406 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[November, 
members, who would arrange with us to get them up 
and send them to us.” Now this may all be legitimate, 
and there may be a temperance almanac on foot, but the 
flamy thing about it is, that one of the “specimen 
pages" is the exact reproduction of a page in a Bitters’ 
man’s pamphlet, and the circular is signed with name 
and number in New York, while the Bitters’ thing is 
signed with another name but at th e same number! It 
a33 looks very much like a dodge to get names for the 
hitters’ establishment. 
WAR CLAIM SWINDLE. 
One of our correspondents in Louisiana, writes that 
tms Capt. Hawk, is going about representing that the Gov¬ 
ernment had made an appropriation to pay the Southern- 
cisfor property lost during the war, and that he would 
■csfiect the claims on shares; but as a “condition prece¬ 
dent,” he asks each planter for a fee of $2. “ In the 
vicinity of our town he collected over $500.” Poor 
chickens of planters, you will know a Hawk the next 
lime you see him ! 
ANOTHER HARD CASE 
is brought to our notice by a lady who sent money to a 
dealer in Chambersbnrg, Pa., for eggs, which among 
®lher things he advertises. The lady received no eggs, 
and can neither get her money back nor any reply to her 
.letters. That the man received the money, is shown by 
She return of the check endorsed by him. It is just one 
©f those cases in which there maybe an explanation 
possible, and all we can do under the circumstances, is 
to advise the lady to enter a suit for obtaining money 
under false pretenses. 
AND NOW IT IS TOPEKA, KANSAS, 
that has a lottery. She does not go for a library like 
Kentucky, nor yet for a school house, like Nebraska, but 
for what we always have with us—the poor. It is a 
grand scheme, $65,000 of tickets are to be sold, $55,000 
©f “■gifts” are to be distributed, and if all goes lovely, 
the poor of Topeka will get $10,000, and the disinterested 
Hr. Hayw’ood, who goes through all the trouble, gets 
nothing — Stop though, $20,000 of the prizes are in fur¬ 
niture, and it looks very much as if here was a dodge for 
odosing out a slow stock of bedsteads, rocking-chairs, 
washstands, and the like. Here is an out and out 
lottery sanctioned by the mayor, all for the chance of 
getting at the most $10,000 for the poor! Isn’t this 
selling the moral status of Topeka at a rather cheap 
rate?. . .It lias long passed into a proverb, that there 
5s 7W> 
ROYAL ROAD TO LEARNING, 
hut there is, or very soon will be, for a man in Phila¬ 
delphia is grading and fixing it up generally, and it is all 
lo be in a book of 100 pages. It is to be called the 
“Royal Road to Learning, or The Finger-Post to 
Knowledge.” Now how a thing can be both a “ road ” 
and a “ finger-post ” at the same time, seems to us as a 
little mixed, and would, we believe, puzzle a Phila¬ 
delphia lawyer. About this road we learn that its size 
3s to be “ 8x10 inches,” but for the rest it is all a mud¬ 
dle. We learn that “ disavowing the present brain 
dulling memorizing of words and lessons, together with 
ideas, thoughts, and other knowledge, where, in the 
attempt to grasp the perplexing shadows, the substance 
5s too often lost,” yes, “jess so.” 
COUNTERFEIT MONEY. 
After a dreary repetition of the old circulars that were 
sent out under scores of different names, it is a change 
So turn to the spick span new one, all in handsome 
■script in the blackest of lithographic ink. And there is 
Bo nonsense about it. It offers counterfeit money right 
»nt, in lots to suit customers. The circular is not signed, 
Jsnt Mr. Henry C. Bolds encloses his little card—Parties 
must not call at the address given, as business is only 
done by appointment. Of course these fellows catch 
some victims, or the game could not be kept up so long. 
3t is within the power of the police to break the whole 
thing up in a short time. Only a few days ago Davis & 
Rowland were arrested, but the detective who person¬ 
ated the stranger from Toronto, was suspected before the 
rogues had fairly committed themselves. Still it is 
something to know that they were “ locked up for 
■examination.”.That sonm 
REAL ESTATE AGENTS 
are perfectly square business men, we have no doubt, but 
there are others with whom we should not like to do 
business. Some letters before us have a very suspicious 
look. One G. II., of New York, advertised in Maryland 
and Illinois papers, that he wished to buy a farm. One 
person in each of the above States, who replied to these 
adverti-■ ieuirs, received each a letter, not from G. H., 
but from a New York concern calling themselves “ real 
estate agents,” informing that G. H. had suited himself 
to a farm, and turned the letters over to them, the agents. 
