194 
'<She RURAL NEW-YORKtlK 
February 10. I MT. 
ucnieaiv urown 
i41fal& Seed 
Insurance 
By planting acclimated 
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I . Other hardy strains of Al- 
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Write today. 
S. M. Isbell & Co, 
■ -831 Pearl Street, Jackson, Mich. 
Dakota Hardy A¥ FA I PA 
Doei Not Winter Kill ^ 
Our DiAcn Alfnlfn nnd f^ed Book iHvofl full Information al>out 
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DAKOTA IMPROVED SEED CO. 
807 Lawler Street - • • Mitchell, So, Dakota 
CLIMB IN SAFETY 
Don’t risk your life on a flimsy or home¬ 
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the lightest and strongest ladders made. 
Low priced and long lasting. Ladder 
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THE BERLIN FRUIT BOX CO. 
Berlin Height*, Ohio 
Get Low Prices 
on Berry Boxes 
and 
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Write for our 
FrccOatalogt Shows you how you 
can save money by buying direct 
from the. lariieat Kerry liox anti 
Btisket Vactory in the Country. 
New Albany Eox & Basket Co.. Box 111 New Albany.IniL 
Ce N. ROBINSON & BRO 
HOT BED SASH 
nC CYPRESS, wellmado 
with cross bar, blind 
UUl* tenons,whltclcadedin 
joints, Glase, $2.00 per Box. 
Dept, 14 Baltimore, Md. 
TREES 
From tirower To Flanter. 
None hotter. True to name 
No di.sease. FjOW pricos 
Hardy Reach ii si)eciHlty. Catalog free. Est. 18.')8. 
FREMONT NURSERY - Fremont Ohio 
Mloc’hrarmsStrain ASPARAGUS SEED 
$5 |>er lb. A. F. liandolpli, Bound Brook, N. J. 
Vao-plahla varieties in their season. 
fcgcTaOlB rianTS Rtrawi)ei'ry Plants, all best varie¬ 
ties. incinding Fall Hearers, and the wonderfulnew 
lierry “(.'liester.” Catalogue Free. S C. lUherleii.Greenwoed.Del 
^mollPriiltPlanfo FROM THE VERMONT HILLS. All va- 
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plants free from crown gall or other diseases, (lat- 
aloc free. Geo. 1>. Aiken, Box M, Putney, Vt. 
Strawberry Plants 
fiO.OOO Progressive @ ti.75 per 1.000. 
8. A. VIKIHN, llurtly, Del. 
STRAWBERRY 
PLANTS —Best Ev<'rt)caring. Also 
standard .Juno fruiiing varieties. 
yCftCTARI PQ ALL KINDS- Get my price on plants 
■ bill- IHULUO sent by parcel post, prepaid, and 
special price on lai-ge orders. C. E. FlELl), Kenoll, K. J. 
f^t X* £t'v\7'lo OX* x*! eo 
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guarantee to i)loas6 yon or refund your money. 
Descripiive Cttaion tree. E. W. JOHNSON & BRO., Salisbury, Md, 
Sixteen Varietie*at!S3.50. 
per 1,000. Descriptive 
Catalogue Free. Basil I'crry, Georoetown, Delaware 
STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
' ‘Strawberry Plants That Grow” 
" P R O Q R E S S IV E.” Best Fall-Bearer; also Rtd. June 
sorts, including our New Seedling *• ('Ol.I.I.NS.” 
Full AKssriiiient Other Fruit riaiiU. Catalogue -T JTCC 
C.E. WHITTEN’S NURSERIES.Box ll.Bridgman.Mich. 
STRAWBERRY PLANTS SALE 
60 varieties to solcct from, including tbo FalUbcaHnflr Asparawas 
roots, at 
Catalog 
Itaspbcrry and I)cwlj«?iTy plunts, etc 
- b«pt. 2. J. KEIFFORD . 
Send for Free 
HALL, Rhodesdale, Md* 
GARDEN AND FARM BOOKS 
Vegetable Gardening, Watts . 
Productive Vegetable Growing, Lloyd 1.50 
Garden Farming, Corbett . 
Manures and Fertilizers, Wheeler. 
.. 1.60 
Farm Manures, Thorne . 
.. 1.50 
F.mn Management, Warren. 
.. 1.75 
Irrigation and Drainage, King ... 
For sale by THE RURAL 
YORKER, 333 W. 30th St., New 
NEW- 
York, 
‘‘Great Crops of 
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Is the best and most complete book on 
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year 'round wlthoutcost, and how.to make 
t$00 to $1200 per acre each year. The book is FREE. 
