MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
aliunul. 
BY L. WETHERELL. 
“ Having light, we seek to impart it.” 
ANNUAL REPOST OF THE STATE SUPERIN¬ 
TENDENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS. 
We give an abstract of the statistical 
part of the report, and that portion relating 
to Free Schools entire. We shall refer 
hereafter to other topics commented upon 
in this document 
This report, the reader will bear in mind, 
is for the year 1849, one year behind that 
to be made by the Regents, during the 
present session of the Legislature. This 
should not be so because it need not. We 
might just as well have a law requiring the 
several districts to report in season for the 
State Superintendent to make his report as 
soon as, or before the middle of February. 
Then the report would, as it should, contain 
the history and doings of the schools for the 
last year, instead of two years ago, as now. 
The number of districts in the State is 11,191. 
Reports were received from 10,928. In the seve¬ 
ral districts reporting, schools were maintained by 
duly qualified teachers for an average period o 
eight months. 
According to the reports received, the number of 
children within the respective districts between the 
ages of five and sixteen, was 739,655; the number 
taught in the several district schools, 778,309, 
showing an increase over the preceding year of 
2,586. Of the whole number thus taught, 6,687 
were in attendance the entire year; 21,739 ten 
months and more; 165,968, six months and up¬ 
wards; 315,430 four months and upwards; 508,671 
two months and upwards; and 269,638 for a less 
period than two months. 
There are in the aforesaid districts 1,893 private 
schools, in which were taught during the whole or 
a part of the year, 72,785 pupils; also, 35 schools 
for negro children, comprising 4,006 learners, the 
expenses of which were met by an appropriation of 
$2,866,97 from the State fund, and $2,149,60 by 
rate-bills. 
For the year 1849, embraced in the annual re¬ 
port, the sum of $1,153,916,27 was paid for teach¬ 
ers’ wages, of which $653,704,53 were received 
from the State treasury, from town and county 
taxation and local funds; $489,696,63, contributed 
on rate bills; and $10,515,11 raised by taxation to 
meet the amount due on the rate bills of indigent 
persons, exempted by the trustees. The number 
thus benefited, 16,900. 
The sum expended for district libraries and 
school apparatus, $93,104,82. The number of 
volumes in the several district libraries of the State 
in Jan. 1, 1849, was 1,409,154. 
For purchasing sites the sum of $25,002,25 was 
invested; for building school houses $196,770,53. 
The Superintendent again urges upon the Leg¬ 
islature the restoration, in some form, of the office 
of County Superintendent. 
The Normal School is steadily progressing in 
usefulness and popular favor—at least it is so re¬ 
ported. During the year a largo and commodious 
building has been erected for its use by the State. 
Between four and five hundred persons from every 
part of the State are in annual attendance. 
The renewal of the annual appropriation for de¬ 
fraying the expenses of publishing the School 
Journal is recommended. 
Teachers’ Institutes are reported to be losing 
their hold upon the minds of the teachers. 
Is it because they have become the ad¬ 
vertising medium of book makers, or is it 
because teachers have become so perfect in 
their profession, as no longer to need the 
aid once derived from Institutes ? 
Is not the Superintendent of the S'tate 
Schools turning aside from his official duties 
when he recommends, as he has done in 
this report, specific books ? He, for exam¬ 
ple, has directed the attention of the trus¬ 
tees to a work “ as a standard of orthog¬ 
raphy and orthoepy,” whose spelling he 
himself has not followed in his report 
FREE SCHOOLS. 
The report discusses this subject at considerable 
length, as follows : 
The history of the past year, in reference to this 
gTeat enterprise, has been one of mingled triumph 
and disaster. The principle incorporated in the 
“Act for the establishment of free schools through¬ 
out the State,” has been again subjected to the test 
of public opinion. In their almost unanimous ap¬ 
proval of that principle in the canvass of 1849, 
the electors very generally overlooked the specific 
details of the bill submitted to their sanction, con¬ 
fiding in the disposition of the Legislature to modify 
such of its features as might be practically objec¬ 
tionable. Serious obstacles to the successful oper¬ 
ation of the law presented themselves almost upon 
the threshold of its administration. The boards of 
supervisors in more than one half the counties of 
the State, had adjourned their annual sessions be¬ 
fore the act took effect, without making the appro¬ 
priations required by its provisions, leaving the 
several school districts to sustain a moat unequal 
and oppressive burden of taxation for the support 
of their schools. 
