Weld  County,  Colorado,  Schools 
SOME  weeks  ago  we  quoted  from  the  New  York 
Herald  a  note  on  the  great  school  work  in  Weld 
Connty,  Colorado.  The  Herald  claimed  wonderful 
things  for  the  new  system,  and  said  that  the  same 
thing  would  work  out  in  New  York.  The  proposed 
plan  in  Weld  County  is,  we  understand,  much  like 
the  “community  unit”  system  outlined  in  the  new 
school  law.  This  system  evidently  looks  better  at  a 
distance  of  2.000  miles  than  at  close  range.  The 
following  from  the  Greeley  Tribune-Republican  is 
written  by  a  local  school  officer,  who  ought  to  know : 
We  have  heard  it  remarked  that  “We  supposed  we 
were  getting  away  from  the  one-room-one-teacher 
school,”  as  if  someone  was  going  backward  toward  an 
abandoned  and  discredited  system.  We  hold  no  brief 
for  such  a  school.  Weld  County  will  have  few’er  one- 
room  schools  next  year  than  ever  before  in  recent  years. 
The  fewer  she  has  the  better,  provided  a  better  system  is 
adopted.  But  it  will  be  several  generations  before  Weld 
County  can  graduate  completely  from  her  one-room 
schools.  Until  then,  let  us  try  to  make  them  as  good  as 
is  humanly  possible. 
Now,  let  us  see  if  the  plan  of  having  many  small, 
widely  separated  schools  in  one  enormous  district,  all 
under  the  supervision  of  one  board,  will  accomplish  the 
result  desired.  The  board  of  three  persons  would  either 
be  selected  from  a  single  community,  or  from  widely 
separated  communities.  In  the  one  case,  they  would 
reside  conveniently  close  to  each  other,  but  at  enormous 
distances  from  some  of  the  schools.  Suppose  a  teachei 
in  a  one-room  school  15  miles  from  a  board  member  has 
difficulties  suddenly  arise  which  require  official  atten¬ 
tion.  Such  a  difficulty  can  develop  easily.  It  might  be 
the  failure  of  some  part  of  the  school  plant  or  equip¬ 
ment — the  pump  may  be  broken,  the  coal  stolen,  a  win¬ 
dow  smashed  in  mid-Winter;  or  there  may  be  insubor¬ 
dination  in  the  school,  or  unwarranted  action  by  a  pat¬ 
ron,  or  any  one  of  several  other  things  might  happen.  A 
sweet  time  the  teacher  has,  getting  help  from  the  board 
while  help  is  needed ;  and,  it  might  be  added,  a  precious 
time  the  board  has,  giving  help,  perhaps  too  late  to  do 
much  good. 
But  that  is  not  all,  nor  half.  When  the  board  is 
selected  from  one  neighborhood,  every  other  community 
within  the  district  begins  to  have  a  subconscious  hunch 
that  the  board  neglects  all  the  remote  schools  and  spends 
the  district’s  money  solely  to  build  up  the  one  near  their 
homes.  We  do  not  care  to  discuss  the  truth  or  falsity 
of  this  impression,  but  we  have  seen  and  heard  enough 
to  convince  a  jury  that  neglect,  either  general  or  special, 
has  existed.  Even  the  people  who  patronize  a  given 
school  rarely  have  the  pride  and  interest  in  it  that  they 
should — it  isn’t  their  very  own  ;  it  belongs  to  an  immense 
“district,”  a  shadowy  and  remote  entity  that  (in  their 
estimation)  has  never  “treated  them  right.” 
Taxation  and  State  Aid 
The  contention  of  the  Committee  of  Twenty-one,  as 
embodied  in  the  Downing-Hutchinson  bills  upon  rural 
schools,  is  that  there  should  be  a  fairer  distribution  of 
State  aid.  Prof.  Works  says  “Since  schools  are  re¬ 
quired  in  every  community  at  least  up  to  certain  mini¬ 
mum  standards,  the  State  should  place  its  financial 
assistance  on  such  a  basis  that  all  communities  will 
have  to  bear  approximately  the  same  rate  for  the 
same  school  facilities.” 
The  same  tax  rate  can  reach  all;  but  the  same  op¬ 
portunities  and  facilities  cannot. 
How  is  State  aid  obtained?  When  the  taxpayers  pay 
their  school  taxes  all  but  a  very  few  believe  they  have 
paid  their  entire  tax  for  the  maintenance  of  the  school 
in  their  district.  Far  from  it.  Beginning  in  1920, 
there  was  included  in  the  State  tax  $1.50  per  thousand 
of  valuation  for  the  common  schools  of  this  State. 
