beds, cold frames, seed beds, etc. Then | follows the seeding, transplanting, pruning of trees, etc. During the summer months the growth and development of trees is slowly watched, and in case of need assisted by proper methods of culture. Especial care is bestowed upon the extirpation of all insects and parasites injurious to plants and trees. When the crops are ripe instruction is given on harvesting and preserving them during the winter. When the season is so far advanced as to exclude outside operations the winter course of instruction begins, treating on the management of farm animals, and all topics which have to be understood in order to be well prepared for next year's work. At the same time tools and implements are looked after, sashes and frames of hotbeds repaired, and the construction and use of the various implements explained.

Pupils thus instructed in nature's most wonderful workings become much more interested in the farmer's occupation, and, therefore, are much more inclined to adopt it. Experience in Europe has shown that children educated in public schools, with school gardens, retain for all time to come, even when embracing city vocations, an indelible taste for rural life and a predilection for plants and trees. There is no need for instituting "Arbor day" services in order to inculcate upon the younger generation the necessity of properly preserving the forests.

We

After having been convinced that agricultural instruction in our rural public schools would be highly beneficial, the question arises, How shall it be instituted? The French Act has only in view, "to supplement the work of the Agricultural Colleges." I do not deem this to be the right thing for us. have to draw from our rural public schools not only the future farmers, but also men prepared to enter every avenue of business and public life; and therefore the better general education of children in the rural public school should not be allowed to suffer by the introduction of agricultural instruction.

Professor Groff advises that the students of the normal schools (our future teachers in the public schools) should be instructed in the elements of agricultural science. This should be done at once. But the establishment of a school garden requires the employment of a gardener,

and an intelligent one at that, for several years to come. Such a man would be the proper person to initiate the pupils in the elements of practical gardening. Later on the position of instructor could be taken by the regular teachers, after they had been fully prepared for the work in the Normal Schools.-New York Independent.

POLLUTION OF PENNSYLVANIA WATERS.

FRO

BY HENRY C. FORD.

ROM the time when the Roman poet indited his famous ode to the Bandusian fountain, the praise of pure water has been the theme, not only of the admirers of nature, but more practically of those humanitarians and reformers who have at heart the good of mankind.

Those of my fellow Pennsylvanians who have floated as if in air over the Silver Spring of Florida, where the smallest object can be seen at a depth of eighty feet, or who have sailed on the crystalline waters of Lake Superior, must have been often saddened to think how the once clear rivers of their native State have become turbid and foul with the sewage of cities, the refuse of factories and sulphurous contamination of the mines, until those waters, once prolific in fish food, have in this respect become practically a desert, destructive to all animal and a menace to human life. To-day the Schuylkill above Reading is comparatively destitute of fish. tively destitute of fish. They cannot live in the sulphur water that is constantly pouring from the mines, and which has destroyed not only the fish, but the crustaceans and other food on which they fed.

Though the sulphur water below Reading is partially eliminated by its passage over the limestone bed of the river, the constant washing of culm is fast covering the bed rock of the river with a black mud of putty-like consistence that stirred up by heavy freshets gives the water an inky hue as far down as Philadelphia. This with the sewage of twenty towns, the refuse of large manufactories, the washings from farm lands, and the dye stuffs from the great mills along the river, has transformed the Schuylkill into a huge sewer, the water from which has not only proved destructive to all ichthy

ological experiment, but has probably given Philadelphia the greatest mortality from epidemic diseases of any city in the Union.

The Lehigh, another river subject to the inpouring of mine water, and the deposits of acids and refuse from an immense number of factories, is, if possible, in still worse plight than the Schuylkill, for from repeated experiments in fish planting, it seems that it is impossible for varieties transplanted from purer water to thrive therein.

The North Branch of the Susquehanna, with its largest tributary the Chemung, flowing from New York State through wide valleys of farm land, is more subject to inundating freshets than the West Branch, whose rainfall is better protected on the slopes of the Alleghanies by forests, that though considerably denuded still interpose somewhat to prevent a too sudden rush of waters from its tributaries into the main stream. The open character of the river below the junction of the two branches, its flow over rocky ledges, and its comparative shallowness, by providing a constant aeration of the water insures a purity of its constituent parts that is beneficial to the fish life contained therin. And yet this purity is becoming a thing of the past. The constant washing of culm as far up as the Nanticoke district, and which is continued below Sunbury in the steams running into the river from the Shamokin and Lykens Valley districts, together with the mine water discharged from these districts, has covered the bed of the river with coal detritus, and has filled it with sulphur water alike detrimental to fish and animal life.

