1910. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
091 
THE RURAL EDUCATION QUESTION. 
Part III. 
To all who have the interests of the rising genera¬ 
tion at heart it is extremely depressing to note what 
a large proportion of our boys and girls look on 
school work with indifference, or as drudgery to be 
avoided, with the result that they pass out of school 
and have not mastered the art of reading so as to 
enjoy the open page; cannot write except in the slow 
cramped and painful movement of the “copy-book 
hand,” and their muddled acquirements in arithmetic 
fade until nothing remains clear but the four simple 
elementary operations, and often not even that. Can 
it be possible that such a large proportion of our 
boys and girls are born blockheads, or are the meth¬ 
ods of the school responsible for making them such? 
Most probably the latter supposition is nearest the 
truth. At any rate Cecil Rhodes’ pathetic last words: 
“So much to do. So little done,” is tragically appli¬ 
cable to the work of our rural schools. And the pity 
of it is that so little is accomplished largely because 
so much is attempted and little or nothing done 
thoroughly. In this relation it is not so much the 
capacity of the pupils that is overtaxed as it is the 
impossible and in a large measure useless work that 
is expected of and attempted by the teachers in the 
average ungraded country schools. Think of crowd¬ 
ing between 30 and 40 recitation periods into the 
short five and one-half hours that constitute 
the actual school day, and it is apparent that 
it means keeping school, not teaching school. 
And why is such an absurd system of schooling 
kept up ? Largely because of the world-wide 
difficulty to distinguish clearly between essen¬ 
tials and non-essentials, but still more largely 
because of the popular demand that the chil¬ 
dren be led through the “Wilderness of Text¬ 
book” as rapidly as possible, that being widely 
accepted as unmistakable evidence of progress. 
Where the centralized school is established it 
will greatly relieve conditions, but there are 
many sections where schools are not likely to 
be centralized for a long time to come, and 
for such it would seem that the sensible thing 
to do would be to concentrate effort on the 
thorough teaching of the fundamental 
branches, reading, writing and arithmetic, with 
auxiliary branches like history and geography 
brought in by way of supplementary reading, 
and with comparatively long periods daily, or 
if necessary, but two or three times per week 
devoted to each branch, with the whole school 
from little tots up, resolved into a class of the 
whole. In this way the essentials of history, 
geography, physiology, civil government and 
other important subjects of interest commonly 
embraced under the designation of nature 
studies, and which necessarily includes much 
related to agriculture, could be taught and 
learned with much less effort and in a small 
fraction of the time usually devoted to these 
studies. 
One more phase of the influence of the pres¬ 
ent standards of our schools, great and small 
alike, is worthy of thoughtful attention. “Bob” 
Burdette, in his earlier capacity as a humorist, 
in beginning a lecture before a graduating 
class of a famous college, summed up the 
trend of this influence by saying: “Young 
gentlemen, I am sorry for you; I am pro¬ 
foundly sorry for you, for you know more to-night 
than you will ever know again.” There is that in 
the methods of instruction, system of examinations, 
the expression of certificates and diplomas and es¬ 
pecially the usual tone of commencement •exercises, 
that are disposed to give the student the self-satisfied 
air of one who has ransacked the store-house of 
knowledge and carried away everything worth his 
while. The general attitude reminds one of the 
incident of the little tot of four who was observed 
laboriously spelling out in her primer c-a-t, cat, m-a-t, 
mat, r-a-t, rat, and then leaning back in her little 
chair murmured impressively, “My, how much me 
know.” And right here is the point where err both 
the advocates of vocational training and the advo¬ 
cates of learning for culture’s sake, in that they would 
aim to make the work of the school sufficient and 
complete in itself. That is, they regard the school 
as a place in which to learn rather than a place in 
which to learn how to learn. Better equipped for 
practical life is the boy who leaves the district school 
fairly grounded in the rudiments of education, and 
skill in their use, together with a thirst for knowl¬ 
edge that will make him a student for life, than is the 
graduate of the best college in the land if he goes 
out into the world feeling that his education is com¬ 
plete. The aim of our rural schools should be to teach 
the pupils how to learn. 
Florida. D. l. hartman. 
PRODUCING A BLIGHT-PROOF POTATO. 
Crossing With Non-tuberous Solanums. 
Permit me to make a few comments on L. B. Sur- 
dam’s article on seed potatoes, page 491. His closing 
remarks are the most galling that could be expressed 
concerning the blight-proof potatoes. Because he is 
not the possessor of any approaching that degree of 
perfection is no reason why men as honest and truth¬ 
ful as lie, and possessed of the necessary scientific 
and practical knowledge, should not succeed. I ven¬ 
ture the guess he will never, according to his sys¬ 
tem of producing seedlings, have a blight-proof potato. 
The potato as we know it now is a tuberous-rooted 
plant, having been entirely changed in its nature, so 
that in this climate it rarely sets perfect seeds except 
by hand pollination, and not always then, simply be¬ 
cause the pollen sac or anther has become so tough 
that the pollen masses in their expansion cannot rup¬ 
ture the anther, and so liberate the pollen to fall on 
the pistil. Indeed, the potato bug must get the credit 
of fertilizing Mr. Surdam’s potatoes. I do not re¬ 
member ever seeing a bee working on potato blos¬ 
soms, although they do have a nectary or honey cup. 
Neither can planting in alternate rows with different 
varieties be of any good, as the pollen masses are 
of an oily heavy nature, and could hardly be carried 
by the wind like fruit pollen. Mr. Surdam must 
have inferred that, as the pistillate varieties of straw- 
A CHINESE HOEMAN AT WORK. Fig. 291. 
