♦ 
FOLLOWING THE “OLD MASTERS.” 
PICTORIAL MISREPRESENTATIONS IN SCHOOL 
BOOKS. 
The American people are noted for their 
progress and iconoclasm. While this may be 
true in general, yet many worship the institu¬ 
tions of the past ages, which is evidenced by 
their icouical tastes. For instance, take our 
school books and observe the pictorial repre¬ 
sentations. The pictures follow the old mas¬ 
ters. A harvest scene is represented by a few 
poorly clad women and men with sickles and 
a sheaf of grain. A tumble-down barn stands 
in the background, and fences of the style of 
two hundred years ago. Or, perchance, it is a 
scene where the husbandman is plowing his 
ground for a crop. The horses are fastened 
to the beam of the plow by some means 
unknown to the present generation. The har¬ 
ness is unrecognizable as such. The plow 
looks more like the Egyptian than the Ameri¬ 
can. To add interest to the scene, the mold- 
board is often on the side opposite the plowed 
ground. The coulter and roller are attached 
by some method that is now among the lost 
arts: and the plowman, ah, the plowman! 
He is made to represent an Egyptian mummy 
and the representation is true to the subject. 
Go further: take a haying scene. The 
mower has a scythe whose prototype has 
never been discovered; its history has been 
lost. He is represented as having hold of the 
nibs of toe swath in such a manner that at 
every strike he will cut off, not the grass, but 
his own legs, and the swath would lie against 
the standing grass instead of away from it. 
This representation has no equal except in 
placing the mold board of the plow on the 
land-side instead of on the plowed land-side. 
Than again, look at the windrows and the 
haycocks. Shades of our immortal fore¬ 
fathers, help us! Women with a woebegone 
expression are in the field, with hand rakes, 
engaged in raking the cured hay. The load 
of hay is on a two-wheeled vehicle, nonde¬ 
script and rickety. The load is top-heavy 
and would not stay on five minutes if in mo¬ 
tion, but fall over. Sometimes a four- 
wheeled vehicle is used, but the load of hay 
towers heavenward with some kind of a being 
on the top holding the reins of horses that 
defy description. But. the scene becomes in¬ 
teresting when^a load of giain is represented. 
Language fails to give a description; the 
sight must be seen to be appreciated. 
If the publishers of such books are asked 
why they use such pictures, th ey will reply 
that they are copies of the old masters, and 
embody the highest ideas of art. So our 
children in the schools are compelled to look 
u pon such caricatures as being high con¬ 
ceptions of art. It is said that the old 
masters followed nature. Be that as it may, 
why not picture things as they are? 
Why not, in a haying scene, give represen¬ 
tations of mowing machines, drawn by horses 
in modern harness, driven by a man of 
mu-cle and intelligence. The plows used 
now-a-days are drawn by horses, but they 
are so arranged as to permit the driver 
to ride; this is especially so on the 
prairie. Every farmer uses the sulky horse- 
rake to rake the hay. The wagons used in 
drawing hay are equipped with a rack. The 
reaping machines are mostly self-binders and 
reap from 10 to 15 acres per day. The cradle 
• is only used among stumps and on side-hills 
where a reaper cannot be used. The old 
sickle is now never used in the grain field. 
The farmer’s buildings are good and of a 
modern style; so are his fences. 
To fill a school book with pictures copied 
from the old masters is to teach the past and 
not the present. It is in the same line with 
the Chinese who do what their fathers have, 
doue. It is retrogression and not progression, 
To clearly show this archaism of pictorial 
illustration, take any of our school books and 
compare the pictures of the agricultural im¬ 
plements and machines with the pictures of 
the same issued by the manufacturers. Com. 
pare the rural scenes with those that do exist. 
The contrast is so great that the archaic 
illustrations are not recognizable as being 
representations of anything that now exists 
Bloomington, Ills. i>. H. p. 
WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH THE 
FARMERS’ INSTITUTE? 
Why is it almost impossible to interest an 
average farmer in cur farmers’ institutes aud 
similar meetings where they learn much 
which will be of untold value to them, while 
a “horse trot” and a few abnormal vegetables 
and overgrown cattle will call out our far 
THE BUBAL 
mers by the thousands? Now, I think our 
county fairs are exceptionally good and more 
than usually clean and pure; yet how much 
do we really learn that is of use to us in our 
practical every-day life? At Charlton in 
this county are held the most interesting and 
instructive farmers’ institutes every summer; 
it is only ten miles from the town where we 
live, and yet I don’t think a dozen practical 
farmers ever go over from this neighborhood 
and half of those who do go, stand around on 
the outskirts of the crowd and visit to pass 
time, but they can drive twice as far to 
the fair ground, pay to enter the grounds, 
pay for a seat on the grand stand, to learn 
what? Whether Smith’s bay can out-trot by 
half a second Jones’s brown mare, while in¬ 
formation about the best ways of growing 
aud marketing our crops,worth dollars to any 
farmer, can be had “without money and with¬ 
out price,” at one of these agricultural meet¬ 
ings. 
I heard a young farmer say last summer on 
returning from one of these valuable meet¬ 
ings. “Well, I must say I always enjoy going 
to our fairs, but I really believe I learn more 
that will be of value to me and put money 
in my pocket, at one of these institutes than 
in all the fairs I ever attended”. 