At the mouth of the Juniata for twothirds of the distance across the Susquehanna the water is clear and sparkling, the home of countless numbers of black bass and wall-eyed pike. For one-third of the distance from the eastern shore the water is of a milky character, strongly impregnated with sulphur, in which the angler will find no fish and which cattle refuse to drink. Its influence is felt below Harrisburg, and at times contaminates the water supply of that city.

The Delaware above its junction with the Lehigh probably contains the purest water of any large river in the State. Rising among the wooded spurs of the Catskills and running through a mountainous region, comparatively well wooded, its tributaries cold spring

streams breaking through the mountains and traversing a country so rugged that but little farm land lies along them, the river is so cold and pure that trout are caught in it one hundred and fifty miles below its source.

Above all, there is but one town of any size above Easton that discharges its sewage into the river-Port Jervis, New York, a city of ten or twelve thousand inhabitants. With a stream of such purity, the natural water supply of a large city, it seems almost criminal that Philadelphia should seek its supply from the Schuylkill when it could take the Delaware above Easton. This river has yielded the best results of any in the State to the efforts of the Commissioners of Fisheries. The black bass are most numerous in the upper river. The stocking with wall-eyed pike or Susquehanna salmon has been signally successful, as also its annual planting with shad fry, with the successful introduction of the rock bass, white bass, calico bass and Atlantic salmon.

It is perhaps unfortunate that the preservation of the purity of the Delaware's head waters is beyond the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania, and must measurably depend upon the co-operation of the Forestry Commission of New York; though as it flows for nearly two hundred miles through the wooded highlands of Pennsylvania, our own Forestry Commission could ably supplement their work by preserving the forests along its banks, and on its upper Pennsylvania tributaries, the Bushkill, Lackawaxen, Shohola Equinunk.

New York also controls the upper waters of the North Branch of the Susquehanna, and partially of the Allegheny. The head waters of the West Branch are entirely in the mountain regions of our own State. There are two causes that have probably done more to deplete our mountain streams of fish than any other. One of these is the running of saw-dust into the streams. This, packing on the bottom, ferments, and destroys not only the deposited ova of the fish, but also kills the different crustacea on which they feed. The other cause is the emptying of the piosonous refuse from tanneries. This kills all fish within its reach, and is little different from liming a

stream.

There is a trout stream in Northeastern Pennsylvania that years ago was one

Journal, who are disposed to regard such a law as harsh, but it is just the opposite. Carried out it will have a very beneficial effect. Such a law ought to be passed in every State. It does not interfere with anybody's liberty, and it will be the salvation of many children. Right here in Pottsville a law of that kind would work a reform. Scarcely a night passes that there are not hundreds of children on the streets when they ought to be at home under the parent's eye. If you doubt If you doubt this assertion, stand on any street any evening and you will get all the proof you want. Hundreds of children under ten years of age throng the streets with no apparent object, with no business to take them there-only a wild desire for excitement and to get away from home restraint.

THE National Educational Association will hold its next annual meeting at Asbury Park, New Jersey, July 6th to 13th, both inclusive. Asbury Park and Ocean Grove have the same railroad station. They are separated by a small sheet of water known as Wesley Lake. The place is one of the most popular and most attractive on the coast. We have been going there every summer for the past twenty-one years, and hope to continue our visits for years to come. Its hotel and boarding-house accommodations are ample to meet all demands upon them. All members of the Association are promised half-rates at hotels on presentation of their certificates of membership during the meeting. A half-rate fare, plus the $2.00 membership fee, is allowed by the railroads, except from points within a hundred miles of Asbury Park, where cheap summer excursion rates are available. The tickets will be good to return until September 1st, if deposited with the Railway Joint Agent at Asbury Park during the meeting. Asbury Park is about forty miles from New York city. For Official Bulletin containing programme of the meeting, and full information regarding hotel charges and railway rates and routes, address the Secretary of the Local Committee, Mr. S. Sherin, Asbury Park, New Jersey.

GOVERNOR PATTISON has appointed a committee consisting of Secretary Edge, of the State Board of Agriculture; Hon. Eckley B. Coxe, of the Geological Survey Commission; Dr. J. T. Rothrock, of

the State Forestry Commission; Dr. Benjamin F. Lee, Secretary of the State Board of Health, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Schaeffer, to take into consideration the interests of the departments which they represent in the question of forestry in the State, and to present to a conference of the various officers of the State Boards of the Commonwealth to be held in October a detailed report showing the condensed views of the committee on this question. It is intended that the report shall form the basis of a proposition to be presented to the next Legislature, which shall have for its primary object the creation of a law relating to the better care of the timber lands of the State.

