The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-01-10
Editorial NOtings.

Editorial Notings.
THE Homestead is good paper; but,
like others, it makes mistake occasion
ally, and never a greater one than in say
ing: "The Baldwin, the big red apple,
is as hardy as any variety in New
England" On the contrary, it is one
of the very tenderest of all our vari-
cites; and in nine-tenths of New Eng
land it cannot be grown successfully
as a market fruit. In all of Vermont,
except the Champlain valley (where it
is short lived); in all of Maine, except
a small part Of the southwest corner, as
far east as the Kennebec river; in all
but the southern fourth of New Hamp-
shire,-the Baldwin is a commercial
failure. The Homestead prints this
gross error as part of the "pith " of
what was said at recent meeting of
the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture;
but it should have corrected so great
mistake. The trouble appears to be that
Massachusetts, people have fixed idea
that the Bay State is all there is of New
England. They don't seem to have any
good map of it in their schools, or their
newspaper offices. But most of the
true.blue Yankees of New England are
outside of Massachusetts.
The Davenport Qowa) Democrat
truthfully says that "the primary
teacher is the greatest civilizer of the
age. She takes the youngster when
he is fiery, untamed little savage,
restless with the instinct of conquest
and destruction and bent only on
good time, and, in the course of few
weeks or months, she makes out of him
something approaching a true man.
She starts him on the road to manhood.
When his father and mother forsake
him in despair of ever being able to
make good boy out of him, then the
gentle primary teacher takes him up
and she works wonders"
CONSIDERING the chances they have,
and the pay they get, the primary
teachers do all that ought to be ex-
pected from them, and more. But this
does not counterbalance the fact that
we do not pay our primary teachers
enough to justify suitable prepare
ton on their part The result is that,
even here in our boosted New England,
far too large percentage of our
native-born Americans, male and fe-
male, cannot write letter that they are
not ashamed to have seen by others
than their own immediate relatives and
friends. We are persuaded that this is
the cause why so many who have large
practical experience and sound good
sense do not write more for the agricul-
tural press. Their experience is of
great value, and they can tell it with
ease and fuency; but when it comes to
putting it upon paper, they are reluc-
tant to do so. Now it seems to us that
this very fact, which all must admit,
ought to stimulate our people to i'm
prove their schools, and see that their
children are not subjected to that NOR
LITIGATION which they feel themselves so
strongly. 1t is true that we must pay
for it,-but it is richly worth all it will
cost. We are ourself of the old Yankee
pre-revolutionary stock; but we have to
confess the fear that this old Yankee
stock is in danger of running OUT
mostly on account of small families and
Indifference to sound education. There
is decided probability that the future
population of New England will be
mainly of Celtic blood. Already, our
bright Yankee boys are seeking wives
in that direction; and were it not for
the differences in religion, it would be
amuch more frequent occurrence. The
great preventive, surely, will be found in
schools which cost more, and give bet
ter instruction. We have not the
slightest prejudice against our neigh
bors of other nativity. We like to see
them thriving and happy under Amer
lean institutions, for it proves the value
of such institutions. But we must
work, and work hard, to maintain for
ourselves and our posterity the prin-
ciples of our fathers-one of the most
vital of which is free education.
BUT our education ought to be some
thing more than intellectual. In addi-
ton it should be character-building in
its effect. A taste for good reading is
not hard to form in the young; and
when once it is formed, it is one of the
greatest of moral safeguards. A boy
who loves good reading is not easily
enticed from his home into the street 4.