94 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
February 11 
self-help and State help. Therefore, most of the agri¬ 
cultural schools are subsidized. Denmark has four 
experiment stations and 70 high-class schools of agri¬ 
culture. Belgium has five agricultural colleges, a 
number of experiment stations, and 20 agricultural 
schools. Austria has 118 agricultural schools. France 
has the most complete system of State aid to agricul¬ 
ture of any country in the Old World or the New. 
She has four agricultural colleges, eight intermediate 
schools, 79 agricultural schools of lower grade, and in 
addition to all this, every primary school must give 
instruction in agriculture. There are 79,000 such in 
France. The annual cost to the country is $ 9 , 000 , 000 . 
Where We Fail. —The European States attempt 
to extend the educational impulse, (a) by schools of 
higher education, (b) by practical farm or training 
schools, (c) by instruction given in the general public 
schools, (d) by wander-lehrers or traveling teachers, 
(e) through rural societies, (f) by means of experiment 
and research stations. 
In the United States, we have made great progress 
in three of these directions: In institutions for higher 
education, in traveling lecturers or teachers, in ex¬ 
periment stations. We have, also, done something in 
the way of rural societies, although these are not so 
efficient in educational directions as they might be. 
They should be coordinated and focalized, and should 
have more direct relations with official governmental 
affairs. All of these powerful agencies should be 
strengthened and developed. 
In two other directions, however, we have made 
only a beginning : In introducing the agricultural 
impulse into the primary and secondary schools, and 
in affording young people the means of securing 
actual farm training. We still need something be¬ 
tween the colleges and experiment stations, and the 
common schools. 
Nature Study Best. — I am one of those who be¬ 
lieve it to be impracticable and undesirable, under 
American conditions, to teach agriculture directly in 
the primary and rural schools. But the sympathy in 
these schools should be in sympathy with agriculture, 
and of such a character as to incline the pupil coun- 
tryward rather than cityward. The revolution must 
come in the form of nature study. The work which 
is now in progress in nature study in Cornell Univer¬ 
sity (under the Nixon fund), if continued, may be de¬ 
pended upon, in my estimation, to solve this whole 
question of agricultural instruction in the common 
schools. Already, 23,000 teachers are voluntarily as¬ 
sociated with the work, and more than 16,000 children 
in New York State have asked for, and have received, 
instruction in garden making. There have been four 
great governmental movements looking towards agri¬ 
cultural enlightenment : the movement towards higher 
education, resulting in the establishment of agricul¬ 
tural colleges ; the movement for farmers’ institutes ; 
the movement for experiment stations ; the movement 
towards nature study. 
Schools on Farms.— The last great need is un¬ 
supplied to any practicable extent—the need of actual 
instruction in the best commercial farm practice. It 
is indisputable that the best place in which to secure 
such training, is on a good farm. In Europe, there 
are model farms, supported directly or indirectly by 
the public; but such farms cannot be ideal, actual, 
commercial institutions, and they are expensive. 
There are many actual farms in this and other States, 
which are model and typical. The owners are intel¬ 
ligent and broad-minded men. Boys could there re¬ 
ceive the best of practical instruction. My proposi¬ 
tion is, therefore, that the Government pay such 
farmers a given sum for every pupil outside their own 
families, which is received and instructed for a certain 
length of time. This payment should be in the nature 
of a small honorarium, hot of a salary, and its pur¬ 
pose should be to reimburse the farmer for the loss of 
time which such instruction shonld entail. The ad¬ 
ministration of this enterprise should be in the hands 
of a central bureau, intimately connected with agri¬ 
cultural and educational affairs. To this bureau, all 
farmers would apply who desire to take pupils, and 
the bureau should determine the fitness of such ap¬ 
plicants before pupils are allowed to become associated 
with them. Every good farmer would necessarily de¬ 
sire to be on the accepted list, and this fact would 
contribute powerfully to stimulate better farming. 
It would put a premium upon good farms. The best 
way in which to educate and improve the farmer is to 
have him attempt to teach farming. He must then 
have a reason for every opinion and every practice. 
In my opinion, this farm-training idea must be the 
next great movement in agricultural education. Its 
cost would be slight, and the results, both on farmers 
and pupils, would be beyond all calculation. 
A straw mulch in the apple orchard is not satis¬ 
factory. If practiced for several years, it brings the 
roots to the surface; a disadvantage in case of drought. 
A COMPARISON OF CHESTNUTS. 
PARAGON, COOPER, SCOTT, NUMBO, RIDGELY. 
One of our readers in Rockland County, N. Y., -wishes to know 
how the following varieties of chestnuts vary in size, quality and 
time of ripening: Paragon, Numbo, Cooper, Scott and Ridgely. 
