THE EDITOR'S OUTLOOK. 



427 



labor. This assertion seems almost trivial. It is 

 certainly a new philosophy which teaches that love 

 for any system is bred by compulsory and perfunc- 

 tory labor in it. But the best answer comes from 

 the institutions which do not practice it. The 

 graduates from the Cornell College of Agriculture — 

 and they are as many as from any bona fide agri- 

 cultural school in the country — all follow agricul- 

 tural pursuits. It would be impossible to find a 

 more enthusiastic lot of "farm boys'' than those 

 graduating this year. The compulsory student 

 labor system is really a relic of the old fear that 

 education unfits the boy to be a farmer, and it seeks 

 by this means to prevent him from drifting off into 

 agricultural heresy. It puts a stone in his pocket 

 to counterbalance any lightness of the head. 



We do not wish for a moment to criticize any in- 

 stitution, nor to make comparisons. We are sim- 

 ply speaking upon principles of education. The 

 labor colleges have done a great work, and the lead- 

 ing exponent of this system has been a beacon light 

 in agricultural education. But the good results, in 

 our opinion, are not so much the outcome of the 

 labor system as we have been led to suppose. 

 Certain strong men in these institutions have im- 

 pressed themselves indelibly upon their students- 

 There is now to be observed a gradual weakening in 

 the old labor system in some, at least, of these col- 

 leges. True, unpaid laboratory work is gradually 

 taking its place. This is indication that agricul- 

 tural education is rising into riper and truer ideals. 



* * 

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WE MUST again call atten- 

 CONGRESS desirabihty of 



securing an international horti- 

 cultural congress, of the broadest scope, at the 

 World's Fair. No one can doubt the good which 

 such a gathering might accomplish. It would teach 

 us the best methods of other peoples, and would 

 familiarize us with their products ; and it would af- 

 ford an accurate measure of our own horticultural 

 industries. Other interests are arranging for inter- 

 national congresses ; why should not horticulture ? 



* * 

 * 



THE MOST noxious weeds to fight 

 PREJUDICES notions and old customs. 



You cannot cut them down right and 

 left ; or even if you do uproot them they live on as 

 briskly as before. They are not born of reason or 

 polity ; they simply came, and now they abide. 

 We are thinking particularly of that common, all- 

 pervading notion, that to work in the soil is menial, 

 and yet those whilom individuals who think so look 

 upon the machinist or engineer as one occupying a 



more elevated position. This general feeling is ap- 

 parent everywhere, in the city and in college. And 

 yet, the tiller of the soil is called upon to exercise 

 the wider judgment, and he should possess the more 

 skill. But the two things are really not compar- 

 able, because they are essentially different, and both 

 are indispensable. These common notions are 



simply survivals of an old prejudice. 



* * 

 * 



EVERYONE must have felt the un- 

 REPORTS satisfactory character ot crop 



reports from year to year. Every 

 spring there come the discouraging reports of 

 heavy frosts, falling of fruits, blasting winds and 

 cold rains, until it would seem as if all fruit were 

 to be swept from the face of the earth, and in 

 August and September we hear of bountiful har- 

 vests in the same regions ! So sensational and so 

 customary have these discouraging spring "fruit 

 prospects " become in some sections that consum- 

 ers look upon them with distrust. There are many 

 reasons for these unreliable reports. Some people 

 are always prone to exaggerate difficulties. One of 

 our neighbors reports regularly every spring that 

 the peach buds are killed, and he believes that they 

 are. He seems to enjoy making some startling re- 

 port. It relieves the monotony of life, and it 

 affords food for reflection in the local Farmers' Club 

 for a whole month ; and perhaps he enjoys the dis- 

 tinction which the local press gives him when it 

 says that " Mr. Smith has made a careful examina- 

 tion of the peach buds, and he finds all of the early 

 kinds dead, and fully gg per cent, of Hill's Chili 

 and Old Mixon are destroyed. He advises that 

 the Farmers' Club be called together at once to 

 consider the advisability of cutting down the trees."' 

 Many growers, we are convinced, do not know 

 when a fruit bud is dead, and nearly all the spring 

 reports are premature. 



All this should be remedied. There should be 

 reports of such character that both dealers and 

 growers can determine how to shape their business 

 for the year. Some bureau in each state should 

 collate and publish reports two or three times dur- 

 ing the season, and only the most reliable observers 

 should be employed. Their observations should 

 comprise a whole state, and they should be pub- 

 lished promptly in bulletin form. The state horti- 

 cultural societies are at once suggested as the 

 proper authorities to conduct this work. Two or 

 three have already done it. Their labors should 

 be extended, and every state should aid. Our 

 horticultural interests are becoming so extensive 

 that some such system is a necessity. 