These two letters, one to a man in Maryland, and the 
other to one in Illinois, are before us, and are, taken 
together, very interesting reading. The agents write 
to tire Marylander: “ There are two Englishmen, 
(brothers), *** near Whitestone, Long Island, who desire 
jusi such a farm as you describe.”—and to the Illinoisian 
they write : “ There are two men, father and son, near 
Whitestone, Long Island, *** who desire just such a farm 
at you describe.” A remarkable coincidence truly l and 
Whitestone must be in danger of being depopulated, but 
the coincidence is not so strange as the correspondence 
between the two letters, which for four pages of com¬ 
mercial note, are precisely the same, except such trivial 
verbal differences that one would make^in copying. 
Both pairs of intended purchasers are “ willing to pay 
half cash; ” in the Maryland case, the parties are going 
to view a farm near Lynchburg, Va., and in the Illinois 
case, they are going to view a farm in Madison, Wis., 
and (by another coincidence) both pairs of Whitestoners 
are to start on the 9th of October. In both cases the 
pairs of Whitestoners are to be persuaded to stop over 
and see the farms in Maryland and Illinois, and in each 
case those having the farms to sell, are informed that 
“ these parties mean business,” and moreover in both 
cases “ They are of the liberal class, and easily influenced 
by good treatment.” Each man with the farm to sell, is 
given to understand that these Whitestoners are quite 
sure to buy. But, for the trouble of getting the White¬ 
stoners “ the proper tickets for them, and to see that they 
go through, and stop at no place this side of yours,” these 
“ agents ” want $5 in a registered letter. Of course, if a 
sale is made, the agents expect a commission, but the $5 
must come anyhow. It is just possible that such a 
transaction as this is all square, blit to our notion, the 
chance of such a coincidence is about equal to that 
of these “ agents ” being struck by lightning. Moral.— 
Don’t invest your $5 unless you are sure you will get 
something for it. 
Sometimes the literature of quackery is simply dis¬ 
gusting, and one feels ashamed, when he reads the trans¬ 
parent lies, which are told about the discovery of these 
wonderful nostrums, and the absurd claims made for 
them, to think there can be found persons so simple 
and gullible, as to place any confidence in such trash. 
But there is a still worse feature very common in the 
quack pamphlets and circulars, their 
IMPIETY AND NEAR APPROACH TO BLASPHEMY. 
We do not now refer so much to those fellows, who 
assume the garb of religion as a help to sell their stuff, 
but to the light and impious ways, in which the name of 
the Supreme is used, and the manner in which those 
things, which the better part of mankind hold as sacred, 
are made to advertise a nostrum. One before us has for 
its head-line in large letters: “ Behold what hath God 
wrought to call attention to a ridiculous yarn about 
some woman’s adventures in Chili in discovering the 
wonderful herb—which of course grows “only upon a 
single ridge of mountains.” Then she, or he, or who¬ 
ever it may he, wickedly and uselessly says, “ I will 
stake my existence,” that for certain named troubles 
the stuff is the best remedy known. While these things 
are vulgarly impious, the circular from which they are 
taken is not so bad, as that of one who calls himself Dr. 
Blood. Last month we mentioned the great prevalence 
of quacks in the generally estimable city of Providence, 
and a friend there has taken the trouble to send us spe¬ 
cimens of the literature that circulates in that place. 
This Blood sends out a large, four-page sheet, with the 
cheerful title in large black letters of “ Life or Death ; ” 
beneath this there are two American flags, which he has 
had the impudence to besmirch by printing his sanguine¬ 
ous name upon them. At one corner is a picture of what 
is apparently the Virgin, as Mater Dolorosa , with over it 
the legend “ Why will you die ?’’—and at the opposite 
corner the head of Christ, crowned with thorns, with a 
face expressive of great agony. Now we claim that it 
is absolutely impious to use sacred emblems to adver¬ 
tise one's business of any kind. It would be just as 
proper for m apple-woman to put up a cross to call atten¬ 
tion to her staad^ as it is for this Blood to use the image of 
the Saviour in his suffering to embellish his quack-sheet. 
With such gross impropriety at the heading, we are not 
surprised to read beneath, that “where oxygenized air 
has failed to relic- re a patient, nothing but the interpo¬ 
sition of Heaven could save him.” In another column 
we learn that ?<ouis Napoleon, Wm. H. Seward, and 
Horace Greeleymight all have been living, but for the 
doctors, and of Greeley, it is said: “May his soul rest in 
heaven, where allopathic doctors and hot irons are un¬ 
known.” It is the duty of every parent to see that such 
wickedly repulsive literature as this is kept out of the 
family—not only upon sanitary grounds, but upon moral 
ones. Children hear an abundance of wickedness, but 
they should not be allowed to see the names of God and 
Christ in print, unless mentioned with reverence and 
affection. 