Inequalities in the valuation of taxable property 
contributed, in many localities, greatly to aggra¬ 
vate this burden, and a spirit of opposition to the 
new law, inflamed by its determined opponents, 
manifested itself at the primary district meetings, 
and too often resulted in the entire rejection of the 
estimates prepared by the trustees and the limita¬ 
tion of the term of school to the lowest possible 
period authorized by law. Appeals were assidu¬ 
ously made to the cupidity of the heavy tax-payers 
their interests sought to be arrayed against that of 
their less favored brethren, and against the interests 
of their children; their passions stimulated by the 
real inequalities as well as fancied injustice of the 
burdens imposed by the new law, were readily en¬ 
listed againsl svery attempt to carry it into operation. 
Numerous petitions were sent to the Legislature 
praying for its repeal or for such amendments as 
might render it more generally acceptable. 
It was obvious that the law was liable to just 
and serious objections, and that it did not meet with 
that general approval which was necessary to en¬ 
sure success. Under these circumstances, the 
friends of the new system were among the first to 
concede the defects of the bill, and while urging 
the preservation of the fundamental principle 
which it involved, were anxiously solicitious so to 
modify the details of the measure, as to obviate all 
its obnoxious features. At their suggestion, and 
with their co-operation, bills were introduced into 
both branches of the Legislature, providing for a 
general and equitable system of State or county 
taxation, for the purpose of rendering the common 
schools free to all, dispensing with the necessity of 
a district assessment, out of which the principal 
embarrassment had originated. In the Assembly 
the measures thus proposed were approved by a 
large majority; the Senate did uot concur in the 
action of the House, but sent to the House a hill 
proposing a re-submission of the law to the people. 
At the close of the session, and when it became 
evident that modification of the obnoxious law 
could not be obtained, this bill receivedjthe assent 
the House. 
By the adoption of this measure, the friends of 
free schools found themselves in a very embarrass¬ 
ing position. They were compelled either to give 
their votes and influence in favor of the .continu¬ 
ance of the law, softie" of the distinctive features of 
which were at variance both with their wishes and 
judgment, or, by sanctioning its repeal, hazard the 
principle which had been deliberately adopted by 
the Legislature and approved by the emphatic ex¬ 
pression of the public will. This issue thus pre¬ 
sented could not fail of being greatly misappre¬ 
hended. While the electors secured the renewed 
triumph of the principles involved, there can be ho 
doubt that thousands of votes were cast for the 
repeal of the law by citizens who desired only its 
amendment, and who would have recorded their 
suffrages in favor of a system of free schools prop¬ 
erly guarded, had the form of the ballot permitted 
them to do so. 
It remains then for the Legislature to give effi¬ 
cacy to this renewed expression of the popular wiil 
by the enactment of a law which shall definitely 
engraft the free school principle upon our existing 
system of primary education, and at the same time 
remove all just cause of complaint as to the in¬ 
equality of taxation. District taxation has been 
found to be unjust, unequal and oppressive. It 
should, therefore, be at once abandoned so far as 
the ordinary support of the school is concerned — 
The funds necessary for the payment of teachers’ 
wages, in addition to the amount received from the 
State treasury, should be provided either by a State 
tax equitably Levied on real and personal property 
according to a fixed and uniform standard of valu¬ 
ation, by a county and town tax, levied and assess¬ 
ed in the same manner, or by such a combination 
of these three modes as might be deemed most ex¬ 
pedient and judicious. 
The common schools of the State should be de¬ 
clared free to every resident of the respective dis¬ 
tricts, of the proper age to participate in their 
benefits: and their support should be madeacharge 
upon the property of the State at large, or of the 
respective counties and towns in which, they are 
situated. 
The bill which passed the Assembly at its last 
session, provided for the levying of an annual tax 
of $800,000 on the real and personal property of 
the State according to the assessed valuation of such 
property, and for the distribution of the aggregate 
amount to be raised, among the several counties 
and towns of the State, according to the number of 
children of the proper school age, residing in each. 
This sum, together with the amount annually ap¬ 
portioned from the revenue of the common school 
fund, would, it was supposed, be sufficient for the 
support of the several schools of the State during 
an average period of eight months in each year. 
The whole amount expended for teachers' wages, 
during the year 1849, w as $1,322,696,24, to which 
is to bo added an aggregate amount of $110,000 
for library purposes, making in the whole $1,432,- 
696,24. The superintendent, however, entertains 
no doubt that the amount proposed to be raised by 
the hill referred to, in conjunction with the State 
appropriation, the revenue from which is rapidly 
and steadily increasing, will be amply adequate to 
the payment of teachers’ wages for the average 
length of time during which the schools have here¬ 
tofore been taught, and to the annual and adequate 
replenishment of the libraries and necessary ap¬ 
paratus in the schools. 
