182 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 11, 1022 
Rural School Improvement Program 
meet the educational standards set up in 
the program. A careful study of these 
allotments and the whole pinri of equali¬ 
zation would appear to show no possibil¬ 
ity of a weak (listriel being taxed beyond 
its ability to pay, nor of any of its chil¬ 
dren being deprived of a fair chance to 
obtain a good elementary and high school 
education, and this is what, the commit¬ 
tee has continually kept in view. 
lu the new community unit of admin¬ 
istration and taxation, every common 
school district will retain its local or¬ 
ganization. will keep ils local school un¬ 
less it votes to discontinue it, and its 
truslccs will represent it In the com- 
tnunity unit hoard of education. Each 
community unit will elect, a member of 
i In* intermedinte unit hoard of educa¬ 
tion. and this small hoard, working with 
the district superintendent, will look after 
the broader interests of all I he community 
units within the supervisory district. 
With this organization that has been de¬ 
scribed, the rural schools would soon en¬ 
joy many of the advantages that have 
heretofore been denied them, owing to the 
previous lack of any organization through 
which local wishes and aspirations for 
better training for rural children could 
function. At the same time, rural patrons 
will continually have I heir hands upon the 
local machinery, so that it must be re- 
At a two days’ meeting in Rochester, 
January 27 and 28, the Joint Committee 
on Rural Education, known also as “the 
Committee of Twenty-one," finished a re¬ 
view of the findings of the survey stuff, 
and completed a tentative program for 
rural school improvement in New York 
State. The two essential features of this 
program are: 
1. An equitable distribution of the bur¬ 
den of school support. 
2. The setting up of local machinery to 
undertake the administration of school 
affairs. 
If the proposed system be accepted 
there can be no more extreme variations, 
as al present, in local school lax rates 
and there will he a decentralisation of au¬ 
thority and a transfer of authority and 
responsibility from the State Department 
to tin* patrons of the rural schools. There 
are many other features of the program 
that are of great interest. Following are 
some of the most important of these; 
The efficient special training of rural 
young man and women to teach rural 
Buy Direct from the Grower 
1LTARRIS’ SEEDS arc largely grown on our own farm and 
^ sold direct to the real gardeners at lower prices than 
charged by any other really reliable seedsman. 
Don’t pay city seedsmen high prices for seeds not as good, 
or certainly no better. 
HARRIS’ CATALOGUE is a book full of useful information for gardeners. It 
contains many suggestions as to what to plant and the varieties best suited to 
various needs. It. is free to all who an- interested. 
Gardeners will find In the catalogue many new and superior varieties of vegetables 
and flowers. Farmers will be interested in New Oats, Superior Northern 
Grown, Seed Corn, Pcdijjrcc Seed Potatoes and other Field Seeds. 
Market Gardeners find Harris’ Seeds the heat. 
Why not use them ? ask for catalogue today. 
Joseph Harris Co., Drawer m, Coldwater, N. Y 
DIBBLE’S 
Seed 
Potatoes 
Northern-grown, Irom selected stock seed 
planted on soils especially adapted to each 
variety, produce a quality that tor vigor, 
purity and productiveness Is unexcelled. 
60,000 Bushels 
of the choicest varieties. Early, Inter¬ 
mediate and Late.includingCobblers, 
Ohios, Rose, Manistee*. Improved 
Green Mountains, Moneymakers, 
Carmans, Rural*, Raleighs, Gold 
Coins and Dibble’s Russet, the most 
disease resistant and productive main 
crop kind of our time, in any quantity 
from barrels to carloads. 
For th** extra particular, cnrclul Potato 
Grower, we hove a lew thousand bushels ol 
Certified Russets 
and a tag of certification goes with each 
bag, of course, but all of our stock is 
from fields that were free from disense and 
where the vines grew green, naturally ripen¬ 
ing or were killed by frost. 
Dibble’s Farm Seed Catalog 
giving lull descriptions of Dibble’s Seed 
Potatoes, Corn, Oats, Alfalfa, Clover nnd 
Grass Seeds, and Special Price List FREE 
Address : 
Edward F. Dibble Sccdjjrower 
Box B, Iloncoye Falls, N. Y. 
From Our Farms to Yours 
1 “Little Mother ” on Note York's East Ride 
sptuisivc to their will, as expressed by 
their representatives on these boards. 
It would mi longer be necessary to go 
to the State Department of Education for 
a sanction or a decision in reference to 
schools; State aid being afforded in schol¬ 
arships at normal schools for them to get 
this training. 
Sufficient inducements to these well* 
FRUIT TREES AND SMALL FRUIT PLANTS, GRAPE VINES, 
ORNAMENTAL TREES, SHRUBS AND ROSES 
we have been supplying trees and plants to growers for nearly a third of a century ; and wo 
number bv thousands the ever Increasing list of our friends nnd natrons. < atalogs free upon 
request T. B. WEST, Maple Bend Nursery. P.«. Box No. 110, I erry. Ohio. 
