622 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
SEPT. 20 
phragma hydrangeoides was flrst announced in this coun¬ 
try. As Mr. Falconer explains, it is in reality Hydrangea 
scandens. An instructive fact in connection with this 
plant is that it grows on the north side of the dwelling 
and not more than eight feet from it. Besides this close 
northern exposure, a Catalpa speciosa, 35 feet high, is 
within four feet and completely overshadows it. Never¬ 
theless, it grows vigorously and its leaves are as dark in 
color as if they were exposed to sunlight. Its exceeding 
value for such positions where few other desirable viuas 
will thrive, is apparent. It was planted at the base of an 
old apple-tree stump about five feet high and 18 inches in 
diameter. It long since took entire possession, striking its 
abundant aerial roots into the decaying wood so firmly 
that it is difficult to detach them without breaking oil 
parts of the wood itself as shown in Fig. 265. 
THE GREEN MOUNTAIN GRAPE. 
On September 6 we received specimen bunches of the very 
promising new white grape, Green Mountain. The pulp is 
tender, and nearly dissolving, the seeds parting readily. 
These are small, and one to three in number, rarely four. 
Tt is moderately sweet with enough acidity to make it 
agreeably sprightly. There is scarcely a trace of foxiness 
about it. The bunches are of medium size, always shoul¬ 
dered, generally on long stems. The berry is of medium 
size, green, yellowish-green when well exposed to the sun. 
The vines are healthy and strong-growing, the canes some¬ 
times making a growth of 15 feet or more. 
It was tried among 58 varieties at the New 
York Experiment Station, and it was re¬ 
ported as six days earlier than any of the 
others, and Moore’s Early and the Cham¬ 
pion, and, we think, the Jessica were in 
the collection. The specimen vine growing 
at the Rural Grounds was received not 
until late last fall, so that we are unable 
as yet to make any report beyond the fact 
that it has made a fair growth. 
“ EDUCATE THE MASSES.” 
WHY FARMERS ARE WAKING UP. 
I am glad to see The Rural take the bold 
stand it does in behalf of the farmers, 
producers and laborers. Keep it up. To 
“ educate the masses ” is our only salva¬ 
tion ; for it can be plainly seen that money 
rules and man serves, and that political 
campaigns are gambling matches, while 
millions stimulated by false issues rush to 
the polls and vote to rivet the fetters al¬ 
ready on them. The government is now 
one of a class, by a class and for a class— 
and that class is a very small per cent, of 
the people. It must be changed to “a 
government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people.” What we demand 
for the farmer, producer and laborer is 
justice, not charity. When we get justice 
we will not need charity. To organize is 
our salvation. Relief can come in no other 
way. The history of the past proves this 
assertion to be true. The Whig and the 
Democratic parties in the past were both 
for slavery. A new party was necessary to 
abolish this curse. The two old parties 
now in power will not change the laws they 
have enacted. No matter which is in power, 
those same class laws will continue. I 
would like to have a man point out an issue 
between a Democratic bond-holder and a 
Republican bond holder or between a 
national-banker Republican and a national- 
banker Democrat. I will not find fault 
with the men as individuals, but I do find 
fault with the class laws that gave them 
the unfair advantages they have. Money, 
railroads, telegraphs, lands, national banks, 
public debts, coal mines, oil wells, gold 
mines, silver mines—all these are run in 
the interest of a class. It should not be so. They all, and, 
in fact, everything as far as possible should be run in the 
interest and for the benefit of the people. The United States 
postal service shows us how nicely things can be run for our 
advantage. That system cannot be right which gives the 
profits of industry to the few and compels the many to live 
in penury and servitude. I believe it to be a conceded fact 
that among the class of men who have become wealthy, 
the greater their wealth the more have they taxed the bone 
and sinew of the laborer; for labor is the foundation of all 
wealth. No man can honestly become possessed of great 
wealth by his own labor. We make laws for the rich man 
to make it appear that his vast wealth has been rightfully 
accumulated. But in the light of morality and justice 
his possession of it is about on a par with the condition of 
a traveling vagrant who has a fine horse and buggy and a 
