school which would be an excellent place in which to receive one's
elementary education. The reader is asked to "look here, upon this
picture, and on this." The transition from the one to the other is one
of the great problems of rural life and of the rural school.
Consolidation of schools, which we shall discuss more at length in a
later chapter, will help to solve the problem of the rural school, and
we give it our hearty indorsement. It is the best plan we know of where
the conditions are favorable; but it is probable that the one-room rural
school will remain with us for a long time to come. Indeed there are
some good reasons why it should remain. Where the good rural school
exists, whether non-consolidated or consolidated, it should be the
center and the soul of rural life in that community--social, economical,
and educational.

CHAPTER IV

SOME LINES OF PROGRESS

=Progress.=--The period covering the last sixty or seventy-five years
has seen greater progress in all material lines than any other equal
period of the world's history. Indeed, it is doubtful if a similar
period of invention and progress will ever recur. It has been one of
industrial revolution in all lines of activity.

=In Reaping Machines.=--Let us for a few moments trace this development
and progress in some specific fields. Within the memory of many men now
living the hand sickle was in common use in the cutting of grain. In the
fifties and sixties the cradle was the usual implement for harvesting
wheat, oats, and similar grains. One man did the cradling and another
the gathering and the binding into sheaves. Then came rapid development
of the reaping machine.

=The "Dropper."=--The most important step was probably the invention of
the sickle-bar, a slender steel bar having V-shaped sections attached,
to cut the grass and grain; this was pushed and pulled between what are
called guards, by means of a rod called the "Pitman rod," attached to a
small revolving wheel run by the gearing of the machine. This was a
wonderful invention and its principle has been extensively applied. The
first reaping machine using the sickle and guard device was known as the
"dropper." A reel, worked by machinery, revolved at a short distance
above the sickle, beating the wheat backward upon a small platform of
slats. This platform could be raised and lowered by the foot, by means
of a treadle. When there was sufficient grain on this slat-platform it
was low