REVISED EDlTlOn

Rural Economics and
Rural Sociology

Sy

JOHN PHELAN. A. M.

Director ol the County Teachers Training Cour«e
State Normal School, Stevaaa Point. Wi«.

Price Thirty-five Cents

EAU CLAIRE BOOK & STATIONERY CO.

EAU CLAIRE. WISCONSIN

A BRIEF COURSE IN

RURAL ECONOMICS AND
RURAL SOCIOLOGY

Sv

JOHN PHELAN. A. M.

Direotor of the County Teacher* Training Comrse
State Normal School. Stevens Peint. Wis.

EAU CLAIRE BOOK & STATIONERY CO.

EAU CLAIRE. WISCONSIN

/4^^

Copyright, 1913

By JOHN PHELAN

Published July, 1913

Revised and reprinted April, 1915

MAIN LIBItARV.AGmcULTURE DEf^

(7^

INTRODUCTION

m

The cordial reception given the first edition of this little
book has made a second edition necessary. Some changes,
which in the light of class room use seemed advisable have
been made. Many topics have been treated more fully, a few
that were not in the first edition have been included, and a few
others have been omitted entirely. A course of study adapted
to eighth grade pupils in rural schools has been added. In mak-
ing use of this course of study in a rural school it is suggested
that the topics be taken up in connection with the work in his-
tory, civics, geography, etc.

This book is intended as an introduction to the study of
rural economics and rural sociology. It has been prepared to
meet the needs of rural teachers and pupils in rural schools.
In no sense is it a scientific treatise. It will have served its
purpose if it leads its readers to a further study of the great
movements makijig for the betterment of country life.

JOHN PHELAN

Department of Rural Schools,
State J^Iormal School

Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
April, 1915

5005r.G

Digitized by the .Internet Archive

in 2007 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/briefcourseinrurOOphelrich

Part I.

RURAL ECONOMICS

SOME ECONOMIC TERMS

Economics Definted. The first question that naturally
arises in our minds when we take up a new subject is what is
the subject about. If we examine text books on general econ-
omics, we find that the topics treated are those about which we
read every day in the newspapers and magazines ; as, for ex-
ample, labor and wages, child labor, labor unions and their pur-
poses, strikes and boycotts, capital and interest, banks and
banking, exchange, land and rent, tenancy, conservation of
natural resources in mines, forests, streams, fertility of the
soil, etc. We note, too, that all of the topics have something
to do with wealth. This fact leads us naturally to the defini-
tion of economics as "the social science which treats of man's
wants and the goods (commodities and services) upon which
the satisfaction of his wants depends." A simpler definition
is, "Economics is a study of man's efforts to get a living".

Rural Economics. Rural Economics treats of those ac-
tivities of man which have to do with the making and spending
of a living in the country. In a constructive sense it is con-
cerned with the business life of rural communities, in order
that farm crops may be improved in quality and quantity, that
farm products may reach the consumer with the least pos-
sible cost of transportation and delivery, that the business of
farming may be made more exact through the aid of science,
that accounting may take the place of rule of the thumb meth-
ods of cost computation, that those who will make the best
use of the land be encouraged to remain upon the farms, and
above all that the future may be provided for by making the

farm a better place in which to live and rear a family. As a
subject it draws much of its data from geography, history,
agriculture.

Its aim is to improve business conditions on the farms,
in order that country life may be made more permanent and
•satisfying and the rural population conserved.

The increase in the cost of living during the past ten years
has aroused general interest in all rural life problems. We
are coming to realize that with our population increasing at
the rate of two millions per year, with all of our first grade
land under cultivation, with our unsatisfactory conditions of
marketing, we are as a people coming face to face with the
problem of cheaper food ; and that we can no longer afford to
neglect those forces which make for rural betterment.

Value of Economics. A large part of the backwardness,
narrowness, and unhappiness of life in both city and country
is due to a lack of comprehension of conditions in the commu-
nity in which we live as compared with the conditions in other
communities. All of us have to decide what we shall do in
life ; all of us have to meet certain demands which society lays
upon us ; hence we need to know something about the econom-
ic and social conditions, not only where we live but elsewhere.
Boys and girls in the city need to know more about country
life than they do. They need this training for its social value.
Some of them will turn to the farm ; others will be closely con-
nected with business related to farming; all of them will be
citizens of a nation whose prosperity largely depends upon
the prosperity of its farmers. Boys and girls in the country
need to know more about the opportunities and possibilities
of farm life. The tendency of education in the past has been
to over-emphasize the advantages of city life and to under-
emphasize the opportunity the country affords for leading a
useful and happy life. The boy whose school training has
been such as to lead him to believe that the country offers no
opportunity while in the city there is but little chance of his
not becoming a Morgan or a Rockefeller has been given a dis-
torted view of life. Economics should teach the truth about

industrial conditions and give boys and girls broader and sa-
ner views of life.

The primary purpose of all education is training for
citizenship in the large sense of the word. A good citizen is
able to make an honest living by his own labor; hence the
schools should prepare him to be an efficient worker and give
him some knowledge of the industrial conditions which he will
have to meet. A good citizen is able to do his part of the work
which society requires. He must be able to fill local offices in
church, state and school; and hence he must know something
about the needs of his community, economic, social, political.
Good schools and churches, improved roads, and efficient gov-
ernment are not the result of accident but are the direct pro-
duct of education to higher and better ideals of life and living.
A good citizen must be able to derive pleasure from books,
magazines, pictures, lectures, and other intellectual interests.
Illiteracy in our land is a disgrace for the younger generation.
Right thinking and living are as much part of good citizenship
as the ability to make money, and right living and thinking
depend largely upon one's intellectual outlook. A good citizen
must be a potent force in support of the right, able to distin-
quish quickly and accurately between the right and the wrong
of every public question. If the purpose of the school is to
train for citizenship, it follows that teachers, in whose hands
rests a large part of the education which our boys and girls
receive, must themselves know something of the practical af-
fair of everyday life.

The Development of Agriculture in the United States

Early Agricultural Conditions. Our agricultural devel-
opment has been influenced by many forces chief among which
may be mentioned (1) our vast western territory of rich farm-
ing land ; (2) the invention of farm machinery and tools ; (3)
the development of railroads, canals, and roads ; (4) slave la-
bor in the south; (5) the development of factories and the
growth of large cities ; (6) agricultural education.

During the colonial period and after the Revolution until
about the year 1830 but little progress was made in agricul-

ture. The Indians, who were not bad farmers for their day,
taught the colonists many lessons. From them the early set-
tlers learned how to grow the two chief crops of colonial days,
corn and tobacco. The Indians practiced seed selection; they
fertilized their fields with fish; they recognized the value of
birds to agriculture ; they made use of irrigation in the West ;
they cured tobacco, preserved meats, fruits, vegetables.
Though their methods of farming were crude and their tools
few, it is said that they raised not less than one milHon bush-
els of corn per year.

Many of the farm crops and animals had to be introduced
into this country from Europe. Wheat was first grown by
Gosnold; potatoes were brought to Europe from Chile and
thence to the North American colonies. Horses, hogs, azid
cattle were brought here by Columbus.