I have imported English varieties of potatoes they 
were a failure, but the seedlings are wonders, good 
proof that potatoes of the same varieties are not 
equally good the world over, and have to be raised 
from seeds, 16 years being the limit of its profitable¬ 
ness. Referring to Mr. Surdam’s article on the re¬ 
turns from one pound of seed, when the Early Rose 
was introduced one pound was purchased for $5 by a 
nurseryman here who raised 50 bushels the first sea¬ 
son. Do you know how it is done? Please tell us. 
Ontario Co., N. Y. duncan rhind. 
Remarks by Dr. Van Fleet. 
Few plant breeders are willing to admit the possi¬ 
bility of hybridizing the potato with non-tuberous 
Solanums, and the progeny if such crosses could be 
effected would not necessarily be blight-resistant. 
The potato is not an easy subject for artificial pol¬ 
lination, and the few authentic crosses that have been 
made are between closely related races that might 
properly all be included in the species-type known as 
Solanum tuberosum. Seedling potatoes that resist 
blight well and grow haulms or vines six feet long are 
not very uncommon. The late E. S. Carman, origi¬ 
nator of the Rural New-Yorker, Sir Walter Raleigh 
and other highly successful varieties, grew a number 
of them, but such rank growers seldom turn out of 
value. A good blight-proof potato is highly desirable. 
Many have worked for it, and many still persevere. 
No matter how it is bred or where it comes 
from it will heartily be welcomed. Pollen is 
scantily produced by most commercial pota¬ 
toes, but some is occasionally liberated under 
ordinary field conditions and may be carried 
to the receptive stigmas of nearby varieties by 
quite a number of insects other than bees. 
Potato blooms, though not frequented by 
honey-gathering insects are commonly infested, 
like those of the pepper, tomato and eggplant, 
by minute pollen-carrying thrips that may oc¬ 
casionally visit blooms of neighboring varieties 
and thus effect a cross. Wind scarcely plays 
an appreciable part in cross-pollinating Sola¬ 
nums, as they are essentially constructed for 
close or self-pollination. 
Excessive potato yields, like the 50 pounds 
of Early Rose grown from one pound of seed 
tubers, are usually the result of intensive cul¬ 
ture—the slipping of sprouts from the seed 
tubers in the manner of sweet potatoes as long 
as they appear and separately planting them in 
hills of highly fertilized soil that receives pre¬ 
ferred attention throughout the growing sea¬ 
son. Astonishing yields, as a result of this 
treatment have been recorded, but it is not 
good for the variety, and is only justifiable 
when it appears necessary quickly to increase 
some scarce kind. w. v. F. 
A CHINESE HOE FOR CULTIVATING. Fig. 292. 
berries were fertilized by the perfect or staminate by 
the system of alternate rowing, it would be the 
proper course to pursue, which his acknowledged fail¬ 
ures go to prove. Like another man whom we all 
know, he holds the scientist with contempt, and his 
efforts up to ridicule. However I would wish to 
write encouragingly to every man engaged in this 
line. There is room for very worker, though the 
work is arduous and the reward too often meagre. 
The potato is Solanum tuberosum, and can be 
crossed with other Solanums whose pollen grains are 
not too large. I therefore choose for the male parent 
a common wild Solanum that never blights, and after 
five years of effort was fortunate in getting one seed 
ball which produced 16 plants (the seed-bearing 
parent being Rural New-Yorker), all varying in their 
manner of growth or tubers. Some vines grew six 
feet long without a branch. They were all discarded 
but two. One of them continued green till frost came 
and does so for five years, planted when late potatoes 
are generally planted. It is the best late potato that 
I know of, floury and good till new potatoes are 
ready with us. Now, here is a large, late, white, 
oval, shallow eye, floury (tough-skinned, so it keeps 
well) potato, and blight-resistant, which really was 
the object of the hybridizing. I have crossed some 
seedlings from Great Britain with this potato’s pollen, 
and got some seedlings growing; the object is an 
early blight-resisting potato. Here I will state though 
THE FEE FOR SELLING FARMS. 
What Is Common Usage? 
daga County, during the month of June, 1909, 
an action was on trial between a real estate 
agent and a farm owner, in which the agent 
was seeking to recover a commission for pro¬ 
curing a purchaser for a farm. When the attor¬ 
ney for the agent offered evidence to show that 
five per cent was the regular and customary fee 
for such services, the trial judge said it 
would be unnecessary for the plaintiff to prove such 
fact, as it was the usual fee and if it were satisfactor¬ 
ily shown that a contract existed between the farm 
owner and the agent with no special agreement as to 
the amount of commissions which were to be paid, 
then it would be presumed that the rate was to be 
five per cent and the jury would be instructed to find 
in that amount if they found for the plaintiff and that 
no rate had been stipulated. I write to call this to the 
attention of the agricultural interests, as I believe that 
the rate of five per cent is not at the present time enti¬ 
tled to be considered as the fixed and customary fee 
in such cases and even further, it may not be the 
equitable fee in most or many cases. Perhaps this 
subject would interest the readers of The R. N.-Y. 
if discussed by its legal correspondent, and a general 
discussion by interested readers might be enlightening 
to all, and perhaps united action might have some in¬ 
fluence in fixing or modifying the custom in this 
respect. j. s. 
R. N.-Y.—What is the customary rate charged in 
your section? We would like the records of actual 
sales. _ 
Though the old farm may be wet—there is sunshine 
coming yet. 
“Fertilizing scale poison” is the latest. It comes in 
capsules and you are to “inject" it under the bark of the 
tree. These humbugs not only die hard, but they fatten 
on death blows. 
