are again in the field. Still some of our schools are not yet supplied, and some are teaching who would not be retained except that the alternative is no school at all.

COMMISSIONER'S DUTIES.-I do not suppose my round of duties differs materially from that of other commissioners. I find enough to do, and try to do it. I go into each town twice each year to examine teachers. I sometimes examine orally, sometimes I require the answers to be written; ordinarily, I think the two methods combined is the most satisfactory. I give but few first grade licenses, and not any until earned by successful teaching. I make it a point to visit each school at least once during each term; oftener if necessary. In some instances I remain in school during the day; but, ordinarily, half a day constitutes a visit. I always hold myself ready to counsel with trustees and others interested in school matters. I frequently attend school meetings where districts are in trouble, and can generally reconcile the differences. During the present winter I traveled thirty miles in one instance to find a competent teacher for a district without one. I find there is much labor connected with the getting up of a successful institute. It was especially so last fall, when I found it necessary to call on each teacher personally, in the different towns, to insure an attendance. There seems to be no end to the duties of a school commissioner. We do the most work and receive the least pay of any officer in the county.

Hoping that our schools may continue to prosper, and ultimately do all the good that is expected of them,

I am, yours truly,

JOHN A. PLACE,

School Commissioner.

FULTON, December 30, 1862.

SECOND DISTRICT.

PALERMO, N. Y., December 6, 1862.

Hon. V. M. RICE, Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Sir-The undersigned school commissioner for the second district in the county of Oswego respectfully submits the following report:

The number of persons of school age, as reported by the trustees, is 6,441; the number of persons who attended school during the past year is 5,070, or 78.7 per cent. of those who draw public money.

It seems to me that there might be an improvement, in respect to the apportionment of public money. My plan is this:

1st. Apportion the money to the counties according to population. 2d. Apportion one-third to the districts equally.

3d. Apportion the remaining two-thirds to the districts in proportion to the number of days sent to school.

Then every district would have a special interest to get every child of school age to attend school, and regularly; for in proportion as they

are sent they would receive money from the State to pay the expenses. Then, too, our schools need not be limited, as many now are, to "six months;" but they can continue as long as convenient for the children to attend, and receive their money from the State in proportion. Now, every person of school age in this county draws about sixty cents, and it does not make any difference in the amount whether he goes nine months or none.

All that many of our trustees care for is to get a teacher who has a license, that he can draw the public money; so that the trustee will not have to pay it out of his own pocket, and then have the school continue six months for the same reason.

The effect of rate-bills is to stop many children from going to school who would otherwise attend. Rate-bills have the same effect on children going to school that brakes do on car wheels.

I cannot give the public sentiment in respect to the school houses. There are 48 good school houses in this district-four of them built last summer; 22 ordinary, and 16 poor ones-6 of the 16 are very poor. District No. 14, Constantia, has no school house. They have not been able as yet to get a vote to build. They intend to build next summer, if they can agree on a site. Most of the school houses have one chair; quite a number have Mitchell's outline maps; some have varnished maps of the United States, and some of New York. There are a few of the

new maps of New York State. A very few schools have globes; some of my teachers will have globes this winter. I should judge that thirty or forty schools have an astronomical chart. I do not know by whom it is published.

The ventilation generally is of two kinds. First, natural-that is, that caused by the shrinking of the siding and flooring; and second, by dropping the windows-either of which I think is very bad in cold, winter weather. A very few school houses are ventilated through the ceiling.

Arithmetic, reading, geography, and grammar are the principal studies. Children commence attending at the age of three, four, five, and six years, and generally leave school at eighteen or nineteen years of age. They are allowed to attend as long as they please. The general progress of the schools is moderate, and their most urgent want is ambition.

TEACHERS. The proportion of male to female teachers during the year is as one to three. The proportion this winter will be about as four to nine. The wages of lady teachers for the past summer have been from $1.25 to $2.50 per week, and board around-average price $1.75, I should think. This winter their wages are from $3.50 to $5.50 per week, and their board will cost them $1.25 to $1.50 a week. A Normal graduate, Mrs. S. C. Clark, of Phoenix, received $28 per month last winter in Phoenix. She was principal of the Phoenix schools. Miss Ada L. Crawford,

of Parish, received $27 for twenty days last summer at Oswego Falls. She is now teaching in Fulton.

The gentlemen teachers receive this winter from $14 per month and board around to $24 and be boarded at one place. I think the best teachers do not get paid enough. I think the teachers are best prepared to teach arithmetic. Their greatest failing is in not making what they undertake to teach practical. I subject them to rigid written examinations, and many of them think it is "tough."

I think that about one-eighth of the teachers have read "Holbrook's Normal." There is a great demand for teachers of high: qualifications. The few Normal graduates employed have good success in schools, their influence is good, and there will be an increasing demand for their services.

ACADEMIES.-We have no academy in this commissioner district. I think the number of private schools has decreased with the year, and I intend to do my best to make their existence unnecessary.

DISTRICT SCHOOL LIBRARIES are in a sad condition. The books are not well taken care of, and many have been lost and destroyed. I do not think they are very generally read, and are not very highly estimated by the people. I have not examined the libraries.

Nearly every family has a few books, and newspapers are very generally read throughout the district. War news is the principal thing, and has been for the past year.