Custom, tradition, and ignorance controlled agriculture
in the early days. Rotation of crops was unknown, and ma-
nures but little used. The people were facing problems with
which they were unfamiliar. They were ignorant of the soil,
the climate, and of the crops suited to the new land.

Period * of Westward Expansion. After the Revolution
the settlers pushed rapidly into the Western country, attract-
ed by the rich farming land. The fact that there was rich land
to be had in the West has tended to make the American a poor
farmer, for there was little need of preserving the fertility of
the soil. Again, the shifting of the people westward tended
to hinder the development of settled community life and com-
munity institutions, such as the school and the church. Last
but not least, the frontier encouraged a spirit of independence,
a feeling of every one for himself and no interference. Long
after the frontier passed away the spirit of independence in
thought and action remained, making cooperation among far-
mers diflJicult and hindering the development of local institu-
tions which depend for their support upon united action.

Period of Inventions. The period beginning about the
year 1830 marks a decided change in our agricultural develop-

merit, due to the invention of farm machinery and the develop-
ment of railways and other means of communication. The
first patent for a mowing machine was granted in 1831, and
for a reaping machine in 1833, although they did not come in-
to general use until 1850. The harvester followed in 1850 and
the steam thresher in 1860. The invention of farm machinery
resulted in a great saving of time and labor. This saving is
best shown by the computation made by the Department of
Agriculture of the time required to produce a bushel of wheat
and a bushel of corn before and after the introduction of labor
saving machinery. It once took four hours and forty-five
minutes of labor to produce a bushel of corn, while under mod-
ern conditions it is produced by forty-one minutes of labor.
In 1855 a bushel of wheat required three hours of labor to pro-
duce it; now it requires ten minutes. The invention of farm
machinery made less labor necessary in the country, but the
laborers that remained had to be more intelligent, for they
had to use improved machinery.

The development of railroads and the means of transpor-
tation entirely changed the farming business. Before rail-
roads were built crops were raised only for the support of the
farm family and for the local market, but with the building of
great railroads the local market was changed to a world
market and farming was undertaken on a far larger scale.

The effect of the inventions of this period may be summed
up thus: (1) They made it possible for the farmer to produce
for a world market and gave him the market. (2) They reduced
the amount of labor necessary to manage the farms. (3) They
drove from the country to the cities the poorer and less intelli-
gent class of farm laborers. (4) They tended to increase the
isolation of the daily life of the farm.

The Factory System. The growth of factories in this
country was stimulated by numerous inventions, by the use
of steam for power, and by the development of better means
of transportation. The factory has revolutionized both city
and country life. It has given cities some of their greatest
industrial problems. The newspapers are filled with accounts

of labor disputes and strikes. The legislatures are busy enact-
ing laws protecting women and children from too long or too
early service in the factories. Factories have enabled manu-
facturers to produce more goods and a better quality of goods,
since the workers speciahze in performing one piece of work.
The effects of the factory on the rural districts have been: (1)
They have decreased the supply of labor. (2) They have taken
from the homes much of the labor that was formerly done
there, making the home more dependent at the same time that
it makes it more comfortable through cheaper factory pro-
ducts that make for comfort. (3) The congestion of the popu-
lation in the city has given rise to bad moral and social condi-
tions which in turn react upon rural districts. (4) There is less
education through labor than there was in the days of home
manufacture.

Slave Labor. Slave labor retarded the development of
the South. It was a failure in every respect, for it limited the
possibilities of industrial growth and development. Free la-
borers avoided the South, where labor was degraded by slav-
ery. Agriculture was limited to certain crops which could be
raised on plantations by negroes under an overseer. The soil
was robbed by constant cropping and nothing was done to re-
store its fertility. Indeed with slave labor nothing could be
done. Southern wealth expressed itself in land and slaves.
There was no hope for the South until labor was free. As
Grady, the distinguished Southern orator, has phrased it:
"The Old South was founded on slavery and agriculture; the
New South on freedom and manufacturing."

Scientific Farming. Scientific farming received its great-
est impetus with the passage of the famous Morrill Land Grant
bill by Congress in 1865. Each State was given thirty thou-
sand acres of public land for each senator and representative
in Congress, to be used to endow a college of agriculture and
mechanical arts. Later Congress gave each state $30,000 each
year to maintain an experiment station and $50,000 to help
support an agricultural college.

The Department of Agriculture was established as a
Bureau in 1862 and created as a Department in 1869. It has

10

now grown so that it employs almost 14,000 persons and costs
about twenty-two million dollars a year. The work of the De-
partment has been far reaching in its influence. Crops of all
kinds have been improved, new crops introduced, better
methods of farming stimulated through colleges of agricul-
ture and experiment stations, diseases have been eradicated,
and general farm knowledge disseminated. The bulletins of
the Department may be had on application and should be re-
ceived by every teacher.

Farm Demonstration Work. Within recent years a great
deal of good has been accomplished through the demonstration
farm. The state and national government, agricultural col-
leges and universities employ men to serve as demonstration
agents.

Under this plan the farmer agrees to follow the advice
and suggestion of the demonstration agent in his locality in
the cultivation of two or three principal crops. Usually the
principal money crop, as cotton, a renovating crop, as clover,
and the chief food crop, as corn, are selected. The agent visits
the farm often during the growing season to watch progress.
The advantage of the plan lies in the fact that each farmer
who succeeds becomes a missionary for better farming.

Present Day Problems in Rural Economics

In a general sense there are three sets of problems which
have arisen in rural economic life. They have to do with each
of the three factors of production : land, labor, capital.

Land Problems. One of the most striking facts shown
by the last census is that during the decade from 1900 to 1910
the price of land in the United States increased 104%, a great-
er increase than in a period of fifty years before. The claim
is made that though the price of land has rapidly increased
during the past ten years, the value of land as measured by the
producing power of the soil has not increased, if, indeed, it has
not decreased. An Illinois farmer gave this testimony: *Tif-
teen years ago my land was producing 90 bushels of corn per
acre; now it is producing 48 bushels, and I can not get more

11

out of it. At that time it was worth $75 per acre; now it is
worth $190." The increase in the price of land has changed
farming so that it is no longer a poor man's occupation, as
land is rapidly getting beyond the reach of the poor man. It
is also bringing sharply before the country the need of better
education in order that farmers who will make the best use of
the soil may be trained up in our schools.

Rent and Tenancy. Agricultural rent is what the farmer
can afford to pay for the use of land for agricultural purposes.
There are three kinds of rent in the United States : cash rent,
the payment of a definite sum per acre for the use of land;
crop rent, common in the South but not in the North, the pay-
ment of a specified number of bales of cotton or bushels of corn
for the use of a certain piece of land ; and share rent, the pay-
ment of a share of the crop raised whatever the amount may
be. Cash and crop rent are fixed; share rent varies with the
yield per acre.

