1438 
have known teachers to have 36. Hence a pupil in 
a graded school receives about four times as much 
of the teacher's time as a pupil in an ungraded 
school. Therefore I ask in all seriousness if this is 
giving the child in the country a "square deal?" 
Another very important advantage of the consoli¬ 
dated school is that the teachers themselves are 
happier, because the living conditions are better and 
the social advantages are greater. No one can do 
his best work if he is not. happy and fairly well 
contented, and I care not if it is the lawyer, preacher, 
doctor, teacher or laborer. To be a good teacher 
t ue must radiate some enthusiasm and sunshine in 
a school-room: and how can this be done if a teacher 
is not happy, and bow can she be happy if her sur¬ 
roundings are not conducive to such a state of 
mind? Our school building is shown on page 1442. 
j. s. mc curdy, Supervising Principal. 
Salem Co.. N. J. 
Conditions in Central New York 
PARENTAL OBJECTIONS—In The R. N.-Y. of 
November 11 there was a clear and concise article 
by Mr. Hathaway pn the proposed rural school sys¬ 
tem. I understand that, the centralized or con¬ 
solidated type of school is to he approved by the 
Committee of Twenty-one. I wish to put my objec- 
lions to any such plan into print, although these are 
no different from the objections registered time and 
again by the many parents against the idea. In 
theory the consolidated school is everything that it 
ought to he. As Mr. Hathaway said, the thought of 
a tine, modern building in a nearby village, to which 
the children are transported night, and morning, 
with no more trouble than as if on a magic carpet, 
sounds good. The little red sehoolhouse is being 
attacked on every side—usually with much more 
truth than poetry—and the parent whose emotions 
are easily played upon and who may not give all the 
thought necessary to bis child’s real welfare is 
quickly persuaded that the country youngster should 
have all the expensive advantages, such as gyms, 
athletics, rhetoricals and a dozen others, as his city 
cousins enjoy. 
MATERIAL RESOURCES.—It goes without say¬ 
ing. too. that the central school which can call upon 
the taxes of a wide region can afford teaching met¬ 
tle of the sort never dreamed of by its smaller com¬ 
petitor, It can offer worthwhile inducements in 
broadened studies—everything can be learned there 
that any preparatory school can offer. The little 
red sclioolhouse’s curriculum is limited to the eighth 
grade, if it extends that far, and in far too many 
cases undoubtedly mounting into the millions 
throughout the Country, the eighth grade meaus the 
termination of education. It would seem, then, that 
the consolidated school has everything its own way 
so far as a better education and a more social en¬ 
vironment is concerned, and it is not to he expected 
that interested people, other than our American 
mothers, will pretend to understand why the idea 
should not go through. 
SCHOOL AND HOME.—Mr. Hathaway told us, 
aud .others have told us. It is my pleasure to re]teat 
that we farm parents know, to wit, that no school 
or ’teacher, howevr~ modernized or able, should or 
can take the place for 12 hours out of the 24 of 
home. But you say, the district school is not home, 
by any means. The children take their dinners to 
the little sehoolhouse, located half a mile or so 
away, and are gone until late afternoon. They 
aren’t home! And yet parents will insist that they 
are. There probably isn't one mother or father out 
of the dozen families whose children attend in its 
district who are not almost as familiar with that 
home sehoolhouse, its teacher and its daily routine 
as they are with their own home activities. Now¬ 
adays. even in the most remote districts, the children 
are encouraged to join pig, calf and poultry clubs, 
hold sewing aud cooking contests, have annual fairs, 
which are models of youthful industry, and are for¬ 
ever holding community picnics, parties and the like 
which bring parents and teachers and pupils to¬ 
gether as they have never been brought before. All 
this would be changed in the faraway village. Per 
haps the little district school is not so much, as we 
are told, hut at least then* is a personal interest on 
the part of everybody which would never be main¬ 
tained when the children became impersonal units in 
the big school. 
THE MORAL PROBLEM—If ever the central 
school becomes a dread reality in the writers own 
community, I declare I shall never let my youngsters 
attend, for the reason that a mob of unsupervised 
children, carried miles back and forth each day, 
would quickly become a mob of very bad children, 
inoculated by the bad children which do and always 
Ibt RURAL NEW-YORKER 
will infest every community. It is enough to have 
one's youngsters (who, heaven knows, are none too 
perfect themselves) associate with these others as 
they must in regular school hours, hut to have them 
congregated together, without supervision, on the 
long road to and from school, is absolutely unthink¬ 
able, and to my mind offsets every advantage the 
central school offers. 
PHYSICAL DIFFICULTY.—Furthermore, in the 
Winter climate of the Eastern and uiid-West States 
it. is actual cruelty to subject little children to these 
rides. We adults would never stand such daily tor¬ 
tures ourselves, and if enough of us protest in time 
our children will never be herded together for the 
purpose. Mr. Hathaway mentioned the contagions 
which would be the lot of many congregating chil¬ 
dren. lie is right. But I consider the contagions 
of the body as second in importance to those re¬ 
ceived by the adolescent mind. I would sooner cut 
off my right hand than have my children remain in 
a large village live days out of the week, free to 
commit any indiscretions they were urged or tempted 
Mr. Samuel S. Reed of Pennsylvania sends us this 
picture of a young poultry enthusiast. The future 
poultry business will surely be in safe hands if we 
are to consider the great army of children now being 
interested in the birds. One of the finest things 
about childhood is the love of furred and feathered 
pets and the desire to know how to handle them. 
into, free to tramp the streets at noon and do what 
they pleased and associate with whom they desired. 
