quacks choose to 
adopt this title, to aid the sale of their preposterous 
medicines. We suppose that the Attorney General of the 
State could prevent them from using this title, but he has 
not seen fit to do so. No proper medical college—there 
•can be no such thing as “medical university”—ever 
makes or sells medicines, nor does any such institution 
ever advertise cures. Colleges and universities are edu¬ 
cational institutions, and not medicine shops. So with 
these so-called medical “ Institutes,” they are generally 
run by quacks of the most dangerous kind. The recent 
death of a young lady in oiie of these “ Institutes ” in 
New York, may lead to an overhauling of the whole crew. 
THE OLD, OLD DODGE, 
is now being played by one Daniel Adee. It is the 
“ Preacher of the Gospel,” or “ retired missionary ” 
dodge. I). A.’s oldest son gets dead-sick with consump¬ 
tion—something wonderful cured him, and the prescrip¬ 
tion can be had by addressing Dan—as aforesaid. It is so 
kind of Dan, to offer the prescription, and to generously 
pay for advertising that he will do so ! One of our friends 
sent for the prescription, just to see if it was as we pre¬ 
dicted. Dan Adee had a son restored by the “ Indian 
Cough Plant,” the same thing that cured the son of Dr. 
Brant, who was missionary to the Blackfeet Indians, and 
he learned all about it from a squaw! All you have to 
do is to get the stuff known to the “native Indians” 
(whoever saw any other?) as “Indian Cough Plant,” 
steep it in water, and take it. But those poor, “mis’- 
able unfort’nates,” what don’t have no correspondents 
among the Injuns with dark colored pedal extremities, 
can get the extract, for $2 a bottle, from this dear bene¬ 
volent “ Minister of the Gospel”—or what is the same 
thing, Mr. D. Adee. Daniel, this is old unto stalcness 
—it is malodorous. Step aside, and let 
“ DOCT.” WHITE AND HIS CURATIVE SYRUP 
come to the front. Now here is something worthy of the 
genius of Huyler, even the narrative of dear Eddie 
Eastman, thrilling as it is, is hardly so ingenious as the 
story of how White came by his Curative Syrup. We 
wish we had room for the whole, but can make only an 
abstract. The old man White having “ educated ” his 
son, sent him out with “large sums of money,” to dis¬ 
cover “ hidden secrets relating to medicine.” We 
should’nt like to be a medical secret with White, Jr., 
after us, not much. He “ did ” the Indian tribes of this 
country, but nairy a secret could he find. Then he went 
for the “ wise men of the East,” whoever they may be, 
and there ho learned that the Jesuits received regularly 
from South America a medicine possessing wonderful 
properties, and that it came from Kio Janeiro. Nothing 
easier than for young White to “ up and dust” and “ git ” 
for Rio. Here he learned that an “ aged monk from the 
mountains” made regular shipments to “the Jesuits in 
the East.” What was easier than for “White to lay low 
for this monk, to follow him to his cave in the moun¬ 
tains. And then—ah White, it was a little mean—to get 
up into a tree and watch how the old fellow did it. And 
then he gives a picture of the monk’s laboratory, which 
should convince the most sceptical. The monk was so 
indiscreet as to have his formula upon “a paper pasted 
on a board,” and when he had stopped work for the 
night, what was easier than for White to copy off this 
paper “ by the light of the moon ”—in Latin at that—and 
to “ git ” once more. Rather hard on the monk, but the 
end justified the means. When he reached home, the 
senior White was just breathing his last, hut junior 
White, who had driven up in a “ beautiful coach,” with 
a “fine span of horses”—how touching all these little 
particulars are—soon put a stop to the old man’s troubles, 
and cured him at once. If yon don’t believe it, there is 
a picture of the old man White reading the Bible; old 
mother W. sitting as straight as if she had swallowed a 
ram-rod; then young Doctor White—the chap who 
choused the monk out of his secret, and his wife—and, 
oh! the children—well the chap ought to make some¬ 
thing out of his syrup, to find bread and shoes for all 
these little Whites—and so near of a size, too. Take 
this White’s Curative Syrup thing altogether, it is a little 
the steepest piece of quackery we have seen in a long 
time. Somehow we can’t help thinking that the hand 
which did Ned Eastman’s narrative, had to do with this. 
Is it possible that this country can boast of two such ? 
THE COUNTERFEIT MONEY OR “ QUEER ” 
business is duller than we have ever before known it. 
One I’. A. Schneider, at Allentown, Pa., who claims to 
be agent for “ the New York Co.,” sends out about the 
richest specimen of a circular, that we have seen. Either 
this Schneider is an ignorant ass, or he assumes to be 
simple and stupid, with the hope that some who think 
themselves smart, will catch at the bait. We incline to 
the last view of the case. Here is a specimen of his cir¬ 
cular: “ I have no counterfeit money. I have rail jinine 
goods money I was 10. years in theUnided State print¬ 
ing Office in that tim I did slib a few blades, and now I 
make my own goods in my own printing office—if you 
dond trust me then Come in Town & C me.”—T hat, Mr. 
