Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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? Report of Rural School Inspe tor D. L. Lewis on Schools' of This Counts'. "' ? ' I arrived in Edgefield on Tuesdi April 12, and spent that day in t high school. I found a splendid scho all the teachers doing good work, found, however, that the school hui] ing is in bad condition, and may dangerous, as the walls are bad cracked, and the building appears be continuing to settle. I strongly a vise that the trustees have the buil ing examined by a competent arel tect. Edgefield is badly in need of new, modern, up-to-date high scho building, with class-rooms for dome tic science, manual training, and coi merdai department. The district needs to levy six mi! more, and put in more teachers f ^his industrial training. One of tl greatest mistakes that a town ai . city school systems are making i that they provide literary trainii for the boys and girls, but do n teach them to work with their hand Unless children are taught to wor it is 'practically impossible to mal men and women of them. Familiarity with physical labor ar ability to carry responsibility, wi1 a well-rounded literary education are absolutely necessary in the mal ing of men and women. Edgefield hi 70 mills taxes; some other towi and cities have as high as 90. Is better to put on more taxes and gi\ the children the well-rounded educ? tion they should have, or continue \ put up with present facilities th* are totally inadequate? On Wednesday, Antioch and Re Hill schools were visited. In each c these schools we found good teacl , * ing being done. The only criticisi that should be made of the work ii that not enough is expected and re quired of the pupils in the highe grades-a very common weakness i many schools, particularly countr schools. To illustrate: In some cour try schools, high school pupils are al lowed to read Ancient History i; class, a few. questions are asked as ; Tesult of this reading, and it is pass ed up as a recitation. Pupils get noth ing from such a recitation. Teachers who . allow ouch to pas as recitations do a great injustice ti pupils and parents. This conditio] .was not observed in Edgefield coun ty, but it illustrates a tendency oi the part of some teachers to try t< make the work too easy for the pu pils. On Thursday Harmony, a four . teacher school, and Trenton, a five -teacher school, were visited. The worl -in these two schools is good. Th< ideal school system for any countj should contain no school with fewei than four teachers. In a four-teachei school ten grades can be taught, the pupils can be prepared for college or for the work in life; instructor in music can be given, and some gooc . work in domestic science, manual training, and agriculture done. Har mony school can in large measure be made to reach the educational needs of the community. At Trenton we found an excellent building, and fine work being done, With the addition of industrial train ing for che pupils, they can be given a well-rounded high school education. On Monday, April 18, Limestone, Morgan and Sullivan, one-teacher schools, were visited. In these schools we found as good teaching being done as we have ever observed in one teacher schools. One-teacher schools, however, can never educate the coun try children. Such schools can suc cessfully teach only seven grades and every country child should have the opportunity to complete ten grades. The two-teacher school is better, but it should undertake only eight grades. It is very unfortunate that any com munity should have to maintain schools of the one -and two-teacher type, as they cannot possibly reach . the educational needs of the children. . Whenever possible, consolidations of ''these small schools must be made, and schools of three, lour, or more teachers, or centralized country high .y schools, should be established. Before country children can ever be educat ed, country parents must have the same foresight and vision that town parents have for the education of their children. Town people see the necessity bf having a large number of teachers in one school, of havnig an eight or nine months' session, and of having an expert superintendent to supervise the work of all the teachers. To maintain such schools, town peo. pie are willing to levy from ten to twenty mills special school taxes. What would be the result if every country school district in Edgefield county had 15 mills special taxes? Such a tax, together with the consoli dations suggested above, would go far toward reaching the educational , needs of the country children. Are not the country children just as worthy of a good education as the ?town children? Do they not deserve as much in the way of education the town children? If we educi country children, who already kn how to work on the farm, and h to shoulder responsibility, we ma the best men and women in the wor The successful business man of 1 towns and cities and today were re? ed in the country. Country peo] must realize that it is cheaper i them, and better for their chilrd< to educate them in