314 



J. S. Skinner^s Address. 



Vol. XI. 



its origin is not so well ascertained. Rosa 

 Blairii is also English, and raised from the 

 Yellow China, impregnated with some va- 

 riety of hardy rose. All these roses have 

 the true characters of the family: leaves 

 smooth, glossy, and sub-evergreen : branches 

 long, luxuriant, and flexible. They give a 

 long continuance of bloom, but they never 

 put forth secondary or autumnal flowers, ex- 

 cept in a few insulated cases. This is a 

 most peculiarly distinguishing trait, and an 

 interesting fact. Impregnate a Bourbon, 

 China, or Noisette rose, — all abundant au- 

 tumnal bloomers, with the farina of a French 

 or a Provence rose, and you entirely take 

 away the tendency to autumnal blooming in 

 the ofl^spring. They will grow vigorously 

 all the autumn, and give a long, but not a 

 secondary series of flowers. Some of these 

 Hybrid China roses produce seed abundantly, 

 which is rather a remarkable feature, as so 

 few hybrid plants are fertile. It has been 

 asserted that hybrids produced from the 

 French rose, impregnated with the China 

 rose, are not of such robust and vigorous 

 habits as when the China rose is the female 

 parent; but this is an assertion scarcely 

 borne out by facts, for the exceptions are 

 numerous, and like many other variations in 

 roses and plants in general, they seem to bid 

 defiance to systematic rules. By scientific 

 cultivators the roses of this division have 

 been divided into four classes, Hybrid China, 

 Hybrid Noisette, Hybrid Bourbon, and Un- 

 certain Hybrids. 



Those that have been raised from Noisette 

 roses have a tendency to produce their flow 

 ers in clusters; those from Bourbon roses 

 have their leaves thick, leathery, and round; 

 those from the Tea-scented have a delicate 

 and grateful scent; but all have those d is 

 tinguishing family traits as before given, and 

 accordingly they group beautifully. It is a 

 difficult task to point out the best in each of 

 these divisions, as they are nearly all well 

 deserving of cultivation. However, by 

 making a few remarks, such as cannot so 

 well be given in a descriptive catalogue, I 

 may perhaps be able in some measure, to 

 direct the choice of amateurs to those wor 

 thy their notice. — Prince's Manual of Roses. 



Address, 



Delivered by J. S. Skinner, Editor of the 

 Farmers^ Library, at JSorthampton, Mass., 

 in the Tenth month last, at the request of 

 the Franklin and Hampden Agricultural 

 Societies. 



We publish with pleasure the following extract, and 

 commend it to the attention of those who may be im- 

 mediately interested, and who have influence to give 



a tone to public feeling. We know very well that 

 when scientific instruction is spoken of, in reference 

 to the lad who is to earn his livelihood on a farm, we 

 are too generally told, that an efficient education can 

 only be attained by taking off his coat and going di- 

 rectly to the plough, and to every other exercise of the 

 plantation. The truth of this in part, must be admit- 

 ted. We are aware that a man will not be likely to 

 farm profitably, whose only qualification is sound the- 

 ory; he must have practical knowledge:— yet all this 

 is consistent with an education— a training especially 

 adapted to his future calling. This is what is aimed 

 at by our indefatigable and worthy friend of the Farm- 

 ers^ Library. James Gowen's proposed College — see 

 page 243, current vol. of Cabinet— will, to a certain 

 extent, supply a serious vacancy, but the idea suggest- 

 ed below, is to open avenues for agricultural instruc- 

 tion in every direction, and to all classes. — Ed. 



EXTRACT. 



My friends, if you will allow me to speak 

 frankly and without reserve, as becomes a 

 friend, who has devoted the best years of his 

 life in the study of how he could best assert 

 the rights and elevate the cause of American 

 agriculture, I will tell you in what I think 

 consists the great impediment to the progress 

 of your profession ; and by that I mean the 

 obstacle which stands in the way of your 

 practically realizing double your present 

 crops from the same land, and with less la- 

 bour. It lies in a deficient and ill digested 

 system of education ! I mean in the gene- 

 ral way, that too many farmers are content 

 with an education, or what is called an edu- 

 cation, that confers merely the power of 

 reading, icriting, and cyphering — without 

 reflecting that these of themselves do not 

 constitute learning or information in the sci- 

 ence of farming, or any other science, any 

 more than the possession of a square and 

 compass, a drawing-knife and a jack plane, 

 gives a knowledge of house-building. Read- 

 ing, writing, and arithmetic, are nothing 

 more than the tools to work with ! You 

 might as well expect a man to cure, without 

 any knowledge of the healing art, the most 

 deadly malady, by putting the whole con- 

 tents of an apothecary's shop into his hands, 

 as your son to profit in the art of farming 

 merely by a knowledge of reading, writing, 

 and arithmetic. 



Will a knowledge of these of themselves, 

 instruct your son in the nature of the soil 

 out of which he is to get his living — its com- 

 position or mechanical or chemical proper- 

 ties] Does this knowledge, of itself, and 

 without using it as the means of extending 

 Jiis researches, let him into a knowledge of 

 the properties of vegetables — of what they 

 are composed, by what they are nourished, 

 and the laws of their organization and exist- 

 ence? In which of the schools, let me ask 



