, FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 337 



the ground -is fitted in the spring. Then do not get in a hurry to plant; let the 

 warm sun fall upon the soil, and while this is being done, keep the team fitting 

 the ground. I would roll well, until all of the seeds are well pressed down so they 

 will hold the moisture in case of a drouth, and then harrow the ground well until 

 the surface is well fitted and you have a good seed bed for the corn. I believe it 

 is essential that the ground should be thoroughly worked before the corn is 

 planted. 



FLORICULTURE. 



MRS. IDA DE VOIST, AT OCEANA COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



Flowers are the true friends of all, and we look with amazement at the person 

 who cannot find some pleasure in their cultivation. The vocation of a florist is one 

 that gives constant employment to the intellect in planting, transplanting, cultivat- 

 ing, and protecting from summer drouths and heats and winter's frosts. The 

 florist becomes intimately acquainted with a great number of species and varieties- 

 of plants and flowers, which educates and unfolds the intellect. Many plants have 

 been so far changed by culture that the wild stocks from which they have sprung 

 are scarcely discernible, although they still exist. The highest taste and best 

 culture are formed from the study of nature, and there are no better standards 

 than those which nature has furnished. They are better helps in the formation of 

 character than all the architecture of the world, or the most beautiful creations 

 of artists. Rose culture may claim to be quite the oldest, the most highly devel- 

 oped of man's struggles with nature. 



SPRAYING FRUIT TREES. 



J. F. TAYLOR, DOUGLAS, AT ALLEGAN COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



It is often that the spraying part of a fruit grower's work, which has attracted 

 attention only during the last decade and even now is neglected or indifferently 

 performed, must come to the front and take the first place. We may trim our 

 trees after the most approved model; we may cultivate our ground with the latest 

 inventions in machinery, and fertilize it with the most scientific combinations of 

 potash, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and yet utterly fail to get desirable results in 

 quantity and quality of fruit unless we can protect it against these multiform ene- 

 mies. The work to be done is expensive in machinery and in time to use it, but 

 good fruit without spraying in the most thorough manner seems to be about as 

 impossible as to grow it without trees. 



HOW CAN WE AID IN IMPROVING OUR DISTRICT SCHOOLS. 



D. C. WARNER, DOWLING. AT BARRY COUNTY INSTITUTE. 



Of all things connected with our lives or with the welfare of our families, there 

 is nothing in which we are so inconsistent as in the supervision of our schools. 

 I wonder how long the farmer could run the farm, the manufacturer his factory, 

 or the tradesman his shop if he delegated to paid overseers the full management 

 and control of his business. And yet that is precisely what we do in respect to our 

 schools. We build and furnish schoolhouses, pay our taxes, authorize the school 

 board to hire the teacher, and then trust to the entire supervision of the commis- 

 sioner of schools, who will visit the school during two half days' sessions once or 

 twice at most during the whole year. 

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