.730 
OCT 20 
THI RURAL NIW-YOMER. 
Fruit of good quality and red color; large 
Ripens in October. 
Tuscaloosa is a good grower; fruit pro¬ 
mising, large and striped. October. 
York Imperial is a strong grower and 
productive of fair-sized fruit of good quality. 
November to January. 
Hall’s Red is so small that it is of no 
account for market. 
London Pippin, a good grower; fruit large 
and of very good quality; but the tree is 
hardly productive enough. 
Monmouth Pippin, a strong grower and a 
good bearer. A part of the fruit keeps well; 
but it is not profitable to store on account of 
the great loss by rot. 
Roman Stem is all right except as regards 
its size—too small for profit. 
Mead’s Keeper (? Eds) is a slow grower,but 
a good bearer. Fruit of fair quality but small 
size. It keeps until April almost without rot. 
Westfield Keek-no-fctktiter is not pro¬ 
ductive: poor grower. Ripens in early October. 
Tompkins County King will not keep; it 
generally ‘■specks” about September. 
Rawle’s Genet bears Bmall or very small 
fruit which rots. It has nothing at all to 
recommend it. 
Barnehby is probably a local variety. It 
Is productive of fruit of good quality and size; 
keeps well; color white; one of the most pro¬ 
mising, not bearing this year; supposed to 
have originated near Mewtown,Bucks Co., Pa. 
Jonathan, athriiry grower and productive. 
Fruit of a deep red color and medium size— 
almost profitable. 
Winksap all right except size—too small. 
Nero originated near Princeton, Mercer 
Co., New Jersey. It is just a size too Bmall. 
ThiB apple has had quite a run and is almost 
good enough to grow. It needs moist,level land. 
Shockley keeps well; like all little apples, 
it should never have been introduced. 
Ram bo, a fair grower and productive. 
Fruit of good quality. 
Esofbs Spitzknbkrg. This place is too far 
south for this apple. It rots on the tree here. 
Tewksbory Winter Blush, good grower, 
productive of poor,little apples, that will keep 
perhaps until June without extra care. It 
has been profitable on account of keeping so 
long; but it must now give way to the 
Willow Twig, This apple is a fair grower 
and bears well; its habit is almost pendulent. 
The fruit is large; is of rather common or poor 
quality, but it keeps after all other good-sized 
apples are gone. I believe this fruit will pay. 
Hawthorndkn is of the same season as 
Maideu’s Blush and is larger. It would pass 
for the Blush on the market. 
Smith’s Cider is a fair grower and decid¬ 
edly the most productive apple grown in this 
section. Fruit of good Bize. Ripens in Janu¬ 
ary, but is in condition to use from October 
to April. It is said there are three different 
varieties of this apple; but 1 believe, or think 
1 know, that the thriftiness of the tree and 
amount of fruit make the apples 6mall and 
green, or large and well colored, or striped 
red and white. This apple originated in 
Bucks Co., Pennsylvania, and the latitude of 
that place [Between 40 and 41 degrees north. 
Eds.] is about as far north as fruit will ripen 
well. [The American Pomologica! Society 
gives Smith's Cider one star in Massachusetts, 
Connecticut and New York, all uorth of the 
above latitude, but the States in which it gets 
two stars—Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Mary¬ 
land, Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri—are 
either wholly or in part as far south as Buck’s 
County, or farther. Eds.] 
Newtown Pippin, tree unthrifty but bears 
very heavy crops every four or five years; 
quality best—not profitable. 
I have named about 75 varieties of apples. 
The planter can select 12 of the list, and have 
variety enough. Get trees budded or grafted 
on seedling stock, using the whole root, and 
not pieces, and a profitable investment is more 
than half assured. 
Titusville, New Jersey. 
The Kalamazoo Peach. 
I send to the office of the Rural New- 
Yorker specimens of a peach 1 have fruited 
for some time, which I consider quite an ac¬ 
quisition. Some years since a sprout came 
up from the root of a tree that had been 
budded to the Barnard. The original tree 
being old and nearly broken down, I allow¬ 
ed the sprout to grow and fruit. The second 
year of bearing 1 exhibited specimens at our 
State Fair, and was awarded first prem¬ 
ium on it as a single plate of peaches, also 
premium as a seedling. It was named by the 
State Pome logical Society, “Kalamazoo;" and 
by this name 1 call it. 1 budded a few trees 
from the original tree at that time, and they 
have fruited three years. I am so well pleased 
with it that I am budding this season for 
my own planting. It is very hardy and pro¬ 
lific; the fruit is of good size, ripening between 
the Crawfords. J. N. Stearns. 