the country th it is for the parents to have to mo to towji, or to board their childr in town. The taxes for building good country schools will be mu less than the expense of moving town, or of having to board the ch dren in town. Furthermore, count children soon become enamoured town life, and ase lost to the cou try. . i I realize that the sparsely settl country 'communities of Edgefie county cannot as yet make the co solidations so necessary for the ad quate educ?tion of their children, b the ideal toward which they shou look is the union of their sim schools into schools of three, four, more teachers, . and wherever pos: ble, the establishment of centraliz* country high schools. In the centralized country hi| school, as many districts as possib i come together to conduct a joint hif school; the district in which the hig school is to be established issu< bonds to build the high school, or 1 remodel its present building; sufi cient taxes are levied to run the hig school eight months, and the .affilia ed districts should run their respe tive schools just as long; each di trict maintains its present school, bx sends all pupils above the sevent grade to the central high school. In such a high school the teachei can do departmental work-eac teacher teaching the subjects fe which she is best fitted, and the si perintendent can supervise the hig school and the affiliated seven-grad schools. Such a school can educat the country boys and girls. The present sparsely population o Edgefield county is due to the fae that so many people had to move t town to educate their children. If th country people could have had a: educational ' vision, how differen would have been country condition today! Country communities wouli be growing, country churches pros perous, and the county's future cit izenship guaranteed. Edgefield county is one of the bes counties potentially from an agricul tural standpoint thus far visited, am only needs a large influx of smal farmers who can own their farms t< develop its resources and make i one of the richest counties in th< state.' On April 19, we visited Flat Roc! Collier and Cooper schools. In all oJ these schools good work was being done, except that more should be ex pected and required of the pupils ol the higher grades. All "written work ir all the schools from the fifth gradi up should be done with pen and ink to familiarize the children with the use of the pen. Speaking comparatively, the coun try schools of Edgefield county are of average grade. There is plenty of work yet to be done before the coun try children will get( the education they deserve. The country people should realize that the very best in vestment they can make for their children and their county is the edu cational investment suggested above. Not only will such an education in vestment save the children to the country, but it will attract to the county good farmers who will aid in developing the resources of the coun ty, and the county will be benefitted financially and otherwise. .Further more, every cent in taxes that the people pay for schools is wisely and effectively used. It is a noteworthy thing that throughout the State the school finances are most effectively managed. The county systems have been put on a cash basis, and no school money is wasted, except on poor teachers. This is due to the. splendid work of the county superin tendents, in cooperation with the State Superintendent. Edgefield coun ty is to be congratulated on the man ner in which its schood finances have/ been managed. As requested by law, the County Auditor should take air returns by school districts, and his duplicates should also be made up by school dis tricts, and the old township idea should be done away with. If this were done, the Treasurer could make reports of all taxes collected, by school districts, and could report such collections monthly to the Coun ty Superintendeent, as the law re quires. The Treasurer could "report month ly the amount pf three-mills tax col lected, and the County Superintend ent could apportion it and report such apportionment to the Treasurer. In this way accurate bookkeeping can [be done, and there will be no guess To the motorist wno uessin ALONG about this time of year a man finds his mctor . ing neighbors getting anxious about their tires. With folks expecting old tires to "pop" any minute, there comes the question of what kind of new ones to buy. U. S. Tires are answering a lot of questions like this nowadays. * * * The U. S. Tire following embraces two kinds of tire buyers. Those who started with quality first, and have never bought anything else but the quality standard tire. Those whpcame to quality first only after dabbling with "bargains," "rebates," "job lot" and "surplus stock" tires. * * * Getting one hundred cents value on the dollar in tire buying is a straight-forward business proposition-not guess-work or a game of wits. The most essential man for you to know today is the local U. S.Tire dealer who is concentrating on a full, completely sized line of U. S. Tires. He gets his U. S. Tires straight from his neighboring