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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



may be that where men are preparing themselves 

 for any particular field of action, that it will be nec- 

 essary for them to follow such pursuits and studies 

 as will fit them for such calling. But however 

 many recommendations may be laid down for far- 

 mers, and especially young ones, to get an educa- 

 tion, yet it is known that but very few out of the 

 mass can avail themselves of any such plan as I 

 might and should be glad to lay down for their ben- 

 efit. So, for that reason, I want to give out some 

 ideas that will be applicable to them at home by 

 their own firesides, and on their own farms. If I 

 were to offer some far-fetched and dear-bought and 

 out-of-the-way scheme, such a plan as not one in 

 ten or twenty could practice, if they were ever so 

 disposed to, then the object I have" in view could 

 not be attained. 



Hence a plan that will suit all classes to follow 

 after, is the one in general to be adopted. Of 

 course, it is plain to begin with, that the masses of 



Its shape is oblong, and it looks like a club foot. 

 It is a passably good apple for eating or cooking. 

 The tree on which it grows stands in a pasture, 

 where it is said to have come up from a dropped 

 seed, and never blossoms — the fruit rarely having 

 any seed ! Some of the specimens have Uttle green 

 coated protuberances around the calyx, but they 

 contain no seed. The apple is not entirely core- 

 less, having the usual appearance of an apple core 

 in the flesh, but AvhoUy without seeds. The follow- 

 ing is a description of the fruit as accurately as we 

 can give it : 



Size above medium but not large, measuring ten 

 and a half inches in circumference over the stem 

 and calyx ends, and eight and a half around the 

 middle of the apple ; color greenish, speckled with 

 russet, with a large deep red blush, spotted like a 

 Baldwin, on one side. Stem an inch long, serrated, 

 and set in a deep cavity. One side of the apple 

 resembles a Baldwin, and most of the other side a 



young men preparing themselves to cultivate the greenish russet. The flesh is yellowish, and flavor- 

 soil cannot obtain Avhat is called a classical or sci- ed like the Baldwin and Rhode Island greening, 

 entific education for reasons that every body knows becommg tender and pleasant to the taste. The 

 well. _ Then if this be the case, what is the use or calyx is almost without a basin, being the mere 



propriety of recommending such an education for 

 the great body of cultivators Avhen they cannot 

 adopt it or anything near it. How much more hu- 

 mane it will appear, when a feasible plan is offered, 

 which every one can adopt, for then you reach that 

 class that stand most in need of instruction. 



Those who are capable of instructing and teach- 

 ing in this business, should always remember that 

 the pupils are the masses, as a general thing, who 

 need instruction and will not come to the teacher 

 for it, because there is a natural diflSdence in them 

 that keeps them back. Hence the teacher or in- 

 structor must take his teachings and carry them to 

 the people ; or in other words, he must give out his 

 instructions in such a plain, practical way, that the 

 people can appreciate and adopt them for practical 

 use. The few who have means, can, of course, 

 get an education any way. It is not those that I 

 speak of: but it is the body of working people who 

 want the best practical method shown to them for 

 instruction, one that will meet them at their own 

 homes and firesides. But then the working far- 

 mers_ should remember that, after all the teachings 

 and instructions they may receive, and other ad- 

 advantages for getting an 'education, it will depend 

 upon their own efltorts at self-instruction wheth- 

 er they make progress or not in the undertaking. 

 That the great body of working farmers will be 

 ever educated, according to the general sense of 

 that word, I do not expect, nor do I consider it of 

 great consequence whether they are or not. What 

 I want to see is the farmers making the best use of 

 means within their reach to obtain a good thorough- 

 going educatiod. If they do this it is all that can 

 be expected reasonably by any one. Farm schools 

 and colleges are being instituted for this purpose, 

 where young farmers can get a good practical and 

 scientific education ; of course, all who can should 

 avail themselves of such mstruction. 



L. DURAND. 



gathering in of the skin, having little green pro- 

 tuberances around it, looking like seed vessels. 

 The shape of the fruit is very irregular, though 

 constantly adhering to its form. It bulges out 

 around the top, and is smaller below the middle. — 

 Bunker Hill Aurora. 



THE DYKES OF HOLLAND. 



Singular Ai'ple. — An apple was brought into 

 the Boston market for the first time the present 

 season, from New Hampshire, where it has received 



the name of "JVo-blorv .'" It is a most remarkable j of clay— if not entirelv, at least on the outside'; and 

 apple m its appearance, as well as in its character, the interior is filled with a mixture of earth, clay, 

 It is about as near square as round, for it is neither, land sand. The face of the dy^ie is thatched, as it 



The dykes, at first sight, strike the beholder as 

 no extraordinary work ; and it is not until we find 

 that a considerable part of the country of Holland 

 hes some twenty-four feet beneath the level of the 

 sea at high-tide, and that it has merely a fence of 

 mud-banks to fortify the land against the terrors of 

 invasion from the host of waters about it, that the 

 mind becomes awakened to the vastness and im- 

 portance of the structures. Nor is it in summer- 

 time, when the surrounding rivers are half dried up, 

 and the ocean without is placid and beautiful as 

 some vast lake, that we are able to arrive at a sense 

 of the protection aflbrded by the belt of sea- walls to 

 the people within them ; but only during the tem- 

 pests of winter, when the terrible waves are tower- 

 ing to the sky, like liquid mountains, and the tide 

 has risen many feet above its usual height, OM'ing to 

 the immense body of water from the Atlantic hav- 

 ing been driven by the gales across the German 

 ocean towards the narrow straits of Dover, and 

 there being dammed up as it were, so that the vast 

 flood is forced back upon the Dutch coast, and 

 leans all its stupendous weight against the ridge of 

 dykes around the Nether-country. It is at such 

 times, indeed, that we learn how much property 

 and how many lives depend upon' the strength of 

 these same ocean bulwarks. It is fearfully inter- 

 esting then to walk at the foot of one of the great 

 dykes, and to hear the heavy waves beating like so 

 many batter-rams against the outer side of the mud 

 wall, and to know by the noise that the ocean is 

 already some twenty feet above the head. The 

 dykes are sometimes forty feet high, and their 

 foundation, which is generally of clay, is from 120 

 to 150 feet m width. The dyke itself is composed 