This  was  for  the  purpose  of  defraying  the  increase  in 
the  teacher’s  salaries.  This  $1.50  per  thousand  was 
paid  in  your  county  tax.  In  1921  the  rate  was  $1.05, 
and  in  1922  the  rate  was  50  cents. 
Of  this  sum  so  raised  in  1920,  $22,500,000  was  ap¬ 
propriated  to  the  cities,  villages  and  school  districts,  in 
addition  to  the  district  and  teachers’  quota  upon  a  basis 
for  each  teacher,  as  follows: 
First  class  cities  (New  York,  Buffalo  and 
Rochester )  $600.00 
Second  class  cities  .  550.00 
Other  cities  of  50,000  or  more .  450.00 
Cities  of  less  than  50,000,  and  villages  under 
superintendents  .  350.00 
Other  union  free  school  districts .  350.00 
Other  school  districts  employing  more  than 
one  teacher  .  300,00 
Each  school  district  employing  one  teacher 
having  an  assessed  valuation  exceeding 
$100,000  .  200.00 
Other  school  districts  employing  one  teacher 
and  an  assessed  valuation  of  $100,000  or 
less,  receive  $200,  plus  $3  for  each  $1,000 
valuation  less  than  100,000. 
The  more  teachers  in  a  city,  village  or  district,  the 
more  State  aid  returned.  Do  you  think  that  if  the 
cities  or  villages  had  not  appreciated  that  they  would 
get  more  out  than  they  contributed  they  would  have 
allowed  this  amendment  to  be  enacted? 
Get  the  assessed  valuation  of  your  district  and 
multiply  it  at  the  rate  of  the  State  tax  given  above, 
and  subtract  the  amount  of  the  State’s  aid  for  that 
year,  and  you  will  appreciate  the  amount  your  dis¬ 
trict  contributed  to  this  floating  fund. 
Iht  RURAL.  NEW-YORKER 
It  has  been  stated  by  Mr.  Hathaway  on  page  1334 
that  Prof.  Works  estimates  the  increased  cost  to  the 
State  would  be  $12,000,000,  and  that  the  cities  would 
pay  SO  per  cent  of  the  taxes.  The  only  way  that  this 
additional  cost  could  be  met  would  be  an  increase  in 
the  direct  State  tax.  Do  not  let  ourselves  be  deceived 
into  believing  that  someone  else  is  to  bear  our  tax  bur¬ 
dens.  Rather  educate  the  people  to  a  realization  of  the 
importance  of  their  schools  and  the  justification  of  a 
larger  expenditure  for  them.  From  past  experience 
the  cities  have  been  able  to  see  the  joker  in  all  school 
legislation,  and  will  prevent  its  passage  unless  they 
secui’e  their  share  and  then  some. 
I  take  issue  with  the  assertion  that  the  cities  are 
wealthy.  True,  they  have  a  large  assessed  valuation, 
but  they  have  also  a  corresponding  obligation  by  reason 
of  the  size  of  their  school  attendance.  Many  of  the 
cities  of  the  State  are  compelled  to  house  their  pupils 
in  portables  and  resort  to  half-day  sessions,  as  they  are 
unable  to  meet  the  cost  of  school  buildings.  The  report 
has  set  the  standard  of  equalization  assessed  valuation 
at  $290,000,  but  the  bill  places  it  at  $300,000. 
The  State  constitution  prohibits  cities,  in  addition  to 
providing  for  the  principal  and  interest  of  existing  debt, 
from  raising  by  taxation  in  any  one  year  for  “city  pur¬ 
poses”  amounts  in  excess  of  2  per  cent  of  the  assessed 
valuation  of  the  real  and  personal  estate  of  the  city 
(Art.  VIII,  Sec.  10).  The  Board  of  Education  was 
unsuccessful  in  its  litigation  against  the  city  of  Roch¬ 
ester  (234  N.  Y.,  644)  in  its  contention  that  education 
was  a  State  function ;  the  court  held  that  moneys 
raised  for  education  were  for  “city  purposes’  under-  the 
constitution. 
The  New  York  State  Conference  of  Mayors  has  at  the 
last  legislative  session  recommended  that  the  Legisla¬ 
ture  prepare  and  approve  a  concurrent  resolution  pro¬ 
posing  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  which  will 
provide  that  appropriations  for  school  purposes  shall 
not  be  included  in  the  2  per  cent  taxing  power  of  cities 
having  a  population  of  100,000  or  more.  This  is  not  a 
problem  of  rural  schools,  but  a  question  of  education  of 
the  whole  State. 
