No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 419 



find the public stliool ediicatiou of the present day does not meet 

 these requiienionts, and our country youth go in (piest of better edu- 

 cational advantages, often at an expense beyond the means of their 

 parents; and not only so, but as a result, they become alienated from 

 home and country life. There is so much being said about the boys 

 leaving the farm, and is it any wonder, when the whole trend of his 

 education is calculated to lead him away from it? And now it is not 

 our purpose to advocate keeping all the boys on the farm; but we 

 would, if possible, frustrate this indiscriminate leaving of the farm, 

 caused by the excitement and fascination of city life, before the char- 

 acter and good judgment has been sufficiently ripened to make a 

 judicious choice of a calling in life. 



And we believe centralization is a step in the right direction. 

 Under an act of the Legislature, May 25, 1901, by a vote of the people, 

 the school board may abolisli district lines and establish at a conve- 

 nient point, a central school, including, if necessary, a township 

 high school, and provide for the transportation of the pupils to and 

 from this central school. This we regard as the wisest piece of legis- 

 lation in recent years; and we believe it will gradually lead to the 

 abandonment of the ungraded district school, with its bleak sur- 

 roundings, poor equipments, and unsanitary conditions. But re- 

 forms come slowly, and we can scarcely hope for a sudden or radical 

 change. Nor would w^e think it prudent to do so, but it should be 

 done after the most careful deliberation that no mistake be made as 

 to location. Through centralization, we believe that equal educa- 

 tional advantages with that of the city, will be placed within reach 

 of our country children, and at the same time have them enjoy all the 

 desirable advantages of rural life. 



In many si)arsely settled districts we find even less than ten pupils, 

 making the individual education expensive; even more so than it 

 would be under the centralization and transportation system, and 

 then there is a lack of vim and excitement caused by rivalry in. class 

 recitations. Very fair examples of this can be found in my own 

 township. 



Prof. Kern, of Rockford, Ills., after an exhaustive investigation of 

 the centralized schools of Ohio, says ^'Centralization will decrease the 

 cost per capita for education, give longer school terms, and furnish 

 a more efficient teaching force at better salaries." He says, "the 

 daily average attendance is so increased that from 25 to 35 per cent, 

 more schooling can be had in a township. And the poor man who 

 has been able only to send his children to an ungraded district school, 

 can have the pleasure of seeing his children enjoy the best education 

 a township can furnish at a less cost per capita to his rich neighbor 

 than heretofore." 



Hon. A. E. Palmer, of Michigan, says, "In Madison township. Lake 



