ings during those four active months. I 
had about 40 pupils. They ran all the 
way from little things whose chief ambi¬ 
tion in life was to master the difference 
between A and B, up to a group of corn- 
huskers who came *or the avowed pur¬ 
pose of licking the teacher! I learned 
just what was the matter. with the dis¬ 
trict school of that day, and the futility 
of some theorist outside the district try¬ 
ing to reform it. I will grant that when 
I started my main object was to earn 
$100 for four months’ work and get back 
to college, but as the term passed along I 
began to realize something of the tragedy 
of these little lives in their struggle to 
gain the power to give expression to their 
feelings. For, after all, that is about all 
education amounts to in its relation to 
human society. I did my best with the 
little ones. I would like to dump one of 
these scientifically trained educators into 
that crossroads schoolhouse and hold him 
to the job. He would get $25 a month, 
build the fires, cut the wood, sweep and 
clean the schoolhouse and be responsible 
for the property. He would go from one 
house to another each week, live continu¬ 
ously on rich food, like mince pie, roast 
pork and doughnuts—each housewife 
bombarding his poor stomach with the 
highest type of her art. One week he 
would sleep in an ice-cold room, and the 
next in an overheated chamber, fie must 
listen to all the neighborhood feuds, face 
all the hired men who thought they could 
handle him, and dodge all the maiden 
ladies who “set their caps” for the teach¬ 
er. I would like to put B. S. T. or some 
other critics in such a place and hold 
him right to it. I learned that what the 
district most needs is nof a law-abiding 
arbitrary power to come from outside in¬ 
fluence, but what I call the two T’s— 
trustee and teacher. The real reform in our 
country schools does not start at the 
State capitol, but in the home of the 
trustee. I had a good one back of me. 
He had the fine courage of inexperience. 
He was a back-to-the-lander, come to live 
on a farm which his wife had inherited. 
It was the standing joke in that district 
to elect the last newcomer as trustee, -so 
the office sought this man, and he took it 
seriously. His wife, a country girl, was 
a little frightened. 
“The deestrict won’t support you !” she 
said. h. \v. c. 
(To Be Continued) 
“Spontaneous Clover”; Bad Water 
W. A. T„ on page 7, asks whence com- 
eth this clover seed that a dressing of 
wood ashes always brings forth on un¬ 
tilled English sod land. On reading this 
my first thought was of that little experi¬ 
ment Darwin records in his “Origin of 
Species”—in the chapter on geographical 
distribution. “I do not believe,” he says, 
“that botanists are aware how charged 
the mud of ponds is with seeds” (and I 
may add the earth of our fields and pas¬ 
tures). He then records how he took a 
cupful of this pond mud and kept it moist 
in his study for some time, pulling out, 
counting and classifying each plant as it 
grew; 537 was the total number. An 
ounce of field soil is a teeming world unto 
itself. No one has yet given an even 
fairly complete classification of the bac¬ 
teria it contains, or the algae or fungi or 
rhizopodae or infusoria. As infinitely small 
beneath us as the starry heavens are in¬ 
finitely large above us. 
In an old medical work I have come 
across the following: 
“If in Virginia the forest trees be re¬ 
moved so as to make way for other 
growth and the ground be prepared for 
the first cultivation the phytolacca de- 
candra or poke which was not previously 
perceptible on the land, usurps the whole 
surface. When Mr. Madison went with 
Gen, Lafayette to the Indian Treaty, 
they discovered that whenever the trees 
had been blown down by a hurricane, in 
the Spring, the White clover had sprung 
up in abundance, although the spot was 
many miles distant from any cleared 
land; and it has often been remarked 
that where, during a drought in the 
Spring, the woods have taken fire and the 
surface of the ground has been torrefied, 
the water-weed has made its appearance 
in immense quantities, and occupied the 
burnt surface. . . , President Madi¬ 
son informed the author that in the space 
* of 60 or 70 years he had noticed the fol¬ 
lowing spontaneous rotation of vege¬ 
tables : 1, Mayweed; 2, blue centaury; 
3, bottle brush grass; 4, Broom straw; 
5, White clover; 6, Wild carrot; and the 
last is now giving way to the Blue grass.” 
So from this we can see that the farm¬ 
ers of 1S00 were marveling at the fe¬ 
cundity of old Mother Earth, as we are 
still doing in 1924. 
I cannot help but add my surprise at 
your answer on purifying water in a cis¬ 
tern, on page 15, under “Health Notes.” 
Don’t you think that splashing the water 
would be somewhat impractical? If the 
smell is from the decayed animaleulse, a 
few ounces at most of bleaching powder— 
chloride of lime—will certainly clear up 
the smell and sterilize the water. But 
most cistern smells come from growths of 
Oscillaria, principally, sometimes c-reno- 
thrix and streptothrix and other genera 
of the lower algae or higher bacteria, and 
diatoms. An almost infinitesimal amount 
of copper sulphate will eradicate them. It 
is attested that a small bag of this chem¬ 
ical towed about behind a rowboat has 
cleared reservoirs containing millions of 
gallons, of these plants. 
Maryland. philltp w. wolle. 