We have fruited only two of the varieties named— 
Paragon and Numbo. They ripen at about the same 
time The Paragon is the more productive, and has 
no off years. With us, Numbo sometimes fails en¬ 
tirely. Last season, it did well, but the previous 
year our largest tree, about 20 feet high, had only 
one or two burrs, while the Paragon was too full. As 
to quality, we find Paragon a little sweeter, but not 
quite as fine-grained as Numbo. The latter is a more 
brilliant glossy nut than Paragon, but will not aver¬ 
age as large. h. m. engle & son. 
Pennsylvania. 
The Paragon and Numbo are of about the same size 
and general appearance, being about the size of the 
big foreign chestnuts seen on the street stands. In 
my opinion, the Paragon is the best in flavor of any 
of the varieties of the foreign types which are being 
offered to the public. It is, also, quite early, but not 
so early as some of the seedlings of the Japan type. 
It has the very good characteristic of opening all its 
burrs within a short time, which is of importance in 
reducing the cost of gathering the nuts. Ridgely is a 
large and profitable nut, but not so large or of as good 
quality as Paragon, so far as I have tested it. Cooper 
and Scott I have never tested. H. e. van deman. 
Virginia. 
I have neither Cooper nor Scott in my collection of 
bearing nuts. There is but little difference in time 
of ripening of the other three, neither have I noticed 
any material difference in quality. But they vary 
much in size and productiveness, and are quite distinct 
in form of burr and growth of tree. The Paragon is 
a robust, upright grower, very productive; the burrs 
usually have three large, perfect nuts, but occasion¬ 
ally have as many as seven. Numbo is a very shy 
bearer ; a great many of the burrs are not filled at all, 
besides it is a rare thing to find more than one perfect 
nut in any burr. The Ridgely is much more inclined 
to the drooping of its limbs. The nuts are not quite 
so large on an average, as either of the others, but it is 
much more prolific than Numbo. It usually has three 
nuts to the burr. They are all at least a month later 
than our earliest Japan varieties. J. w. killen. 
Delaware. 
Paragon.—Burrs of this variety are very large, quite 
flat on top, and usually contain three to five nuts, the 
quality of which is sweet and good, being fine-grained. 
It ripens here October 10 to 15. 
Numbo —Burrs medium in size, and pointed, and 
are readily distinguished from the Paragon or any 
other variety. Nuts medium to large, smooth, dark 
brown, pointed and of good quality. Ripens here 
October 5 to 10. 
Cooper.—Burrs medium to large, with long spines, 
nuts medium to large, smaller than Paragon, and run 
three to a burr, of dark, glossy brown color. Ripens 
here October 10 to 15. 
Scott.—This variety differs from the foregoing 
varieties in appearance of burr and nut. The burr is 
medium to large, spines very long and slender. Nut 
medium size, slightly pointed, glossy, dark mahogany 
color, with very little fuzz. Ripens here October 16 
to 25. 
Ridgeley.—Burr about like Scott, medium to large, 
densely covered with spines of medium length. Nut 
medium to large, though not so large as Paragon, 
color quite dark, quality excellent. Tree very pro¬ 
ductive. Ripens here October 10 to 15. wu. parry. 
New Jersey. _ 
LAW FOR DESTRUCTION OF FRUITS. 
The R. N.-Y. has been asked to advocate a law for 
New York State, giving inspectors the power to de¬ 
stroy all fruit infected with injurious insects or 
diseases. The advantages claimed for the law are 
that it would force fruit growers to destroy insect 
pests and diseases, in order to secure perfectly sound 
fruit. Prominent fruit growers throughout the State 
do not, apparently, favor the law. 
Mr. S. D. Willard says that he can see some advan¬ 
tages that would be derived from it, but he doubts 
whether public sentiment would insist upon its 
enforcement. He doubts whether it could be properly 
enforced. 
Prof. L. H. Bailey does not approve of such a meas¬ 
ure. He says that it could not be enforced thor¬ 
oughly, and would soon become practically a dead 
letter. Its advantage would be that it would educate 
the people to the necessity of using more care in 
packing fruit. His observation has been that such 
compulsory education by drastic means does not 
spread readily. It would be likely to awaken resent¬ 
ment and opposition. 
W. F. Taber thinks - the law would be too broad and 
sweeping, and that it would not be enforced. He 
thinks the Apple-scab fungus and the Codling moth 
are more destructive than the San Jos6 scale. How 
could such a law be applied to apple products in¬ 
jured by the Codling moth, for example? An apple 
may be wormy, yet be of value. He thinks that it 
has never been proved that the San Jos6 scale has 
been introduced on the fruit. He thinks the matter 
of selling inferior fruit will be settled by low prices, 
for as supplies increase, fruit injured by insects or 
uninjured can be sold at paying prices. 