Strawberries grown the KELLOGG 
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less time than any other crop. The profits made from 
strawberries are enormous. One acre of strawberries 
grown tho KELLOGG WAY will yield a greater 
cash profit than twenty acres of common farm crops. 
$1412.50 
Is the amount Frank 
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one-half acres of Kel¬ 
logg Pedigree Plants 
crown the KELLOGG 
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doing fully as well. 
Our 64-pago free book 
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book is FREE. 
R. M. Kellogg Company, 
Box 480 Three River*, MicH, 
/ EVERBEARING 
STRAWBERRY 
—PLANTS— 
$6.00---. lOOO 
$1.00.lOO 
Your choice Progressive or Superb, 
leading standard varieties, $2.00 
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Our large stock makes ihe above prices possible. W* 
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E.W. TOWNSEND 25 Vine St. SALISBURY, MD. 
Strawberries 
■■ V V'. 
f w/" 
Large, Luscious Ones 
'•’J ‘ l: 
.^Thekind you can grow 
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fr Write today for your copy—FREE}. 
THE W. F. ALLEN CO. 
72 Market SL, Salisbury, M<t 
-WB 
owers 
RY 
'ontest 
$1,SO.OO in Gold to the Winners! 
Think of it 1 Large, templing, rctl strawborrios 7 months every 
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\jrrow for Market—make money. 
OurfTechook on strawberry culture tctls how—so riuln a child 
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Write today. J. T. Garrifion ^ Sons, Woodstown, K. J. 
5,000,000 STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
at $1.90 to $2 per 1,000 
Frank Knowles of Oliio says ” your J’limts are as 
ood as I have paid $8 per 1,000 for.” Catalog free, 
■’rite today. C. S. PERDUE. Box 21. Showell, Md. 
CAMPBELL’S EARLY STRAWBERRY 
The Best First Early Variety, A new one and a 
money maker. Cireuljir Free. 
WILLARD Jt. KILLE . Swedesboro, N, J. 
STRAWBERRY PLANTS 
Kverbenring and June vai ie- 
tics. Also Ka« p h err y and 
Bliickberiy plants. Asparagus roots and Sweet I'ot.ito 
seed. Catalogue free. H. N. ItoHOO.t iiiciund, A. ,1, 
S TRAWRFRDIFQ Send for new catalog. Low 
inAIIDCnnICO pnees for best plants. 100 
Superb everbearingmailedforlSl eastof Miss. 
(34th year our a<ivertisemeiit has been in K. 
N.-Y.) SI^YAIAKKK, Wyoming, Delaware 
lAfl Everbearing 
lUU Strawberries 
Plants $1.40 Paid 
rrogreuJvd, Americus or Superb. We introduced progrcMlve. 
which. 25 Everbeariog Keel Kas. 70ctB. poKtijmid. Cutulo^ 
Frc^ all about the New Everbeurcra and other iinportant varieties. 
C. N. FLANSBURGH &SON, Jackson. Mich. 
SEED 
BUYERS 
SAVE 
MONEY 
FIELD SEEDS 
AT 2MLESS MONEY 
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^am- 
get 
IjlJJNOI^ 
I The Township.System of Schools Proposed 
for New York 
Part I. 
Changki) Conditions.— Onr present 
(li.strict sehool system originated in a 
law enacted in 170."), when the popul.a- 
tion of New York State was counted in 
the thousands, when the population of 
the rural districts was greater than that 
of the villages and cities, when the roads 
were poor in all parts of the State, and 
mere paths through the forest in many 
parts, when means of communication and 
travel were primitive and difficult, when, 
in brief, the interests of ^a rural com¬ 
munity were confined within a small 
area. Twlay all these conditions are re¬ 
versed. The ])opulation of the State is 
practically ften millions, the population 
of the villages and cities is greater than 
that of the country districts; the steam¬ 
boat, the railroad, the automobile have 
made communication and travel ea.sy, 
the weekly paper of the eounfry people 
changed to the semi-weekly, the semi- 
weekly to the daily as rural delivery was 
introduced, and no longer are the 
thoughts, the pleasures and the interests 
of country p<‘ople confined to their im¬ 
mediate localities. 