The increase in the number of tenant farmers in the
United States is now viewed with alarm due to the fact that
the history of tenantry in Europe has too often been a history
of sorrow. Every third farm in the United States is now in
the hands of a tenant farmer and the number is increasing
year by year as may be seen from the following table :

1880 25.6%

1890 28.4%

1900 35.3%

1910 37 %

The tenant farmer is not as good for our national devel-
opment as an owner. The tenant is not interested in keeping
up the fertihty of the soil, for the land does not belong to him
and he wishes to get as much out of it as he can in the short-
est possible time. He can not improve the buildings and fen-
ces, for this task belongs to the landlord. He is not interested
in the development of local schools, for he does not expect to
remain in the neighborhood, nor is the non-resident landlord,
for he no longer uses the school. Roads are not built if they
can be voted down locally because the tenant is not anxious to

12

increase his taxes and the road will add value to a farm which
he does not own. The history of Ireland is a striking example
of what may happen to a country when the land falls into the
hands of non-resident landlords. No country in the world
has a sadder history. Rebellion has flourished because the
people who were on the land did not own it.

Scarcity of Farm Labor. In many sections of the United
States the farmers are experiencing more and more difficulty
in securing farm labor. Several reasons may be given for
this condition of affairs: (1) Country boys who in bygone days
suppKed this labor are now leaving the farms. (2) Laborers
are hired for but a part of the year and owing to the uncer-
tainty of the period of employment and the irregularity of the
hours of labor ambitious men do not seek farm labor. (3)
The probability of the farm laborer becoming a renter and a
farm owner is less than it was, owing to the larger investment
now required to begin farming. (4) The social standard of
the laboring class has deteriorated within recent years owing
to the fact that there is a migratory class of city laborers who
go out into the country to work with little ambition either to
become expert farm laborers or to become farm owners. (5)
Little provision is made for housing the married laborer who
would prove to be more steady than the ever shifting unmar-
ried man.

Remedies for the Scarcity of Farm Labor. Among the
remedies which may be mentioned are:

1. The employment of farm laborers by the year, if possi-
ble married laborers, and provision for their living in small
tenant cottages.

2. Regulation of the hours of labor by farmers in so far
as this is possible.

3. Securing cooperation on the part of the laborer by giv-
ing him the opportunity to make a profit above a good wage by
a share in the product of the farm ; for instance, giving him a
certain number of bushels of potatoes if the crop yielded a cer-
tain amount. Profit sharing must come to the farm as it is
coming to the factory.

13

4. The development of the local supply. Scientific meth-
ods of farming will turn the attention of more of the neigh-
borhood boys to farming and hence will add to the supply.

5. Rewarding expert labor by higher wages. Custom
now gives but little higher reward in wages to the good labor-
er than to the poor.

Capital. One of the most marked changes in the business
of farming during recent years has been the great increase in
the use of capital goods, of horses, stock, tools, machinery, etc.
This increase in the amount of capital necessary to run a farm
is having the effect of bringing better organization to the coun-
try and is making the farmer more and more a modern busi-
ness man. Perhaps the keenest need of farmers today is that
of more capital which may be used in the business. Many a
farmer strips his land, of its fertility by selling the hay, wheat,
and oats from the land, when, if he had a httle more capital or
some means whereby he could secure it, he would buy stock and
feed the products of the farm to the stock, thus saving the
manure besides adding to his profits by giving him employment
during the winter. The lack of capital has caused farmers to
cultivate extensively rather than intensively because putting
in a large number of acres of some crops is less costly than a
smaller number of acres of a crop requiring a larger amount of
expenditure for labor.

Agricultural Credit. The need of more capital in farming
today raises the question of the means of providing it. Cap-
ital comes into existence only by saving. Some of the capital
which is saved in the country is deposited in urban banks, pri-
vate, state, or national. It is loaned by these banks to both
urban and rural borrowers when security may be given. Urban
banks however, do not meet the demands of the farming
people. They desire to make short time loans in order that
they may turn their money over quickly, while farmers can
not borrow conveniently for the customary sixty or ninety
days because the money is needed for a longer period. Again
the rate of interest charged by these urban banks is of-
ten higher than farmers can afford to pay because the banks
are accustomed to meet the needs of urban rather than rural

14

people, and in consequence there is a growing demand in this
and other states for some form of agricultural credit, — some
agency by which loans may be made on good security, at a low
rate of interest, for longer periods than is customary for ur-
ban banks. The greater part of the business of the cities is
done on credit, but farmers have made comparatively little use
of the credit system.

Cooperative Agricultural Banks. Cooperative banks were
started in Europe in the middle of the last century. They are
to be found today in Great Britain, India, Canada, and the
West Indies. An American commission is now in Europe mak-
ing a study of this system of credit with a view to introducing
it into the United States. By means of these cooperative
agricultural banks farmers are able to secure credit at a low
rate of interest on long time. In principle these cooperative
associations are not unlike the American building and loan as-
sociations. They operate within a limited district, lend their
funds at the lowest rate consistent with safety, compel bor-
rowers to pay a part of the principal of their loans regularly
when they make interest payments. They teach farmers how
to work together for common ends and offer in their shares,
or bonds, investments for thrifty young people whose savings
are small.

%

THE THREE FORWARD STEPS IN AGRICULTURE

(1) Better Farming

Books as Aids. Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, whose demonstra-
tion farm work in the South revolutionized agricultural meth-
ods, once said: ''Agriculture in most sections consists simply
in going through a series of motions inherited from Adam".
His idea was that farming is best taught by means of demon-
stration of right methods. That he placed little faith in
"book farming" is shown by his epigrammatic remark, 'This
learning agriculture (which is composed of the following in-
gredients— one eighth science, three eighths art, and one half
business methods) is like reading up on the handsaw and jack-

15

plane and hiring out for a carpenter." Though books will
not accomplish much for the older people, boys and girls grow-
ing up in our schools should be trained to make use of bulle-
tins, farm papers, and books. No more valuable lesson than
Dr. Knapp's ten commandments of agriculture can be taught
in country schools.

The Ten Commandments of Agriculture ^

1. Prepare a deep and thoroughly pulverized seed bed well
drained.

2. Use seed of the best variety, intelHgently selected and
carefully stored.

3. In cultivated crops give the rows and plants in the row
a space suited to the plant, the soil, and the climate.

47 Use intensive tillage during the growing period of the
crops.

5. Secure a high content of humus in the soil by the use of
legumes, barn yard manure, farm refuse, and commercial fer-
tilizers.

6. Carry out a systematic crop rotation with a winter cov-
er crop on southern farms.

7. Accomplish more in a day's work by using more horsed
power and better implements.

8. Increase the farm stock to the extent of utilizing all the
waste products and idle lands on the farm.

9. Produce all the food required for men and animals on
the farm.

10. Keep an account of each farm product, m order to know
from which gain arises, and from which loss.

Better Farming Through Knowledge.* It has been esti-
mated that weeds cost the United States $300,000,000 per year.
They mean waste and loss in time, money, and effort. They
adapt themselves to soil, climate, and the surroundings. They
spread easily because they seed profusely, they distribute
themselves readily, the seeds are usually long lived, and they
stay right on the job all of the time. Children in the rural
schools should be taught to recognize the weeds in the neigh-
borhood. They should be taught that weeds are spread in im-

* Adapted from Lecture on weeds prepared by International Harvester Co.

