124 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 106. 



of things in which our navy is intrusted with 

 the exploration of the deeper seas and the 

 mapping of far distant coasts, while it is held 

 unfit to survey the shallower waters of our own 

 shores. 



There is probably no other subject in which 

 practice lags so far behind knowledge as it 

 does in the teaching of small children, and 

 especially in country schools. The latest ap- 

 pliances in electrical apparatus are no sooner 

 invented and tested, than they are brought 

 into use, and supersede what were good ap- 

 pliances yesterday ; but the antiquated way 

 of teaching arithmetic and reading is still 

 almost universal, in spite of its having been 

 proved again and again that they can be 

 taught by a scientific method in half the time. 

 It was a witty Spaniard who said that the 

 reason English-speaking people are so illogical, 

 is that they have to learn to spell when they 

 are young. The wonder daily grows that their 

 instruction in arithmetic does not wholly 

 destroy what residue of reason their spelling 

 has left behind. A marked and much-needed 

 change was brought about in England by the 

 Association for the improvement of bread-mak- 

 ing ; and there is no doubt, that, by a vigorous 

 associated effort, — b}* holding public meet- 

 ings, by distributing pamphlets, and by all the 

 usual means of agitation, — something might 

 be done to awaken school- committee men and 

 superintendents to some sense of responsi- 

 bility. There is no better field for the mis- 

 sionary energy of those persons whose first 

 interest is in the maimed and tortured of their 

 own countrv. 



Meantime the Society to encourage study at 

 home could do no better work than to offer 

 a course in pedagogics to primaiy-school 

 teachers. The teachers of country schools 

 are often intelligent, and eager to learn ; but 

 it would be asking too much to expect each 

 one to discover for herself methods of teach- 

 ing that have only been perfected by many 

 generations of experience. To put them in 

 the way of reading a few inspiring books on 



the subject would often be to work a transfor- 

 mation in them. This suggestion is made by 

 the circular of information in regard to rural 

 schools, recently sent out hy the Bureau of 

 education. That circular itself, if it were 

 widely distributed, would do a great deal of 

 good by means of the model lessons in arith- 

 metic which it reprints from the report of 

 the Massachusetts board of education. They 

 must be in the nature of a revelation to most 

 untrained teachers. It is a pity that the com- 

 piler of the circular could not find an equally 

 good and explicit description of the modern 

 art of teaching how to read. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



The relation of form to time of maturity in 

 esculent roots. 



Many facts seem to indicate that a direct relation 

 exists between the form of esculent roots and their 

 time of maturity in the different varieties of the same 

 species. 



In the spring of 1883 a few typical roots of the 

 ' long hollow crown ' and ' Carter's new Maltese ' pars- 

 nip were set out for seed in the garden of the New- 

 York agricultural experiment-station, with other roots 

 selected from each of these varieties, which were 

 short and thick, approaching to napiform. As the 

 flower-stalks developed, those from the short, thick 

 roots in both of the varieties were considerably earlier 

 in blooming than the longer typical roots. This un- 

 expected event recalled the fact that the 'round' or 

 ' turnip-rooted ' parsnip is earlier in developing its root 

 than the long varieties ; also that in the ' Egyptian ' 

 and ' eclipse ' beets, the earliest two varieties, and 

 the 'French forcing' carrot, the earliest of its kind, 

 the roots are shorter in proportion to their length 

 than in other varieties. 



Printed descriptions 1 from the most careful writers 

 upon vegetables indicate that a similar relation exists 

 in the onion and turnip. Thus in the onion the 

 axial diameter in nineteen so-called varieties is noted 

 as less than the transverse diameter. Of these, five 

 are called ' very early,' five are called ' early,' seven 

 ' half early,' one ' rather early,' and one ' rather late.' 

 In seven so-called varieties, in which the axial diam- 

 eter equals or exceeds the transverse diameter, five 

 are called ' late,' one 'not early,' and one ' early.' 



In addition to these, in which the dimensions are 

 given in figures, the ' brown Teneriffe ' is described 

 as being ' very flat,' and, with one exception, is called 

 ' earliest of all.' The ' intermediate red Wethersfield ' 

 is described as flattened, and the 'two bladed' as 

 ' flat.' Both of these are called ' early.' The ' early 

 white silver-skinned ' onion is described as ' about 

 the same diameter as the Nocera, but thicker' 

 (through the axis), and is said to be 'a little less 

 early than the Nocera.' The 'white Portugal' is 

 noted as "a little less flat than the Nocera or 'early 



1 The descriptions examined are from Burr's Field and gar- 

 den vegetables of America, and from Les plantes potageres of 

 Vilmorin, Andrieux, et Cie. 



