California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



(frtucatioual 



A Parody for the School-Room. 



BY DWIGHT C. PIERCE, 



To know — or not to know— that is the queBtion — 



Whether 'tiB nobler in the mind to sufler 



The evil conRi-quenre of ignorRUce. 



Or to gu to school; and, grasping new ideaB, 



Dispel the old unibignoufi fops and raietg 



That 80 bewilder the untutored mind; 



And. by dispelling end them ?— To learn— to know^ 



And by judieiuus study Ray we end 



The thousand gross mistakes and tedloUB ills 



80 oft occurring — 'tia a consuniniation 



Devoutly to be wished. To know; to learn; 



To learn I perchance to 'xplain: — ay. there's the mbl 



For as we make the attempt, what dubious thoughts 



And abstruse principles present themselves. 



In dull confusion, niixiug all we know; 



And ere we shntlle out the right idea. 



We make a pause. Th(;re's the respect 



That makes an explanation live so long: 



For who would take the long and crooked route, 



The mountain climb, or plunge into the gulf, 



Or puzzle over the debate of authors. 



Or bear the whips or scorns of time thus spent 



To bring before the mind but one idea, 



When he himself might his recital make 



With shorter method? Who would yet submit 



To be the slave of ignorance and doubt, 



But that the dread of being in the rear, 



The butt of ridicule, or something to 



lie learned, puzzles the will: and makes him bear 



The ills in cuisciinence, rather than toil 



To learn the truths he yet knows nothing of. 



Thus appn-lR'iisj..ii (»ft retards our ctmrse, 



And thus the youthful mind is oft dismayed, 



And lost, amidst the mass of human woes 



That by pernicious ignorance is swayed. 



And should I close by thus portraying ill. 



'Twould leave the uiatter none the better still; 



For when you're sick should the physician say, 



Your case is very bad, indeed; I pray 



To know what good might thus be done; if he 



Did not prescribe and give the remedy? 



So I would say to all who tim'iotis are. 



To nobly struggle, break the iron bur; 



'Tis education frees the mind of man. 



And teaches him the universe to scan. 



Taking Agricultural Papers. 



If there is any one tiling that a farmer 

 should always make a necessity, it is a good 

 a^riotiltnral paper. We know there are a 

 large number of farmers who think thej' can- 

 not afford to pay the price, and who think it 

 is money thrown iiway; but we will venture 

 the assertion that no farmer will ever lose 

 anything by subscribing for at least one paper 

 devoted to his interests, and in ninety-nine 

 cases out of a hundred, if he will only read 

 it carefully, he will find it will pay a thous- 

 and per cent, profit. 



We do not propose to say that he must fol- 

 low everj'thing that he reads, but use his own 

 judgment in all cases. What may be a suc- 

 cess in one particular locality, may under 

 other circumstances and in a different place 

 be an entire f.iilure. But, taking the year 

 round, and reading the fifty two numbers the 

 farmer will receive, he is sure to find more or 

 less that will profit him; he will find in a very 

 short time that he will iQgk upon his weekly 

 paper as a necessity, and one that cannot 

 easily be dispensed with. If the farmer has 

 boys whom he wishes to raise up intelligently 

 they must have something to read and in- 

 struct them — something that will induce them 

 to try new experiments themselves, and see 

 if, by care and work, they cannot better their 

 stock and grain. Live and learn is what we 

 want. One of the best waj's to help your boy 

 to make a good farmer is a good, readable ag- 

 ricultural paper, one that works for the far- 

 mer's interest, and is practical and reliable. 

 Every other branch of trade has its weekly or 

 monthly paper, and the farmer should have 

 his. Just the same as every other branch of 

 trade has its organization, so the farmer 

 should have his. But these different organiz- 

 ations would not have half their strength were 

 it not for their weekly and monthly papers, 

 which circulate among them and inform them 

 of what is going on in their particular branch 

 of trade. — "Fa7-mer," in Rural World. 



Common Sknse. — It has been said, in an- 

 other form of expression, that the slightest 

 excess of expenses over income is poverty, 



and the slightest excess of income over ex- 

 penses is wealth. The ability of practical 

 farmers to master this great problem of life is 

 not so much dependent upon what they know 

 of their business as upon the faculty to apply 

 what they know. Success in business is due 

 to the administration. Capacity in adminis- 

 tration is due to the faculty, power, or quality 

 called common sense, which everybody speaks 

 well of and nobody understands exactly. We 

 infer its presence or its absence from the re- 

 sults of a man's life. We venture upon the 

 definition of the phrase we are using, not so 

 much for the purpose of making its meaning 

 clear as for the greater purpose of giving it a 

 loftier place in your thoughts. Common 

 sense is a degree, a high degree — in fine, the 

 highest degree of human wisdom applied to 

 practical things. It is not learning; it is not 

 knowledge; it is rather the faculty of ajiplying 

 what we may know to what we do. Other 

 things being equal, the practical farmer who 

 knows the most will do the best; but other 

 things not being equal, a man who excells in 

 wisdom and admiuistraticm may surpass a 

 man of greater learning, or even greater know- 

 leclge of things. But do not allow this sug- 

 gestion to lead j'ou to place a low estimate 

 upon learning, whether general or profession- 

 al ; culture of every sort gives us capacity to 

 appreciate wisdom, and ojjportuuity also for 

 its exercise. — Practical Farmer. 



Puke Expression. — Every word that falls 

 from the lips of mothers and sisters should 

 be pure aud concise and simple; not pearls 

 such as fall from the lips of a princess, but 

 sweet, good words, that little children can 

 gather without fear of soil, or any regret to 

 pain through all their life. Children should 

 be tiiught the use of good, strong, expressive 

 words — words that mean exactly what they 

 should express in their proper places. If a 

 child or young person has a loose, flung-to- 

 gether way of stringing words when endeavor- 

 ing to say something, he should be made to 

 "try again" and see if he cannot do better. 