gold watch. The public are suspicious of the fellow and 
have him arrested, and taken before the proper officer, and 
being unable to explain satisfactorily how he came in 
possession of such property, he is taken to jail, and the 
property is held for identification by the real owner, 
who, it is hoped, will soon put in an appearance and claim 
what belongs to him. The above is a straightforward, 
common-sense way in which the authorities dispose of 
petty thieves. Now suppose we deal with men holding 
high positions in the same manner; let us haul up the 
bond thieves, the monopoly thieves, the watered-stock 
railroad thieves; in fact, all who have become millionaires 
by accumulating the hard earnings of other people. The 
very fact that a man in a single generation can accumulate 
such fortunes is vrlma facie evidence that he did not get 
it honestly. Of course we should give those men with 
great fortunes a chance to explain from whom and how 
they got their great wealth. If they got money honestly 
they can show it. If not, let them take the consequences of 
their acts just as the vagrant thief has to do. Then let 
the authorities seize the stolen plunder and invite 
the people to come in and prove ownership and take 
it away; for what is good for a little thief ought 
to be equally good for a big one. There should be 
no discrimination. Yes, educate the people to keep up 
with the times. Tell them who destroyed the national 
fractional currency that was made for the people; tell 
them who made government bonds, so that national banks 
could exist and draw interest on the bonds and on the 
money that the government issues on them with which to 
run the banks, thus enabling them to draw interest in two 
ways, while the bonds are exempt from taxation—tell 
them that no other nation has ever tolerated so monstrous 
a swindle. Tell them how much of the people’s govern¬ 
ment land has been given to rail road corporations. Tell 
them how much government land is now owned by non¬ 
resident foreign capitalists, which means an oppression as 
great as that practiced in Ireland, for tenant farmers are 
substantially slaves. Tell them who have been doing all 
these things, and who are benefited by them—the masses 
or the classes ? Let the people bestir themselves and see 
for themselves, and instead of voting for politicians, let 
them choose men of their own calling who will advance 
their interests. o. h. smith. 
HYDRANGEA. STEM SECTION. From Nature. 
“IF I COULD BE YOUNG AGAIN!” 
Advantages of a Thorough Education. 
W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
President of the Iowa Agricultural College, -practical 
farmer, former Secretary of the Ohio State 
Board of Agriculture. 
At the suggestion of a correspondent the editor has 
asked “some of the older farmers” to answer the above 
question, and try to tell farm boys and young men “ how 
in the light of present experience and observation we 
would go to work to make good farmers of ourselves,” 
with the opportunities the young man of to-day has. 
First, then, I would, if possible, get a thoroughly good 
education for the farm. Does education pay ? Yes, al¬ 
ways, if of the right sort for the work in hand. Says Addi¬ 
son : “ What sculpture is to a block of marble, education 
is to a human soul.” Sculpture takes the rough, unshapely 
block, scarcely worth a dollar a ton, and makes it worth 
its weight in silver dollars, fashioned by a master into the 
statue of Jupiter or Venus. It is now educated marble. 
What is educated iron worth ? To get the exact facts I 
wrote to one of the best jewelers in Des Moines, asking 
two questions. His letter answers them as follows : “ We 
charge $1.50 for a correct grade of hair spring fitted to a 
first-class, American-made, watch movement. On an 
average, six hair-springs weigh one grain, troy.” Well, 
7,000 grains, troy, make a pound avoirdupois, and at $9 per 
grain hair springs are, therefore, worth $63,000 per pound, 
avoirdupois, or $126,000,000 per ton. The iron ore at the 
mine, undug, is worth perhaps $1 per tou. The 126,- 
000,000 per cent, increase is the margin of education. For 
this is education, literal and exact; “ drawing out,” de¬ 
veloping what is potentially in the raw material. The 
colt, Axtell, sold from his breeder’s hands at $105,000. 
Maud S trotted in 2:08, and was worth about as much as 
Axtell. Both were fine specimens of educated horse-flesh 
and spirit. Note, too, that what was born in them was de¬ 
veloped, and was developed for its best use. Their breed¬ 
ers and trainers (teachers) did not try to build the massive 
draft horse upon the slender, nervous organism of the 
racer. 
