[Preserve this Schedule for future reference.] SCHEDULE OF STAMP DUTIES, AFFIDAVITS, exempt. IMPOSED BY ACT OF CONGRESS. (CORRECTED 1869.) AGREEMENT OR APPRAISEMENT. Agreement or contract other than those mentioned in this schedule (or any appraisement), for every sheet or piece of paper on which it is written, .05. If more than one agreement or appraisement is written on one sheet of paper, .05 on each. Renewal of agreement, same stamp as original instrument. BANK CHECKS, DRAFTS, OR ORDERS, for any an amount, on any bank, banker, or trust company, at sight or on demand, 02; for amount exceeding $10, on any person other than a bank, banker, or trust company, at sight or on demand, .02. BILL OF EXCHANGE (foreign), or letter of credit, drawn in but payable out of the United States, if drawn singly or otherwise than in a set of three or more-same as inland bills of exchange or promissory notes; drawn in sets of three or more, for every bill of each set, where the sum made payable shall not exceed $100, or the equivalent thereof, in any foreign currency, 02; for every additional $100, or fractional part thereof in excess of $100, .02. BILL OF EXCHANGE (inland), draft, or order for the payment of any sum of money, not exceeding $100, otherwise than at sight or on demand, or Promissory Notes (except bank notes and checks), or any meinorandum, check, receipt, or other written or printed evidence of an amount of money to be paid on demand or at a time designated, for a sum not exceeding $100, .05; for every additional $100, or fractional part in excess of $100, .05. BILL OF LADING, or receipt other than charter party, for goods and merchandise exported to foreign port, each, 10. (To British No. Am., exempt.) BILL OF SALE. - Bills of sale, by which any ship or vessel, or any part thereof shall be conveyed to or vested in n any other person or persons, when the consideration shall not exceed $500, stamp duty, .50; do., when the consideration exceeds $500, and does not exceed $1000, $1.00; exceeding $1000, for every additional amount of $500, or fractional part thereof, .50; personal property other than ships or vessels, .05. BONDS, of indemnity where the money ultimately recoverable thereupon is $1000 or less, .50; when in excess $1000, for every $1000, or fraction, .50; for the duc execution of the duties of any office, $1.00; of any description other than such as may be required in legal proceedings, or used in connection with mortgage deeds, and not otherwise charged in this schedule, .25. Bond of administrator or guardian, where value of estate is $1000, or less, exempt; exceeding $1000, $1.00. CERTIFICATES, of measurement or weight of animals, wood, coal, or hay, exempt of measurement of other articles, .05; of stock in any incorporated company, .25; of profits, or any certificate or memorandum showing an interest in the property or accumulations of any incorporated company, for an amount not less than $10, nor exceeding $50, 10; from $50 to $1000, 25; exceeding $1000, for every additional $1000, or fraction, 25. Certificate of damage or otherwise, and all other documents issued by any port warden or marine surveyor, or person acting as such, .25. Certificate of deposit in any bank or acting as such, for a sum not exceeding $100 .02; exceeding $100, 05. Certificate of record of a deed, or other instrument in writing, or of the acknowledgment or proof thereof by attesting witn witnesses, exempt; certificates other than these mentioned, .05. CHARTER PARTY, or any letter or memorandum relating to the charter of any vessel: if the registered tonnage does not exceed one hundred and fifty tons, $1.00; from one hundred and fifty to three hundred tons, $3.00; from three hundred to six hundred tous, $5.00; over six hundred tons, $10.00. Renewal of charter, same stamp as original instrument. CIGAR LIGHTS, made in part of wood, wax, glass, paper, or other materials, in parcels or packages containing twenty-five lights or less, .01; in packages of more than twenty-five and not more than fifty, .02; for every additional twenty-five lights, or fraction, .01. CONTRACTS. - Broker's note or memorandum of sale of any goods or merchandise, exchange, real estate, or property of any kind or description issued by brokers, or persons acting as such, for each note or memorandum of sale,.10. (See SALES and AGREEMENT.) CONVEYANCE OR DEED OF GRANT, where the consideration or value does not exceed $500, .50; from $500 to $1000, $1.00; and for every additional $500, or fraction, .50. ENTRY OF GOODS, at Custom House, not exceeding in value $100, 25; not exceeding $500, .50; exceeding $500, $1.00; for the withdrawal of goods from bonded warehouse, .50. FRICTION MATCHES, in parcels or packages of 100 or less, .01; in packages of more than 100, and not more than 200, for each parcel or package, .02; and for every additional 100, or fractional part thereof, .01. For wax tapers, double