Magento: Limit number of products shown on homepage

Magento: Limit number of products shown on homepage.php

<?php //Magento: Limit number of products shown on homepage, list.phtml ?>

1) app\design\frontend\default\<your theme>\template\catalog\product
   copy list.phtml and save as list_new.phtml
   
2) <?php //Now open list_new.phtml and search '' after ending the if loop insert this code ?>
<?php if($i<=4): // for 4 product?>

3) <?php //Now open list_new.phtml and search '' after ending the if loop insert this code ?>
<?php endif // for 4 product?>

<?php // The code will look like this ?>
<?php if ($i++%$_columnCount==0): ?>
    <ul class="products-grid">
<?php endif ?>
<?php if($i<=4): // for 4 product?>
    <li class="item<?php if(($i-1)%$_columnCount==0): ?>"> 
        // some code here
     </li>
<?php endif // for 4 product?>


2) Now go to CMS>Pages>select home page >content> and copy this code (change your categy id here)

{{block type="catalog/product_list" name="product_list" category_id="<category id>" column_count="4"mode="grid" template="catalog/product/list_new.phtml"}}

This is not working in magento 1.9.1 can you suggest an alternative method?