*864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



81 



BEADING. 



In an article upon another page, by "G. B. E.," 

 entitled "The School," is a single paragraph to 

 which we call the especial attention of the reader. 

 We believe that very many of those who read the 

 Farmer, both men and women, are persons who 

 have no doubt that a good education is essential 

 to good farming. That the person who brings a 

 thoughtful, investigating mind to his business, in 

 connection with a strong and healthy system, is 

 altogether more likely to succeed than he who 

 has great power of muscle and but little of the 

 mind. The paragraph to which we refer is the 

 first one in the article and is as follows : 



"Hoiv can time be saved, in the common school, 

 for the introduction of studies which shall expressly. 

 prepare for the labors and duties of life ?" 



A more important question, concerning our tem- 

 poral interests, it seems to us, was never asked. 

 It reaches the source of progress, civilization and 

 success in all that is ennobling and good. It is 

 the important point to which attention should be 

 turned, — one where a vast amount of time and 

 money may be saved and much of that human 

 wretchedness which so frequently follows a want 

 of success in the business of life. 



We earnestly ask the thousands who read the 

 New England Farmer, and who are in some way 

 connected with the management of our schools, 

 to receive this question and let it suggest some 

 searching process whereby it may be answered. 

 It is the great problem of life to be solved. All 

 arts, trades, sciences, professions, and even phi- 

 losophy and religion, cannot be seen by thousands 

 in their beautifully attractive light, for the want 

 of that early preparation which our schools should 

 impart. We suggest that the article from which 

 we quote the sentence above, — and the other ar- 

 ticles by the same writer which have preceded it 

 — be handed to teachers, and that they be read 

 aloud, by some one of the pupils, in the schools. 



THE SEASONS. 



The "backbone of the winter is broken," as the 

 weather-wise say. The absence of high winds, 

 with bright suns and lengthening days, are all 

 wearing it pleasantly away. The year was ushered 

 in with an unusual pomp of wind and snow and 

 cold, through all the region, but it bore itself 

 gently here in comparison with its intensity in 

 some of the Northwestern States. In Indiana and 

 Illinois its effects upon travellers were terribly dis- 

 astrous and fatal. Many persons were frozen to 

 death, at.d carloads of swine and cattle also per- 

 ished, the sweeping winds driving the snow into 

 the cars, where it froze upon the animals and 

 caused their death. 



Ice of the best quality has formed in abundance, 

 And dealers in it Ihvp irathpvp'-l fin ahuwd mi ' — 



vest. With the exception of a week or two, the 

 weather has been mild, so that there has been lit- 

 tle suffering among the poor in cities, either for 

 fuel or food. Every body can have employment 

 if they will, and at fair wages, so that in New 

 England, and in the West, the horrors of war are 

 only known by our thinned households, by ad- 

 vanced prices, or the reports which occasionally 

 pain the ear, of the fall of our beloved ones on 

 the field of battle, dying in hospitals, or half- 

 starving in the miserable prisons of a deluded and 

 wicked people. 



The mild weather is also favorable to farm stock 

 and to the winter labors of the farmer himself. 

 Indeed in New England, we live so compactly 

 and enjoy so many means of securing comfort, 

 that we know little of the inconveniences and tri- 

 als incident to those who live in sparsely-settled 

 districts. 



Let not this, then, be a "winter cf discontent," 

 but one of grateful progress in every thing that 

 elevates man. 



PEAR TREES PROM SEED. 

 We think the following account of experiments 

 made in the Museum of Natural History of France 

 from 1853 to 1862, by M. Decaisne, translated by 

 L. V. Dovilliers for the Horticidturist, will be in- 

 teresting to the readers of the Farmer : 



In 1853 I sowed a large number of pear seeds, 

 chosen the preceding year from well known and 

 distinct varieties, viz. : our old English pear, 

 known to everybody, the Bosc pear, shaped like 

 a long gourd and of a cinnamon color ; the Belle 

 Alliance pear, rounded in form, of a red and yel- 

 lowish color ; and the Sanger pear, a wild variety, 

 or nearly so, and thus named because its leaves 

 recall, by their whitish, velvet-like appearance, that 

 of the common sage. For this last sowing, I have 

 used all the crop of a tree which grows isolated 

 from all others. 



Only a small number of these trees have begun 

 to bear, otherwise the results might have been 

 still more satisfactory. 



Thus, in the variety of the Sanger pear, the 

 only tiees that have borne fruit have given four 

 distinct varieties ; one ovoid in form, quite green 

 in color ; the second less elongated, and almost 

 maliform, partly red, partly green ; a third still 

 more rounded ; finally, a fourth, regularly pyri- 

 form, more than twice as large as the preceding, 

 and entirely yellow. 



From La Belle Alliance pear have come nine 

 new varieties, ncne of which resemble the parent 

 fruit, either in size, color or time of maturity. 

 There are two especially that I will notice, one 

 for its siz£, more than double that of La Alliance 

 pear ; the other, by its rounded form, resejvjbles 

 maliform pears. 



The Bosc pear gave equally three new fruits 

 different from the type, one of the three being so 

 similar to one of the fruits obtained from the San- 

 ger pear, that it is hardly to be distinguished from 

 it. The varieties are quite as numerous as in 