Would  the  people  of  the  State  sanction  the  abolition 
of  all  school  taxes  by  the  cities,  villages  and  districts, 
and  the  substitution  of  a  direct  State  tax  for  education 
to  be  administered  by  the  State  Department  of  Educa¬ 
tion?  At  least  the  people  would  know  what  education 
would  cost.  Are  the  recommendations  of  the  commit¬ 
tee  anything  other  than  that,  only  by  an  indirect  route? 
Roger  Babson,  the  statistician,  shows  us  that  we  used 
during  1922,  one-sixth  of  the  national  income  for  taxes, 
federal,  State  and  local. 
The  school  problem  is  not  rural,  but  State-wide.  It 
is  fundamentally  a  financial  one.  Better  school  build¬ 
ings,  better  equipment  and  better  teachers  can  be  pro¬ 
vided  only  by  the  expenditure  of  more  money,  and  no 
juggling  of  figures  can  make  it  otherwise.  Give  the 
people  the  facts  without  camouflage.  M.  F. 
Two  Tales  of  the  Farm 
HERE  are  two  little  stories  as  they  are  related 
to  us.  There  are  many  more  such  incidents  if 
we  could  get  them : 
HE  NEVER  CALLED. — The  clipping  which  is  re¬ 
produced  on  page  1209  of  your  Sept.  23  issue,  reminds 
me  to  tell  of  a  similar  case,  but  with  an  entirely  dif¬ 
ferent  ending,  which  occurred  mjar  here  recently. 
While  looting  the  hennery  of  a  neighbor,  a  poultry 
dealer  of  this  community  lost  his  pocketbook,  which 
was  found  to  contain  $147.  Apparently  he  did  not  dis¬ 
cover  his  loss  immediately,  and  it  was  found  by  the 
proprietor  inside  the  building  the  next  morning.  After 
counting  over  the  fowls,  the  farmer  found  that  he  was 
short  12  pullets  and  three  broilers.  He  notified  the 
owner  of  the  lost  pocketbook,  which  was  identified  by  a 
business  card  and  some  notes,  but  to  date  he  hasn’t 
claimed  it.  c.  E.  F. 
New  York. 
DIDN’T  NEED  THE  MILK.— Last  July  at  a  town 
in  New  York,  I  heard  a  story  about  a  typical  back-to- 
the-land  farmer,  the  kind  that  come  up  from  the  city 
in  the  Spring,  “buy”  a  farm  and  keep  boarders  during 
the  Summer.  The  man  bought  a  nice  large  cow,  recent¬ 
ly  freshened.  It  soon  got  sick.  He  sent  for  veter¬ 
inarian.  The  doctor  asked  when  the  cow  was  milked 
last.  The  farmer  replied  he  had  not  milked  the  cow 
since  he  bought  her.  When  told  he  should  have  milked 
regularly  twice  a  day,  he  said  he  did  not  need  the  milk  ; 
no  boarders  had  come  yet.  j.  l.  s. 
Pennsylvania. 
Notes  About  Sugar 
THE  following  figures  regarding  sugar  might  well 
be  kept  for  reference.  Before  the  Great  War 
the  world’s  production  of  sugar  reached  20,000.000 
tons  per  year.  During  the  war  several  million  tons 
were  lost,  hut  the  total  is  now  back  to  20.000,000. 
Of  this  about  11  per  cent  is  produced  in  the  United 
States  and  its  possessions.  Before  the  war  the  con¬ 
sumption  of  sugar  in  this  country  amounted  to  4,000.- 
000  tons.  In  1922  this  had  increased  to  5,700.000  tons. 
We  are  now  consuming  about  28  per  cent  of  all  the 
sugar  produced  in  the  world.  The  per  capita  con¬ 
sumption  before  the  war  was  84  lbs.  Last  year  it 
reached  103  lbs.  That  is,  every  man.  woman  and 
child  in  the  United  States  averaged  103  lbs.  of  sugar 
per  year.  It  is  said  that  only  Australia  and  New 
Zealand  exceed  us  in  this  respect.  Over  most  of  the 
world  consumption  has  fallen.  In  Great  Britain  the 
average  consumption  has  dropped  from  90  to  70  lbs. ; 
in  Germany,  75  to  54  lbs. ;  in  Russia.  29  to  5  lbs. 
