178 transactions of the american institute. 



Apples for a Name. 



The apples sent by Mr. J. Manning, from Youngstown, Ohio, are unknown 

 here. He says that they keep well until April. 



Flower Seeds Distributed. 



Mr. J. W. Chambers, Secretary of the Club, reports the receipt of large 

 numbers of letters from ladies from ten States, asking for a portion of the 

 flower seeds sent in for distribution. The supply being exhausted, Mr. 

 Chambers wrote to Mr. Prince for more. He replies: "1 will send you 

 enough of the four sorts uamcd for one hundred persons. I cannot promise 

 more, but will try to hunt up some other rare seeds. None of these seeds 

 are for sale anywhere. I took this course to distribute them because I am 

 now sixty-nine years old, and have but one year left to do good to human- 

 ity, and the propagation of rare plants will permanently beautify the 

 earth My reward will be, when my spirit walks the earth, I may hear 

 people say: 'There are some of the beautiful things that Prince distribu- 

 ted in the last days of his life.' The names of the seeds sent in to-day are 

 the amorphia fruticosa, blue flowering shrub; autumnal perennial aster, and 

 splendid double hollyhock, all colors. 



Farmers should Improve their Common Schools. 



So writes a farmer from Verona, Wis., who saj's "that half of the time 

 of children is spent with matters long since entombed. Of what practical 

 use is it to a Wisconsin farmer's child to learn to repeat that old table of 

 the obsolete currency of New England: Four farthings make one penny, 

 twelve pence one shilling, twenty shillings one pound ? Or why should 

 our children be taught to measure cloth by the ells of the Flemings, F'rench 

 or Scotch; or to weigh articles by the rule of Henry VIII of England, in 

 aliquot parts of a tun of 2,240 pounds, which is almost as obsolete as New 

 England currency or Flemish ells ? These, and many other absurdities 

 still taught in common schools, farmers should eradicate as they would 

 pestiferous weeds that make farming a drudgery; for attending schools is 

 greater drudgery — so much so that children, to escape from it, will per- 

 form the worst on the farm. I wish that the Farmers' Club, which has 

 reports in The Tribune, would discuss this subject and awaken farmers to 

 the necessity of a reform in all our common country schools." 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The suggestion is a good one, not only for this 

 Club, but for every other club, and for all scientific discussions that could 

 influence the public to produce a reform in this particular. The reform is 

 as much needed in this city as any place I know of, as it is a common 

 practice of grocers to sell articles by the aliquot parts of " 100 lbs. gross," 

 which at wholesale are never sold in that way. Sugar, for instance, is 

 sold so much for 3|, 1 or 14 lbs., and not one clerk in ten can tell readily 

 the number of cents it is per pound, and I have often been refused ten 

 pounds, because the grocer could not calculate the price. I must take it 

 by the seven pounds or not at all; and I have sometimes refused to deal 

 with grocers who sold goods in that way. If every one would, it would 

 cure the ridiculous fashion. The only established trade in gross hundreds. 



