l6o THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



schools in the hands of the state authorities, and I do not 

 expect to see the next General Assembly establish a school 

 system for Connecticut which shall pay the teachers of like 

 grade the same amount, no matter whether they are teach- 

 ing in small places or in large. I do not expect the next 

 General Assembly will force the consolidation of schools so 

 that these little ones shall be grouped together, but that does 

 not change the fact, nevertheless, that it is impossible to get 

 as good results in these little schools attended by a very few 

 pupils as can be obtained in schools ranging from twenty- 

 five to thirty. So that while I say that the answer to that 

 problem is the establishment of a state system of schools, I 

 do not expect to see the next General Assembly establish it, 

 nor the one after that, and perhaps no General Assembly 

 will do so during the years which I can reasonably expect to 

 live. I do believe, however, that we are drifting in that di- 

 rection. Many things indicate that. If the members of the 

 Pomological Society will raise better fruit, and will lead 

 good lives, that is all in the line of progress, and the children 

 will have a better chance and Connecticut be a better state. I 

 realize that before any very substantial progress is made 

 along the line of the improvement of our school system we 

 have got to drop some of our local prejudices. When we 

 learn to co-operate in the large imits of the commonwealth, 

 and say that this school business, and these school authori- 

 ties, and the children, belong properly to the state to take 

 care of and not to the parents, or to our smaller local com- 

 munities, when public sentiment is educated to that point, 

 the state can step in and take charge of it. It should pay 

 the teachers according to the grade of work they do. The 

 state can decide whether they are fit to be teachers or not 

 better than our small communities, and the state should pay 

 them, and the state property should be taxed to raise the 

 money that is necessary to pay them, outside of the school 

 fund, and the whole thing should be managed on a large 

 scale. When that time comes, our boys and our girls will 

 have the inestimable blessing of first-class school surround- 