16

pure seeds, in the products we buy, in manure. They are
carried by wind, water, snow, animals, birds and man, by tools
and machines, by railroads. Weeds are harmful because: (1)
They cut down the yield, (2) they damage the crop, (3) they
cheapen the product, (4) they mean hard work, (5) they in-
jure stock, (6) they reduce the profits, (7) they rob the soil,
(8) they lower land values, (9) they look shiftless.

Weed Remedies Country boys and girls should know how
to get rid of weeds. The following remedies should be taught :
(1) Rotate the crop. (2) Fan and screen the seed. (3) Cul-
tivate frequently and thoroughly. (4) Prevent seeding. (5)
Use a smother crop. (6) Pasture with sheep. (7) Enrich
the ground. (8) Dig out. (9) Develop community sentiment.
(10 Keep everlastingly at it.

Good Seed. The importance of good seed is clearly shown
by the following table prepared by the New York Experiment
Station in 1912. One pound of alsike clover 98% pure con-
tained the following number of weed seeds :

Canada Thistle 288

Sorrel 4,272

Dock 288

Plantain 1,712

Foxtail 288

Chickweed 5,408

Others 6,560

Total 18316

Value of Birds. The total value of the farm products of
the United States in 1910 was $8,926,000,000. It has been es-
timated that birds saved at least one per cent of this crop, or
in other words that the yield was greater by 89,000,000 of dol-
lars because birds destroy insects which are harmful to crops.
It has been estimated that the yearly loss to farmers through
insects, amounts to $700,000,000. This loss would be far
greater were it not for the farmers' bird friends. Indeed,
were it not for the birds, agriculture would be well nigh im-
possible. Birds occupy a unique position. They are the farm-
er's cavalry. When there is a marked increase in the num-
ber of insects, rodents, or other enemies, the birds gather and
. • • ' 17

fight the enemies. Not only should we teach that birds should
not be wantonly destroyed, but there should be encouraged the
building of houses, the planting of hedges, the furnishing of
water and even food in order that the number of birds may be
increased.

(2) Better Business

The man who undertakes farming has a number of busi-
ness problems which confront him at the start.

1. The Location of the Farm. Land located near the cities
is often held for speculative purposes and sells at too high
a price to make it possible to earn a reasonable income from
the farm on account of the amount of the investment. On
the other hand, land located too far from a good market is un-
desirable because of the cost of delivery of the products of the
farm, especially if the roads are not good. In a study made of
the earning power of farmers it was found that those farms
paid best which were located not too near ajid not too far from
a good market.

2. Size of Farm. A second business problem which
arises is the size of the farm, which he will purchase. The
small farm is not economical in the use of machinery or labor*.
The farm large enough to employ the labor of at least two peo-
ple seems to give the best labor income. Of course there are
exceptions, but the larger farm is more economical in the use
of labor and machinery.

3. The Type of Farming in which he will engage is an-
other problem which the farmer has to answer. He may un-
dertake general farming, that is make no crop a specialty, or
he may engage in specialized farming, such as dairying, fruit
raising, etc. The general farm seems to be best for all pur-
poses in that it furnishes steadier employment throughout the
year and more sources of income. Specialized farming on the
other hand requires greater skill as it places all of the farm-
er's eggs in one basket.

4. The Quality of the Land is aji important question.
The best land is to be had usually only at a very high price,

18

good land at a lower price, and run down land at a low price. It
seems to be generally true that poor land affords the farmer
but little opportunity, as it requires too much expenditure to
bring up the fertility of the soil.

5. The Amount of Capital and equipment needed by the
farmer becomes greater each year. How much shall be invest-
ed in machinery; whether he shall raise registered cattle, hogs,
and horses, or m^ke no effort and be satisfied with scrub stock,
are questions which have to be decided. It was estimated that
before the invention of the Babcock test fully one half of the
cows in the state of Iowa were not paying for their feed. Good
stock pays in two ways, (1) a larger mo,ney return, (2) a
larger amount of personal satisfaction in the production of
good rather than poor animals.

Farm Income. The farm income depends upon many fac-
tors, such as weather conditions, depredation of insects, rav-
ages of plant and animal diseases, and the uncertainty regard-
ing prices of farm products, which are certain to be far below
the prices paid by the consumer. The uncertainty of the in-
come is in a measure offset by the certainty of gaining a liveli-
hood. Personal qualities to a large extent determine the in-
come of the farmer — his knowledge, his skill, his industry, the
exercise of good judgment in managing the business of the
farm, his willingness to learn from others, and his ability to
profit by his own mistakes and those of his neighbors. That
the labor income of the farms is not high is shown in an ex-
haust-ve study made by Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey of the New
York College of Agriculture. Dean Bailey shows that the la-
bor income of tenant farmers in the area studied was approxi-
mately as follows : one third of the farmers were making* less
than they paid to the hired man on the farm, one third of them
were making about as much, and one third of them were mak-
ing more.

Education and Farming. Professor Bailey points, out
that the average labor income of those farmers who went to
the district school only was $.318, the average labor income of
those who went to the high school was $622, and the average
labor income of those who had more than a high school educa-

19

tion was $847. In other words a high school education is
equivalent on the average to $6,000 worth of five percent
bonds.

Marketing. Better business through better marketing
conditions is one of the pressing needs of farmers and city con-
sumers today. The long line of middlemen and distributors
between the farmer and the consumer are in a position to take
advantage of the market and to a certain extent control the
market because they are organized to keep informed of market
and crop conditions and to act more promptly than either far-
mers or consumers who are not organized. The present prices
of farm products furnish ample proof that there is plenty of
room for lowering the cost to the consumer without injury to
the producer. This marketing problem will have to be solved
by better organization of farmers and improved methods of
marketing. To increase the output of the farm in order that
a larger share may go to the middleman is not an attractive
program for any farmer.

Cooperation in Buying and Selling. Many cooperative
associations have been formed by farmers for purposes of buy-
ing and selling to greater advantage. When these associations
were first started it was supposed that the result would be of
advantage to both producer and consumer. The chief advan-
tage to the consumer has not been a lower price but a better
product for the same price. Dairymen's associations, for ex-
ample, have endeavored to maintain the going price rather
than to lower it, but they have supplied a better product by
testing the milk and enforcing rules as to its care from the
farm to the market. Another advantage to the producer and
especially to the small producer is that of lower freight rates
through shipping in car load lots. Cooperative buying has al-
so been tried successfully in this and other states with profit
to the farmer, but all cooperative movements call for executive
ability on the part of those managijig the business. The hope
of eliminating the middleman wholly from our economic sys-
tem has not been realized. Cooperative associations, through
competition, have lowered the profit made by the middleman
to a more equitable standard.

