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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THE INTERMEDIATE PICKER, WHICH CONTINUES THE WORK OF CLEANING 



RAW COTTON 



From the bale-breaker the raw cotton goes through the feeder to the opener, and thence 

 to the three "pickers," which still further loosen it and release each fiber from the grasp of 

 its neighboring fibers. The four "laps" (the round cotton mass) of cotton on the machine 

 are being combined into one lap (see picture on opposite page). 



tional merit are to be found in every 

 community and technical schools in the 

 larger industrial centers. 



In 1913 a law was enacted requiring 

 every town without a high school of its 

 own to pay tuition in other towns for its 

 high-school pupils, and to pay their trans- 

 portation back and forth, up to $1.50 a 

 week, thus guaranteeing to every boy 

 and girl in the Commonwealth who de- 

 sires it a free high-school education. In 

 1 91 8 another law was enacted granting 

 State aid to struggling high schools. 



As in so many other directions in the 

 educational world, Massachusetts was a 

 pioneer in exchanging the little red 

 school-house on the hill, with its un- 

 graded course of studies, its untrained 

 teacher, and its poor facilities, for the 

 consolidated school, with its fewer and 

 better teachers, its carefully planned 

 courses of study, etc. It did so on the 

 basis that four good teachers in one con- 

 solidated school could teach twice as 



many children twice as much as eight 

 poor teachers in eight little red school- 

 houses. 



Latterly the children at distant points 

 have been conveyed to and from school 

 at State expense. It costs half a million 

 dollars a year to convey to school those 

 children who do not live within walking 

 distance, but that is only a trifle com- 

 pared to the advantages which result 

 from educating the 20,000 children af- 

 fected. Of this number nearly half go 

 by trolley, nearly a third by horse-drawn 

 vehicles, and a fifth by motor busses. 

 The figures indicate that it costs less to 

 take the children to school in motor cars 

 than in horse-drawn vehicles. 



But with all the progress which Massa- 

 chusetts has made educationally, there 

 are still 600 teachers in the State with 

 salaries of less than $550 a year. Ade- 

 quate pay for teachers is recognized as 

 one of the first requirements in any cam- 

 paign for an improved education pro- 



