No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 57 



school course, and also gain a fair knowledge of some of the higher 

 branches of study. Over SO per cent, of the pupils of the county 

 attend graded schools, and the next year will show^ a material in 

 crease in the number, as there is a growing spirit favorable to cen- 

 tralization in all our districts." 



Prof. J. S. Fruit, Superintendent of Schools of Mercer county, 

 states: *'I think that township centralization of schools will solve 

 two great problems for the rural school. The present inability to 

 maintain anything like a course of study for the ungraded common 

 school, and for the close relations between the now isolated rural 

 teacher and the county superintendent. In my county, where I am 

 req'iired now to make over 200 calls in the thirty-one townships, 

 rveie they centralized, I could make at least 600. Hasten the day 

 when we have centralized township schools." 



Prof. Horace L. Walter, Superintendent of Monroe county 

 schools, reports: ''We believe that better results might be obtained 

 in the matter of school work by consolidating, and establishing 

 graded schools in the several parts of the county. There are districts 

 :n which this could be done with but little inconvenience to the 

 children, and when once established, with less expense to the dis- 

 trict. When a large number of scholars of all grades are gathered 

 together, the best work can be done. The teacher knows it, and 

 the scholars also understand that they do not receive the attention 

 to which they are entitled. Very often they lose interest in the 

 work, and drop out of school at the first opportunity." 



Superintendent Hoffecker, of Montgomery county, reports: "The 

 schools need closer supervision, and the school sentiment is ready 

 for it. The best provision that could be made, would be the 

 establishment of centralized high schools, with transportation for 

 pupils. The cost of transporting could be saved in the fewer number 

 of schools. The children from remote parts of a district would enjoy 

 the same privileges as the children in a village, and all would have 

 I he benefits derived from a skilled teaching force." 



Superintendent Apple, of Northumberland county, reports: "It is 

 the universal opinion of more thoughtful people, that the law provid- 

 ing for the centralization of rural schools, and the establishment of 

 high schools, is as far reaching a step in the school system of Penn- 

 sylvania, as has been taken since the system itself was adopted." 



Prof. Chas. E. Moxley, of Susquehanna county, states: "Far from 

 me to cast any reflection on the w^ork of the rural school as it has 



%■' 



existed for now nearly half a century, but the conditions under 

 5 



