lishing Company, which has the largest agricultural printing plant in the world, also publishes a semi-monthly, Farm and Home, with three hundred thousand subscribers in all parts of America; but it is best known in our six New England States for its Thursday weekly, The New England Homestead. This journal blends literary culture and household interests with practical agriculture, special crop investigations, market reports, letters to and from the farmers, and seasonable talks on when and where to buy and sell, making it singularly complete in all that relates to the prosperity and happiness of the New England homestead. More than this, The Homestead goes to the heart of matters affecting the moral and social welfare of families on our New England farms, showing them how to co-operate in establishing village improvement societies, lyceums, and lecture courses. The creameries, of which over one hundred and fifty are now in successful operation, are largely the results of its efforts; and it has promoted other means of co-operative production and sale; while the earnest spirit and substantial prosperity that pervade the order of Patrons of Husbandry are in a measure due to The Homestead's work in organizing granges and showing how they may advance the social, moral, and educational interests of the farmer and the farmer's wife and children. The editor, Herbert Myrick, is New England born and bred. He worked his way through the Massachusetts Agricultural College, from which he was graduated in 1882, and reached his present position long before he was thirty. The literary character of the two Homesteads is mainly due to the discriminating taste and practical judgment of an Amherst College graduate, James E. Tower, who is still a very young man. The remarkable financial success of this prosperous concern is due in great measure to its treasurer, George S. Graves, who has worked his way up from the position of a newsboy.
      The Paper World, published by the Clark W. Bryan Company, is a special journal of information and discussion concerning paper and the paper industry. The same firm publishes Good Housekeeping, a monthly devoted to the interests of the home, domestic economy, and all matters likely to interest the house-wife. The firm also publishes another monthly, Amateur Gardening.
      The Daily News is an evening paper, started in 1880 by Edward and Charles J. Bellamy. Edward Bellamy, the famous author of "Looking Backward," lives at Chicopee Falls, a few miles from Springfield.
      There is no institution in which the citizens of Springfield take greater pride than in their City Library. The first movement looking towards a public library was made in 1855, when twelve hundred citizens signed a petition to the city government for the establishment of one. In November, 1857, the City Library Association was formed, and the Young Men's Literary Association and the Young Men's Institute donated their small collections of books to form a nucleus. Gifts of books and money were made in considerable numbers and amounts. In 1859 another attempt was made to secure aid from the city, and the mayor in his inaugural recommended an appropriation. But all that the city government felt able to do was to give the use of a room in the City Hall, heated and lighted. In 1864 the attempt was again made to obtain an appropriation from the city. In case the request was granted, it was agreed to make the use of the library free to all citizens, a yearly fee of one dollar having been previously charged. The proposition was accepted; and till 1870 the library was free to all inhabitants of the city, an appropriation averaging $1,000 per year being made for the six years. During these thirteen years $45,000 had been given by citizens, and seventeen thousand books had been collected. The room in the City Hall could not accommodate the library longer; a separate building was a necessity. By the generosity of Hon. George Bliss, the Association was presented with a fine site and $10,000 towards a building fund. In the early part of 1871 the present building was erected, at a cost of $100,000. The first floor is devoted to a museum, and to a public reading-room supplied with the leading dailies and