TRUSTEES.—I think that a majority of the people would prefer one trustee. More than one-half of the districts have adopted the plan, and many did it this fall. I do not know how many trustees have complied with the requirements of No. 116 of the Code of Public Instruction.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE.-The teachers' institute of this district was in session twenty-one days. W. G. Chaffee conducted the institute, and taught phonetics (and had an experimental class), phonography, advanced and common algebra, geography, grammar, and arithmetic the first week; Byron G. Clapp, Hastings Centre, practical arithmetic three weeks; Rosa H. Strickland, Hastings, advanced grammar two weeks; Orrin B. Patchin, Amboy, reading, elocution, and intellectual arithmetic; Amos J. Richardson, East Palermo, intellectual arithmetic; E. A. Fish, advanced grammar and reading. Subjects of instruction-Reading, practical and intellectual arithmetic, common and advanced algebra, grammar, geography, phonetics and phonography, and discussions every day. Lecturers-Rev. V. M. Wilson, Colosse, N. Y., "The Teacher-A Pilgrim;" Prof. C. M. Underhill, of Falley seminary, Fulton, N. Y., Symmetrical Man;" Rev. R. H. Pullman encouraged the teachers to do well their duty; W. G. Chaffee, "The Best Method of Teaching Children to Read" (phonetic.) Over one hundred teachers were in attendance. It was the best institute I ever attended. There was no "jar" during its

"The

whole session. It was a perfect success, and the teachers were well satisfied with it.

SCHOOL COMMISSIONER.-I visit schools, point out their faults, and tell the teacher how to remedy them; counsel with school officers; examine teachers; organize and conduct a teachers' institute, write letters, &c.

I have been experimenting with phonetics for the past year, and believe that a child can be taught by means of phonetics to read our common print in half the time it can by the word or alphabet systems. For that reason I advocate the system. A number of scholars who never attended school before last summer were able to read well in four months in Willson's Second Reader. It makes better readers, and in a much shorter time than any other system with which I am acquainted. Respectfully your obedient servant, W. G. CHAFFEE,

School Commissioner.

OTSEGO COUNTY-SECOND DISTRICT.

To the Hon. VICTOR M. RICE, Superintendent of Public Instruction: Your circular calling for a special report has been received. I beg leave to submit the following:

COMMON SCHOOLS.-The attendance of scholars of legal age, residing in my district, is not as general as the interest of education demands; a variety of causes operate to prevent the attendance at our schools. In some districts local disaffection, in others the fear of rate-bills. A dislike to a teacher, remoteness from the school house; a vast number of causes of this character operate on the minds of parents and scholars, to prevent attendance on the schools to the extent and regularity desirable. In many districts the public money is not sufficient to pay the teacher; and many persons, either from pride or avarice, dislike to send where any expense is to be incurred. To be classed among the "indigent" is deemed, by many, far more disgraceful than to be classed with the ignorant. Hence, a rate-bill discourages in many instances attendance at the schools. I am, therefore, in favor of free schools, or an appropriation of money sufficient to secure all who desire the benefits. of the common school free from the horror of a rate-bill.

SCHOOL HOUSES.-The school houses in my district are very poorly provided with those means of instruction which I deem essential to the advancement of pupils. In some I find no blackboards; in such cases I have called on the trustees, and urged the necessity of providing, at once, this useful aid to instruction, In but very few school houses have I found any charts and maps; and in many of the schools where I have found blackboards, I have found teachers, for weeks, conducting their schools without chalk. In all these instances I have used all the power

vested in me by the law, to remedy these evils. I have urged trustees to provide such maps as I considered necessary, and such charts as the interests of the pupils required. In some instances they have regarded my wishes; in most, however, they have not.

As to school buildings, the people are becoming sensible that an improvement is demanded. Wherever new ones are erected much effort is now made to render them commodious and comfortable; and great improvement is perceptible in the internal fixtures. The old slab benches, without backs, are disappearing, and soon, I trust, in my district, will be remembered only as things that were. Convenient desks, adapted to the wants of the scholars, are now deemed a necessary part in every new school house. Temperature in the school-room is an important item. Scholars and teachers alike suffer, unless the room in which their respective pursuits are conducted is kept at a suitable temperature for their comfort. He who pursues knowledge shivering with cold, will pursue it under difficulties which nothing but a good stove and well seasoned fuel can remove. In many districts the wood is cut green, and dragged to the school house for consumption. In such cases I have frequently found teachers and scholars huddled together over the stove in a cold winter's day; a condition of things which not only arrests study, but destroys the order of the school. I have known one instance of this kind, where the melee produced by the efforts of pupils to get near enough to the stove to keep warm, resulted in breaking up the school for a whole winter, besides kindling bitter and unpleasant feeling in the district, which years may not entirely heal.

I have to regret that the sites of most of our school houses are anything but desirable. The roadside, the angles of roads, and sometimes a part of the territory legally assigned to the highway itself, is fixed upon for the school house, often on a bank impossible to ascend with a team. No play ground, no shade trees, no fence except a crooked rail fence that terminates at the back corners of the school house, leaving the building to form part of the fence inclosing the adjoining lot from the highway. I know of but four school houses in my district that are inclosed by a good fence, and but one where any regard has been paid to render the surrounding grounds attractive by shade trees. There is no post to hitch a horse near any of our school houses; I have suggested to trustees the necessity of providing this convenience; in winter weather it is almost impossible to find a suitable place to fasten a horse when the commissioner visits the schools. Our school grounds are also very deficient in the necessary outbuildings. Some of them have no wood sheds, and in a few instances no privy. In all these cases, I have, when I could reach the trustees, endeavored to awaken them to the necessity of providing these necessary appendages of the school,,

TEXT BOOKS.-As to the supply, it is sufficient in quantity, but as to quality I cannot report favorably. Text books of all kinds find their