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out to brill*; in the pupil.*, in addition to the better salaries you have to paj- teachers 

 if you want a better . school, and add all that to the cost of the consolidated school 

 itself, it is not perhaps more than the cost of the five schools used to be; Ijut the cost 

 of the teams and hauling, and the cost of the better transportation you engage, is 

 going to make it so expensive that in our country the average farmer is going to have 

 to be coerced or driven into the ccmsolidated school. As a matter of fact, we have 

 been getting education in the country places too cheaply. The average that was paid 

 toward the school fund by the farmer was so small that it was practically nothing. 

 And now Sir William McDonald, whose name was mentioned j'esterday, is going to 

 put up all the money except what they have been paying in their taxes and in the 

 indi\i<lual schools. He is now putting up the difference between what they have 

 paid and what it will cost for the consolidated school. He is going to go down into 

 his pocket for that money for a five-year experiment. Each child has a little farm 

 of its own in the school yard. This feature worked so admirably that the children 

 of our consolidated school to the number of 200 — the vote being unanimous — decided 

 to Clime back one day a week during the summer vacation to look after those little 

 farms ratlier than have them neglected during that time. I do not think you could 

 have any better test of the value of that work than just that illustration, that those 

 children would come back during their summer vacation to do that work in that way. 



George Aitken, of Vermont. AVhile I was in Mexico I saw something that struck 

 me forcibly. Just at the close of the school hours we met on the streets bands of 

 children, the girls with the female teachers attending them, and the boys attended 

 by the male teachers; and upon inquiry I found that they were looking after them 

 to the train. They saw them safely to the train, and they were distributed to their 

 homes at the various stations. I thought that was an ideal condition, perhaps much 

 ahead of anything we have had here. I know nothing of the conditions in the shools 

 there, but I thought that was to be admired. 



O. C. Gregg, of Minnesota. In our own district consolidation has but just com- 

 menced. I could say more about the difficulties in organization than I can about 

 the effect of the schools. We had to face the expense of new buildings, and we had 

 no individual who would put up the money. We had first under our law to hold a 

 meeting first in one district and then in the second. We went up with a majority of 

 about two-thirds, and then as people came to look at the system it grew in favor. The 

 schools started this last fall, and we find that we have an increased number of pupils. 

 Of course we have the benefit of the grades. We find, also, some of those who 

 opposed this union of these two districts, making about half a township, saying that 

 tliey never would send to the school, arranging of themselves to bring the pupils to 

 the schoolhouse. And in the northwest, where the creamery interest is a large one, 

 and we are sending our cream to the stations, it looks now as though there would be 

 a combination of hauling cream and children; and in that way, you see, you get the 

 cream of the farm in two ways and both kinds just where you want them. 



A. J. K.\HLER, of Pennsylvania. I will venture to say that in all the districts of 

 Pennsylvania you will find that when the boys get to be 9 and 10 years old, if they 

 liave any aspirations for education, it is considered necessary to send them to board- 

 ing schools, and in that case you have the expense of traveling and all the other 

 incidental exjienses, which you do not have in these consolidated schools. 



Suppose you do increase the expense? I see a good many old men here and I 

 will ask you. How did we use to farm? Why don't we farm that w^ay now? 



Just one more word I want to say. The majority of our children go to the cities 

 to the boarding schools at a tender age, when they need parental care, and to my 

 own knowledge many of them come home neither ornamental nor useful. In these 

 consolidated schools they can be educated at less expense, and they will be more 

 healthy, physically and morally. I know in my own district I can call to mind 

 several of us who have paid out enough to educate our children, over and above what 