Under the present defectively administered 
system of assessment, however, such a tax will 
operate very unequally in different sections of 
the State. The standard of valuation both of real 
and personal property, varies, as is well known* in 
nearly every county in the State; while in some, it 
is estimated at its fair and full market value, in 
others it is assessed at three-fourths, two-thirds, 
and sometimes as low as one-half its actual value. 
If therefore, the existing standard of valuation is 
to be made the basis of the apportionment of the 
proposed tax, it is manifest that a very unjust and 
oppressive burden will be cast upon those coun¬ 
ties where the assessment is in strict accordance 
with the provisions of the law, for the benefit of 
those sections in which its requirements are evaded 
by an arbitrary standard of valuation. 
( Conclusion next week .) 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
Harper’s Hew Monthly Magazine.— 
This cheap and popular monthly loses noth¬ 
ing by age, but rather grows better. It is 
well adapted to the wants of the million— 
the quantity of reading matter being great 
and various—the paper, type and engrav¬ 
ings good. The articles are selected from 
the whole range of current English Litera¬ 
ture, with reference both to instruction and 
entertainment. The Monthly Record of 
current events is a very valuable feature of 
this Periodical. Terms $3,00 a year. For 
sale at D. M. Dewey’s. 
THE BLACK AND WHITE SWANS. 
Above we give an engraving of the 
white and the black swan, which are kept 
in many parks and pleasure grounds, as ap¬ 
propriate ornaments of their ponds and 
streams, being among birds, when floating 
in their favorite element, unrivalled in beau¬ 
ty and majesty of appearance. When on 
land, the swan can hardly be supposed to 
be the same bird, for its motions arc awk¬ 
ward, and its neck stretched forward with 
an air of stupidity, seeming only a larger 
sort of goose, but when gliding along the 
water “it displays a thousand graceful atti¬ 
tudes, and moving at pleasuro without the 
smallest apparent effort, there is uot a more 
beautiful figure in all nature. In its form, 
we find no broken or harsh lines; in its mo¬ 
tions, nothing constrained or abrupt, but 
the roundest contours, and the easiest tran¬ 
sitions ; the eye wanders over the whole *with 
unalloyed pleasure, and, with every change 
of position, every part assumes a new grace. 
It will swim faster than a man can walk.” 
“This bird,” says the Naturalist’s Libra¬ 
ry, “ has long been rendered domestic; and 
it is doubtful whether there be any of the 
tame kind in a state of nature. The color 
of the tame swan is entirely white, and it 
generally weighs full twenty pounds. Un¬ 
der the feathers is a very thick, soft down, 
which is made an article of commerce, for 
purposes of both use and ornament. The 
windpipe sinks down into the lungs in the 
ordinary manner: and it is the most silent 
of all the feathered tribe; it can do nothing 
more than hiss, which it does on .receiving 
any provocation. 
Its chief food is corn, bread, herbs grow¬ 
ing in the water, and roots and seeds, which 
are found near the margin. At the time of 
incubation, it prepares a nest in some re¬ 
tired part of the bank, and chiefly where 
there is an islet in the stream. This is com¬ 
posed of water plants, long grass, and sticks; j 
and the male and female assist in forming 
it with great assiduity. The swan lays 
seven or eight white eggs, one every other 
day, much larger than those of a goose 
with a hard, and sometimes tuberous shell. 
It sits six weeks before its young are exclu¬ 
ded; which are ash colored before they 
leave the shell, and for some months after. 
It is not a little dangerous to approach the 
old ones, when their little family are feeding 
around them. Their fears as well as their 
pride, s.eem to take the alarm, and, when 
in danger the old birds carry off the young 
ones on their back.” 
Of the black swan our authority remarks 
as follows: 
“ New Holland, that country of animal 
wonders, presents us with a bird which the 
ancients imagined could not possibly have 
existence. The black swan is exactly simi¬ 
lar in its form to the swan of the old world, 
but is somewhat smaller in size. Every 
part of its plumage is perfectly black, with 
the exception of the primary and a few of 
the secondary quill feathers, which are 
white. The bill is of a bright red above, is 
crossed at the anterior part by a whitish 
band; is of a grayish color on the under 
part; and in the male, is surmounted at the 
base by a slight protuberance. The legs 
and feet are of a dull asli color. Black 
swans, in their wild state, are extremely 
shy. They are found in Van Dieman’s 
Land, New South Wales, and on the wes¬ 
tern coast of New Holland; and are gene¬ 
rally seen swimming on a lake in flocks con¬ 
sisting of eight, or ten individuals. On be¬ 
ing disturbed, they fly off in a direct line 
one after the other, like wild geese.” 