Before  the  war  the  European  production  of  beet 
sugar  reached  9.000,000  tons.  Shortly  after  the  war 
this  had  dropped  to  about  3,000.000  tons,  and  last 
year  reached  5.200.000  tons.  Germany,  which  was 
formerly  the  heaviest  sugar  producing  nation  in  the 
world,  last  year  imported  180,000  tons,  while  she 
exported  only  17,000  tons.  The  United  States  con¬ 
tinues  to  be  the  greatest  importer  of  sugar.  Our  im¬ 
ports  for  last  year  amounted  to  3,300,000  tons,  and 
1293 
we  have  been  paying  foreigners  something  like  $500,- 
000,000  a  year.  We  have  in  this  country  excellent 
soil  for  raising  sugar  beets,  and  it  would  be  entirely 
possible  and  in  a  comparatively  short  time,  to  develop 
the  sugar  business  so  as  to  wipe  out  the  imports 
entirely  and  leave  a  considerable  quantity  of  sugar 
for  export,  if  desired.  There  will  have  to  be  a  crop 
adjustment  before  long,  with  less  of  the  crops  like 
wheat,  which  are  usually  developed  in  excess  of  de¬ 
mand,  and  more  crops  like  sugar,  which  are  needed 
by  our  own  people. 
Labor  Problems  at  the  South 
FARMER  in  Eastern  North  Carolina  writes  the 
Daily  News  about  a  new  labor  trouble  which 
has  come  up  in  his  section : 
During  the  period  of  inflation  at  the  time  of  and  im¬ 
mediately  following  the  World  War,  labor  was  in  the 
saddle  and  its  demands  were  met  because  it  was  pos¬ 
sible  for  the  farmer  to  grant  them,  and  then  come  out 
ahead.  Since  that  time,  and  for  a  considerable  period 
now,  it  has  been  impossible  for  the  farmer  to  pay  the 
price  for  labor  that  has  been  and  is  being  paid  on  pub¬ 
lic  work  and  by  public  service  and  manufacturing  cor¬ 
porations,  and  many  expedients  are  being  resorted  to  in 
order  to  get  crops  worked  and  harvested.  Farm  products 
have  been  selling  for  less  than  the  cost  of  production 
and  the  farmer,  large  and  small,  has  been  hard  pressed. 
To  meet  the  emergency  a  system  known  as  “exchang¬ 
ing  work”  has  been  inaugurated.  White  farmers  “ex¬ 
change”  work  with  negro  farmers,  white  boys  and  white 
girls  working  side  by  side  with  negro  boys  and  negro 
girls,  for  all  practical  purposes  the  negro  being  the  em¬ 
ployer  ;  and  the  white  man  says  it  is  necessary  to  do 
this  in  order  to  make  a  living  for  his  family.  If  the 
contention  is  true,  then  our  State  is  facing  a  very 
serious  economic  problem,  and  one  that,  if  not  solved, 
will  lead  to  a  lowering  of  our  standard  of  living  and  a 
possible  degeneration  of  the  farm  population. 
As  a  result  of  this  system  many  desperate  fights 
have  occurred.  The  migration  of  negroes  to  the 
North  is  partly  responsible  for  the  trouble. 
Growth  of  Dairying  in  Central  West 
I  have  been  following  with  much  interest  your  discus¬ 
sion  of  the  dairy  situation  in  the  Eastern  States.  A 
brief  description  of  the  dairy  situation  in  the  Middle 
AVest  may  help  your  readers  to  get  a  better  general  idea 
of  the  kind  of  competition  they  are  facing  there. 
Twenty-five  to  30  years  ago  there  were  practically  no 
dairy  products  shipped  out  of  the  region  lying  between 
the  Missouri  River  and  the  Rockies.  Corn  and  wheat 
ruled  the  land  that  was  under  cultivation  at  that  time. 
But  from  about  1896  on  the  surplus  butter  made  by  the 
farmers’  wives  gradually  increased,  as  did  the  number 
and,  quality  of  the  dairy  cattle.  Then  about  1908  a 
Farm  Bureau  in  Southeast  Nebraska  started  shipping 
in  purebred  Holsteins  from  Wisconsin  in  carload  lots. 