U. S. Tire Factory Branch-one of 92 such Branches established and maintained all over the country by the U. S. Tire makers. * * * He is the man who can give you fresh, live tires-not stuff shipped to him from some point where it did not sell, but new tires of current production. Giving the same quality, selection and price-advantage to the owner of the medium weight car as the big car owner gets. With equal service and buying opportunity whether he lives in the smaller localities or the greater centers of popuia^j?p. { THE U. S. NOBBY TREAD Where the going is specially heavy with snow, mud or sand, in hilly country where maximum traction on the road is a factor, no other tire tread yet devised is quite so effective, or so wholly approved by motoring opinion, as the U. S. Nobby Tread.. . Its very simplicity-two diagonal rows of ob long studs, interlocking in their grip on the road -is the result of all thc years of U. S. Rn bber ex perience with every type of road the world over. The moat essential man for you to know today in the tiro business is your local U. S. Tire Dealer. " United States Tires United States ? Rubber Company YONCE & MOONEY Edge?eld, S. C. V. E. EDWARDS & BRO. Johnston, S. C. 1 work as to the amount of money available afc any time for .any par ticular district. The people of Edgefield county must look forward and upward. Times are hard now, but they are not going to continue so forever. By building good schools, they must try to educate their children and induce good peo ple to purchase farms and settle in the country. When they shall have done these things, they shall hay?1 laid the foundationns of a permane':;, prosperity-a prosperity based on a population of home-owning farmers, who will maintain the country church es, and who can educate their chil dren in the country schools, thereby perpetuating those conditions that go toward the permanent establish ment and up-building of communi ties, states and nations. D. L. LEWIS, State Supt. Rural Schools. How to Grow Soy Beans. The soy bean is one of the best forage plants among the legumes and it exceeds any of the others in yield of seed. It does not require a par tic'ar kind of soil. It will withstand a great deal of moisture and suc cumbs only where water stands on the land for a considerable time. On the other hand, it is decidedly drouth-resistant. For ita best growth, the soy bean requires better preparation of the land than is necessary for cowpeas, because it cannot compete with weeds and grass so well as cowpeas. Clean land, prepared as for corn, is neces sary for a good crop. The application of fertilizer to the soy bean crop on either fertile or highly fertile land usually is not profitable. But on poor land good re turns will nearly always follow light application, 100 to 150 poun per acre, or acid phosphate; or a lig dressing, five or six loads per ac of stable manure. There is seldo anyprofit in applying commercial r trogenous fertilizers to soy bean for this crop gets nitrogen from tl air through the aid of nitrogen-gatl ering bacteria on its roots. ! Although the soy bean will grow o lsour,poorly drained land much bett? than red clover and alfalfa, it : greatly benefitted on such land b lime. In fact, under nearly all cond tions a moderate application of lim will usually give good returns. Although on fertile soils inocula tion is not necessary for a thrift; growth, it will usually benefit thi crop, and on poor land it is essentia for even moderate growth. For sec tions into which the crop is newly in troduced, regardless of the type 01 soil, artificial inoculation will nearlj always give good returns. Inoculating material and instruction for its usc may be secured at cost from the Mis souri College of Agriculture,, Colum bia, Mo. i The best date for planting soy beans will, of course, vary with the locality, but it is a safe practice to put in the crop about two weeks later than the average time of planting corn. The depth of pl?nting is an im portant point. The seed must be plant ed shallow or poor stands will result. Experiments have proved that two inches is the most favorable depth. For a crop planted in rows three feet apart-the best method where a seed crop is desired-fifteen to twenty pounds of seed will be requir ed to the acre. A broadcasted or drilled crop-for hay-will require sixty to ninety pounds to the acre. Missouri News Service. We Can Give You Prompt Service on Mill Work and Interior Finish . 0 Large stock of Rough and Dressed Lumber on hand for Immediate Deliverv. Woodward Lumber Co. QUALITY-SERVICE Corner Roberts and Dugas Sts., Augusta, Ga, \ Every one who has a Washing Machine ought to have one of our WASHING MACHINE DRAINERS that will automatically drain the machine whenever it is conveniently near a faucet. Write ,us for circular. Also one our Little Giant Clothes Reels, which does away with the unsightly clothes line, and really is more or less of an . ornament than eye sore such as the usual way of hanging out clothes is. Write for circular and price. Columbia Supply Company 823 West Gervais Street Columbia, S. C./