T. B. Wilson does not think that the people would 
support such a law, although he would heartily favor 
it. When a law is passed condemning the sale of 
fruit infected with injurious insects or disease, it 
must include the common black spot or fungus on the 
Greening apple. To expel this from the market 
would work a great injury to many innocent farmers. 
These apples in the market will injure no one, but 
this is an instance of the difficulty of handling such a 
matter. _ 
CALIFORNIA SEED AND PLANT DISTRIBUTION 
THE OPINION OF SECRETARY WILSON. 
There has been some discussion as to the wisdom of the seed 
and plant distribution conducted by the California Experiment 
Station. Some of our station people take the ground that it is 
illegal for a station drawing funds from the Government to con¬ 
duct such distribution. On referring the matter to Hon. James 
Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, he sends us the following 
opinion: 
After the station has made experimental tests of 
rare varieties of plants, and found any which are 
deemed promising for California, notice is given that 
those who apply for seeds or cuttings of the plants 
can procure small quantities by paying postage or ex¬ 
press. The distribution thus carried on has, un¬ 
doubtedly, been a useful thing. Many of the stations 
supported in whole or in part by the Hatch fund are 
testing varieties, and making a limited distribution 
of seeds and cuttings. As long as this work is care¬ 
fully done and the distribution kept within the limits 
of an experimental test of the adaptability of particu¬ 
lar varieties to the region for which the station is 
working, there is no objection to it. The stations 
should not, however, be regarded as seed-distributing 
agencies, to which farmers may apply for seeds or 
plants which they may desire to try on their farms. 
The testing of varieties may easily be overdone by 
the stations. It is often difficult for a station to make 
satisfactory tests of any considerable number of varie¬ 
ties without so much trouble and expense as to pre¬ 
vent it from doing other more important work. The 
extent to which any station should engage in this 
work would depend upon its local environment, and 
the legitimate demands upon it for other kinds of 
work as related to the funds at its disposal for experi¬ 
mental purposes. 
WESTERN NEW YORK HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
Mr. Orr, of Canada, said that Apple canker is spreading from 
orchard to orchard, and is becoming very serious. 
Now they say is the time to spray for the leaf curl, and do it 
twice more before the buds burst. That is the talk we get from 
those who have safely fought the disease. 
M. V. Slingerland does not believe that the chances of spread¬ 
ing the San Jose scale on infested fruit, are one in 10,000. He 
thinks spraying will check, if not exterminate, the scale. 
Mr. T. B. Wilson, of Hall’s Corners, has noticed that, when a 
tree is propped to prevent the limbs breaking down, the wounds 
on the bark offer a favorable opening for the canker growth. 
The Newtown Pippin apple was once grown successfully in 
western New York; now it rarely thrives. The best Pippin 
growers in Virginia avoid limestone lands for an orchard site. 
Prop. S. A. Beach says that Bordeaux Mixture which will re¬ 
main in suspension for an hour without stirring, is the best. He 
would keep slaked lime and dissolved sulphate of copper in stock 
solutions, and mix as desired. 
What are known as “ two-storied ” apple trees are not wanted 
in western New York. Short-bodied and low-headed trees are 
not desirable. In the great Ozark regions, trees are headed low 
with a short body and dense head to prevent sun scald. 
W. N. Britton said, at the Western New York Horticultural 
meeting, that at the time of the Garden of Eden, there was one 
fine apple tree to every two people on the earth. That certainly 
exceeded the apple crop for 1896 per capita, but he doubted 
whether it really proved of any greater disappointment. 
Prof. Beach says that “sponge spots ” underneath the skin 
of the Baldwin apple is not a fungous trouble. It is as much a 
variety failing as water-core. It is found that individual trees 
will vary greatly in their susceptibility to sponge spot. Mr. Wil¬ 
lard said he had found that overgrown fruit is more likely to 
show the spot than normal specimens. 
The disease known as little peaches was reported by Mr. Robin¬ 
son, of Trumansburg. The fruit stops growing when about a 
month set, and the tree dies gradually. One western New York 
grower reported the disease 15 years ago, though it is generally 
a new thing to most growers. Mr. Morrill, of Michigan, says that 
it is confined in that State to a single township. It is as fatal 
and contagious as the peach yellows. The treatment is the same: 
Destroy the trees. Mr. Morrill spoke of gathering rotten or mum¬ 
mied peaches early in the morning while the dew is on, and boil¬ 
ing them in a cauldron. The object of the early picking is to 
prevent the spread of the germs. 
