Rural  Schools  in  New  York 
tonishing  in  many  instances.  Schools 
are  doing  creditable  work.  (Jive  us  equit¬ 
able  taxation,  a  free  chance  to  uuite  the 
districts  if  we  want  to,  and  leave  us  to 
decide  for  the  present  whether  we  join 
the  village  district.  H.  H.  LYON. 
Part  IT. 
Taxation. — The  writer  has  been  se¬ 
verely  criticised  for  bringing  into  this 
discussion  the  question  of  taxation. 
Where  schools  are  affected,  taxation 
ought  not  to  be  considered,  say  the  wise 
ones.  I  am  not  ready  to  fully  admit,  this 
contention,  nor  do  I  think  the  average 
taxpayer  in  the  country  so  considers  the 
matter.  We  agree  that  we  ought  to  be 
generous  towards  the  school,  but  if  we 
are  to  expend  more  wc  ought  to  be  rea¬ 
sonably  sure  that  we  will  get  something 
for  the  increase.  In  my  own  town,  again, 
our  union  school  taxes  its  inhabitants 
practically  50  per  cent,  more  than  the 
average  of  the  rural  districts,  and  it  is 
pretty  evident  that  other  towns  are  not 
far  off.  The  village  ratio  would  be  re¬ 
duced  by  the  combine.  While  the  assess¬ 
ment  is  so  nearly  even,  the  population  of 
the  villagers  fully  50  per  cent,  more  than 
in  the  rural  districts,  and  the  school  pop¬ 
ulation  is  several  times  more.  It  is  not 
clear  that  we  ought  to  help  support  the 
village  school.  The  fact  that  personal 
property  in  town  largely  escapes,  and 
that  business  investments  and  property 
in  town  are  assessed  much  lower  than 
farm  property  does  not  help  the  case  for 
the  village. 
Village  and  Ri  rai»  Districts. — It  is 
intimated  that  the  reason  for  uniting  the 
rural  districts  with  the  village,  is  ulti¬ 
mately  to  bring  all  the  rural  scholars  into 
town  for  their  education.  Sortie  really 
believe  this  wise,  others  are  just  as  cer¬ 
tain  that  it  would  be  unwise.  It  is  said 
that  the  rural  districts  ought  to  have  as 
good  educational  advantages  as  the  city. 
I  would  say  they  ought  to  have  better 
schools  for  them  than  the  city  schools 
are.'  What  is  good  education  for  one  is 
good  for  all.  say  some.  Many  will  not 
agree  that  the  education  that  looks  down 
upon  agriculture  is  the  host  for  rural  pu¬ 
pils.  Then  what  about  the  improvement 
of  the  farming  communities?  Have  not 
we  gone  to  town  for  instruction  as  to  the 
way  to  vote  long  enough,  and  how  to  talk 
and  what  to  think?  Should  we  always 
go  to  town  for  our  education  and  our  re¬ 
ligion?  Are  not  you  going  to  give  us  any 
of  that  pure  brand  of  country  community 
improvement?  Are  we  to  go  to  town  for 
social  advantages  and  for  rurnl  com¬ 
munity  uplift?  What  is  uplift  any  way? 
Is  it  something  that  the  town  holds  as  a 
monopoly?  Better  let  us  have  consoli¬ 
dated  rural  schools  unless  we  want  to  go 
to  town,  (live  us  a  chance  to  say  some¬ 
thing  about  it  locally. 
Sonoor.  Elections. — There  is  just  one 
other  point  that  seems  to  need  attention, 
and  that  is  the  proposed  election  of  the 
school  board.  It  is  practically  directed 
that  the  election  in  the  middle  of  June 
(a  busy  season  for  farmers)  shall  be  held 
in  the  village  Schoolbouse.  In  a  town 
like  ours  where  there  are  50  per  cent, 
more  people  in  town  than  in  the  country 
have  you  any  doubt  as  to  the  place  of 
residence  of  the  trustees  that  will  be 
elected?  A  few  men  in  the  village  with 
one  or  two  outside  whom  the  village  folks 
want  will  have  the  deal.  The  country 
will  he  wiped  out  so  far  as  having  any¬ 
thing  to  say  about  schools  is  concerned. 
Perhaps  it  ought  to  he,  but  I  can’t  see 
it  so.  There  are  rural  communities 
where  the  rural  people  will  be  glad  to 
have  this  done,  and  there  are  others 
where  the  country  will  have  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  numbers  over  the  village,  but 
those  are  small  villages,  and  there  it  is 
likely  that  a  consolidation  of  the  whole 
will  be  wise.  All  that  I  ask  is  that  all 
districts  be  allowed  to  say  what  they 
want  to  do  about  it. 
Rural  School  Exhibits. — While  we 
want  the  union  of  rural  districts  for  pur¬ 
poses  of  taxation,  and  are  pretty  sure  to 
want  the  union  of  districts  for  school 
purposes  after  the  taxation  scheme  has 
been  worked  out,  there  are  tilings  to  en¬ 
courage  us  in  the  present  method  of 
school  affairs.  The  picture  on  page  5 S3 
of  the  rural  school  exhibits  of  a  sin¬ 
gle  town  tells  something  of  a  story. 
Vegetables,  bird  bouses,  needlework,  cook¬ 
ing,  drawing,  etc.,  are  all  the  work  of 
young  children,  in  a  town  where  the  to¬ 
tal  number  is  considerably  under  a  hun¬ 
dred  pupils  in  the  schools  represented. 
The  quality  of  the  work  was  really  as- 
Flint  Corn 
I  am  pleased  that  you  have  given  space 
to  say  a  good  word  for  the  old  standard 
Hint  corn.  I  believe  it  worthy  of  your 
efforts  to  encourage  the  growing  of  more 
of  this  corn  in  the  Northern  States.  I 
was  impressed  with  the  type  you  selected 
to  adorn  the  cover  of  a  recent  issue.  It 
is  a  type  that  would  score  high  at  a  corn- 
show  and  give  high  yields  of  sound  corn 
at  husking  time. 
In  my  opinion  there  is  no  other  corn 
that  can  equal  the  flints  in  a  Now  Eng¬ 
land  climate-  in  both  yield  and  quality. 
We  have  various  strains  of  this  corn  bred 
for  high  yields  and  adapted  to  a  wide  va¬ 
riation  of  both  soils  and  climate.  The 
dent  varieties  have  occupied  a  whole  lot 
'  This  Big  Crop  ' 
was  not  Big  Enough 
Prizes 
Amount 
ing  to 
Thirty  farmers  have  received  $3000  in 
cash  for  the 
largest  30  crops  of  wheat,  corn  and  potatoes,  grown  on  our 
fertilizers  exclusively,  under  severe  restrictions  as  to  measur¬ 
ing  the  land  and  weighing  the  crops.  Here  are  the  results: 
BEST  YIELDS  AVERAGE  YIELDS 
Potatoes  .  375  bush,  per  acre  10  Prize  Winners  321.3  bush,  p 
Com  .  .  115  bush,  per  acre  10  Prize  Winners  96.74  bush,  p 
Wheat  .  59.86  bush,  per  acre  10  Prize  Winners  48.50  bush,  p 
The  crop  shown  in  the  photograph  was  good  but  not  good  enough  to  win  a  prize 
■Y  DO  IT?  Send  for  our  contest  book 
-— >*■  today.  It  gives  all  facts  and 
the  great  crops.  We  send  it  free  to  any  address 
figures  and  pictures  of 
The  American  Agricultural  Chemical  Co 
,  CLEVELAND,  CINCINNATI,  DETROIT 
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