Kalamazoo Mich., 
These peaches were of medium size, and 
excellent quality—some of them highly col¬ 
ored. We had intended a sketch and further 
notes which an accident to the peaches has 
prevented. Eds.] 
-»■*- ♦-- 
A Trio of Peaches. 
Here is my experience with three varieties 
of peach in this section, which are compara¬ 
tively new here—Mountain Rose, Richmond 
and Susquehanna, named in the order of their 
ripening. Mountain Rose I think the best 
peach I know both for market and house 
use, being hardy and a regular bearer of 
large-Bized fruit of fine quality and very hand¬ 
some appearance, ripening just before Craw¬ 
ford’s Early, and extending into the ripening 
time of that variety, and bringing as good a 
price as that famous old sort, although it is a 
wbite-fleebed peach. Richmond is very sim¬ 
ilar to Crawford’s Early, but a few days later 
and more hardy as well as prolific in seasons 
unfavorable for peaches. The tree, however, 
is not quite as strong a grower as the Claw- 
ford. Susquehanna is doing finely. It is 
larger than either of the Crawfords; with me 
.it is more prolific of fruit similar to that of 
Crawford’s Late; ripens from a week to 10 
days earlier. Profitable. j. n. s. 
Kalamazoo, Mich. 
0>ncatwmal. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT IT. 
(Thb object of articles under this heading Is not so 
much to deal with "humhugs” as with the manr un¬ 
conscious errors that creep Into the methods of dally 
country routine life.—E ds.I 
OFFENDING THE LITTLE ONES. 
SECRETARY C. W. GARFIELD. 
Knowing that the Rural New-Yorker is 
not confined to narrow limits in its work of 
usefulness, I take the liberty to speak through 
its columns a few plain words to country peo¬ 
ple about their schools. The thoughts might 
more properly go to a journal devoted to 
schools and education, were it not for the fact 
that such journals do not reach the homes of 
the people with whom I desire to communicate 
First, let me state succinctly some radical 
errors that crop out everywhere concerning 
rural schools: 
1. It is desirable to get the maximum length 
of term of Bcbool work for the minimum 
amount of money. 
2. The number of days in the school-room 
multiplied by the number of hours per day, 
determines the value of the school. 
8. Money used in rendering school premises 
attractive, is wasted. 
4. Children regularly attending a country 
school, are quite safe in their moral de¬ 
velopment. 
5. It is natural for little girls to be neat in 
their appearance and manners; but boys are 
rough, must have “full swing” and be dressed 
accordingly. 
6. As soon as children can walk to school 
they should go, so as to be out of the way, 
and because they can do nothing of value at 
home and the teacher is employed to care 
for them and instruct them. 
There are many other errors in my cata¬ 
logue, but these are the ones I wish to 
talk about. 
In buying sugar it is proper for us to seek 
the place where we can purchase at best ad¬ 
vantage and when we buy cane sugar, we do 
not want it to be 50 per cent glucose. But we 
all know that there is very little difference 
anywhere in the price of pure cane btigar, and 
for glucose prices we cannot get pure sugar. 
It is true of teachers also; we may pay for a 
good one and find we have a spurious article, 
but we kuow full well that for the price of a 
poor teacher it is rare to secure good ability. 
The best possible way to secure evenly good 
ability in country schools, is to have a per¬ 
manent salary that shall be paid for the work 
to be done; but I find this rarely the case. 
The average school officer begrudges the 
time spent by the teacher in occupation out¬ 
side of teaching classes in the schoolroom; 
and in a majority of onr schools the measure 
of the teacher’s work i» the six hours of teach¬ 
ing per day. This is all wrong. There is bet 
ter work to be done outside than in the school¬ 
room, and it is that in which the good teacher 
earns good wages. In a school not far from 
me the teacher spent half a day in the woods 
with the school, teaching the little people how 
to use their senses with precision, and found 
upon drawing her pay that this half day was 
deducted. Another instance I know, where 
the teacher closed school for the purpose of 
spending a day at the county fair with the 
pupils, thinking to accomplish more for them 
under his guidance than by trying to hold 
them in the school room. The district board 
called it in the final reckoning “a lost day.” 
