416 
■Ghet RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 17, 1917 
C4frs 
C££AU 
ififMT 
mAFr 
Only $5.00 Repairs in 22 Years 
August Schroeder, of Mascoutah, III., writes: 
*'/ bought an Adriance 22 years ago. Previous omner had used it about 5 years. 
/ can cut now lohere any other mower will cut; and in all these years the total cost of re¬ 
pairs has not been over $5.00”. 
Up-To-Date Adriance Features 
Appreciated by Farmers Everywhere 
Can’t be clogged by slow driving. ■ Knives start the instant wheels move forward. 
Visible Driving Pawls—driver can always see whether they are acting properly. 
Flexible Cutter Bar, hinged like a door, follows uneven ground—no binding. 
Folds over tongue when not in use. 
Forward acting foot lever raises bar easily above obstructions. 
Automatic Spring Draft protects driver, mower and team from injury when strik¬ 
ing obstructions. 
Weight equally distributed on high, wide wheels; ample 
power for hardest cutting and on short turns. 
Moline-Adriance Mowers are simple, strong, light draft- 
give maximum service at minimum repair cost. 
Ask your Moline dealer to tell you about them, or write 
us for illustrated literature. 
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Si 
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The best-built drills 
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backed by 33 years 
manufacturing ex¬ 
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with Jessup force 
feed—positive and 
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weight. Driven by both wheels—no side 
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wheels. Hoe, Single Disc and Double 
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any seed. Also Crown Traction prayers. 
Lime Sowers and Grass Seeders. Write for 
catalog—nowl It’s a money-saver. 
Crown Mfg. Co. 12 Wayne St, Phelps, N. Y. 
SPORICIDE 
,5."=!.'. SMUT 
in oats. Simple to treat. Sent direct on trial where we have no 
agent. Free Booklet. Local Agents wanted. Elstablished 1905. 
SPORICIDE CHEMICAL CO., Atlanta, N.Y. 
Why Honey-Bees "3 
are Afoney-Bees 
Extent of the honey market?—Profits 
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THE A. 1. ROOT CO. Medina. Ohio 
BiRK^st producers of and dealers in bees 
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POTATOES for PROFIT 
All signs point to another year of high prices for Po¬ 
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The New York Rural-School Bill 
We have had manj' letters from our 
readers about the propo^;ed new seliool 
law for New York fitate. IMany of these 
letters are from country people who pro- 
te.st vigorously against this law. Most 
of them fear that in some way it is de¬ 
signed to oonsolidsite school c^ifitriets, 
and thus take their own rural .school 
away from them. Most of these men 
and women are very serious in their op¬ 
position, while on the other hand others 
are .just as eager in their demand for 
the bill. We have re«;e;ved a large num¬ 
ber of letters from outside the State, 
showing from experience how consolida¬ 
tion has operated in other places. It ap¬ 
pears, however, as we study the bill act¬ 
ually before the Legislature, that this 
discussion of consolidation has little to 
do with the subject. As we see in the 
comments which follow “A Delaware 
County Reader’s” letter below this bill 
definitely .states that one district cannot 
be consolidated with another until a ma¬ 
jority of the voters in both districts vote 
in favor of such consolidation. We have 
al.so been told that the (Jrange is divided 
against itself over this question. The 
claim is made that the State Grange 
favors the bill, while the Subordinate 
Granges are opposed to it. Inve.stigation 
shows that this is not true. The follow¬ 
ing letter from S. .T. Lowell, Master of 
the State Grange, explains the situation, 
and the following extract from a letter 
from W. N. Giles, Secretary of the 
Grange confirms ^Ir, Lowell’s opinion. 
school bill has been up for consid¬ 
eration for the last three years if I re¬ 
member correctls'. The Grange opposed 
the bill most strenuously. At the 1916 
session of the State Gi'ange a re.solution 
was passed calling for a committee to 
investigate conditions through the year 
and report at the 1917 meeting. This 
committee furnished the bill, that was 
introduced in Fobimary of 1916, to every 
Grange in the State, asking them to di.s- 
cuss the matter and report. This was 
done very generally and no measure has 
ever had so much attention as this one. 
The committee held numerous meetings, 
and received a great many resolutions. 
Their report was read at the State 
Grange, received, and referred to the 
school committee of the session foi- its 
information. I’ublic hearings were held 
and a general discussion of the whole sit¬ 
uation. lle(V)mmend'ations were made, 
and upon tlu'se recommendations a re¬ 
port of this committee was drawn and 
presented to the body, nnd nnanimou.sly 
carried, not one i)erson dissentinj;. 
This report gives specific instructions 
to the legislative committee of the State 
Grange. We have followed those in¬ 
structions exactly, have had a bill draft¬ 
ed, following the lines laid clown In 
their report. The bill has been intro¬ 
duced and is being mailed to every 
Grange in the State of New Yoi-k. We 
await their decision before we ask for 
any changes or that the bill be deferred 
another year. 
The great difference which has been 
overcome is the matter of consolidation. 
M’e all felt that the bills have all here¬ 
tofore presented, carried with tliem a 
joker in that it merely meant consolida¬ 
tion. When that conclition was removed 
there seemed to be but little difference of 
opinion, and we look to a rather satis¬ 
factory solution of the whole matter in 
the present bill. However, in this we 
may be mistaken, and are willing and 
anxious to abide by the decision of the 
Subordinate Granges. s. J. lowell. 
Ma.ster N. Y. Grange. 