This  one  Bureau  shipped  in  eight  or  10  carloads  of 
cows  and  calves  in  three  or  four  years.  They  now  in 
turn  have  been  shipping  out  surplus  stock  for  several 
years,  mostly  to  nearby  communities  and  States.  Sev¬ 
eral  other  Nebraska  Farm  Bureaus  followed  their  ex¬ 
ample  after  two  or  three  years.  The  good  results  and 
large  returns  from  those  early  shipments  were  given 
rather  wide  publicity  by  the  daily  and  farm  press,  and 
as  a  result  dairying  (which  in  this  case  means  cream 
production)  increased  very  rapidly  from  then  on,  and  is 
still  on  the  upward  trend.  These  cream  producers  have 
to  buy  very  little  feed,  as  they  grow  great  quantities  of 
corn  and  Alfalfa,  an  almost  perfectly  balanced  ration, 
and  of  late  years  they  have  learned  the  great  value  of 
Sweet  clover  pasture.  Many  also  use  Sudan  grass  as 
late  Summer  and  early  Fall  pasture.  Bluegrass  and 
Timothy  are  of  little  value  in  this  region. 
From  the  above  the  reader  will  readily  understand 
that  this  surplus  cream  is  produced  quite  cheaply.  As 
it  is  produced  as  a  side  line  by  nearly  every  farmer  in 
the  eastern  ends  of  South  Dakota,  Nebraska,  Kansas 
and  Oklahoma,  as  well  as  in  nearly  all  parts  of  I  own 
and  Missouri,  and  by  a  large  portion  of  the  farmers 
and  ranchers  of  Colorado,  Wyoming,  Montana  and  West¬ 
ern  South  Dakota,  Nebraska  and  Kansas,  you  can  see 
that  the  aggregate  production  is  immense.  So  much 
for  the  producing  end.  Now  for  the  marketing  end. 
Formerly  the  farmers  traded  in  their  surplus  butter 
at  the  country  store  along  with  their  eggs,  and  the  mer¬ 
chant  disposed  of  it  as  best  he  could.  Some  time  in  the 
early  nineties,  I  think  it  was,  someone  conceived  the 
idea  of  gathering  this  surplus  butter  (and  cream)  into 
a  central  plant  and  preparing  it  for  market.  The  firm 
of  Haskell  &  Bosworth  was  organized  in  our  town  to 
carry  this  idea  into  effect.  In  time  they  established 
local  agencies  (or  cream  stations,  as  they  are  ealled)  in 
hundreds  of  towns  and  villages.  These  agents  buy  the 
cream  direct  from  the  farmer  on  a  commission  basis, 
paying  according  to  butterfat  content  of  cream  as  proved 
by  Babcock  test.  Semi-weekly  or  oftener  the  stations 
ship  the  cream  that  they  have  on  hand  to  the  central 
plant,  sometimes  500  miles  away,  in  cans  of  eight- 
gallon  size  mostly.  Once  a  week  or  once  a  month  the 
creamery  mails  checks  to  the  producers,  either  direct  or 
through  the  stations.  The  stations  also  buy  eggs  and 
ship  them  to  the  creamery.  They  also  used  to  buy  the 
country  store’s  supply  of  surplus  butter,  whether  it  was 
good,  bad  or  otherwise,  melting  and  rechurning  it  with 
sweet  milk  or  some  such  process,  and  then  selling  it  as 
“Pure  Creamery  Butter.”  There’s  no  need  of  that  now, 
though,  for  “country  butter”  is  a  rarity  except  in  the 
country,  and  the  dairymen  themselves,  I  am  ashamed 
to  say.  often  use  oleo  or  else  buy  “creamery.” 
The  original  firm  has  long  since  ceased  to  exist,  but 
the  corporation  that  took  its  place  has  grown  to  be  a 
giant  for  fair.  It  is  capitalized  in  the  millions,  and 
has  immense  plants  in  central  locations,  both  west  and 
east.  At  one  time  it  had  almost  a  monopoly,  but  other 
companies,  including  one  of  the  big  Chicago  meat-pack¬ 
ing  companies,  have  now  successfully  invaded  the  field. 
One  farmers’  “co-op.”  company,  located  near  the  Ne- 
braska-Kansas  border  line,  after  nearly  going  on  the 
rocks  financially,  got  a  hustling  young  Dane  to  run 
their  plant  and  business,  and  are  now  making  a  grpat 
success.  Their  butter  and  eggs  go  to  New  York  City 
in  carload  lots.  8o  far  as  I  know  there  is  but  one  small 
milk  condensery  in  this  region,  and  very  few  cheese  fac¬ 
tories.  j.  h.  T. 