20

Middlemen. By middlemen we mean those individuals
who handle the product between the producer and the consum-
er. By many people middlemen are considered parasites and
non-producers, but this idea is wrong. The middlemen ren-
der services for which consumers should pay. They take the
products of the farm and grade them, standardize them as it
is called. Potatoes, for example, are sorted and the small ones
thrown out. They see that farm products are shipped to
points where they will find the readiest sale. They store and
hold products until they are needed and sell them in small lots
to consumers, delivering them at the door. For all these ser-
vices consumers must pay. The middelmen can not be elimi-
nated entirely from our economic system, but marketing con-
ditions should be controlled in such a way that too large a pro-
fit will not be exacted by middlemen. The results of studies
which have been made show that a relatively large part of the
price paid by the consumer goes to the middlemen. Potatoes
which sold in New York for 90 cents a bushel had been pur-
chased from the farmer for 50 cents. The retailer made twen-
ty five cents for selling them. Milk for which the farmer re-
ceives three and four cents a quart sells in the cities for seven
and eight. It has been claimed by some economists that com-
petition on the part of middlemen would force prices down,
but often middlemen make agreements to maintain price.

Mail Order Houses. The mail order houses have devel-
oped wonderfully during the past twenty years. They are
made the objects of bitter attacks by local dealers, who feel
that the mail order house is taking away trade which right-
fully belongs at home. The mail order houses serve several
very useful purposes for rural communities, and in time will
teach local dealers a valuable business lesson. The mail order
house is a school for purchasers, giving them information as
to prices and qualities of various goods. They are by their
success demonstrating that there is a lack of sympathy ajid
understanding between city and country due to something
deeper than mere difference in prices and qualities of goods.
For this lack of sympathy and understanding the city is fully
as much to blame as the country. If local merchants want

21

farmers to deal at home, they must see that farmers are inter-
ested and represented in all movements that make for general
community betterment.

The local merchant has the right to claim the farmer's
trade for the reason that he sells to the farmer on credit and
should have his cash trade. The local merchant shows his
goods before purchase and delivers them instantly, an advan-
tage to a buyer. He often makes an effort to handle the pro-
ducts of the farm that may not be needed badly at the time in
order to give the farmer a home market. A further reason
for the support of the local merchant is that the price of farms
is increased by thriving towns. The argument so often used
by local merchants, that the man who deals with a mail order
house sends his money away from home, is fallacious. The
local merchant sends the money away from home just as the
farmer does. The only part of the money which he does not
send away is the profit he makes.

Cooperation. By cooperation is meant the working to-
gether of a number of individuals to secure a common good.
In former day^ rural people cooperated in the exchange of la-
bor during the harvest and threshing seasons, ''exchanged
work" they said. This form of cooperation is dying out. The
threshing machine now carries its own crew in many sections.
In place of cooperation through labor exchange there is coming
business cooperation. Cooperation has made remarkable pro-
gress within recent years. There are now cooperative so-
cieties to furnish insurance; to build and maintain grain ele-
vators, warehouses, creameries ; to sell fruit, stock, and other
farm products ; to make local improvements ; to build telephone
lines; to improve the grade of corn, cattle, sheep, hogs and
horses..

A Typical Cooperative Movement. A cow testing asso-
ciation usually consists of less than 25 members owning not
fewer than 400 cows, and preferably five hundred or six hun-
dred. The present method in Wisconsin is to charge $1.00 per
year for each cow. This sum is paid to the treasurer of the
association who in turn pays it to the man who tests the cow.

22

The first step in organizing the association is to get the re-
quired number of farmers to sign a paper pledging themselves
to furnish a given number of cows. After this pledge has
been secured a meeting is called, the laws of the association
drafted, and the officers elected. The officers select a trained
man to take charge of the work. This man visits each herd
once a month and weighs the milk of each animal in the herd
for one day. From the weight and test he calculates the
amount of fat produced for one day and estimates the amount
of milk and fat produced for the month. If the farmer is in-
terested in determining the cost of each animal, the tester
v/ill aid him in finding out the amount of food each animal
consumes.

Causes and Failure of Cooperative Societies. The chief
reasons for failure of cooperative societies in the United States
have been (l)lack of support, (2) improper organization, (3)
poor management. Those causes spring from certain natural
conditions. Our rural population has been steadily shifting,
making cooperation difficult. Our large foreign element has
given rise to petty prejudices and jealousies between peoples
of different nationahties. Our rich agricultural country has
tended to make us careless of small savings, the vital principle
in cooperative movements. Our scattered rural population
has made cooperation more difficult than in Europe where the
population is much more dense, and last but not least, the
spirit of independence, every man for himself, characteristic
of the frontier, has remained long after the frontier has
passed away.

Essentials of Cooperation. (1) Cooperation can not suc-
ceed without local leadership which will hold the people togeth-
er. (2) Cooperation thrives best where the business of farm-
ing has become specialized ; as, for instance, dairying or fruit
raising rather than general farming. (3) Cooperation fails
unless accurate accounts are kept of cost of production and
management. (4) Cooperation fails if the control of the en-
terprise falls into the hands of a few. Repeated failures have
given rise to the one man one vote principle. (5) Cooperation
fails unless there is a spirit of loyalty and the members stick

23

by their membership agreement, even at a small loss at first.
(6) Cooperation fails unless it makes provision for the man-
agement of the business by a good executive.

(3) Better Living.

The well-to-do farmer of today can provide in his home
almost all of the comforts and conveniences enjoyed in the best
city homes. The furnace, running water and bath room con-
veniences, gas and electric lighting, the telephone, the daily
delivery of mail, the automobile are all tending to soften the
harsh conditions of earlier days. One of the most striking
facts is that farmers who have acquired a competence leave
their farms, which they rent to tenants, and move to small
villages where they build more comfortable homes than they
had in the country. Sometimes the reason for their leaving
is the superior educational advantage offered by the town
school; sometimes, the better church, more easily attended;
more generally, their moving is due to the fact that when they
retire and rent there is no other place to live, for the tenant is
not pleased with the idea of a resident landlord.

To increase the productive power of the farm by improv-
ing the crops in quality and quantity, to bring about more
equitable methods and means of marketing in order that the
consumer may pay less and the producer receive more, is not
all of the country life problem. With these must go ideas of
better and broader living so that the wealth of the rural com-
munities may find expression in good homes, good schools,
powerful churches, in roads and bridges, in the improvement
of rural landscape. The method of farming which robbed the
soil, practiced in an earlier day was bad, but the practice of
taking out of a community the wealth which should build
homes, schools, and churches, to spend it in villages and cities
will be far more disastrous, for it robs the people of opportu-
nities which life should offer.

24

Part II.

RURAL SOCIOLOGY

Definitions

Sociology is the science which treats of the general struc-
ture of society, the laws of its development, and the progress
of actual civilization. Economics, treating of the wealth get-
ting and wealth using activities of man, is a closely related but
a much more limited subject than sociology.

Rural Sociology includes everything which has to do with
the social customs, habits, institutions, thought, progress or
lack of progress in the country. In a constructive sense rural
sociology is concerned with those forces which make for the
betterment of country life — as, the improvement of the farm
home, the building of better roads, the growth of schools and
churches, the improvement of means of transportation and
communication.