Schneider, is just “ a little too thin.” 
A Monstrous S Huitn nui-atiim.— 
The' “ monstrosnm” forms of the common Japan lily ( L. 
speciosum ) are well known, as the habit has become so 
fixed, that bulbs producing monstrous stems ere offered 
for sale. We never saw a monstrous Gold-banded Lily 
(A. auratam) until Messrs. J. M. Thorburn & Co., recent¬ 
ly sent us a specimen. In this, as in the others, the stem 
is several inches broad, and flattened as if what should 
be several stems, were soldered together, and the upper 
portion of it is clothed with flowers as closely as can be 
packed. By counting a portion, we estimate that this 
stem produced considerably over a hundred medium 
sized blooms, and is altogether one of the most wonder¬ 
ful specimens of floral abundance that we have seen. 
The Colorado Potato Beetle in 
New Jersey. —Just as we go to press, there comes 
the startling announcement that the dreadful “ potato 
bug,” has at last made its way to the coast. It has been 
found near Elizabeth, and in the Saddle River township, 
N. J. Coming so late in the season, it can do but little 
damage to the present crop, but next year farmers will 
have work to do. Let New Jersey look out! 
Caslinan’s Business College. —This 
establishment, which not many years ago began in a 
ridiculously small way, now has some 1000 students, 60 
instructors, and occupies several large buildings in the 
beautiful city of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. A directory, giv¬ 
ing the present residence and occupation of the graduates 
of this college, shows that the young men are making 
their way in the world. Circulars can be had by address¬ 
ing the President, II. G. Eastman, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
New Baspberrles.— Several new rasp¬ 
berries have been brought this season for our inspection. 
The only one of these of any promise, was a variety 
brought by Mr. Saunderson, of Staten Island, which had 
excellent qualities for a market berry, it being of good 
size, bright color, and, what is of most importance, great 
firmness. 
Wild Carrots.—“ J. L. W.,” Thomasville, 
N. C. It is true that the Wild Carrot does not spread by 
the root, but it produces an abundance of seed to con¬ 
tinue the crop. The plant should not be allowed to per¬ 
fect its seed. 
Spreading: Lime- “H. H. F.,” Lavans- 
ville, Pa. Lime can not be spread as it comes from the 
kiln, it must first be slacked. Then the easiest and cheap- 
cstmethod is to spread it with long handled shovels either 
direct from the heaps, or from the box of a low sled. 
Blackberries.— “J. B. D.”says: “ On p. 
2S3, speaking of the cultivation of blackberries, you 
direct the new canes to be pinched off at the higlit of five 
or six feet. Having tried various bights, I have found 
that my berries are largest and most abundant when the 
canes are cut back to within three or four feet of the 
ground.”—Our correspondent does not say what varieties 
he has kept at this bight. In restricting the plants in 
this manner, we should fear that they might be forced 
into flower unseasonably. 
The "White Willow. — “ L. L.,” Hutchin¬ 
son, Kansas. The white willow is almost universally well 
spoken of through the West, as a rapid grower, and a 
useful tree, both for shelter and for hedges. A great 
many persons are planting it, and we have seen trees 
from cutiings, planted three years ago, which were three 
inches thick, and fi teen feet high. Those trees may be 
cut this year, or next, for fence-poles. There are also 
many willow hedges planted, and if they are not all that 
may he desired, yet they grow quickly, and make a good 
wind-break; when three or four inches thick they may 
be lopped off at four feet from the ground, to furnish 
poles for rails. The cuttings should he thicker and 
larger than usually planted. An inch in diameter at least 
and four feet long, is a good size. They should be set a 
foot apart, and eighteen inches deep. 
Onion Grub.— J. B. Duffey, N. J., writes: 
“ Three times in my somewhat limited experience I have 
been visited by the onion grub, the ravages of which, on 
each occasion, threatened the entire destruction of my 
beds-. It was suggested to me to use soot, sprinkling it 
along the rows. I did so, and the effect was almost 
magical. My onions immediately ceased wilting, and an 
examination of the plants a day or two after the applica¬ 
tion showed no trace of the grub. The remedy never 
failed me, and besides, it acted as a vigorous fertilizer 
to the crop.” 
Wheat and Guano Bi-ill.—“ P. N.,’* 
Clinton Co., III. All the drills made for sowing grain 
have attachments for sowing fine fertilizers along with 
the seed. But there is no drill made that sows lime in 
such a manner. Lime always contains hard lumps, which 
render such a method of sowing impracticable. 