 It is painful to hear m.any girls talk. They 

 begin with "My gracious!" and interlard it 

 with "So sweet!" and "So queenly!" and so 

 many phrases that one is tempted to believe 

 they have no training at all, or else their 

 mothers are very, very foolish women. There 

 is nothing more disgusting than the twaddle of 

 ill-bred girls; one is provoked often into tak- 

 ing a paj^er and reading, and letting them rip- 

 ple aud gurgle on, like brooks that flow they 

 know not whither. Mr heart warms with 

 love for sensible girls and pure boys; and, 

 after all, if our girls aud boys are not this, I 

 fear it is our own fault — for this great trust 

 rests in the hearts and hands of the women of 

 our land. If we have a noble, useful purpose 

 in life, we shall infuse the right spirit into 

 those around us. 



«-•-» 



WoEDs — Thoughts — .\ctions. — They are all 

 important, and every one of them tell upon 

 our present aud future state. The eft'ect of an 

 action — a thought — a word, may not be im- 

 mediately evident; it may never be discovered 

 by us or other mort.als, but it is there, it is in 

 our lives, and it will continue to work upon 

 our destiny for c%-il or good when our bodies 

 shall lie mouldering beneath the sod. Like 

 flakes of snow that fall unperceived upon the 

 earth, the seeming unimportant events of life 

 succeed one another; and as the snow gathers 

 together — as the avalanche, so are our habits 

 established .ind our character determined. No 

 single flake that is added to the drift produces 

 a sensible change; no single action creates, 

 however it may exhibit, a man's character; 

 but as the tempest hurls the avalanche down 

 the mountain and overwhelms the inhabitants 

 so passion, actii)g upon the elements of mis- 

 chief which pernicious habits have brought 

 together by imperceptible accumulation, may 

 overthrow the principles of truth and virtue. 

 How important it is, then, that we maintain 

 the most sleepless guard upon our passions, 

 and scrupulously weigh out every word, 

 thought and action. 



Help the Childeen. — Parents, help the 

 children. Help them in what? To study aud 

 learn the school lessons. Do not let them go 

 to the school with no lessons. Talk it over 

 together, and there will be some things you 

 can tell the little ones, and some ways in 

 which you can help them. There will be 

 sure to be some things you can make them • 

 understand. 



Older brothers and sisters, help the child- 

 ren. You can have no idea, if j'ou have not 

 tried it, how much good you can do in this 

 way. Moreover, you will find your own ideas 

 of a subject much clearer, after you have tried 

 to make it plain to your younger brothers and 

 sisters. Help them about reading their school 

 books. When they say they have read them, 

 talk with them about what they have read. 

 Ask them questions about it. See if they un- 

 derstand it. Slake them feel that to rend aud 

 understand the book is the thing to Vje sought 

 not the carrying to and fro of a bo(jk more 

 suitable for their fathers and mothers than 

 for themselves. — Times. 



How TO Keep a SirnATios. — Boys, be ready 

 to throw in an odd half hour or an hour's 

 time when it will be an accommodation, and 

 do not seem to make a merit of it. Do it 

 heartily. Though not a word be said, your 

 employer will make a note of it. Make your- 

 self indispensable to him, and he will lose 

 many of the opposite kind before he will part 

 with you. Those young men who watch the 

 clock to see the very second their working 

 hour is up — who leave, no matter what state 

 the work may be in, at precisely the instant — 

 who calculate the extra amount they can slight 

 their work, and yet not get reproved— who 

 are lavish of their employer's goods — will al- 

 ways be the first to receive notice, when times 

 are dull, that their services are no longer re- 

 quiied. 



Color and Germination. 



Actinism is the chemical power which is 

 necessary to excite germination in plants. It 

 emanates from the blue ray of the spectrum, 

 and is the same power which operatts on the 

 sensitive silver in photography. Seeds will 

 not germinate so long as they are exposed to 

 bright light. How the actinic ray reaches the 

 seed in the ground is hard to understand; but 

 that it does penetrate where the luminous ray 

 is unable to reach is plain from experiments, 

 which go also to show that tht exclusion of the 

 luminous ray is necessary for the operation 

 of the actinic. Shade is always — absolute 

 darkness sometimes necessarj- for the success 

 of the germinating process. Plant cress seed 

 an inch deep in three boxes; over the first 

 place a blue, over the second a yellow, and 

 over the third a red glass. 



The seeds under the blue glass will be np 

 days before those under the red; and of those 

 under the red a few only will germinate. 

 Those under the yellow will not germinate at 

 all. It is found that those seeds which come 

 up under a white glass in from eight to four- 

 teen days, will, under a blue glass, be up in 

 from two to five days; that where thirty per 

 cent, of seeds came up before, sixty per cent, 

 can now be raised; and th.at some seeds from 

 tropical countries, which could not formerly 

 be raised in this climate iiuder a white frame, 

 will germinate freely under a blue one. 



It would seem that the depth to which the 

 air can penetrate the soil is the measure of 

 the dejith of germination. This is the practi- 

 cal result. — Popular ticieiice. 



Splittino buds, to make them produce 

 trees bearing apples half sweet and half sour, 

 is denounced b}- a New England nurseryman 

 in the Boston CuUicalor. He says if you un- 

 roll a bud you will find a minute green point 

 at the centre, to cut through which would 

 simply kill it. like a knife in the heart of au 

 animal. If the half of a bud alone could be 

 t.aken and grown, and the crop would be half 

 apples all over the tree, he wonld give more 

 credit to the old tradition. 