A BILL has recently been signed by Governor Flower, of New York, which enables the board of education of the city of New York to retire on half-pay male and female teachers in the public schools of that city who have completed, respectively, thirty-five and thirty years of service as teachers.

Of all the arts of modern civilization, there is none more conducive to health and sobriety than that of good cooking. Our text-books on Physiology and Hygiene, occupying so much of a pupil's time and attention wherever the law in regard to instruction in this branch is faithfully observed, should contain a fuller statement of the principles which should guide the housewife in the preparation of meals for her family. Ill-cooked food begets dyspepsia, and uneasiness or distress in the stomach leads to the use of stimulants and narcotics, thus not infrequently defeating the very purpose for which the W. C. T. U. secured the passage of the Act requiring instruction in physiology and hygiene with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants and narcotics upon the human system.

THE annual catalogue of The Pennsylvania State College, now being distributed throughout the State to persons desiring it, is an interesting publication of about two hundred pages. The institution exists under the appropriations made by the National government to the several states and under the liberal grants of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The catalogue shows a prosperous year and a

the past few years, along industrial lines. There are 316 students in attendance this year, pursuing eleven different courses; nine technical (scientific) and two general. Electrical Engineering attracts the largest number of students; Mechanical Engineering comes next, closely followed by Civil and Mining Engineering. Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Agriculture are also well represented. A number of graduate students are doing work along electrical and mechanical lines. There are forty-one in the corps of instructors. Courses in Mining Engineering and higher mathematics have been added during the past year. Full directions for preparing for admission to the college show that a good standard is maintained. Examinations for entrance are announced to be held in the leading cities of the State about August 27th.

"WILL you wholly abstain from the use of tobacco?" was the question which Bishop Andrews addressed to each candidate for the ministry who appeared before him at the Methodist Episcopal Conference that has been in session in New

York for a week past. "I will," was the reply of each of the candidates. The Methodist is said to be the only denomination that exacts this pledge.

Ar the spring meeting of the Montgomery School Directors' Association in Norristown the following, offered by Mr. Wm. McDermott, was adopted:

Resolved, That the Directors' Association of Montgomery county would recommend that the question of politics shall not, under any consideration, be made a test in the election of School Directors; and we further recommend the selection of ladies for the office of School Directors where ladies are found well qualified for such duties.

Mr. McDermott in offering the resolution advocated the election of School Directors by the popular vote of the district, and not by wards, as at present. A committee, consisting of Co. Supt. Hoffecker and the Borough Superintendent, was appointed to memoralize the next State Legislature to enact legislation for distributing the State appropriation, first, as at present, among counties on the basis of the number of taxables, and second, among the districts of each county on the basis of the number of school months, obtained by multiplying the number of

ber of teachers employed. The association elected the following officers: President, James Sexton, Vice-Presidents, W. W. Potts and E. E. Quimby; Treasurer, R. F. Hoffecker; Secretary, F. W. Lockwood.

In his recent work on "American History from an English standpoint," Prof. Goldwin Smith bestows this unstinted and heart-felt praise upon President Lincoln. "Abraham Lincoln is assuredly one of the marvels of history. No land but America has produced his like. This destined chief of a nation in its most perilous hour was the son of a thriftless and wandering settler, bred in the most sordid poverty. He had a strong and eminently fair understanding, with great powers of patient thought, which he cultivated by the study of Euclid. In all his views there was a simplicity which had its source in the simplicity of his character. Both as an advocate and as a politician he was 'honest Abe.' As an advocate he would throw up his brief when he knew that his case was bad. He said himself that he had not controlled events, but had been guided by them. To know how to be guided by events, however, if it is not imperial genius, is practical wisdom. Lincoln's goodness of heart, his sense of duty, his unselfishness, his freedom from vanity, his long-suffering, his simplicity, were never disturbed either by power or by opposition. To the charge of levity no man could be less open. Though he trusted in Providence, care for the public and sorrow for the public calamities filled his heart and sat visibly upon his brow. His State papers are excellent, not only as public documents, but as compositions, and are distinguished by their depth of human feeling and tenderness from those of other statesmen. He spoke always from his own heart to the heart of the people. His brief funeral oration over the graves of those who had fallen in the war is one of the gems of the language."

WE take pleasure in calling attention to the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, and to the excursions for schools and societies, etc., which have been arranged for the spring and summer. The Gardens are situated within the precincts of Fairmount Park, on what was formerly the Penn estate. They are beautifully