School Imfkovf.ment. —During this 
time the one-room ungraded country 
school did not stand entirely still. The 
log buildings gave way to frame build¬ 
ings, the buildings were jiainted, modern 
desks were put in, waruier and better 
floors replaced the old fio rs, a diction¬ 
ary, a globe, wall maps and library 
books were added, the teachers became 
better qualified. All these changes were 
for the better but there was another 
change. After a time the number of 
pupils attending the rural schools became 
less each year. Whore once the attend¬ 
ance was from 20 to oO boys and girls 
it drojipcd in tho majority of districts to 
an average daily attendance of 10 or 
less. It would -be fooli.sh to argue that 
the country school of today is not bet¬ 
ter than the country school of the past, 
but it is not as good as the graded school 
with more teachers, more puplis, better 
buildings and more sanitary surround¬ 
ings. We boast that education is free 
to the hoys and girls of our State, and 
it is free, but we cannot say that it is 
both free and equal in the sense that 
the children attending the country schools 
get as much for every dollar spent as do 
the children attending the graded schools 
of the villages. This is not wholly the 
fault of the teachers in the rural schools, 
but is largely the fault of our rural school 
system. We might say that it is due to 
our trying to make a system-designed for 
100 years ago fit present conditions. 
TJnequal Tax Rates. —We who be¬ 
lieve iu the town.ship system feel that 
the rural school docs not measure up to 
the standards of today, hut the weakest 
spot iu onr present system is the man¬ 
ner in which its .business is carried on. 
Its administration is cumbersome and 
wasteful. The i)resent method of rais¬ 
ing money for school purposes is unfair 
and unjust. In a certain rural district 
in the town in which I live the school 
tax rate last year was $1 on each $100 
of asw'ssed valuation. In another dis¬ 
trict less than one mile away the rate 
was 21 cent.s. I am told that 40 years 
a';o the rates in the two districts were 
practically the same. With the building 
of railroads nnd State highways, with the 
introduetion of the telegraph and the 
telephone, with the growth of Summer 
resort business, tho value of the land 
in the district with a rate of 21 cents 
increased nearly six times as fast as the 
^ value of the land in the district with a 
rate of $1. The people in-the district 
having the high rate are just as pro¬ 
gressive, they work just as hard, they 
are just as good farmers as tho.se living 
in the district Avith the low rate, but 
circumstances over which they had no 
control make them pay nearly five times 
as much for the .support of their school 
as their nc-ighhors in the other district. 
Under the township system we shall 
have a unifoim tax rate in each town. 
This tax will be collected by the town 
collector. This will do away with the 
loss arising from the many /ases of un¬ 
paid st'hool taxes that remain unsettled 
each year. If it is logical to have a 
uuifoi'in highway tax in each town it 
is just as ’ogical to have a uniform 
school tax in each town. The benefits 
derived from a school are not confined 
within the boundaries of the district 
maintaining the school but are diffused 
over a wide area. The schools are per¬ 
forming a public .service, and the cost of 
maintaining them should be distributed 
over a reasonably large territory. 
Cost of Township System. —Will 
schools cost more under the township 
system? Tln-y should cost less. It 
seems reasonable to believe that in a 
town having 15 rural .schoohs, that a 
single board of edjuation will be able 
to purchase the supplies for all the 
schools cheaper, in oue lot, than when 
purchased by the 15 stjparate trustees 
buying them in 15 small lots. A single 
board should be able to make repairs and 
improvements cheaper, and tliey certainly 
will be more uniform when looked after 
by a single board than when controlled 
by 15 separate trustees with 1.5 diffei-ent 
ideas of what should and should not be 
done in the 15 diffei'ent districts. A sin¬ 
gle board should be able to hire better 
qualified teachers than the 1.5 trustees, 
who usually have little time to sjiend 
looking up the qualification of teachers. 
POSISTBILITIES OF FaVORITI.SM.'—L s 
there not a danger of the single board 
favoiing certain schools and neglecting 
others? No, there is no more danger of 
this with a town board of education than 
there is of unjust treatment for certain 
localities at the hands of the town 
board of asses.sors. If such a situation 
comes up the people have the cure in 
their own hands. It is doubtful if a ma¬ 
jority of those serving on a tOA\jn board 
of education would be so unfair as to 
favor certain districts at the expen.se of 
the other.s. 
Local Interest. —Wall not the people 
lose interest in their local school under 
the town.ship system? The chances are 
that they will take an inercasej] interest. 
?. ^V' W'^teni provides for the utmost pub¬ 
licity in the admini.stration of our school 
affairs. _ The publishing of the school 
j)udget Jii the town papers and the post¬ 
ing of copies in public places within the 
town will direct the attention of the 
jieople to their schools a.s never before. 
Under the present system the percentage 
of voters who attend the annual meet¬ 
ing in the rural districts is very small. 