TEA AND COFFEE PLANTS. 
' ' 7 The Tea plant is described as a shrub, 
— ----- growing slowly, and arriving at its full size 
iving of the in six or seven years, when it is four and 
Torture not thy soul with sorrow— 
Burst thy fetters—wake and siniie! 
Ready for, not fear to-morrow, 
Then thou’lt walk the Holy Isle; 
Then thou’lt tread the pathway given, 
Singing anthems sung in Heaven. 
Caledonia, N. Y., Jan., 1851. 
FUTURE 
AMERICA, 
growing slowly, and arriving at its full Size [From the /Christian Review.] 
in six or seven years, when it is four and The great future of American, society 
five feet high. Its root is black, woody and rests with the youths who are now under 
branched—stem irregularly branched; bark training in our schools and colleges. -With 
° J nr itp.UrM determination ot the 
thin and tinged with green toward the ex- 
them lies the practical determination of the 
important questions between capital and la- 
tremities of the young shoots; wood hard, bor that agitate public-opinion. With them 
fibrous, with little pith; leaves short, pedi- ad should" be hope and resolution. For 
celled, numerous, serrated, intensely green, the youth now leaving our public schools, 
and when mature resembling the black the mechanical trades hold out encouraging 
. . „ , , T-i -ii inducements. Let them use every oppor- 
cherry m figure and color. Flowers axilla- of ing on thcir work i a . 
ry, and when full blown an inch or more in tion> and learn t0 app i y science to their 
diameter, white and resembling the wild various arts, and with energy and frugality 
rose in figure. So great a luxury was it they may secure positions as promising as 
considered, that in London, in 1666 and for are opened in any business or profession. 
half a century afterward, Tea sold at sixty this country education, without low 
. .... , • , ermar its high classical and scientific stand- 
shillings the pound ard, should ever become more practical.- 
The country of the Coffee tree is said a jj t b e enterprising youth of the nation 
by the Abbe Raynale to be Upper Ethio- should in some measure share in the priv- 
pia It is an evergreen of quick growth, ileges of the improved industrial culture 
rising 15 to 20 feet high. Trunk straight, which are now dispensed in our best col- 
„ j , . , . , leges and scientific schools. We honor m- 
3 and 4 inches m diameter with a number 8 ^ ^ fcgitimate f OTms , and alway8 
of opposite branches; leaves oval and en- feel like taking off our hat to every man 
tire, much resembling laurel. The flowers w ] 10 bolds the implements of honest labor 
are in branches, and axillary, five cleft, in his hand. Industry will have its true 
white, ‘possessing an agreeable odor and dignity, when better culture guides and el- 
, v ,, • • • evates its votaries—when the vast develop- 
resembling the lessamme m appearance.— 7 . , , . . r l , 
y J . ., ments of science and achievements of art 
l lie berries are oval containing two seeds. sbad become the property of energetic and 
t. e. w. enlightened workmen, by virtue of their in- 
~ j 7~T7 i dividual and associate enterprise. 
A Beautiful Flower. —A friend pre- 
j . • More than we were prepared to believe, 
sented us a day or two since with a curiosity . . ... \ 1 ., ,, 
in the Shane of a flower, which, we think, industrial interests are o govern the world. 
is one of the greatest wonders of the floral Merchants and manufacturers areithepnnces 
kingdom we have ever seen. It is about f our e‘'-'hzaUon, and can.outbid the t.me- 
the size of a walnut, perfectly white, with >>onmed professions in their offers of[ emolo-, 
fine leaves resembling very’much indeed ■»«“ a " d sometimes of honor lhe d,^ 
, , tt ui • f t i plays of mechanical skill and invention aie 
the wax plant. Upon the blooming of the P 7 parades ani naval 
flower, m the cup formed by the leaves, is J « The gr '/festival of our age is to 
the exact image of a dove lying on its back, ? . , , j ^ 
, x , ., • ° , i i mi. b i t,i bem honor of industry, and England invites 
1 with its wings extended. The peak of the jv ,, . . , J , Ua • i • 
, b i ■ i , £ j the world, not to a tournament or the. juln- 
bi 1 and the eyes are plainly to be seen, and , . _„ Ur 
,,, CU J C ., l a J • a l lee of a victory, or the anniversary ot a Mag- 
a small leaf before the flower arrived at ma- ... . , ® 
T mu- t c na Charta, but to an exhibition of the per- 
tunty forms the outspread tail. This leaf ““ r re f L.,, 
7 . , , ,S r. fection of her peaceful arts m friendly co- 
can be raised or shut down with the finger. ^th the arts of nil nations, freely 
without breakmg or apparently mjunngtt, J clcomed to ber shorea In this festiv i 
until the flower reaches its full bloom, when . . f , . •, ;n l, „„,i „i. ot 
. : ! . we reioice, both for what it will be and what 
it Jmnenft Y\ p rporfU nnr ninhihfv tn mep J ’ . 
until the flower reaches its full bloom, when 
. m re 11'- i. • i *T, x • VYC It UibU, UULll 1KJL waau iu vr 111. 