Until we can rid people of the notion that re¬ 
citing lessons is all of a country school train¬ 
ing, we shall secure very inferior tuition. I 
want a teacher to have and exercise common 
sense, even if he cannot stand at a maximum 
figure in his examination upon the technical 
construction of a complex sentence or upon 
the “Vermont rule” of reckoning interest. 
But we shall scarcely get this qualification 
until at least a measure of it is employed by 
the people most interested in the instruction 
of the children. 
One of the most discouraging features of 
our common school training is that the accom¬ 
paniments of the instruction given are in such 
discordance with the best things to be taught. 
Children are expected to learn to be neat, 
orderly, methodical, etc., in truth, to grow in 
those attributes of character which will, later, 
aid them in getting a comfortable living and 
enjoying to the fullest extent the income of 
thrifty habits. They are to acquire thase 
attributes of character in a school house that 
has less care than the ordinary horse stable; 
upon grounds that are not cared for as well as 
the average meadow; at a place where no re¬ 
spect f or others’ property is expected; in truth ( 
the most general excuse for want of attention 
to school premises is that the children will so 
soon destroy them comeliness. Is it a wonder 
that boys throw stones through the windows 
of empty houses when their parents expect 
they will, without compunction, pnll a clap¬ 
board from the school-house at will? Is there 
so much to blame in the child that breaks a 
twig from a valuable ornamental tree, when 
his father's excu6efor not planting trees in the 
school yard is, that the boys will destroy 
every green thing anyway, and there is no 
use in planting anything. This is the reason 
I have for saying that the best work of a true 
teacher is outside of hearing lessons and 
“doing sums.” There is no better way to 
teach the children respect for another’s rights, 
than to practice it upon the school ground. 
There is no surer way of inculcating principles 
of correct taste than, under the guidance of the 
the teacher, in making delicately beautiful 
every nook about the school-house and 
grounds. There is surely nothing that can be 
taught the average boy and girl from the 
farm, that will ultimately give them more 
pleasure than facts about the trees, plants, in¬ 
sects, and animals about them; and, lastly, 
there is no discipline superior to learning to 
record accurate and honest observations. 
My fourth error is one about which it is 
most difficult to talk; but if more talking 
were done in this direction there might be 
fewer sad homes. 
As an officer to whom has been intrusted the 
visitation of a number of schools, I have given 
this matter careful attention, and do not hesi¬ 
tate to say that in my opinion a very large 
proportion of country schools are places in 
good measure devoted to the development of 
immorality; and when for the purpose of 
checking this tendency I have opened to 
school boards the state of affairs, I have found 
men who have little boys and girls subjected 
to these dangerous teachings willing to laugh 
and say, “These things will be learned some 
time, and the young ones might as well get 
them earlier as later." 
The teacher should be held directly respon¬ 
sible for the morality of the pupils at school 
as truly as the mother holds herself responsi¬ 
ble in her home. But how different are the 
surroundings with which each has to contend 1 
The latter has control of, and looks after, 
everything that will have a tendency to lead 
astray. In the former case I find that school 
officers, in the arrangement of out-buildings 
and school yards, seem, in a majority of cases, 
to have actually thrown every hindrance in 
the way of the teacher. 
Parents send their young boys and girls to 
schools with no thought except to know if 
they are making progress in their studies, and 
when a terrible calamity comes upon the 
household they cannot understand how it pos¬ 
sibly could occur when their home was so 
carefully watched. The seeds of the worst 
forms of immorality germinate about our 
schools, and this largely because of neglected 
duty by parents and school officers. 
It is quite a marvel to me why there Bhould 
be such a difference in the watchfulness of 
country parents over the personal appearance 
of the boys and the girls. I note it in every 
home I visit, and especially in every school I 
look in upon. In the home the girls have a 
room with things placed in it to render it 
attractive and comfortable; on the contrary, 
the boys get on almost any way, and no respon¬ 
sibility is felt by them as to the appearance of 
their rooms—in truth there is little to be re¬ 
sponsible for. At school the little girls with 
parted hair, clean collars and pretty pina¬ 
fores are in Btrango contrast- with the boys, 
of whom it is remarked, “They can’t keep 
their hair in place if they try. Collars will 
soon be soiled, and it isn’t natural for boys to 
be neat, anyway.” These are the boys that 
grow into men who are utterly careless of 
personal appearance, who scoff at those who 
are tidy, and who grieve their families by 
disregarding the ordinary courtesies of life. 