APPLE-PLUM 
CHERRY 
PEACH-PEAR 
DWARF 
TREES 
TREES & PLANTS THAT GROW 
Bear 
quicker 
Catalogue Free 
THE VAN DUSEN NURSERIES 
C. C. McKAY, Mgr. Box R. Geneva. N. 
Save 
room 
This book has bad a remarkable reception. We have Jmd 
orders for it from China, South Africa, New Zealand, Hawaii, 
Austria and Brazil. It lias gone to every State in the union. 
Among many appreciative letters comes the following front the 
heart of the Blue Grass”: 
1 have ever been a reader of your notes m l he Rural New- 
Yorker, hut it is not recalled that in a long life any hook was 
read with so much pleasure and profit as your recent compilation. 
The mellow and wholesome philosophy that pervades every page 
bears tribute to both head and heart. 
With the hope that the lengthening shadows of a declining sun 
may long yet cast their evening glory on your toll and fruitfu 
life' believe me. Sincerely yours, 
Kentucky. II- F. LIIIXENMEYER. 
Our people say they buy this book because it presents in read¬ 
able form bright pictures of the finest side of farm life Ibis conn 
try has ever known.- It is a period of life now fast disappearing 
In’history, and it. should he preserved In the minds of all our peo- 
R. F. D. or Street No 
trained, rurally brotight-UJi teachers, to 
draw them into the service, and keep 
them a reasonable length of time, so that 
they would gain experience, and the rural 
districts would protit by this experience. 
Modernizing and making more practical 
the courses of study. 
Furnishing free high school education 
fur ull rural hoys and girls, no matter 
where they live. 
Provision for establishing rural junior 
high schools. 
Abolishing the compulsory consolidation 
provision of the school law, leaving this 
matter to he settled in each case by the 
majority vote of the common school dis¬ 
trict. concerned. 
Gradual substitution of modern equip¬ 
ment and approved conditions in rural 
schoolhouscs, with Stale aid in attaining 
satisfactory s tandari 
Gradual substitution of local stand¬ 
ards and tests and measurements for the 
present regents’ examinations, teachers 
being especially trained in the future 
with n view to qualifying them for this 
new responsibility. 
The most difficult tasks of the commit¬ 
tee were, perhaps, those of equalizing the 
burden of school support and deciding 
upon the unit of taxation and administra¬ 
tion. Dr. Harlan Updegraff of the Uni¬ 
versity of Pennsylvania, and Dr. <H. 
Judd of the University of Chicago, head¬ 
ed tin- respective divisions of the survey 
staff, in the study of these matters. A 
vast amount of data was col lee ted and 
many school patrons and principals and 
teachers and school officials were consult¬ 
ed. After the reports of the survey staff 
were rendered the committee spent u 
number of days in going over these two 
subjects. 
Figuring on a teacher unit with a 
total expense per teacher of $1,200, il is 
calculated that under the committee’s 
plan the tax rate will be equalized at 
.00r>R, which is far below what several 
thousands of the districts that are finan¬ 
cially weakest now pay. 
A earefitllv thought-out system of al¬ 
lotment of district quotas will aid the 
different, districts according to their abil¬ 
ity and the willingness that they show to 
numerous questions that may arise, but 
which hitherto have many limes never 
been settled satisfactorily at all, owing to 
the difficulties involved. Under the pro¬ 
posed plan the position of a rural teacher, 
a rural high school principal, the district, 
superintendent, the common school dis¬ 
trict trustee and the members ,,f the two 
hoards will he positions of dignity and 
responsibility, which will lend themselves 
to a constantly increasing efficiency. 
The very numerous questions that will 
now arise as to how the functions of the 
different parts of this proposed new sys¬ 
tem would he defined, and what their re¬ 
lations would he, will now he the subjects 
for discussion in the local farm organiza¬ 
tions. The condensed report of the com¬ 
mittee, which report will he issued in the 
form of a small book, will take up these 
matters. Briefer explanations of the dif¬ 
ferent phases of the committee's work 
will be'prepared, published and furnished 
to farm organizations and school officers. 
ltBBlIKKT (I. BEEP. 
A Life Lease 
What is meant when the following oc¬ 
curs in a warranty deed? “Witnesseth. 
that the said party of the first part, in 
consideration of a stated sum of (■>..! 
paid by the said party of the second part, 
iiis heirs and assigns, forever, a life lease 
in the following described property.” 
Which party is benefited by the lease? 
When is the lease terminated, at the 
death of the party benefited? Or when the 
amount of money is used for his benefit? 
What is included in n life lease? Does 
such a deed become a deed of lease, or is 
it still a warranted deed? a. it. s. 
New York. 
Assuming that you have given all the 
important language iti the deed, we con¬ 
clude that the parly of the second part 
is given by the first party a life use of 
the property in said deed described. The 
lease will terminate at the death of the 
second parly, hut during his lifetime the 
second party is entitled to all the rights 
and privileges in ami to the property de¬ 
scribed. It is very common to draw a 
life lease in the form of a deed. N. T. 