Better far the little district school, where education 
is restricted but where the children are known to 
he comparatively safe. 
DOING IT OURSELVES.—The Rural’s motto is 
"Do it Ourselves." This is what we country parents 
have got to do to preserve our individual districts 
and our own independence. We have got to tight 
any plan to force us into obnoxious educational pro¬ 
jects whose originators are guided by beautiful 
theory. Mothers must not be blamed if they prefer 
near illiteracy for their children to the possible dan¬ 
gers of body and vices of mind which arc threatened 
under the old township school. 
INADEQUATE FACILITIES.—Our educational 
experts are honestly concerned, however, with the 
inadequate facilities for learning which are fur¬ 
nished the country child. They will threaten the 
central house of learning just as long as we hold 
hack on improving our district achoolhouses and 
raising our own educational standards. They rightly 
want the country child to have his chance along 
with the urban one. and it would seem that some¬ 
how we have got to manage to raise the money to 
supply these changes, if we are to retain our dis¬ 
tricts intact, preserve our land values, which always 
suffer when school facilities are removed, and in all. 
keep our children home where they belong and there 
fairly educated. 
RAISING MONEY.—Just how this extra money 
December 0, l’.izii 
is to ho raised is a question, for if this year is any 
specimen, the farmer is mighty lucky if he doesn’t 
go to the poor-house, let alone having Ins school 
taxes materially raised. Yet it must come to this. 
Perhaps if we all took a lot more interest in our 
own district schools—offered to improve the build¬ 
ing. for instance, by bolding “bees" and adding more 
windows, painting inside and outside, planting trees 
and shrubbery taken from the home woods, assisting 
in the installation of sanitary toilets—doing any¬ 
thing at all inexpensively to make the district school- 
house one to be proud of and attract, that phase of 
tire matter would be taken care of. 
GETTING TOGETHER FOR IMPROVEMENT.— 
Churches raise much money annually, even in very 
small communities. Schools can legitimately do the 
same. Let the parents and friends put on simple 
home talent plays and advertise them outside the 
district: hold socials, old-time singing schools, fairs, 
exhibitions—there is literally no end to the lucrative 
entertainments that could lie devised by interested 
and energetic parents and neighbors who believe in 
and must work for their schools in order to keep 
them. The money thus earned could go for a bet to i 
teacher, who naturally gets a higher salary; or part 
of it could be expended for a school library, well 
chosen, to circulate in that district. Or for up-to- 
date charts, blackboards, textbooks, athletic sup¬ 
plies—a hundred and one things our little schools 
lack which are supplied as a matter of course in 
the big ones. All this and more we could do. and 
if we did them it is almost certain that our children 
would never again be pitied and “helped" by the 
authorities who now have them rightly on their 
minds. The writer, for one. thinks it would be 
mighty worth while to improve our own schools and 
through them our country children. A whole new 
world could lie opened up to them in their own 
down-at-the-heel seat of learning if we wished it 
hard enough; and if we don’t, the centralized school 
will get us if we don’t watch out. May that day 
never, never come, for the sake of little children and 
their anxious parents. iielen s. k. willcox. 
Chenango Co.. N. Y. 
Fitting Poultry for the Show 
Will you give me all details concerning the prepara¬ 
tion of chickens for a poultry show? e.S. 
Vineland, N. J. 
HE first thing to do in preparing for it poultry 
show is to have good stock, and in good physical 
condition; that is, not too fat or too lean or thin in 
tlesh. A great deal depends upon condition, and no 
amount of "fixing up” van overcome the disadvan¬ 
tages of poor condition, although it may help 
somewhat. There are a great many varieties of 
poultry, and it is necessary for a person to become 
familiar with “The American Standard of Perfec¬ 
tion," which describes the rules made by the Amer¬ 
ican Poultry Association governing all varieties of 
poultry for exhibition. Many poultry shows now 
have two classes, fancy and utility. All white birds 
to be shown in the fancy class should be washed 
with some pure soap and warm water, and tlior 
oughly rinsed in three waters. The last rinsing 
water should have a little bluing in it, but not 
enough to show blue on the feathers. They should 
then he placed iu clean coops and kept in a room 
where the temperature runs 100 degrees or over 
jntil thoroughly dry. Never wash birds for exhi¬ 
bition in the utility classes, as it interferes nvith 
their regular routine of eating and sleeping, and 
causes some of the hens and pullets to stop laying, 
so they do not show to as good advantage as when 
in the pink of laying condition. Washing also 
affects the males sometimes, putting them slightly 
off condition temporarily. There is quite a knack 
in the preparation of birds for exhibition, and the 
results depend to a great extent upon the experi¬ 
ence and skill ol' the person doing the work. The 
legs and toes should be thoroughly washed, and the 
dirt cleaned out from under the scales while wet. 
using a dull toothpick. The comb and wattles may 
be brightened up by rubbing lightly with sweet oil 
and alcohol mixed, equal parts, and drying with a 
soft cloth. Always look out sharply for disquali¬ 
fications, such as deformities of any description, 
feathers mi the shanks of clean-legged varieties, and 
white in the face «if all Leghorn cockerels. 
C. S. GREENE* 
One of our people gives this as his best method of 
getting kerosene in the throats and noses of hens with 
a cold: “Put grain in some large pan. Cover with 
water, kU to 1 in., then pour coal oil on, no other feed 
nor water, and keep sick ones in barn loft.” 