It is strange that mothers cannot see the cause 
and change the tendency by starting properly 
in the outset. 
Just a word more and I will stop for this 
time. There are more things to learn outside 
of books than are printed in them, so that with 
children time is not lost if the little ones do 
not begin at school very young. If at school 
under the ordinary requirements, they are 
liable to get their little, soft bones out of 
shape by long sitting in wrong positions, and 
are learning very slowly how to read and 
spell. If at home upon the farm with father, 
mother or older brothers and sisters, there are 
“voodles” of things to be acquired that at this 
age can be learned most rapidly. The names 
and habits of everything that has life make a 
beautiful and interesting study for the little 
ones, and this training is far better for them 
than sitting on hard benches at school. But 
mothers often say to me: “ I have no time to 
give to the little ones and must send them to 
school where a teacher is employed for the 
purpose.” Without further argument I must 
answer every time, “ Then you should not be 
a mother.” Home, childhood and parentage 
lose all their charms when parents cannot 
spend time to lead the instruction of the little 
ones, but rather entrust it to a stranger. 
Enough for now. Don’t call me a fault-finder, 
but think if I have not written truth. 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 
tklfr 
THE SPRING WHEAT PROBLEM. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
In the cultivation of Spring wheat, the 
average farmer is too apt to consider only the 
advantages resulting from a successful crop, 
and to forget the many essentials of soil, 
climate and methods requisite to that success. 
Hard Spring wheat, grown under the most 
favorable circnrnstances, is the best wheat 
known to the world, at home or abroad, the 
bushel weighing more, containing more of the 
phosphates and nitrogen, under the form of 
gluten, while at the same time yielding more 
flour, which makes more and better bread. 
That every intelligent and progressive grain 
grower should be ambitious to succeed with 
such a crop, is very natural, and that there 
should be many trials resulting in failures is 
more natural still, when we corne to consider 
how rarely the conditions obtain necessary 
for success. 
We learn from recognized authorities that 
the wheat plant is of a northern origin, and 
from the details of its cultivation in the 
Northwest that Spring wheat demands a dry 
cool season from seeding in March to harvest¬ 
ing in August or September to successfully 
accomplish all the phases of its existence. 
From the same source we get also the impor¬ 
tant fact that the best soils there fail to pro 
duce wheat after a certain number of crops 
have been taken off; but it is still a disputed 
point whether the failure is due to something 
which has been subtracted from, or something 
added to,the land. However, under the light 
of modern scientific investigation the crop is 
thought to fail becauseof an excess of nitrogen. 
Besides, as far north as latitude 45 degrees or 
40 degrees the greatest obstacle to a yield of 
sound grain is the sudden appearance of 
heavy rains with thunder and lightning and 
a high temperature in June or July, when the 
wheat is heading or filling. 
With these facts before us, we are in a 
measure prepared for considering the subject 
of Spring wheat growing in all that range of 
country south of latitude 42 degrees or 48 
degrees. North of these parallels where the 
soil is new or comparatively bo, the prairie 
should be broken in .1 one if possible so as to 
admit of the sod rotting completely before 
seeding the following March and the drilling 
in, per acre, of seven to eight pecks of seed as 
early as the frost is out of the ground enough 
to do the work. On old ground where wheat 
follows wheat or another crop, the land 
should be broken as soon as possible after the 
last crop is taken off, in order for the veget¬ 
able matter to become decomposed and the 
soil to settle together and get compacted 
before seeding time. But it must be borne in 
mind that, even in these cases, one of the 
essential conditions of a successful Spring 
wheat crop is, there must be good natural or 
artificial drainage, for in cool and wet Sum¬ 
mers moist and even naturally wet lauds 
produce better crops if well tile drained, than 
high lands which have only naturul drainage. 
While it is the simplest thing in the world 
to grow hard Spring wheat on the virgin soils 
of the farther Northwest, because the soil ha3 
been under n course of preparation for the 
crop since the foundation of the world, suc¬ 
cess on old soils and in lower latitudes can 
only be attained by exacting methods of soil 
preparation and a low mean temperature for a 