the rates herein imposed upon friction matches. FISH, SAUCES, JELLIES, &c. -For and upon every can, bottle, or other single package, containing fish (ex. shell-fish), sauces, sirups, prepared mustard, jams or jellies, contained therein, and packed or sealed, made, prepared, and sold, or offered for sale, or removed for consumption in the United States, on or after the first day of October, 1866, when such can, bottle, or other single package with its contents, shall not exceed two pounds in weight, .01; for every additional pound or fractional part, .01. INSURANCE POLICY, on any life or lives, when the amount insured does not exceed $1000, .25; not exceeding $5000, .50; exceeding $5000, $1.00; fire, inland, and marine policies, or renewal of the same, premium not exceeding $10, 10; premium not exceeding $50, 25; exceeding $50, .50. Accident insurance policies are exempt. LEASE, where annual rent is $300 or less, .50; where the rent exceeds $300, for each additional $200, or fraction in excess of $300, .50. Assignment of a lease, same stamp as original, and additional stamp upon the value or consideration of transfer according to the rates on deeds. (See CONVEYANCE). LETTERS TESTAMENTARY, if value of estate does not exceed $1000, exempt; exceeding $1000, .05. MANIFEST FOR ENTRY, or clearance of cargo of vessel for foreign port, if registered tonnage does not exceed three hundred tons, $1.00; from three hundred to six hundred tons, $3.00; exceeding six hundred tons, $5.00. (To Brit. No. MORTGAGE OR PERSONAL BONDS. All official instruments, documents, and papers given as security for the payment of any definite issued by officers of the United States governinent, sum, from $100 to $500, .50; from $500 to $1000, or by the officers of any State, county, town, or $1.00; for every additional $500, or fraction, 50. other municipal corporation, in the exercise of their Assignment or transfer of mortgage, same stamp ordinary governmental and municipal functions, as mortgage for amount unpaid. PASSAGE TICKET, by any vessel to a foreign are exempt. PENALTIES. port, if of less price than $35, .50; from $35 to $50, Penalty for making, signing, or issuing any $1.00; and for every additional $50, or fraction, $1.00. (To Brit. No. Am., exempt.) PAWNBROKER'S CERTIFICATE, .05. PLAYING CARDS, for and upon every pack, not exceeding fifty-two cards in number, irrespective of price or value, 05. instrument, or paper of any kind whatsoever, or for accepting, negotiating, or paying, or causing to be accepted, negotiated, or paid, any bill of exchange, draft or order, or promissory note, for the payment of money, without the same being duly stamped, and the stamp duly cancelled, with intent to evade the law, $50; and the instrument shall be deemed invalid and of no effect. For paying, ne POWER OF ATTORNEY, to sell or transfer gotiating, or offering in payment, or for receiving stock, bonds, or serip; to collect dividends, inter- or taking in payment any bill of exchange or est, or rent, 25; to vote by proxy at any election order for the payment of any sum of money, drawn for officers of any incorporated company or soci- or purporting to be drawn in a foreign country, ety, except charitable, religious, or literary soci- but payable in the U. S., without proper stamp, eties or public cemeteries, 10; to seil and convey $200. For selling proprietary medicines, cosmetics, or to rent or lease real estate, $1.00; for any other purpose, .50. PROBATE OF WILL, or Letters of Administration, where the estate, undiminished by the debts, does not exceed the value of $1000, exempt; not exceeding $2000, $1.00; for every additional $1000, or fraction, .50. PROTEST OF NOTE, DRAFT, &c., or marine protest, .25. PROPRIETARY MEDICINES, Hair-Oils, &c., Perfumery, Cosmetics, &c., each packet, bottle, or other enclosure, not over 25 cents retail price or value, .01; not over 50 cents, .02; not over 75 cents, .03; not over one dollar, 104; for every additional 50 cents, or fraction, .02. 75 revenue stamp from a &c., matches, &c., fish, sauces, jellies, &c., without GENERAL REMARKS, Instruments are not to be recorded unless proper QUIT-CLAIM DEED, to be stamped as a con-ly stamped and cancelled. veyance, except when given as a release of a mortgage by the mortgagee to the mortgagor, in which case it is exempt; but if it contains covenants, it may be subject as an agreement or contract. No instrument is invalid for the want of the particular kind of stamps designated, provided a legal stamp of equal amount (except stamps appropriate riated d to denote duty on proprietary medicines, &c., cigar lights, &c., canned fish, &c., and duly affixed. RECEIPT. -Receipts for the payment of any sum in Postage stamps cannot be used as revenue stamps. of money, or for the due, exceeding $20, (not being for satisfaction of any mortgage or judgment, or decree of a court, or by endorsement on any stamp obligation