The Commission on Country Life. The appointment of
the Commission on Country Life by President Roosevelt in
1908 marks the beginning of a really serious consideration of
the farm life problem in the United States. In appointing the
Commission President Roosevelt said:

"I am therefore anxious to bring before the people of the
United States the question of securing better business and bet-
ter living on the farm, whether by co-operation between far-
mers for buying and selling and borrowing; by promoting so-
cial advantages and opportunities in the country; or by any
other legitimate means that will help to make country life
more gainful, more attractive, and fuller of opportunities,
pleasures, and rewards for the men, women, and children of
the farms."

Recommendations of the Commission. The Commission
found that "agriculture is not commercially as profitable as it
is entitled to be for the labor and energy that the farmer ex-

25

pends and the risk that he assumes, and that the social condi-
tions in the open country are far short of their possibilities."
Many reasons are given for this state of affairs and many sug-
gestions for improvement made. Three fundamental recom-
mendations of the Commission are: (1) Surveys should be
taken of all the conditions that surround the business of farm-
ing and the people who live in the country in order to take
stock of our resources and to supply the farmer with local
knowledge. (2) Agricultural extention work should be made
national and should reach every man on the land. (3) Local,
state, and national conferences should be held to unite the in-
terests of education, organization, and religion into one great
movement for the rebuilding of country life. Rural teachers,
librarians, editors, physicians, and others may well unite with
farmers in studying and discussing the rural question in all
its aspects.

The report made by this Commission should be in the
hands of every teacher. It caji be secured from the Govern-
ment Printing Office, Washington D. C. for ten cents, (not in
stamps). It gives in detail the movements which are improv-
ing farm life today and also some of its chief deficiences with
the suggested remedies.

The Farm Home

Advantages. The farm home occupies a unique position
in that all the members of the home circle are interested in the
same business which furnishes occupation for all. Provided
there are good school and church advantages there is no bet-
ter place in which to rear a family than the country. Next to
the good country home ranks the good city home, while the
home in small village ranks last. The country village does not
fully possess the virtues of the city or of the country while it
often has many of the vices of both. The farm home has
many advantages:

First. Country boys and girls enjoy an environment
which is simple and natural. The field and the wood and the
running brook are theirs. For playmates they have animals
and learn lessons of kindness in caring for them.

26

Second. They have plenty of good wholesome work to
do of a constructive nature. There is nothing of the deadly
monotony of factory work to farm work. Tasks on the farm
change from day to day and boys and girls are compelled to
think about the work they are doing as well as to work and
work hard.

It is this ability to do work and this faithfulness to the
task in hand which has given us in the past the successful men
and women which the country has produced.

Third. They spend a large part of the day in close asso-
ciation with their parents. The farmer takes his boy with
him to the field to work or sets him at a task which he may
have begun himself. The mother teaches her girls the work
in the home. In all of this work there is a close relationship
between parents and children.

Fourth. Country life affords opportunity for reflection,
for time to think. There is danger here that unless education
gives men and women something to think about they may be-
come petty in their thinking.

Disadvantages of the Farm Home. The farm home pos-
sesses some disadvantages: (1) The long hours of labor and
the many tasks often leave little time or inclination for enjoy-
ment or recreation. Especially is it true that woman's work
is hard. (2) The lack of conveniences causes needless drudg-
ery. Often the only reason that water was not piped into the
house at the same time that it was piped to the barn is that the
idea of piping to the house was lacking. (3) The isolation of
farm life bears hard, especially upon women. The farmer can
always find an excuse to go to town or to see his neighbors,but
his wife must remain at home to care for the house and the
children. (4) Another serious disadvantage of rural life is
that the hired help must be taken in as members of the farm
family. Were hired men what they should be no objection
could be raised, but with so many shiftless, vicious, worthless
men employed as hired men the danger of their influence over
the children and indeed over the farm family is great. The
writer recalls the statement made by a man himself country

27

born, who said : **I have traveled all over Europe and America
and seen something of vice and crime, but all that I have seen
as a man did not affect me half so much as did the dirty stories
the hired man told me on the farm when I was a boy." (5)
The saloon. The Report of the Commission on Country life
has this to say about saloons. 'The saloon as an institution
must be banished at least from all country districts and rural
towns if our agricultural interests are to be developed to the
extent of which they are capable". In this connection it is of
interest to note that the measure for national prohibition had
the support of more than one half of the members of the Unit-
ed States House of Representatives in 1914. The Anti-Saloon
League makes the statement that by 1920 no saloons will ex-
ist in the United States. At present 19 states are ''dry".

Improvements in the Farm Home. The first generation
is passing away. Their task was no light one, — to conquer
the soil, to build fences, to drain swamps, to lay our roads, to
organize towns, schools and churches. Life for the pioneer
was stern and severe and in it there was little time and less
opportunity for comfort, conveniences and luxuries. The next
generation will not have to face the same conditions. For
them the way has been smoothed and it is likely that more at-
tention will be given to the development of better ways of liv-
ing. The greatest convenience for the home is hot and cold
water in the house. Next to the hot and cold water come the
bath tub and the inside toilet. Cleanliness is next to godliness
in the country as well as in the city, and the work of the farm
is often of such a nature that the bath tub would seem more a
necessity than a luxury. A furnace in the basement, doing
away with carrying of ashes and wood and placing the labor of
heating on the shoulders of the men rather than the women, is
found in the most up to date farm homes. An adequate light-
ing system such as acetylene gas does away with the labor of
caring for numerous lamps besides furnishing a light which
does not strain the eyes at night. The gasoline or kerosene
stove for summer cooking is a great convenience during the
hot months, and is in quite common use, while the laundry in
the basement though a great convenience is as yet rather an

28

unusual luxury and marks only the most advanced homes. No
one convenience does more for the comfort of the family than
the ice house and refrigerator. It is not a lack of money that
has stood in the way of more comfortable farm homes but
rather a lack of ideas. In building the farm home, as in build-
ing the country school house, the farmer has followed a cus-
tomary plan and the individuals fit themselves to the house in-
stead of having the house fitted to the individuals. Mail or-
der houses with their plans for country homes and the numer-
ous firms now selHng supplies for plumbing, lighting, and heat-
ing are doing much to improve conditions. One of the best
things which a rural school could do would be to make a col-
lection of material on the planning and equipment of homes.

A few simple lessons in sanitation should be taught in
every country school :

1. That bad water is dangerous; hence the well should
not be so located as to receive the drainage from the barnyard.
Particularly dangerous is the open or dug well if great care is
not exercised to keep it scrupulously clean,

2. That fresh air never hurt anyone. Cold air is not nec-
essarily fresh air. The sufferer from tuberculosis is made to
sleep in the open air to cure a disease which he has often con-
tracted by living in rooms where fresh pure air was lacking.
Children should be taught that headaches, colorless faces, list-
lessness are the results of sleeping in tightly closed rooms and
that sleeping room windows should be open.

3. That sunlight kills more germs than all of the doctors
in the world ; hance the rooms should be thrown open and the
sunlight let in.

4. That good food is necessary to sustain health and that
we should take time to eat. The opposition to the teaching
of domestic science in rural schools on the ground that the pa-
trons of the school know how to cook is absurd in the extreme.
Rural people are neither better nor worse cooks than urban
people, yet cooking is taught in city schoola.

5. That the open privy of the country school and the coun-
try home is an ever present menance to health. In winter it

29

is cold ; often it is unclean ; and in summer it gives rise to bad
odors.

6. That the fly is the agent of disease and death. The
following, taken from a lecture by the International Harvest-
er Company, is not pleasant but it is profitable reading :

"FHes are the filthiest of all insects. Watch the fly as it
is born on the manure heap. See it walk over the slop and gar-
bage, wallow in the disease-laden privy vault, batjie in the con-
sumptive's cuspidor, and then wing its blithesome way to the
house. Follow it through unscreened window or door and no-
tice it cleaning its filthy body in the milk pitcher, dropping
its specks on the baby's lips, or gathering with its compan-
ions on the nipple of the child's nursing bottle. Fresh from
the act of eating the disgusting filth, how often has it crawled
over your face, drinking the perspiration and irritating you
with its persistent, hateful, soft touch ?

The fly that creeps over the face of a tubercular patient in
the palatial home, in the cottage, or hospital, may deposit a
deadly germ on the lips of a healthy person in your house,
marking another victim for the great white plague.

"You are ashamed to tolerate a bedbug or a body louse.
One fly is more loathsome and dangerous than a hundred bed-
bugs or body lice."

How to Get Rid of Flies. Get rid of the breeding places
by cleaning manure daily from the barn and sheds. Keep the
pig pen dry and clean. Keep garbage covered. Make the
privy fly-proof. Kill the breeders by killing all the winter
flies by putting fly traps all over the place in April. Keep
everlastingly at it until the fly is no more.

The Country Church

Status of Rural Church. The results of the various sur-
veys which have been made of rural churches in the United
States seem to indicate that the country church is dying.
Like the school, the church is suffering from conditions which
have long existed. There are too many rather than too few
rural churches. Often in a small village one finds five, six, or

30

even seven churches of various denominations. Where there
are so many denominations all must lack good financial sup-
port. The strength of the Catholic church in rural communi-
ties 4ies in the fact that it has not been split up into many
denominations as has the Protestant church. The country
church, like the school suffers from a lack of leadership. That
anyone would do for a country preacher as anyone would do
for a country teacher has been the attitude not only of the
country but also of the city community. The country as a re-
sult, has been the training ground for the callow boy who was
learning how to preach or how not to preach ; it has also been
the resting place for the old, worn servant of the church who
after a long life of service has to take a rural charge for the
rest of his days.

These older men have done much efficient work for coun-
try parishes, but the great need of the country is the service
of men in the prime of life who have been trained for rural
work and who devote their entire energies to the development
of better country life.

Whether or not the young people who leave the country to
go to the cities will have the church going habit will largely de-
pend upon the development of better rural church conditions.

Movements for the Betterment of Rural Churches

(1) An effort is being made to federate the rural Pro-
testant churches and to establish in the place of a denomina-
tional church a community church. (2) Men who are to take
country charges are being trained in the social and economic
problems of rural communities in order that they may be in
sympathy with country life. (3) In some places the church
is assuming the task of furnishing clean and wholesome re-
creation and amusement for both young people and old.

The Country School

In his introduction to the Report of the Committee of
Fifteen on Rural Schools, State Superintendent C. P. Cary, of
Wisconsin, admirably sums up the problem of the country
school. He says:

31

"With many noteworthy exceptions, it may be said that in
a given school district there are too many people who support
the school in their community in a half-hearted way. They do
not appreciate as fully as they should what it costs in time,
money, effort, and good will to make the school of vital signifi-
cance in life of the community.

"In such districts there are usually a few who greatly de-
sire to improve the local school, but they meet with so many
discouragements, and are so frequently outvoted in their
efforts to bring the school to the higher level that they often
weary in well doing."

The improvement which is being rapidly made in the rural
schools of Wisconsin shows that the patrons of the schools as
well as school men are dissatisfied with the present condition
of the schools. The rural school was created at a time when
the roads were bad and the means of transportation poor. The
school of that day necessarily served a small number people in
order that it be accessible to the children ; but with the develop-
ment of the farms, the roads, and means of transportation,
there has come a demand on the part of country people for
schools which will more adequately meet the needs of present
day conditions. Especially urgent is the demand for high
school advantages for country children. This demand will pro-
bably be met in two ways : first, by improving some of the
rural schools as they now are; second, by the consolidation
of the smaller and weaker schools. In the consolidated school
it is probable the high school will be established.

Ways of Improving the Country School

More Money. The country school lacks financial sup-
port. This is due in part to the low value of farm property
and in part to a low rate of taxation in rural districts
for school purposes. More money is needed to maintain the
rural schools, and to provide high school advantages for all
the boys and girls of the community. The time is not far dis-
tant when the people of rural communities instead of spending
their money to send their children away to the cities to school
will develop the spirit of cooperation to such an extent that a
rural high school will stand in every rural community.

32

Better Organization. By better orgajnization is meant a
plan that will give us better teachers, better buildings and
equipment, and a course of study suited to the needs of country
children. In the training of young men and young women of
native ability and culture for service as rural teachers all states
are facing a serious task — a task which no state has yet under-
taken with entire success. The course of study should have
a vital relation to the life of the community. The chief bus-
iness of rural communities is agriculture; hence agriculture
should be the basis of a large part of the school work. Les-
sons in geography, language, reading, etc., can be made to bear
directly on the life of the community.

Better Supervision. The country school s.uffers from
lack of supervision. However earnest and painstaking a coun-
ty superintendent may be it is a physical impossibility for him
to supervise the schools in such a way that the maximum of
efficiency may be secured. Assistant county superintendents
would be a saving to the tax payers, for additional supervision
would mean the elimination of waste of time and effort on the
part of two or three hundred teachers now under the control of
one county superintendent.

Advantages of Consolidation

1. It provides a way by which rural communities may ed-
ucate their children at less cost per capita. It saves expense.

2. It makes a high school education for every boy and
girl possible without going away from home.

3. It enables rural communities to secure the best of
trained teachers for their schools and to keep those teachers
when they have proved their worth.

4. It increases the enrollment in the schools and creates
renewed interest. The school with bnt a few children enroll-
ed is not and can not well be the center of neighborhood in-
terest.

5. It provides a center for social gatherings, for in the
consohdated school it is possible to have an assembly room

33

large enough to accommodate the people for lectures and in-
tertainments.

6. It does much to enlarge the spiritual horizon of
boys and girls who attend these schools. The fact that a large
number of children are enrolled is a great advantage, for it
makes it possible to create a school and community spirit.

7. It will keep the money, which is now being spent away
from home for educational purposes, at home to develop local
schools.

