412 BuHEAU oi" Fak.mkk.s' Ikstitutks. 



ceived the same price and boarded himself, but was not worth, 

 all times and things consid^^red, much more than half as much. 



How is it that plants can live in soil that is dust dry? 



Mr. Cook. — They can't do it. But they will live in a sdil that 

 has only a dust mulch. The capillaries in the soil are thus broken 

 MY) and the moisture pumped up from below, which the dust mulch • 

 prevents from getting away. 



How can we seciu-e free rural mail delivery? 



Answer. — You will have to tackle your congressman. He seems 

 willing to do all he can for Oswego county. So far, free mail 

 delivery in the rural districts has given much satisfaction. It is 

 not a new, but an old thing. But some of the fourth-class post- 

 masters are opposing it because it is closing up some of their 

 offices. But there is one great drawback — which is the bad roads. 

 If we are to get rural free mail deliverv, our roads will ha\e to be 

 made better than they are now. 



Dr. Smead. — Wherever it has been demanded, as a rule, it has 

 been granted. The chief opposition comes from the rural dis- 

 tricts. The merchants and other tradesmen in the villages seem 

 to have an idea that free-mail delivery will injure their business. 

 Then there are some farmers who want to go to town, sit on nail 

 kegs and talk politics. 



Mr. Litchard. — I think that free rural delivery of the mails is in 

 the near future, and sure to come. Changes are all the time tak- 

 ing place, but they come slowly. Our country school districts are 

 in many places, being abolished, and the children all gathered into 

 one schoolhouse in some central point; and I incline to the belief 

 that the time is not far distant when the entire svstem in the rural 

 districts will be changed. 



Will the horseless carriage injure the market for horses or the bicycle? 



Mr. Ward. — I ride a wheel, but I go round by a back street to 

 avoid the rabble who ride w'heels on the main streets, and I be- 

 lieve the day of the wheel has gone. Nor do 1 believe that the 

 automobile will ever cut much of a figure, much less displace the 