acknowledgment of its fulfilment, all which are exempt,) for each receipt, .02. Provided, That when more than one signature is affixed to the same paper, one or more stamps may be affixed thereto, representing the whole amount of stamps required for such signatures. (The term money includes drafts and other instruments given for No deed, instrument, document, writing, or the payment of money.) Receipts for the deliv-paper, required by law to be stamped, which has ery of property, exempt. In cases where an adhesive stamp shall be used for denoting any duty imposed by this act, the person using or affixing the same shall write or imprint thereon the initials of his name, and date, (year, month, and day,) upon which the same shall be attached or used, so that the same may not again be used. SALES.-Bill or memorandum of sale, or contraet for sale of stocks, bonds, gold or silver bullion, coin, promissory notes or other securities, when made by brokers, banks, or bankers, requires stamps equal to one cent on every $100, or fraction of $100, of the amount of such sale or contract; when made by a person, firm, or corporation not paying special tax as broker, bank, or banker, and when property is not his or their own, for every $100 of value, .05. A memorandum of sale or contract must be made by the seller to the buyer, and the stamps affixed thereto. EXEMPTIONS. No stamp duty shall be required on powers of attorney or any other paper relating to application been signed or issued without being duly stamped, or with a deficient stamp, nor any copy thereof, shall be recorded or admitted, or used as evidence in any court, until the proper stamp or stamps shall have been affixed thereto and cancelled. The party to whom a document is issued from a foreign country, or by whom it is to be used, shall, before using the same, affix thereon the stamp or stamps indicating the duty required. Proprietors of cosmetics, medicines, or proprietary articles, may furnish private dies, and are allowed five per cent. on all purchases of from $50 to $500; over $500, ten per cent. A waiver of protest or of demand and notice written upon negotiable paper, and signed by the endorser, is an agreement, and requires a five-cent stamp. A mere copy of an instrument is not subject to stamp duty unless it is a certified one in which for bounties, arrearages of pay, or pensions, or case the certificate should have a five-cent stamp; to the receipt thereof from time to time; nor on but when an instrument is executed and issued in deposit notes to mutual insurance companies, for duplicate, triplicate, &c., as in the case of a lease of the insurance upon which policies subject to stamp two or more parts, each part has the same legal duties have been or are to be issued; nor on any effect as the other, and each should be stamped as warrant of attorney accompanying a bond or note, an original. when such bond or note shall have been duly A marriage certificate issued by the officiating stamped: and whenever any bond or note shall be clergyman or magistrate to be returned to any offisecured by a mortgage, but one stamp duty shall cer of a state, county, city, town, or other municipal be required to be placed on such papers, provided corporation, to constitute part of a public record, that the stamp duty placed thereon shall be the requires no stamp; but if it is to be retained by the highest rate required for said instruments, or parties, a five-cent stamp should be affixed. either of them: nor to any endorsement of a negotiable instrument. Receipts by express companies for the delivery of any property for transportation are exempt from stamp duty. Written or printed assignments of agreements, bonds, notes not negotiable, and of all other instruments the assignments of which are not particularly specified in the foregoing table, should be stamped las agreements. BIRDS AND INSECTS. The attention of the agricultural world has of late been called to the dangers which threaten it from the unchecked development of certain kinds of destructive insects. In this country to a limited extent, in Europe to a far greater one, the losses in crops have been so serious as to create an anxious solicitude, both as to their cause and the remedy. The canker-worm ravages the orchards of New England, New York, and Michigan. Cotton-worms, army-worms, and other forms of destructive caterpillars, inflict great injury upon the crops in the Southern States. The grasshoppers, and the Colorado potato-bug at the West, are already evils of portentous magnitude, and threaten worse results in the not distant future. In Europe the losses occasioned by different insects, in different countries, are, not unfrequently, national calamities. The cockchafer occurs in such formidable numbers in Central Europe, as to destroy the entire crops over large extents of country, involving losses to the extent of millions of dollars. The losses