The State Grange received 31 resolu¬ 
tions upon the subject and considered 
them carefully, and adopted the commit¬ 
tee’s report, and the same was published 
quite accurately in The R. N.-Y. This 
report directc'd that the legislative com¬ 
mittee prepare a bill governing ruraf 
schools, along the lines a.s recommended 
in that report, and this has been done 
and the bill introduced on the 22nd by 
Assemblyman Machold. This is the 
State Grange Bill, and is what the State 
Grange will work for, and is authority. 
Many Subordinate Granges are op- 
posc'd to any arbitrary consolidation of 
seliools by the Educational Department, 
or the District Superintendent and cer¬ 
tain newspapers and book concerns have 
persisted in calling it a consolidation 
measure, while it is ab.solutely the con¬ 
trary. It specifically provides that all 
present .school districts shall remain as 
now, and no districts can be consoli¬ 
dated, until they themselves have so 
voted; it is absolutely “home rule.” 
I think when the real facts are known, 
end the merits of the bill understood, 
that there will be a unanimous support 
of it from (the Subordinate Granges, 
as there surely ought to be, as it has 
the unanimous approval of the State 
Grange. In preparing the bill I had to 
give up some of my own personal opin¬ 
ions (they may have been prejudices) 
but for the sake of unanimity I. did so, 
and believe we have a cbmpfehijpsivo 
workable bill, and one that meansr real 
progress. w. xr. Giles. 
It is evident that the New. ^Y<^rk 
Grange has spent much time in studying 
this important matter, and they’ have 
givui great consideration to this matter 
of consolidation. The bill is known as 
Assembly Bill 1016. It covers .38 pages, 
and every farmer in the State who is 
interested in the rural schools should 
obtain a copy of it and give it a care¬ 
ful study. It would seem as if this bill 
had received a more thorough study and 
investigation by farmers and their rep¬ 
resentatives than any other which has 
come before the I.egi.slature in a long 
time. Many of us will agree that con¬ 
solidation in some of our country dis¬ 
tricts would be a mistake, and if this 
bill provided for taking the rural .school 
away from a community by any arbi¬ 
trary power, it should not pass, for that 
will mean stealing the rights of the 
people to control their own local af¬ 
fairs. As is pointed out, however, this 
bill does not take such rights away, for 
the final decision will be left to the vot¬ 
ers of the district, and they should be 
trusted to act wis^ely in their own af¬ 
fairs. Some objections have been point¬ 
ed out aside from this idea of consoli-' 
dation, but upon the whole it seems to 
us that this school bill is an improve¬ 
ment over the old plan, and worth try¬ 
ing. 
The Rural School in New York 
I have read the articles in The R. 
N.-Y. regarding the rural schools with 
too mpeh interest to remain^ silent any 
longer, provided our indispensable R. N.- 
Y. has space for me very briefly to state 
my convictions. 
It is evident that the aim of the De¬ 
partment of Public Instruction of New 
Y’ork State is to eliminate the rural 
schools by consolidating them with the 
village schools, and that the ultimate 
<'onsolidation of the schools was the mo¬ 
tive that promoted the drafting of the 
“Township System for Schools” bill. 
As this bill in some form is almost cer¬ 
tain to be enacted, it is needless to dis¬ 
cuss it now, further than to say, that 
owing to the great differejice in the geo¬ 
graphical conditions of the towns of the 
State, it should be a local option bill, 
allowing the towns to accept or to re¬ 
ject it by a majority vote. 
There are many .school districts that 
would be benefited by uniting with neigh¬ 
boring districts for the instruction of 
their children. This is being done now 
satisfactorily in many places under pr^'- 
ent laws. On the other hand there are 
many school districts which it would 
greatly inconvenience and damage to 
close their schools and convey their chil¬ 
dren several miles over poor roads and 
through snowdrifts to central schools. 
AVere such school districts compelled to 
close their schools, their real estate 
would immediately depreciate in value 
because people would not want to live so 
far from school. Eliminate the rural 
.school and it will still more promote the 
abandonment of back faruus, and congest 
the population in the villages and cities. 
Furthermore, I have had the experi¬ 
ence of seeing a boy and a girl from my 
own home conveyed to and from the vil- 
age school daily for four years. It took 
so much of these children’s time going 
and coming that they were practically 
taken away from the farm influence, and 
jilaced in the environment of the village. 
It was a decided detriment to this boy 
and girl. Therefore I say, the consolida¬ 
tion of schools should be left absolutely 
with the school districts concerned. 
For the greater number of country 
schools, especially in the hilly regions of 
the State, instead of closing them, the 
Department of Public Instruction might 
Ix'tter encourage a more liberal and ex¬ 
tensive use of the schoolhouses. The 
country schoolhouse might be and should 
be the center of the social and educa¬ 
tional spirit of the neighborhood. It 
should contain in addition to the regular 
school library, books and magazines ac¬ 
cessible to all, treating on all the prob¬ 
lems of country life. The farmers should 
use it regularly to hold a “Farmers’ 
Round Table.^’ In fact, the country 
schoolhouse should be used to hold var¬ 
ious gatherings and meetings to promote* 
the happiness and the uplifting of the 
community. 
A DELAWARE COUNTY READER. 
B. N.-Y. —^This last suggestion is ex¬ 
cellent and we do not believe any rural 
.school would be given up where .such use 
is made of the schoolhouse. The hUl 
(Continued on page 433) 
