No. 6. DEPARTiMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 273 



CONSOLIDATION MEANS BETTER ORGANIZATION 

 With coJisolidation of the rural scliools will come very much wider 

 opportunities lor the euridiment of the courses of study by the 

 introduction of those subjects wliich are most directly I'elated to the 

 improvement of agriculture and to tlie inculcation of a love of coun- 

 try life in the boys and girls on our farms. All around our rural 

 schools lies a wealth of material, whicli, thus far, has been almost 

 entirely neglected for the lacli of knowledge and the absence of the 

 skilled teacher. In the modern consolidated school will be found 

 teachers of expeiience, well equii)]^ed and properly trained to or- 

 ganize tlie work entrusted to their keeping and correlate theory 

 with practice. 



Mankind in general, and teachers in particular, are indebted to 

 science for the knowledge which enables them to point out the real 

 relation which exists between certain facts and phenomena and the 

 daily pursuits of man. In recent years much information has been 

 gained in the study of those things in nature with which the farmer 

 has to deal. The teacher is now able to unlock the secrets of the 

 air, plant, soil and the animal and make them the common property 

 of the child. The teacher, as never before, is now in a position to 

 explain the activities of the natural world and of the advantages 

 that may be taken of these -activities. The nature of the soil as 

 related to the crop which will grow in it, the life of the plant as 

 related to the amount of grain, or forage, or fruit it will bear, the 

 body of the animal as related to the food which it requires for 

 maintenance or growth, the life history of injurious insects as re- 

 lated to the means for their repression. These are some of the 

 things which the teacher, through the aid of science, has now to 

 offer the boys and girls who intend to remain on the farm. 



BENEFITS DERIVED 

 Consolidation of schools will liave a tendency to unite the farmers 

 who pay tlie taxes and support the schools, the home makers, the 

 teachers, and the pupils into a co-operative organization for the 

 betterment of rural education. It will instill in the minds of the 

 boys and girls hio-her ideals of citizenship. The school will become 

 a character builder, and the districts will be rid of those agencies 

 which destroy character, namely, unkept school yards, foul and un- 

 sightly outhouses, poorly equipped and illy planned school houses, 

 young, inexperienced and too often inefficient teachers. It will give a 

 broader and more practical school course and in short better equip 

 the boys and girls to fight lifes' battles. 



CONSOLIDATION MEANS PROGRESS 



It was not so many years ago that one dared to criticise the 

 public school. To do so was considered an act of treason. The 

 little red schoolhouse was both idealized and idolized. It was the 

 backbone of our civilization and an index of progress. In recent 

 years the one-room schoolhouse has become the target, not only 

 of the critic outside of the school, but also of those who are directly 

 associated and most vitally interested in our public school system. 

 Sentiment in rural districts is rapidly crystalizing in favor of 

 consolidatiou. Instead of rmulucting n dozen district schools in a 

 more or less efficient manner. Avith a given number of buildings to 



18—6—1915 