Education always pays—of dead material, as in the hair¬ 
spring ; of muscle, as in Axtell; of human hand and 
eye, as in some great sculptor, painter, architect or in¬ 
ventor; of human mind and soul, as in a Webster or a 
Garfield ; and human education pays best of all, since 
human hand and eye are the most wonderful of God’s 
material creations, and the child’s mind and soul the most 
precious of His unpolished jewels. Education pays as 
surely as it pays to develop and use any fit material; 
to temper steel, spin wool, weave silk, polish ma¬ 
hogany, or cut a diamond to its proper facets. It 
pays if you chowe fit material and fashion it with 
skill to its proper use. You cannot form the hair-spring 
from tin or copper by any skill, or even from iron 
ore, unless by the greatest skill and toil you shape and 
temper it. You may not make the best farmer from 
the born mechanic or inventor, or even from the boy that 
is born with farm instincts, unless you give the sort of 
education calculated to develop such in¬ 
stincts in the right direction. 
So fully were my own parents impressed 
with the great value of a good education, 
that even in comparative poverty they 
helped all their children to gain one. So 
fully have myself and wife been impressed 
with the same, that, even at the cost of 
remaining in debt 25 long years, we have 
never kept a child out of school or college 
in term time for mere work. And it has 
paid. Our daughter, two years from col¬ 
lege graduation, earns $1,000 per year as a 
high school teacher. Without education 
she would probably be earning a quarter as 
much as shop or kitchen girl, and with not 
nearly so much rational enjoyment, or 
helpful service to others. One son, a year 
from graduation in our college, with natural 
tastes all in the mechanical lines, already 
earns almost as much in a great architect’s 
office, where he is sure to gain in knowl¬ 
edge, skill, and power of enjoyment to serve 
mankind. It would have been a misfit to 
try to make a farmer of him. Another 
son, also almost through our agricultural 
college, is looking towards agriculture and 
agricultural science; while another still 
younger seems to have both agricultural 
and mechanical tastes, and in this “ Agri¬ 
cultural and Mechanical College” will have 
a chance to see which is the stronger bent. 
This much I have said on the value of an 
education, in hopes of inspiring parents 
with a desire to educate their children, and 
children with a desire to educate them¬ 
selves. And so all through this paper I 
would talk to both parents and their sons, 
and the burden of what I say will be this : 
“ Good education always pays, if it be ad¬ 
apted to the person and the work he has in 
view.” My own education in a classical 
college was not of the best sort to make a 
farmer. That was not what my parents 
iutended me to be. Ill-health made me a 
farmer, and farming gave me good health 
again. But even that education I was con¬ 
scious gave me great help; and yet I often 
wished that I could exchange two years of 
Latin, Greek, and philosophy for two years 
of chemical, botanical, entomological, and 
veterinary science, taught as they are now 
taught in our agricultural colleges. 
I wish parents would stop to think how great is the 
economy of nature with reference to the child. When his 
little body is worth least for work, his mind is really 
worth most for learning. The little child’s power of 
acquiring through the senses and retaining in memory is 
simply amazing. Think of the task of learning at least 
10,000 words by sight and sound, so as to know them and 
their meanings when spoken, written, and printed, and 
how to write and spell and speak them all promptly and 
intelligently. It is a giant task, and yet it is the very 
first step of learning; the foundation without which the 
superstructure is impossible. The time when children can 
best learn is when they are worth least on the farm. It is 
a fearful wrong for parents to keep children from five to 
12 years old at home from school for work, except from 
sheer n cessity. They should have at least nine months 
in school each year, and be encouraged to read much of 
interesting books and papers at home, until the reading 
of common books and papers ceases to be any conscious 
mental eilort. Till then the child hobbles helplessly on 
crutches. After that he can run with alacrity. 
The next giant task is to get the fundamental rules of 
arithmetic, especially the multiplication table thoroughly. 
But this, with fractious and decimals and proportion, 
must be conquered once and forever. Great facility, 
rapidity and accuracy should be sought In these essentials, 
and less time be devoted to the countless non-essentials. I 
have little patience with spending eight years on four 
grades of arithmetic. The essentials in an ordinary 
"Third Part” or “Practical” arithmetic, not too dif¬ 
ficult, are enough, and then algebra gives a far better and 
Fig. 266. 
