186 
lht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
The rural schools perhaps have caused 
snore discussion in the pa^^decade than 
in a half century before.'* Consolidation 
of schools may work all right in the West, 
where the roads are level and the snow 
light, but it can never work to the advan¬ 
tage of pupils and parents in the East, 
where we have hard Winters and snow 
for four or five months during the year. 
Why the district superintendent wants 
to consolidate is more than I can answer. 
The State department is also inclined in 
that direction. The result of it is that 
many of the families move to town, and 
this accounts for so many empty farm¬ 
houses in New York State. 
In the neighborhood where I live there 
are many empty farmhouses, nearly every 
other one, and on the next road (a hill 
road) where not many years ago lived 
eight or nine families, today there are 
none, and most of the buildings are gone. 
The land has been turned into pasture. 
This sort of thing is bound to continue 
unless different educational laws in gen¬ 
eral are enacted to help the farmer. We 
have had enough talk and literature sent 
us. We want to see the results. D. w. 
Otsego Co., N. Y. 
School Taxes in Michigan 
i sometimes wish some of the brothers 
•n the East, who think they have great 
school problems to solve, could realize 
what we are doing in the Middle West 
in school work. This, district, No. 7. in 
Bloomfield Township, has an outstanding 
bonded indebtedness of $73,000. We 
built a new school in 1917 at a cost of 
$8,000, which in the short time of three 
years has become altogether inadequate to 
take care of the pupils. We are now 
about to complete a new one which is 
costing us $65,000. This is all taxed 
against about four sections of land. I 
might add that some of the aforesaid land 
is platted, which helps out some. This 
Mrs. E. F. Fancher of Wyoming Co., 
N. Y., sends us a little picture shown 
above. This, we take it, is a repre¬ 
sentative picture from that part of the 
State, and we hope that such a picture 
may be seen on the lawns of hundreds of 
farmhouses during the Summer. The 
district runs to the city limits of Pontiac 
from the south. Would also say that 
the district next, east of us, has just 
bonded for $65,000 for a new sehoolhouse. 
and there are in Wayne, Oakland and 
Genesee counties districts that have dou¬ 
bled the above amounts, and that’s going 
some. Our taxes are $26 per thousand 
valuation. 
I am a back-to-the-lander, beinr a 
tailor by trade, and my son and I are 
making a living for five adults and five 
small children—10 in all --with less than 
20 acres of land, being assessed for 19. 
Small fruits are turning th'e trick. 
Michigan. J. O. 
dignified little lady who is master of cere¬ 
monies, and the tame chickens clustered 
about her make a pleasant picture for 
anyone who knows anything about farm 
life. Here is evidence of kindliness and 
content, two things which'are more than 
necessary on our American farms if we 
are to make them what they ought to be. 
A Rural Teacher Talks 
I have been greatly interested in the 
letters, discussing rural school problems, 
that have been published in The It. N.-Y. 
February 5, 1021 
I see no reason why people should worry 
so much about the condition of the rural 
schools. They have their faults, to be 
sure, the same as city and village schools. 
I have taught in both. I firmly believe, 
however, that good work is being done in 
most of them, and that the majority of the 
teachers are well qualified, hard-working 
and conscientious. Before a certificate to 
teach can be obtained a person must have 
passed at least two years of high school 
work and one year's work in a training 
class for teachers, or have been graduated 
from a high school and spent at least 
one year in a normal school. That cer¬ 
tainly ought to be sufficient education for 
teaching the first eight grades. A teacher 
is also required to be at least 18 years of 
age. 
All of our public schools are for the 
purpose of educating our children, and 
their efficiency should, I believe, be 
judged by the results obtained, and as 
far as I can find out according to the 
number enrolled, as many of the rural 
school children are passing the high school 
entrance examination and are doing just 
as good work after entering high school 
as those in cities and villages. The rural 
teachers are following the course of study 
prescribed by the State Educational De¬ 
partment, and are teaching what they are 
told to teach. 
I have taught over 15 years, and have 
never been troubled with bullies, and have 
never heard of a child being abused in 
my schools. We know that teachers have 
to pass a hard examination and are re¬ 
quired to have their characters certified 
to, and still H. G. R. tells us that nearly 
half of us are incompetent, and that the 
children attending our schools are likely to 
become immoral. 
Will some one please explain how the 
Committee of Twenty-one is making its 
investigation? I have seen nothing of 
any if its members, although an automo¬ 
bile did stop at my school, and some 
ladies got out and looked over my school 
grounds and my coal shed, but none of 
them said anything to me. . 
The people of my district are satisfied 
with their school, and will oppose to the 
limit any attempt to consolidate it with 
other schools. I shall be glad to hear 
from other teachers. a rural teacher. 
A Little Poultry Maid 
F> o^yrGjr- — 
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Action or Reaction 
A private soldier, mustered out at the close of the 
Civil War, became in turn a farm hand, a tenant, 
a farmer of his own land, a recognized authority on 
farm management and farm markets, and finally 
Governor of a great state in the Central West. 
He followed always one fixed principle. He held 
that the time to expand activities in any direction 
was when others were beginning to reduce or 
abandon their interest in that line. He began 
when others quit. 
As long as he lived he put his theory to the test 
on his own farms and his remarkable success 
proved its correctness. 
Today many farmers are uneasy and are said to be 
considering giving up the use of commercial fer¬ 
tilizers. 
For five years conditions beyond their control have 
brought about high fertilizer prices and made it 
necessary to accept fertilizers radically different in 
composition from those formerly in use. 
Is the solution of the trouble to be found in giving 
up the use of things that have proved profitable in 
the past or in a careful consideration of the ques¬ 
tion of the purchase of fertilizers that will be as 
good as, or better than those formerly used ? 
There has been a period of Potash Starvation. Now 
all fertilizer materials are obtainable. Fertilizers 
high in Potash, 5 to 10 per cent, can be made and 
if you will insist on buying them you will find that 
Potash Pays 
—just as it did before. 
SOIL AND CROP SERVICE, POTASH SYNDICATE 
H. A. HUSTON, Manager 
42 Broadway New York City 