.t drops ofl W e regret our inability to give ; t wi|1 J ’ ise . The better ages of peace- 
a tcehmca description of this curiosity at f u | co-operation wil! come,—the ages when 
this time, but hope to do so shortly, as one P ;fu , and 3ub , ime inventio s ns of art 
has been promised us by a person every bef ^ of friendl 
way qualified to write tt -Panama Star. * . , d i of benitrnant Dower.- 
The Cow Tree. —On the parched side of 
a rock on the mountain of Venezela, grows 
union and agencies of benignant power.— 
The mighty engines already constructed, 
are teachers of associate order, and call men 
to combine judiciously and efficiently, that 
a tree with a dry and leathery foliage, its ^ n ph US wield forces too vast and 
large woody roots scarcely penetrating into > fo / th(; use of thc isolated individual, 
the ground. I or several months m the qq iere i s p0W e r in ideas, but not much pow- 
year, its leaves ate not- moistened by a er untd diey arm themselves with appro- 
shower, its branches look as if they were - te weap J ons . Christianity needed the 
dead and withered ; but when the trunk is £ Greck f angU age, the Roman roads, and 
bored, a bland and nourishing milk flows b fine the £ tin | press> to achieve its best 
from it It is at sunrise that the vegetable tri hs r Libert ’ languished until printed 
fountain flows most freely. At tnat time book / carried thought on every wind, and 
the blacks and natives are seen coming from cannon balls l eve lied the pride of feudal 
all parts provided with large bowls to receive lordg The sciences and arta developed 
the miik, which grows ye.low and thickens w h b ] n a century, are the appropriate arraa- 
at its surface.. i.,ome empty their vessels on meid; 0 f a peaceful humanity. Enough of 
the spot, while others carry them to their g ^ nQW been made t0 give a char- 
children. One imagines lie sees the family acter 0 f go hriety to the most earnest hope, 
of a shepherd who is distributing the milk If b fift ' more a great industrial 
of his flock. It is named the pah de vaca, ant is Celebrated on our globe, we be- 
or cow tree, t .electe . _ lieve that our country will be the scene, 
t.v rr t and that thc proofs of industry in agricul- 
Beautiful Flowemng J^wES-In the ture> m(!chani ‘s ;md mimu& cturea, will sut- 
tropics, vegetation is generally of a fresher t hat England can now 
verdure more luxuriant and succulent, and P trophie6 oftnvention, and 
adorned with larger and more shining leaves & , f. , f 
than in our northern climates. The‘-social 87 " ■» “1?° triumphs of 
plants,” which often impart so uniform a cheering marks of the progress of our race 
U V , T , 1 , • i . m fraternal sentiment and co-opeiative or- 
character to European countries are almost Whatever developments, however, the 
entirely absent m the equatorial regions- P our faith and ex- 
Trees almost as lofty as our oaks are adorn- . / ,., , ’ ,1 v - r 
ed with flowers as'large and beautiful as peneuce.forbidu.ito expect the nse of^aay 
tv r\ i-i srv c-TnJ u i f \/fo^v power tlicit stein dispense \\ itli uiG \ irtu.es 
our lilies. On the shady banks of R» Mag- P and ^.control, or with the 
dalena m South America, there grows a which billd man to the Uome and 
chmbmg Anstolochia, bearing flowers four which Heaven 
feet m circumference, which the India boys J ’ th h the | ospe i of Christ. No 
draw over their heads in sport and wear as P sciences ° 0 f st atiSl will give man a bet- 
hats or helmets In the island of the Indian d • . tha]1 the ^ of Ages ,_ ll0 
Archipelago, the flower ot the Refflesia ,s P ics can s sed(J tlle “ ower 0 f 
nearly three feet m diameter and weighs 7 Divine Spirit In welcoming 
over 14 pounds. - Humboldt’s Aspect, of tho new e aa J t t wUh tho ol 3 
Nature \ _ Gospel.— Bev. S. Osgood. 
The study of Natural History is one of --^.uuuwt---— 
the highest interest and importance. Life is the seed-time of Eternity. 