In all probability the nutnijer of A’otes 
cast at an annua] meeting under the 
township system will be greater than the 
total vote now cast at the meetings in 
the separate districts. 
Local Uontrol. —Does not the town¬ 
ship .system do away with the jirinciple 
of local control? No, it only ■makes the 
unit of local control the town instead of 
each school district. Those w'ho are can¬ 
didates for the school board must lie 
nominated by petitions. Thi.s will di¬ 
rect the attention of the voters to -the 
character and qualifications of the men 
and women who are to control the affairs 
of the schools and the best in the town 
Avill be chosen. No longer will the office 
of trustee he thrust upon some unwilling 
person, no longer will it be given to 
some man wdio is not present at the an¬ 
nual meeting to protest against accept¬ 
ing it, no longer will it bo given to some 
man who has just moved into the dis¬ 
trict and his being made ti'ustec consid¬ 
ered a good joke on him. The office will 
acquire a dignity that it does not now 
possess. 
Unifoum Text-books. —Does the 
township system mean uniform text¬ 
books? Yes, for each town at least. .\t 
the pre-sent time the text-books in a ma¬ 
jority of the rural schools arc so varied 
in the same subjects that it is impos.sibh’ 
for the teachers to secure the best re¬ 
sults. Uniform text-books will not only 
be cheaper for the parents, in the end, 
but Avill increase the efiicieucy of the 
rvn-al schools 50 per cent. 
THOS. B. 8TOEL. 
Buffalo Markets 
There is little change in the city mar¬ 
ket situation. Everybody is watching 
the Southern crop development for a 
drop in potatoes and other vogotiibles. 
The actual price of potatoes is not so 
high as it was a month ago, though it 
is very stiff at $1.15 to .$1.:{5 per bu., 
and sweets, $1.5() to $2.25 jfer hamper. 
.\l))»les are up to $5.,50 for best red, 
$4.25 for_ No. 2. The bushel price is 
$1 to_$1.50 for anything above common 
and 75 to 90 cents for low grade. 
Onions are stronger, at $.‘i..‘10 to .$.3.50 
for hoine-grown yellow per bu.. and $‘2 
to $2.25 per crate for Spanish. Deans 
are steady, at $7 to $8.25 for the various 
sorts in high grades, marrows leading 
the others in price. 
Dnttcr is 41 cents for bo.st creaniei-y, 
with ,SG to 37 cents for best dairy, 32 to 
2(> cents for crocks, and 28 to 29 cents 
for all sorts of poor butter. The market 
is strong, riiocse remains at 20 cents 
for best domestic, running down to 21 
to 22 cents for fair to goml. The egg 
market is .strong, though prices have de¬ 
clined since Jast report. White hennery, 
fresh are 45 to 40 cents, and storage, 
41 to 42 cents, the difference being at its 
smallest this cold weather. 
Poultry prices are unchanged, though 
the receipts of live are light. Quota¬ 
tions foislive are 27 to .30 cents for tui’- 
key; 22 to 2.3 cents for fowl; 10 to 21 
cents for light chicken; 10 to 17 cents 
for old roosters; 22 to ^3 cents for duck, 
and 18 to 20 cents for geese, all top 
])rice.s. Dressed poultry is about 3 cents 
highi'r than live. 
3’he vegetable market is strong and 
will continue so till there is a good show¬ 
ing of new Southern stuff here. A little 
new cabbage .sells at .$3 per hamper with 
old, $5 to $0 i)er 100 Ihs. New be«*ts are 
0.5 to 75 cents per dozen bunches; old 
beets are $1.80 to $2 per bu. String 
beans are $4 to .$5 per hamper, ('elery 
is plenty at 40 to DO cents inn- dozen 
bunches, dwarf. l.ettuee is no longer 
plenty at $1 to $1.2.5 for 2-doz. box, and 
endive .$2.75 to $3..50 per :^)bl. I’arsnips 
are .$1.50 to $1.75 per bu.; turnips $2.2.5 
per hu. for yellow, and .$1.75 for white; 
spinach $3.50 per bbl. Hothouse cu¬ 
cumbers are $1.25 to $2 per doz.; to¬ 
matoes IS to 20 i>er lb. A few Florida 
tomatoes sell at $3 to $4 per crate. In 
game only rabbits are shown, selling at, 
.‘iO to 45 cents per pair for cotton tails 
and GO to 75 cents for jacks. J. w. c. 
“How often does your mad kill a 
man?” asked a facetious traveling sales¬ 
man of a Central Draneh conductor the 
other day. “.lust once,” replied the con¬ 
ductor sourly.—Credit lost. 