lPiu’e Snltf.— “A Dairyman.” The Ashton 
Salt, as imported, is not to be trusted implicitly, as there 
are said to be four or five different manufacturers who 
send salt of this 'brand to this country. The Onondaga 
(N. Y.) “factory filled” Salt, is the purest article now 
made anywhere, and may be relied upon for dairy pur¬ 
poses. Chemical analyses prove it to have less salts of 
lime, magnesia, or water, than the best Ashton salt, and 
to have 98.28 per cent of pure salt (chloride of sodium) in 
its composition, while Ashton salt has hut 97.65. At the 
Central New York Fair, butter packed two years ago 
with Onondaga salt, was exhibited in good order. Thus 
the prejudice against American salt, and in favor of the 
foreign article, is seen to he groundless. 
B*oI;isli in Compost.—“P. D. H.,” Gans- 
voort, N. H. It would not pay to purchase carbonate of 
potash for mixing in compost heaps, at $8 perlOOponnds, 
whicli is the market price. It would also require to be 
ground or dissolved, as it comes in the barrels in large 
masses, and could not be conveniently used otherwise. 
The German potash salts (Kainit), which are sold by 
Geo. E. White, 160 Front St., New York, at about $30 
per ton, would be more economical, and they can be 
sown by a machine. These salts contain 30 per cent of 
sulphate of potash, and 16 per cent of sulphate of mag¬ 
nesia. Sulphate of potash yielding 90 per cent, is sold 
by the same party for 4% cents per pound. 
Castimg-s for Implements. —“Dealer,” 
Rockford, Ill. Castings for agricultural implements, or 
for light machinery of all kinds, may be procured of 
Livingstone & Co., Pittsburg, who make a specialty of 
this business. It would be as well for you to communi¬ 
cate with them. 
Tine American Garden is the title of 
a new horticultural paper, or rather of a journal that has 
been essentially changed. Messrs. Beach, Son & Co., 
seedsmen of Brooklyn, N. Y., for the past two or three 
years issued a quarterly, which was partly journal and 
partly catalogue. In September last this was placed in 
the editorial charge of Mr. James Hogg, and it is now a 
handsome monthly of 24 pages, somewhat smaller than 
our own. In its first number of its present form, the 
Garden saw fit to express itself in regard to fhe agricul¬ 
tural press iu a manner quite uncalled for, and not at all 
calculatedjto insure it a favorable reception among agri¬ 
cultural journals, and it chose the Country Gentleman 
especially, to illustrate the fact, that the agricultural 
press is given to blundering in floricuitural matters. The 
Country Gentleman of course makes a sharp reply, and 
an exceedingly neat rebuke was administered to the Gar¬ 
den by the Gardeners’ Monthly, which, in its October 
number, without comment, quotes from the Country 
Gentleman over half a dozen columns of useful horticul¬ 
tural items. However, we are not disposed to quarrel 
with the Garden for having made a blunder, and need 
only savin regard to it, that its editor is abundantly 
able to make an interesting and useful paper, as he 
has had a long horticultural experience, and is an 
easy and pleasant writer. So we give the new journal a 
welcome, with the remark, that if it chooses to place it¬ 
self in antagonism with its neighbors, it will find that 
the agricultural journals will accept the situation. 
Kook on Diseases of the Horse,— 
E. H. M., Delaware Co., N. Y. Youatt & Spooner on the 
Horse, is a useful hook to consult in the absence of a 
veterinary surgeon. Price, $1.50. 
Deterioration of Sheep.—“L. M. 0.,” 
Woodstock, N. H. It is a matter of difficulty, if not of 
impossibility, to preserve a breed or class of sheep up to 
its original standard, if the conditions under which it is 
kept are not suitable. Heavy bodied sheep will persist 
in becoming leggy and light when bred for a time upon 
hilly pastures, and if the flock is reinforced by new blood 
the improvement is only temporary. No breed of sheep 
can remain in successful or profitable possession of any 
district, unless the peculiar local conditions as to pasture, 
climate, and nature of the ground, are found to be exact¬ 
ly fitted for it. It is the inevitable results of such condi¬ 
tions that have produced the wide differences w'hich 
exist between the various breeds of sheep. 
Exports and. Imports. —By the iates. 
monthly report from the Bureau of Statistics, we find 
that the total value of the exports during the fiscal yea* 
1874, exceeded that of the imports by over 39 millioi 
dollars ; in 1S73 the imports exceeded the exports by 
over 101 million dollars. The balance in favor of the 
present year, is therefore over 140 million of dollars, and 
is made up of an increase of exports over 1873, of over 
64 million dollars, and a decrease of imports of over 76 
millions. 
8ee Page 4SS. 
