906 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June 21, 1924 
qualified teachers as the schools of the district re- 
ttjttire; to determine the rate of compensation and the 
■ terms of the employment of each teacher and to de¬ 
termine the terms of school to be held during each 
school year, and to employ persons to supervise, 
organize, conduct and maintain athletic, playground 
and social center activities when they are authorized 
by a vote of a district meeting as provided by law. 
The regular teachers of the school may be employed 
at an increased compensation or otherwise, and by 
separate agreement, written or oral, for one or more 
of such purposes. 
To establish rules for the government and dis¬ 
cipline of the schools. 
To collect by district tax an amount sufficient to 
pay any judgment or the salaries of teachers for the 
current school year after deducting from the aggre¬ 
gate amount required for this purpose the amount 
of public money in the hands of the supervisor, col¬ 
lector or treasurer applicable to the payment of 
•teachers’ salaries, and to pay the same by written 
orders on the collector or treasurer. 
To keep each of the schoolhouses under their 
charge, and its furniture, school apparatus and ap¬ 
purtenances in necessary and proper repair, and 
make the same reasonably comfortable for use, but 
shall not expend therefor without vote of the dis¬ 
trict an amount to exceed $50 in any one year. 
To make any repairs and abate any nuisances, 
pursuant to the direction of the school commissioner, 
as herein provided, and provide fuel, stoves or other 
heating apparatus, pails, brooms, and other imple¬ 
ments necessary to keep the schoolhouses and the 
schoolrooms clean, and make them reasonably com¬ 
fortable for use, when no provision has been made 
therefor by a vote of the district, or the sum voted 
by the district for said purposes shall have proved 
insufficient. 
.! To provide for building fires and cleaning the 
schoolrooms, and for janitor work generally in am' 
about the schoolhouse, and pay reasonable compen¬ 
sation therefor. 
To expend in the purchase of a dictionary, books, 
reproductions of standard works of art, maps, globes 
or other school apparatus, including implements, ap¬ 
paratus and supplies for instruction in agriculture, 
or for conducting athletic playgrounds and social 
0 
center activities, a sum not exceeding $25 in any one 
year, without a vote of the district. 
When trustees are required or authorized by law, 
or by a vote of their district, to incur any expense 
for such district, and when any expenses incurred 
by them are made, by express provision of law, a 
charge upon such district, they may raise the amount 
thereof by tax in the same manner as if the definite 
sum lo be raised had been voted by a district meet¬ 
ing. 
The State Department recently ruled that where 
a trustee wilfully violated the law and neglects his 
duties by expending larger sums than he is author¬ 
ized to spend by law, he is subject to removal from 
office. 
In 3912 the Attorney-General ruled that "It is 
the duty of school district trustees to raise funds 
and insure school property even though not author¬ 
ized by a district meeting. In case of loss resulting 
from neglect to do so, the trustee is personally re¬ 
sponsible to the district.” 
iWhile the trustee has a considerable latitude, as 
indicated above, he must confine himself to the lim¬ 
itations placed on him by law, or become personally 
liable. 
•The trustees in the several school districts shall 
provide at least two suitable and convenient water- 
closets or privies for each of the schools under their 
charge, which shall be entirely separated each from 
the other, and have separate means of access, and 
approaches thereto, separated by a substantial close 
fence not less than 7 ft. in height. It shall also be 
the duty of trustees to keep such outbuildings in a 
clean and wholesome condition. 
The trustees may permit the schoolhouse and 
rooms and grounds, when not in use for school pur¬ 
poses, to be used for the following purposes: 
By persons assembling therein for the purpose of 
giving and receiving instructions in any branch of 
education, learning or the arts. 
For public library purposes, subject to the provis¬ 
ions of this chapter or as stations of public libraries. 
For holding social, civic and recreational meetings 
and entertainments, and such other uses pertaining 
to the welfare of the community; but such meet¬ 
ings, entertainments and uses shall be non-exclusive 
and shall be open to the general public. 