Wit RURAL NEW-YORKER 
135 
|uii.n.mnmnnnmi.■......... ... 
Some Things You Should Know 
i 
Facts furnished by the Research Department of the 
National Association of Farm Equipment Manufacturers 
Investigations made by the American Farm 
Bureau Federation and the U. S. Government 
show that of each dollar the farmer received 
from the sale of all farm products in the crop 
year 1922-’23, only 3H cents was paid out for 
farm operating equipment—and that covered 
not only implements but everything from silos 
to beehives. A pretty small percentage for the 
things that help the farmer make his money. 
The volume of sales of all farm equipment 
manufacturers for 1922 was 53% less than 
their sales for 1920. The sales of all farm prod¬ 
ucts by American farmers for the crop year 
1922-’23 were only 18% less than in the crop 
year 1920-’21. These are reliable figures. 
Approximately 80% of all money received 
by the manufacturer from the farmer for farm 
machines goes to labor—not to workers in 
the implement factories alone, but in the steel 
mills, the mines, the forests, and the rail¬ 
roads. These workers and their families 
return much of this money to the farmer for 
his products. 
C<^p 
Twenty of the leading companies in the farm 
equipment industry lost over $50,000,000 in 
the past two years. Some of the other 
companies fared even worse in proportion. 
The material which goes into the making of 
farm machines now costs an average of twice 
what it cost in 1914. The price of oak lumber 
is three times as high as it was in 1914, soft 
center plow steel and cold rolled steel twice 
as high, steel bars, coke and cotton duck more 
than twice as high. Labor which is a large 
item in manufacturing costs, is considerably 
more than double what it was in 1914. 
A 7-foot binder would cost you $350 if it 
were priced on a pound for pound basis with 
the average kitchen range—and that would 
not take into account the complexity of the 
binder and the service that goes with it. It 
would cost $430 if it were priced like the 
world’s cheapest car. A 5-foot mower at 
lawn mower orices would cost $174. 
The Farm Outlook for 1924 
The Government says that crops for 1923 show an increased value of $1,600,000,000 
over 1922 [Oct. 1st estimate]. Farm conditions from many points of view show a decided 
improvement. Good planning and good management should mean good profit for this year. 
Money-making farms are those on which most work is done in least time, with least 
labor. Try to increase your crop yield per acre, cut down your labor cost, diversify. 
Plow more furrows as you go along, cultivate more rows, cut wider swaths. Plant every 
hill full—the missed hills in a field have a surprising effect on the season’s yield. Save 
extra pounds of butterfat by efficient cream separation. Spread manure by the load in¬ 
stead of by the forkful. Let tractor and engine power help you. Modern equipment, well 
handled, is the key to profitable farming, and makes farming pleasanter, too. 
Your McCormick-Deering Dealer handles most of the 54 kinds of machines and im¬ 
plements that make up the McCormick-Deering line. See him for the most up-to-date 
equipment—plows, tillage tools, cream separators, spreaders, engines, tractors, belt and 
drawbar machines. McCormick-Deering is the old reliable line. 
International Harvester Company 
606 So. Michigan Ave. 
of America 
(Incorporated) 
Chicago, Ill. 
.„„„„„„„„„...mmnmnuf 
Saws Wood Fast 
(Does the Work of 10 Men—1 /20 Cost) 
This one-man WITTE Logr Saw bums any fuel 
and will cut from 16 to 40 cords of wood a day. 
Easy to operate and move. Trouble-proof. Fells 
trees—makes tiee-runs other farm machinery, 
bast money maker and big labor saver. 
®y bifir Free 
A aS*™ Book and Low Easy Payment 
Prices. No obligation. 
WITTE ENGINE WORKS 
Bu i ld , ln ?• City, Mo. 
6893Empire Building, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
n 
FARM BARGAINS 
NEAR 
WASHINGTON 
Let me send you this interesting free booklet 
telling why Southern Md. farmland offers the 
greatest opportunities to the ambitious farmer. 
K. A. McRae, Exec. Sec. 
Southern Maryland Immigration Commission 
College Park, Md. 
. | 
'A 
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Store Property. Equipped Hatchery and Farm. Busi¬ 
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ship to 
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Reference-ATGLEN NATIONAL BANK 
Write for Prices 
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return the cheek and your furs will lie 
shipped back to you, charges paid both 
ways. A square ileal is yours for the 
trying —all to gain and nothing to lose. 
In the meantime 
FREE for the asking—onr price lists, 
shipping tags, instructions and a list of 
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and address on a postal card will do. 
SOL WARENOFF & CO. Inc. 
159 West 25th St. New York 
4'/ 2 % 
and far more convenient 
Federal Farm LoanBonds 
Interest Sure—Readily Salable—Safe—Tax-free 
These Bonds are equivalent to first mortgages on improved 
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I 
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IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMI 
Adventures in Silence 
By Herbert W. Collimjivood 
T HIS is the first serious attempt to inter¬ 
pret the peculiar and adventurous life 
of the hard-of-hearing. 
Beautifully bound in cloth. 288 pagea. 
Price $1.00 Postpaid. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 West 30th Street, New York City 
llIlllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIIIilllllllfllllllllllll 
