More and more attention is being paid to the surroundings of the buildings.
School gardens are common, and some schools even cultivate an acre or two of ground, the proceeds of which go to furnish apparatus or supplies.

Many of the Southern towns and cities have schools which need not fear comparison with those in other sections.
The crying need is more money which can come only in two ways, by reforming the system of taxation, and by increasing the amount of taxable property.

All through the South the chief reliance is a general property tax with local assessors who are either incompetent or else desirous of keeping down assessments.

The proportion of assessment to value varies widely, but on the average it can hardly be more than fifty per cent; and, as invariably happens, the assessment of the more valuable properties is proportionately less than that of the small farm or the mechanic's home.

The South is growing richer, but the conflict with the North set the section back thirty or forty years, while the remainder of the country was increasing in wealth.