1360 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
December 1. 1017 
neighbor.®, who have been hnahle to discover any- 
lliing but disadvantage to them in the new law. 
Writing from the township of Dover, in Dutches.? 
C'ounty, which we may take as typical of most of 
the rural towns in the State, I will try to give 
briefly a concrete example of the evils engendei*ed 
by this act. Dover has 11 districts, of which only 
two—Dover Plains and Wingdale—^are fairly large. 
I'lie former of these is the greater, and as far as I 
know is the only one that is in debt, or was in debt 
at the time that the law went into effect. Formerly 
each district elected .its (unpaid) oflieex's, was re¬ 
sponsible for its own debts, and regulated its own 
expenditures. Now the smaller districts in Dover 
must I’elieve Dover Plains of a lai’ge pai’t of the bui’- 
den of its debt, and shai’e the heavier expense of its 
management. Under the old law all officers seiwed 
without emolument. Under the new the clei’k of the 
board and the treasui’er ai*e both salaried. The 
amount of these wages, together with the lai’ger 
schools’ budget for teachei's’ salaries, janitors’ pay, 
fuel, etc., have imposed upon the poorer rural dis¬ 
tricts a burden aggregating sevex*al thousand dollai’s. 
I write fi*om District No. G. We have a new .school- 
house, paid for in cash. Thei’e is no indebtedne.ss of 
any kind. Our taxes this year, under the new law, 
have increased 30 per cent. 
Instead of a local trustee, who was vitally intei'- 
ested in the district where elected, and Avho was ap¬ 
proachable by both teachers and scholai's, we have 
now a board of five, political directoi’s, whose resi¬ 
dences are x-emote from several of the districts over 
which they nominally preside. When questions arise, 
as they must at times, in relation to the care of 
school pi*oper*ty, the conduct of the school, the rela¬ 
tions between teacher and scholai-s, or attention to 
what may be called the emergency needs of the 
school, there is now no one in the neighborhood who 
is 1 ‘esponsiltle, or who can be I’eadily called upon by 
either teacher, scholai*.®, parents or taxpayers. After 
the schools in the villages were well along in their 
work for the term, this district and others wei'e still 
unprovided with teachers. The school in No. G and 
those in sevei-al other small districts are practically 
isolated today and their government unmethodical 
and inefficient. 
The policy of the State school authorities, through 
whose influence it is generally understood this law 
Avas passed, is towards the consolidation of as many 
districts as possible—that is to say, the absorption of 
the smaller districts into the larger ones. Superin¬ 
tendents have been urged to combine districts upon 
this pi’inciple. Need I point out that this plan if 
carried out must result in greatly increasing the 
distances which the children Avill have to travel each 
day? Hei*e it umuld mean an increase of several 
miles, in a section where deep snows ai'e fi'oquent, 
and where I have known the mercury to drop to 25 
degrees below zero. Even with conveyances pro¬ 
vided (at a cost greater than the present upkeep of 
the school), the physical suffering of the more deli¬ 
cate children would be often inteu.se. I believe the 
final result Avould be a falling off in school attend¬ 
ance fi’om the rural districts, and the decline of 
education among farmers’ children. It may be ob¬ 
jected that this question of consolidation of districts 
is not embodied in the law. My answer is that I 
have heard and seen evidence that convinces me that 
it is part of the policy of those Avho framed and 
advocated this law, and that an understanding of 
this policy of concenti’ation is necessary in a discus¬ 
sion of the law and its effects. 