occasioned in the years 1852, 1853, 1854, and 1855, in the Rothebude forests of eastern Prussia, by the ravages of the larvæ of the nonne, a white nocturnal butterfly, are said to have exceeded eighty millions of thalers. Thousands upon thousands of acres of the best timber land in Europe were utterly ruined, and the loss was nearly total. The cabbage-butterfly of northern Europe is a source of serious injury to a large variety of esculent vegetables. Several varieties of caterpillars ravage the foliage of vineyards and orchard trees, often causing very serious injuries. It is as important for our farmers, as for those of Europe, to investigate these phenomena. The hidden causes of these occasional excessive swarms of destructive insects, and the means of prevention, are of the deepest interest to all agriculturists. The calamities that now befall Europe may be repeated here. The light, which science is now seeking to open upon these remarkable occurrences, is as full of suggestions to us, as to the tiller of the soil of Europe. One of the principal causes of this great increase of insects, has been the great decrease in the number of those birds that are the natural enemies of these kinds of insects. The investigations in France, made with special reference to the value of birds as insect destroyers, demonstrate several very important natural laws, which, when allowed full and harmonious action, preserve an equipoise between the insect and the vegetable world. They show that, during the season of reproduction, all land birds are, without exception, insect eaters; that their young require to be fed with animal food, and that this is almost entirely insects; that the season of reproduction is always coincident with the great abundance and increase of insects; and that our most destructive insects are those which usually have the greatest number of enemies, who, if unmolested, would effectually keep them in check, which man is unable to do. Many birds whose natural food at other times seems to be seeds, at this critical period, unite in a universal warfare upon insects. Thus it appears that the whole feathered tribe becomes the great natural counterpoise between the vegetable and the insect world, protecting the former from the excessive increase of the latter. Where man destroys or diminishes the numbers of certain kinds of birds, the wise equilibrium of nature is overturned. The check upon the development of those kinds of destructive insects upon which those birds feed is removed, and is followed by their great increase. A The destruction of sparrows by the royal edict of the great Frederic of Prussia, and the immediate increase of caterpillars to so great an extent as for two years to destroy the entire crops of small fruit in that kingdom, is a case in point, pertinent and historical, of cause and effect. Our most effectual destroyers of the canker-worm are grakles, cedar-birds, wild pigeons, and other birds of that style; tarze doves and domestic fowl, where we can have their services, are of the highest value. Blue-jays, golden robins, and cuckoos destroy our tent caterpillars, the first named making a clean sweep of this pest where they can have unrestricted liberty. So too our American crow, who so annoys us in our early corn-planting, is our only effectual friend in resisting the increase of our cockchafers, the pestilent, copperheaded muckworm. Gulls keep in subjection the grasshoppers of Utah, where, but for them, crops would be an impossibility. The yellow-headed black bird does the same service to the farmers of Kansas, sweeping them off in their spring immigrations. The Bob-o-link, said to do so much mischief in the Carolina rice fields, is the deadly foe of their cotton-worm, and has been known to render signal services at a critical time, saving the crop where human aid was powerless to avert the impending calamity. In view of the fact that the researches of the French commission have led M. Provost, who has been its guiding spirit, to the conclusion that all birds have their mission of good to agriculture, that none can be spared without just so much loss to the farmer, we of America should be slow to condemn any bird, without positive evidence that it has a record of unmixed evil. We certainly ought not to destroy those birds known to render invaluable services by destroying our worst insect-pests, where the harm they occasionally do us may be prevented without much expense, and without taking their lives. It is quite time that our more intelligent farmers awake to their own interests. They have much good to hope for from the services of our native birds, and but little to apprehend; birds are the farmer's best friends; treat them as such; do not persecute them, and thus favor the increase of your worst enemies. Remember that every insect-eating bird whose life you take is equivalent to half a million THE NEW GAME LAW OF