For meetings, entertainments and occasions where 
admission fees are charged, when the proceeds 
thereof are to be expenses for an educational or 
charitable purpose; but such use shall not be per¬ 
mitted if such meetings, entertainments and occa¬ 
sions are under the exclusive control, and the said 
proceeds are to be applied for the benefit of a so¬ 
ciety, association or organization of a religious sect 
or denomination, or of a fraternal, secret or other 
exclusive society or organization. 
For polling places for holding primaries and elec¬ 
tions, and for the registration of voters, and for 
holding political meetings. But no such use shall 
be permitted unless authorized by a vote of a dis¬ 
trict meeting, held as provided by law. 
For civic forums and community centers. n. t. 
three-year or a four-year rotation of crops is also of 
advantage where these insects are concerned, be¬ 
cause in such a rotation the land does not remain in 
sod long enough to become infested with wireworms. 
When sod land is intended for potatoes the fol¬ 
lowing year it should be plowed in July, after the 
hay crop is removed, and deeply cultivated through¬ 
out the remainder of the Summer. Early plowing 
and Summer fallowing, with occasional deep disking 
to keep down weeds and to kill the newly trans¬ 
formed pupae, will probably succeed best in control¬ 
ling wireworms. glenn w. herrick. 
A Scheme for Electrocuting Rats 
T HE inquiry of 1). B., page 844, on how to electro¬ 
cute rats, brings to mind the scheme that was 
used by us boys on the night shift of the General 
Electric Company, testing department. We used to 
carry our lunch in little rectangular splint baskets, 
and the rats made short work of gnawing and spoil¬ 
ing the contents. Many Avere as large as half-grow T n 
kittens, and the company cats let them severely 
alone. Most cats have a yellow streak, and their 
bravery is sufficient to kill some song birds and other 
such ferocious game. 
We took a board 0 or 7 in. Avide and about 10 ft. 
long, and nailed on parallel strips of thin strip cop¬ 
per (sheet iron will do just as well), spacing them 
about iy 2 in. apart. The strips were about 2 in. 
wide. One strip was connected directly to the 500- 
volt. shop circuit, and the other strip connected to 
a rheostat, and the rheostat in turn connected to the 
other side of the 500-volt line. In crossing the board 
the instant the rat touched both strips he got 500 
volts down his spine, and it was all over for Mr. 
Bat. The convulsion that the shock gave them 
threw them clear of the strips. We got a dozen or 
more, some of them actually gray-headed. And sud¬ 
denly all trouble with rats ceased. 
I). B. probably has 115 volts, and whether this is 
sufficient to kill is questionable. He can try the 
scheme in the accompanying sketch, Fig. 342. In 
place of the rheostat a 50-watt lamp is used. This is 
indispensable, and must not be omitted. It will 
consume current only when the rat is bridging the 
two strips with his body. Perhaps a rag dampened 
with brine and put where the rat would wet his feet 
just before making contact would lower his resis¬ 
tance to the passage of low voltage current, so that 
the shock would be fatal. 
Devices of this nature do not have the approval 
of the National Board of Underwriters. 
Connecticut. Herbert a. freeman. 
Wireworms in Potatoes 
What is the cause of wireworms in potatoes? I put 
manure on ground and plow under in Fall; have also 
tried phosphate with the manure, but still seem to have 
same result. The trouble has occurred three or four 
years. I. s. M. 
Hensonville, N. Y. 
W IREWORMS are the lame of certain brown 
beetles known as "click beetles” or "snapping 
bugs.” The parent click beetle of the wheat wire- 
worm is slender, brown in color and about three- 
eighths of an inch long, while the parent click beetle 
of the corn wireworm is light brown in color and 
about one-half inch long. These beetles lay their 
small white eggs in sod land, where they hatch into 
the hard, brown “wireworms” which live in the soil 
in some cases at least three Summers, growing 
slowly and causing more and more damage as they 
grow toward maturity. The cause of wireworms 
then is the small brown beetles known as click 
beetles that lay their egys in grass lands where they 
hatch into the wireworms. 
When old pasture land or meadow land is plowed 
up and planted to potatoes or corn, injury is almost 
sure to follow from wireworms or white grubs, or 
from both. It is unsafe to put potatoes on sod land. 