The rights of women, i. e., mothers, taxpayers, etc., 
to vote upon school questions has been proudly 
vaunted by the people of New York State for many 
years. When our small districts Avere consolidated 
into one, toAvn wide, the right of Avomen to suffrage 
in school meetings was not repealed—could not be 
repealed without a i-evolutiou. If the Avhole town¬ 
ship now constitutes a district, then it follOAVs that 
mothers and women property owners can of right 
vote for all school officers Avithin the township. The 
fact is that at the general election just passed all 
of the women who had a right to vote upon the elec¬ 
tion of school officers Avere disfranchised. The can¬ 
didates for school directors for the toicn of Dover 
'Were nained upon a hallot which no woman was per¬ 
mitted to vote. My attention Avas particxxlai’ly called 
to that fact because upon going into a booth to vote 
I found my oavxi name printed as a candidate for 
school director, having been so used Avithout my 
knowledge or approval. I propound to the lawyers 
among your I’eaders the quei*y AA'hether the inclusion 
of school olficers under political party emblems upon 
a ballot Avhich all electors for such candidates were 
not permitted to vote was an illegality Avhich may 
invalidate the whole election? 
This letter has already grown to too great a 
length. I have tried to show in part Avhy I consider 
the present law ab.solutely mischievous. While we 
are boasting of our effort to make the woi-ld safe for 
democracy, hei’e is an effort to make a drive for 
autoci'acy. .Shall we call it the I’ottsdaming of our 
public school system ? edgab mayiieav bacox. 
Wooden Pipes for CarryingWater 
[There have been many replies to the question about 
wooden pipes for carrying water. In olden times such 
pipes were often used and there are a few’ noAV in use.] 
On page 12^9 is an inquiry regarding the u.se of 
Avooden pipes fox’ coxiveying Avater undex'gi’ouxid. 
Old Loij Water Pipe from New Jersey. Fig. 637 
yuch pipes wei'e irsed almost exclusively for this 
purpose for a gi'eat many years after the settlexnent 
of this part of the countx-y, and there ai'e a few of 
those old systems still in use after Avell on towards 
a centui’y of service. We used the fir balsam almost 
exclu.®iA'ely for making them. These ti'oes ai’e found 
hex’e ixi great numbers, and ai’e of a convenient size, 
and the txainks are usually perfectly straight. They 
Avere cut in lO-foot lengths, peeled and bored, usu¬ 
ally Avith an inch and a half bit. The hole in one 
The Muench Grape. Fig. 638. See Page 1375 
end Avas xnade laxgei-. and funnel-shaped. Avith a tool 
made for the purpose, and vei’y similar to the tool 
used for shaping the axle-holes in Avagon hubs, and 
the other end of the stick Avas shaved doAvn neai’ly 
to a point and made to fit tightly into the lax’ger 
holes. Sticks cut like this, and used for this pur¬ 
pose, Avere termed "pump-logs,” and, as a boy, I 
often Avatched my grandfather Avhile making them. 
When Avell made and Avell put togethei", and laid 
beloAv the frost line, they seldom leaked, except in 
locations AA’here there was very little fall. It Avas. 
hoAvevei’. vexT difficult to put thenx together pei’fectly 
Avhei’ever it was uecessai’y to xnake a curve, either 
by I’eason of a change in the directioxi or ixi the 
grade. Laid in wet. mucky soil, and Avith a sti’eam 
of AA’ater constantly floAving through them, they 
AA'ould last almost ixidefixxitely, but if laid in a dry 
soil, and connected AA’ith a spinug Avhich occasionally 
Avent dry, they would last but a fcAA’ yeai’s. 
It i-equii'es cousidei*able skill to boi'e the logs, and. 
if I I'emember rightly, xny gi’axidfather AA'ould bore 
about six for a day's Avoi'k. He Avould fasten a log 
firxnly in place. Avith one exid i*esting upon the 
ground, and the other upon a bench which bi'ought 
it about level AA'ith his bi*east. Then he AA’ould tack 
seA'eral little strips to the log, to assist hixn in get¬ 
ting his line of dii’ection accurately, AA’hile be bored 
as far as possible AA’ith an oi’dinary augei*. Thexi 
he Avould substitute an auger Avith a shank 2i^ feet 
long, and, latex*, one that Avas fiA*e feet in length. 
Wliexi he had bored to the depth of this aixgex-, he 
Avould .shift ends Avith the log, and bore fx*om the 
opposite exid, axid vex*y x-arely failed to xnake the tAvo 
holes meet perfectly. It w’as necessary to I’emove the 
auger evex’y tAvo inches. othex’Avise the chips AA’ould 
become AA’edged tightly behind the scx*eAV, and preA’ent 
its AA’ithdx'aAA’al. For this x-eason it Avas not px’actic- 
able to box*e xuore thaxx five feet. 
If the inquirer Avishes to tx*y Avoodexx pipes, his 
best plan Avill be to get in comxnunicatioxi Avith some 
manufacturer of Avooden pumps and buy a sufficient 
quantity of Avoodexi tubing. This coxiies in the forxix 
of scantlings, four inches squax*e axid 12 feet long, 
box*ed axid turned and i*eady to put togethex*. Wheix 
making this tubing, a stick is clamped pex’pendicu- 
laiiy upon the hollow auger Avhieh Avox*ks automat¬ 
ically from beneath, thus alloAving the shavings to 
drop beloAv. The auger rexnoves a core AA’hich is used 
ixx making cui’tain x‘ods and map x'olls, and thus the 
tubing can be sold at the factory for but a triffe 
more thaxx the value of lumber of that kind axid 
grade, and for a vex*y small faction of Avhat it 
Avould cost in time and labor to bore the tubing by 
hand. c. o. ormsbee. 
11. N.-Y.— The picture at Fig. G37 shoAVs a piece 
of an old Avoodexx Avater pipe dug out of the gx*ouud 
near Flemingtoxx, N. ,1. The pictux*e shoAvs the size 
of the log. Thex*e AA’ere no pax*ticular lengths, the 
sections running from five to nine feet. This pipe 
AAOs laid in 1808, and the logs Aveie still in use in 
1S39, although the system was not perfect. The 
wood appeal's to 'be spruce. We shoAV this in ox’der 
to giA’e our readex's an idea of the compax'ative size 
of timber used, and about the Avay the holes Avex’e 
bored. It does not seem likely that a wooden sys¬ 
tem of this sort Avould xxoav be practical. Several 
manufacturers, hoAvevei*, are making wooden pipes, 
and our reports sIxoav that they are giving good 
sex’vice in a number of localities. 
Tractors Used as Mowing Machines 
S OME Aveeks ago a reader in Nebraska told of 
cutting the groAvth of SAveet clover along the 
line of a railx'oad and thx*ashing out the seed. He 
thought he could fit a moAver knife to a light tx’actor, 
and in that Avay run alongside of the tx*ack and 
quickly cut off the clover plants. We have been dis¬ 
cussing this matter of the use of a moAver Avitli trac¬ 
tor manufacturex’s. Most of them seem to think 
that the plan of attaching tlie knife directly to the 
side of the tractor is not pxactical, as they think it 
Avould give too heavy a side draft to the machine. 
Most of them prefer to attach a moAviiig machine 
AA'ith a Avide knife directly behind the tx'actoi’. The 
picture. Fig. (‘40, sIioavs Iioav this is being success¬ 
fully done AA'ith the Case tractoi’. This certainly does 
cut doAvn the grass in good shape, but most farmex's 
seem to think that it is not economical to xi.se the 
strong poAver of the tractor to run one moAving 
machine, as the tractor is expected to take the place 
of tAvo teams or thi-ee horses. The picture at Fig. 
G41 shoAVS an attachment to the Moline Universal 
tractor. Here, as Ave see, the knife is attached di- 
I'ectly to the Avorking parts, and is under control 
much the same as the knife blade on the moAA'ex*. 
Several other manufacturers Avho are putting neAv 
tractors on the market say they are considering this 
matter and hope to xnake a direct attachxnent that 
Avill enable them to cut up clo.se to the corners axid 
operate with a A'ery long moAver knife. As stated, 
hoAA'evex*, most of the manufacturers do not consider 
that this plan is practical or economical. 
A FEAV weeks ago we told of a country agent in Flor¬ 
ida AA’ho could supply velvet bean meal. Nova- he Avrites: 
“VelA’et beans? Yes, they arc asking questions from the 
Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, and all up around 
Lake Erie.” 