MASSACHUSETTS. (Approved, May 10, 1869.) SECT. 1. Whoever, between the first day of January and the fifteenth day of August, takes or kills any woodcock, or between the first day of February and the first day of September, takes any ruffed grouse or partridges, or within the respective times aforesaid, sells, buys, or has in his possession, any of said birds so taken or killed in this Commonwealth or elsewhere, shall forfeit for every such bird twenty five dollars. SECT. 2. Whoever, between the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixtynine, and the first day of November, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, takes or kills any of the birds known as quail, or Virginia partridge, in any way whatsoever, shall forfeit for every such bird the sum of twenty-five dollars. And whoever shall, after the first day of November, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, take or kill any of said birds, except in the months of November and December annually, shall forfeit for every such bird the sum of twenty-five dollars. SECT. 3. Whoever, at any season of the year, within this State, takes or kills any of the birds called pinnated grouse or heath hens, or selis, buys, or has in his possession any of said birds so killed or taken, shall forfeit for every such bird twenty-five dollars. SECT. 4. Whoever, between the first day of March and the first day of July, takes or kills any marsh birds or upland plover within this State, shall forfeit for every such bird twenty-five dollars. SECT. 5. Whoever, between the first day of March and the first day of September, takes or kills any fresh water fowl, shall forfeit for every such bird twenty-five dollars. SECT. 6. Whoever, at any season of the year, within this State, kills any fresh water fowl or sea fowl, either upon the feeding or roosting grounds of said fowl, shooting from any vessel, boat, or craft, or chases or pursues and captures said fowl upon or from their feeding or roosting grounds in any boat or vessel of any kind whatever, shall forfeit for every such bird so taken or killed, twenty-five dollars. SECT. 7. Whoever, at any season of the year, takes or kills any undomesticated bird not heretofore mentioned in this act, except snipe, hawks, owls, crows, jays, and gulls, or destroys, or disturbs the eggs or nests of such undomesticated birds, except the nests or eggs of snipe, hawks, owls, crows, jays, and gulls, shall forfeit twenty-five dollars for each offence; provided, that any person, having first obtained the written consent of the mayor and aldermen of any city, or selectmen of any town, may, in such city or town, take or destroy, for scientific purposes only, such birds and eggs as said written consent may specify. SECT. 8. Whoever, between the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixtynine, and the fifteenth day of December, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and thereafter between the fifteenth day of December and the first day of September, takes or kills any deer, except his own tame deer kept on his own grounds, shall forfeit for every such offence twenty-five dollars. SECT. 9. The mayor and aldermen and selectmen of the several cities and towns of this Commonwealth shall cause the provisions of the preceding sections to be enforced in their respective places; and all forfeitures accruing under these sections shall be paid, two thirds to the informant or prosecutor, and one third to the city or town where the offence is committed. THE PUBLIC CREDIT. From the Providence Journal. The Public Credit is the strength of the Government. It is army and navy, for it is that without which an army cannot be put on foot or a navy afloat. It is the highest economy, for the public credit, maintained intact, enables the Government to borrow money at low rates, for all needful purposes. It is the public defence, for high public credit so strengthens a nation, that other powers are slow to infringe upon her interests or to insult her honor. It is what Burke called chivalry, "the cheap defence of nations." To assail it is to assail the Government in its tenderest and most vital part. The money which the Government owes to its bondholders, was loaned to it in its greatest extremity. It was not the contributions of the rich alone. It was largely the savings of the poor and the blood of the brave. Nothing can be more sacred. Leaving out of consideration all questions of honesty and good faith, it would be the worst possible policy to defraud the men who thus came to the rescue of the imperilled Government. It would add greatly to the danger of future wars, and would make them doubly expensive. Why is it that our bonds to-day, bearing six per cent. interest in gold, sell in the London market for less than the English bonds, which bear three per cent.? Simply, because the purchaser feels certain that the English interest will be paid, and he is alarmed by the mutterings of repudiation, and is afraid that we will not "protect the Government debt." This it is which makes our debt just twice as burdensome as that of England. If, by one act of stupendous fraud, the Government could repudiate its debt, and relieve itself of all its obligations, it would be the most expensive measure that a government ever adopted; it would expose us to all the dangers of a feeble power, as well as to the reproach of a dishonest one. DRY EARTH CLOSETS. The value of human excrement, or night-soil, as a fertilizer, has long been known to every farmer, and especially to every market gardener; but hitherto the methods adopted for economizing it have been rude and imperfect. No proper and adequate means have been employed to render it inoffensive and easy to handle in its application to the soil for the cultivation of crops. Even in China and Japan, where it is saved and applied with the most scrupulous care, no pains are taken to modify or avoid its offensiveness. The absorptive power of common dry earth, though it had been known, perhaps, for some years to scientific men, was only recently explained by Prof. Way, the chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, who, by a series of careful experiments, demonstrated it beyond all doubt, and reported its results to the society for publication in its journal. This power consists not only in the absorption of moisture of decaying substances, and of all animal excrement, but likewise of their odor and offensiveness. It is due in part to the clay in its composition, and to decomposed organic matter in soils, especially when dried and sifted, or otherwise rendered fine. It is a somewhat curious fact that this characteristic of the earth was recognized in the old Mosaic law, as we see in the 12th and 13th verses of the xxiii. Chap. of Deuteronomy, and it is a matter of common observation that instinct teaches animals of the feline race to bury all offensive excrementitious substances. Now the results of scientific investigation, and a knowledge of this power of absorbing odors, have led to the adoption of what is called the dry earth system in the arrangement of closets, after a plan invented by the Rev. Henry Moule, vicar of Fordington, England. The plan is capable of a variety of modifications, but the idea is in the main due to him. It has been tried in numerous instances, not only in isolated cottages and country houses, but in public barracks and other places much frequented, and has given such satisfaction that it will come into pretty general use in England, and eventually, we hope, in this country. The apparatus consists of a kind of hopper-shaped reservoir, behind and above the ordinary water-closet seat, for holding a supply of earth, and forming a back; a water-tight vault under the seat, and a mechanical arrangement designed to measure out the requisite amount of dry earth, a pint and a half, and throwing it forward, on pulling a crank not very unlike that of the common water closet, to cover the material and absorb the moisture and odor. It is simple, not expensive, and little liable to get out of order or to be affected by the frost. A common tub or box full of dry earth, and standing by the side of the seat, with a scoop to be used in throwing the earth upon the deposit, would, of course, be a cheap and effective modification of the system, and attended with only trifling expense. This, indeed, is often adopted in prisons and workhouses in England. It may be used in the sick room, to mitigate, if not to overcome entirely, one of the most offensive accompaniments of sickness. It is easy to see the agricultural importance of this simple system, for by it we might economize and save without inconvenience the most valuable materials on the farm. We might remove the objection to its more frequent use, since the mixed earth and soil, when dried and pulverized, is free from any unpleasant smell, while every particle of fertilizing matter has been retained in a perfectly available form. It has been found by repeated experiment and by actual experience, that the same earth, after the "soil" has become decomposed, may, by sifting, be used over again, and that it acts as a deodorizer, like any other organic matter, up to the eighth or tenth time of using. The quantity, therefore, which it would be necessary to dry and store away for use, is not large, and by repeated usage it will become equal to the best Peruvian guano. The advantage of this system to the health of the community would be great, as the exhalations and drainage from common privies are a fertile source of disease, and we hope it will be generally adopted. STATEMENT OF THE PUBLIC DEBT, SEPT. 1, 1869. $2,626,653,870 31 ... Amount in the treasury (cash, sinking fund, purchased bonds and accrued interest thereon). Total debt, less amount in treasury, Sept. 1.....$2,475,962,501 50 .. 150,691,368 81 |