The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-05

comforts. I have before me photo
graphs Of some Of these new country
schools. Here is one at Kinsman,
Ohio. It is built of brick, with a
slate roof. and it has two stories and
basement. It has five c~lass-rooms. a
laboratory n a library. It cost $9,-
coo to build. and it's pupils number
about n hundred. Here is another
at Twin Falls. Idaho, in a district Of
t~hirty-six square miles mo a popula-
ton of 4,000. This is a finer build
ing than h a at Kinsnlan, and very
much larger. The school there has
an enrolment Of 726, of whom 200
are brought in daily in wagons. Four
yea ago the ground on which the
building stands was covered with sage
brush. It has now been turned into
a school farm, and the school has
two acres of Fairgrounds. At the
Ohio school it costs s cents a day
per pupil to bring them to school
Another photograph shows a school
at TrumbuIl county, Ohio, and an
other one at Green Center, in the
same State. One of these buildings
cost $1,000, and the other $4,000.
Each keeps eight or ten wagons to
bring in the pupils.
It is found that more childen are
going to school in the districts where
the schools have been consolidated.
There are now about 5000, 0e0 chill
dren in the country schools, whereas
there should be six or seven millions.
When this new movement is we'll I'M
der way education will probably be
compulsory everywhere, and every
country boy and girl will get an edu-
cation.
Farming in the Schools.
These new schools are especially
adapted to the farmer and to farm
life. In addition to the regular
courses as taught III the city schools,
they have some special studies bear
ing upon crops and home economies.
I hav before me an outline OF the
work Of n Of the schools. In the
first and second years nature study
forms 8 part and in the fourth year
the geography is to a large extent
physical, showing the work done by
nature in preparing the soil for US:
It also includes the distribution OF
our farm products all over the world.
The higher grades have lessons in
agriculture, and among the studies
of the seventh and eighth years are
cooperative enterprise in farming
and matters connected with the farm
stead and home. The children learn
all about animals, and the boys are
taught how to judge a horse ana
cow. The girls learn all about sew
ing and cooking as we'll as how TO
make the house beautiful and he
home pleasant.
In some of these schools the work
begins with the kindergarten and ends
at the high school
Take Lima township, Ind The con.
solidated school, there contains 2o9
children, and of these ninety are IN
the high school. h teachers OF
the high schools are college grad
yates and those OF the grades are
normal graduates. The building has
a reading room and a library, ana
adjoining the school grounds IS a
school garden of 200 plots. me
children have a school paper, an
orchestra and Il band, and a boys-and-
girls gfee club. They have athlet1cs
and also a lecture course. That
school is made up Of a consolidation
of a number Of one-room country
schools. each Of which had but one
teacher.
SchooI Gardens and School Farms.
Nearly all Of the new schools nave
school and little farms con-
nected with them. In them the chill
dren raise vegetables and flowers:
they study the soil and learn how ana
uhy plants grow. They are taught
ALI about the work of the roots ana
sfenos and leaves. They are shown
how TO grow fruit and are taught
ht,dd5ng and grating by being made