At Ballston last summer on our fair ground 
was held one of the most interesting farmers* 
institutes it was ever many people’s good for¬ 
tune to attend. Tbe State and Saratoga Co., 
Agricultural Societies combined and held 
their institute together. The programme was 
fine, the speakers were first-class, the day per¬ 
fect, but where were our farmers and their 
families? When Col. Curtis called the meet¬ 
ing to order, and looked at the few and scat¬ 
tered occupants of the Grand Stand his genial 
face clouded and he tried to apologize for his 
neighbors ana friends in Saratoga Co., because 
they little understood or appreciated the 
rare opportunity they were letting pass by 
for gaining knowledge which ought to be 
wortli hundreds of dollars to our Saratoga 
Co., farmers and all, to be had for the simple 
trouble of driving up there. 
We had Peck, the N. Y. State Botanist, 
Lintner, our Entomologist, Batchellor. from 
Utica, who spoke on grasses; Mr. Fenner, of 
Erie Co., a successful farmer, shrewd, keen, 
magnetic; Rogers, of Syracuse aud Prof. 
Perkins of Union College, who ran a tilt on 
the value of commercial and farm-yard 
manures; Smith, of Smiths and Powell, who 
told how to improve or dairy herds, aud 
many other intelligent, successful farmers and 
specialists eager aud ready to tell us all they 
could of the ways and means which had 
brought to each success in his own depart¬ 
ment, aud so tne feast was richly spread and 
finely served, but where were the guests who 
should have partaken? Oh! for the power of 
old to have gone out in the highways aud by 
ways and compelled them to come in. But 
above all, where were our farmers with boys 
just coming into manhood, just ready to 
choose an occupation, eager for the battle of 
life? Why were not fathers aud sons here 
together to hear and learn all they 
could of our most successful men? “Thank 
God my boy is a farmer,” rang out Mr. 
Fenner’s trumpet tones. I looked at 
his sensible, kindly face, his commanding 
presence, and thought no man would dare 
sneer at him as “ nothing but a farmer”. He 
would command respect auy where. I wished 
for certain bright, intelligent boy s I know of, 
who were too tired of farming, to hear this 
nature’s nobleman say emphatically aud earn¬ 
estly “Thank God my boy is a farmer,” and 
then proceed to tell so clearly why ho was a 
farmer. Why, oh lathers were you and your 
boys not there to hear all this? Better spend 
a few days now to interest them in farm¬ 
ing, thau^iu a few years to have them lose all 
interest, declare farming nothing Put a slave’s 
life and leave you alone dependent on foreign 
labor. How 1 wished for our Saratoga Co., 
youths to see how many intelligent, respected, 
honored men were farmers, loving their work, 
eager, interested, happy in the occupation they 
had chosen. I wanted them to see for them¬ 
selves that a man could be a farmer aud 
a gentleman, could be a farmer and not 
a clod-hopper and a fool, could love his farm 
work and have intelligence and common 
sense, and learn that education and brains 
are of as much use to the farmer as to the busi 
ness mao. Farmer fathers, all over our 
broad aud fair land, who read our loved 
Rural, wouldn’t it be a good plan to interest 
our boys in gatherings of this kind while they 
are young, while they can be easily influenced, 
wnile tastes aud habits are forming? Let them 
see that some of our grandest, most successful 
men, mentally and physically,are farmers,and 
love their calling; that to be a useful, respect- 
ted citizen, and model gentleman, it is not 
necessary to part one’s hair in the middle and 
stand behind a counter in the city aud meas¬ 
ure calico at ten dollars a week. M, C. B. 
Saratoga Co., N, Y. 
Among the multitude of schemes devised by 
swindlers for duping the unwary, one of the 
most frequently practiced and successful, is 
that in which the operator requires a deposit 
of cash from his intended victim. There are 
many schemes of this sort and the pretexts 
which the sharpers offer for requiring the de¬ 
posits are equally numerous. There are the 
work-at-home humbugs, and the canvassing 
sharps who demand a deposit for the “outfit.” 
The deposit is, in nearly every case, worth 
much more than the goods or samples sup¬ 
plied; and the man, or especially the woman, 
who expects to get it back, must know little 
of this class of human nature. These are, no 
doubt, the meanest of iheir kind, as their vic¬ 
tims are generally so poor that they can ill 
afford to lose even the small sums out of 
which they are usually swindled, especially 
as they are often out of employment at the 
time. Then, there are in every city and large 
town in the country—and they often turn up 
temporarily in small villages also,—a number 
of rascals who offer good situations to those 
in search of employment, on condition that 
the latter should deposit with them a certain 
sum, either to contribute towards traveling 
charges or other preliminary expenses, or as a 
guarantee of honesty to secure the employer 
against loss. The “crook” who “plays this 
game” usually hires an office for a week or 
even a month—furnished if possible; if not he 
furnishes it on the “installment plan,” paying 
a trifle down and giving to tbe seller a lien on 
the goods. Ti en he advertises for help. Each 
applicant is promised a situation at a good 
salary provided he makes the required de¬ 
posit, the amount of which varies in accor¬ 
dance with the sharper’s estimate of the sum 
each of his intended dupes can pay. Often 
half a dozen or more victims make deposits of 
from $50, to $500, for the same bogus situa¬ 
tion. All are promised big salaries and some 
are tempted by a promise of an interest in tne 
business. This is said to be of various kinds; 
but it is usually represented to be of a highly 
profitable character, requiring little stock on 
hand. Real estate agencies, commission busi¬ 
ness, etc., are favorites with the tribe. Wheu 
the crook has waited as long as he thinks it 
safe, to secure the deposits of as many victims 
as he can delude, he suddenly disappears, leav¬ 
ing all his dupes in doubt whether they ought 
to kick him or themselves. Of course, they 
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General Advertising Rates of 
THB RURAL NEW - YORKER. 
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tntmeA ai SBt# Fost-offlcs at New York Oity, ft. V 
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Arc the BENT. 
Sold by Drugoists. 
