nical difficulties involved in transporting pupils from distant
localities to the school center. Roads are bad at certain times of the
year. Wagons are costly. Desirable drivers are difficult to secure.
These factors, taken together, make the administrative difficulties of
the consolidated school far greater than those of the old-time one-room
country school.

The forces operating to overcome these difficulties are destined
ultimately to triumph. The widespread acceptance of an agricultural
education that followed upon the work of experiment stations,
universities and high schools, has convinced even the most reactionary
of the old-time group that there are, at least, certain things in the
new generation which surpass, in their economic and social value, the
like things of the old. The inroads of scientific agriculture have
played havoc with agricultural tradition and conservatism. The obvious
merits of the new scheme are destined to overcome the prejudices which
the long continuance of the old scheme created.

The technical difficulties of transportation are being met in a number
of ways. Wagon builders in various parts of the country are devoting
themselves to the designing and building of wagons which will be cheap
and effective. State and local authorities are actively engaged in the
improvement of roads. The near future promises a standard of
transportation facilities that will far surpass any that the
consolidation movement has thus far enjoyed. The details of
transportation administration are being worked out variously in
different communities, and always with a view to the particular needs of
the community involved.

While the disadvantages of consolidation lie mainly in the overcoming of
prejudice and the solution of administrative problems, the advantages of
consolidation seem to be primarily educational and social. The
consolidated school is the only method thus far devised for giving
graded school and high school privileges under adequately paid teachers
to the inhabitants of rural communities. Again the consolidated school
is the only method of securing a school attendance sufficiently large to
provide the incentive arising from competition and emulation for pupils
of each grade or age. Furthermore, the consolidated school, standing out
as the most distinctive feature of a rural landscape, is readily
converted into a center of rural life and activity where young folks and
old folks alike find a common gr