Some crop not subject to attack by wix-eworms, like 
clover, field peas or buckwheat, should be grown, if 
at all practicable, on sod land the first year. A 
The Modern Car and Its Work 
O N Sunday morning a farmer gets into his car 
with his family well packed behind him and 
rides to church. Speeding over the road gives him 
rest of body and a revival of spirit. There is a 
sense of mastery as he realizes his control over the 
strong engine pulsing and throbbing under his hand. 
If he is a man of years and some imagination his 
mind will run back to the days when there were no 
cars, or when the few crude cars located here and 
there were ranked as a nine days’ wonder or even 
as an instrument of the evil one. In 1895, which 
seems but yesterday to many of us, there were only 
300 cars registered in the entire country. Even 10 
years later when there were 77,988 cars, many peo¬ 
ple looked doubtfully at one who rode to church in 
a car. He violated an unwritten law of church dig¬ 
nity. We have heard of a case where a man was 
disciplined by the church for attending worship on 
his bicycle! In those days the farmer remembers 
that on Sunday the tired horses came off the plow 
and pulled the family carriage to church, and all 
the farm papers were filled with big advertisements 
of buggies, carts and carriages. Now when the 
farmer wheels his car in front of the church about 
the only curiosity he excites is a mild inquiry as to 
what make he has been able to buy. 
Surely the growth of the modern car from a 
strange, bulky machine in which you risked your 
life in 1900 to a family necessity in 1924 has been 
one of the remarkable developments of this remark¬ 
able country. Figures for 1923 show the following: 
Total production for the year. 
Total wholesale value. 
Total registration . 
Total capital invested in business.... 
Total wages and salaries. 
Number of dealers in United States. . 
The total registration of motor v 
country is given below for five-year periods, showing 
4,080.997 
$2,804,952,716 
15.092.177 
$1,571,722,411 
$579,002,080 
43,588 
ehicles in this 
gams: 
1S95. 
1915. 
. . . 2.445.000 
1!>00. 
_ 13,824 
1920. 
... 9.231,943 
1905. 
1923. 
... 15.092.177 
1910. 
_ 408,497 
The following figures show how the business of 
making and distributing motor vehicles compares 
with other great enterprises. Comparison is here 
made with 1913 and 1923: 
1913 1923 
Total deposits in banks..$17,475,764,134 $40,034,195,100 
Savings banks deposits. 4,726.472,708 7,897.909,000 
Building and Loan As¬ 
sociations. 1.137.000.048 
Life insurance in force.. 20,520,598,372 
Wholesale value motor 
vehicles. 425,000,000 2,004,952,716 
3,342.530,953 
50.000,000,000 
Undoubtedly the cost of gasoline, oil and the ex¬ 
pense of distributing is fully equal to the wholesale 
value of these cars. If we count in the retail value 
we shall have a figure larger than the total assets of 
all the building and loan associations, and well on 
to the value of savings bank deposits. And whereas 
these last named are national assets, the output for 
cars represents an expense which people have 
learned to absorb into their living costs. It all 
means that we are spending each year for carrying 
ourselves and our goods in cars a sum nearly equal 
to all the money in the savings banks. This money 
is transferred from one class of people to another, 
finding its way after distribution as wages or as 
payment for material back into the savings banks 
or loan associations. 
The domestic production of gasoline has grown 
from 3,570.312,903 gallons in 1918 to 7,555,945,143 
gallons in 1923. In 1921 30S,125,440 lbs. of crude 
rubber were used in making tires; in 1923 545,135,- 
360 lbs. In the entire world there were registered 
in 1923 18,023,584 cars and trucks. The United 
State of America has 8S per cent of the entire num¬ 
ber. Canada has 642,573, only 282 less than the 
United Kingdom. The country with the poorest sup¬ 
ply is Liberia, which has four. Up among the snows 
of Alaska there are 725, with 800 in Newfoundland. 
Think of 15,400 ears and trucks puffing about the 
Philippine Islands, 1,400 in Turkey, 685 in Haiti and 
175 in Iceland! There are 300 in Arabia, 150 on the 