What Boys and Girls Think of Consolidation. Often in
our discussions of problems of rural education we lose sight
of the most fundamental question, — how does the school ap-
pear to the country boy and the country girl. Useless it is to
talk of developing the one room schools when boys and girls
leave them at the fifth or even the fourth grade and when, af-
ter having attended for perhaps the full eight years they leave
the school. unable to spell, read, or write an ordinary letter.
One of the chief points in favor of consolidation is that school
makes an appeal to boys and girls. They are proud of their
schools, as may be seen from extracts from letters written by
the pupils enrolled in consolidated schools in Randolph county,
Indiana. Few counties in the United States have more rea-
son to be proud of their schools. Nowhere has consolidation
made more real progress, due to the untiring zeal of County
Superintendent Lee L. Driver of Winchester, Indiana.

Extracts From the Letters on Consolidation: The boys
and girls of Randolph county were asked to express their opin-
ion of consolidation in letters to the author. Not one unfavor-
able reply was found in the many letters received.

"The consolidated schools are the best thing a county can
have because in these schools the teachers have more time to
spend with the pupils", writes one high school pupil. **No
one who has not attended a consolidated high school can fully
grasp the advantages offered by such a school," writes another
Would that every one might read the touching statement of a
high school girl who says simply, **If it had not been for the.^e
schools I would not have had a high school education." "The

34

industrial work in the grades and the high school is great work
for the farmer boy or girl", adds another, while an enthusias-
tic believer in consolidation underscores each word in his sen-
tence, "I am strictly in favor of the consolidated school". The
keynote of consolidation is sounded by one writer who says,
"You enjoy going to a large school more than you do a small
school." A girl who wishes to make her statement emphatic
says, ''Any human being knows that a teacher can not teach
eight grades and do justice to each grade". "My mother was
saying just the other day that we were chums now with girls
we would not have known had we not been going to this (a con-
solidated) school", writes a young lady whose letter shows
that she has already learned to think. Whether consolidation
will remain is answered by the expression found in regard to
cost; "These schools cost money and they cost something to
run, but what is a few dollars compared to the education of
the children of the United States." "I am a member of the

High School. I am proud of it", may well be a fitting

close to the testimony of boys and girls in regard to consoli-
dation.

The School as a Social Center. The purposes of the move-
ment to revive the school as a social center may be briefly stat-
ed as follows:

First. To get parents interested in school work and in the
betterment of rural schools.

Second. To further the spirit of cooperation by organiz-
ing the people to promote some movement for community bet-
terment.

Third. To provide recreation and amusement.

The meetings which may be held are of various kinds ; as,
for example, the school program held in the afternoon or even-
ing ; programs in which the older people and the children take
part; farmers' clubs and farmers' institutes, at the meetings
of which topics of local interest may be discussed, and often
the children of the school may take part ; special day programs,
such as arbor day, Washington's birthday, etc.; school fairs

35

in which the products of the community are exhibited and
prizes given, and at which a short program is usually given by
the children. Often a speaker from outside is secured to talk
on some subject of interest to the community.

A few general suggestions will be of service to the inex-
perienced teacher. (1) Secure the consent of the school board
before attempting any public program. (2) Do not attempt
too much at first or have the program too long. Have the sup-
port of public opinion in what you are trying to do. (3) Pay
attention to the details. Plan everything carefully so that
each child is given a part, however small, and so that there is
no confusion. (4) Have a definite purpose in mind. Make
the program of real benefit to the children by seeing to it that
they speak and sing in the best possible manner. Choose
songs and recitations that are worth while, omitting trashy
worthless selections. (5) Introduce some of the regular work
of the school, but be careful that it is not tedious and that
what is attempted is well done. As examples of what may be
done, pupils may show how to test corn, explain the Babcock
test, tell the useful birds and explain how we may increase the
number, give an exercise in reading, recite poems that they
have studied in language, read compositions on interesting
subjects, etc. (6) In the choice of speakers from the outside
select the man or woman who has something to say which will
be of interest and real value to the people. Ask him to talk
then of the subject with which he is familiar. Get local peo-
ple to take part.

State Superintendent Gary's Report on Progress. That
progress is being made in rural schools is shown by the report
of State Superintendent Gary of Wisconsin. Mr. Gary writes:

"Great changes for the better have taken place in country
education in the past ten years. Hundreds of districts — near-
ly five out of every six the state over as a matter of fact —
have provided ventilation by means of ventilating stoves. They
have put the out-buildings into decent shape ; they have added
supplementary readers, maps, blackboards ; they have increas-
ed the number of books in their libraries by 200% ; and have
furnished cases and card catalogues for them; they have in-

36

creased the expenditure of money per child enrolled by 100%
they have increased the school year from seven months to
eight; they have increased the annual compulsory period for
each child by 100% ; they have added agriculture to the school
course as prescribed by law; they have increased the number
of county training schools from three to twenty-seven, and in-
creased the course of training 100% in point of time. High
schools have awakened and are vying with the county train-
ing schools, as are also the state >normals, in the training of
country teachers.

^'School board members by thousands in the aggregate
have come out every year for the past eight years to school
board conventions, and their interest constantly increases.
There are more calls for good teachers, more evening programs
in which adults take part, more demand for work in the school
relating to life on the farm than ever before."

Other Rural Social Problems

The Drift to the Cities. Causes: The causes for the
drift of the rural population to the cities may be classified un-
der two heads: economic and social.

The economic causes are: (l)The uncertainty of return
for land labor and capital invested. Farmers feel, and rightly,
that there is more risk in farming than in other lines of work ;
(2) The increased use of machinery which has lessened the de-
mand for farm labor. (3) The long hours of labor and the ir-
regularity of these hours, a fruitful cause of economic discon-
tent. (4) The amount of capital needed now to carry on pro-
perly the business of farming. (5) The sudden acquisition of
large fortunes by city men, bringing unrest to younger men
on the farms.

The chief social influences which have been at work are:
(1) The isolation of life on the farm. By this is meant not on-
ly the fact that houses are far apart, the physical fact, but al-
so the feeling of being cut off from the life of the world, the
mental fact. This isolation has apparently given rise to a spir-
it of conservatism, a tendency to follow along the old paths
rather than to strike out new ones on the part of country peo-

37

pie, and often has tended to foster petty jealousies. It has al-
so made the country rich in moral strength and purpose. Men
who are advocating honest reforms feel that country people
will support them if the questions are rightly understood.
(2) The acknowledgment on the part of many country people
that life in the cities is more to be desired than life in the op-
en country. (3) The example of others who leave the country,
especially of the older men and women who go to t6wn to live.
(4) The influence of history. As early as the fourteenth cen-
tury complaints were made in England, France and Germany
that the country was being depopulated. The growth of the
American cities during the past fifty years has had its effect
on the rural population. (5) The lack of opportunities for
amusement and recreation in the country districts. The
means for amusement and recreation in this country are be-
coming business enterprises and though often cheap and
worthless the effect has been to drive out forms of local
amusement. (6) The influence of our public school system in
the country. Country boys and girls have heard little about
the country even in their own schools. The city schools to
which country boys and country girls have been sent have
tended to draw them from the farm. Country people move to
town to educate their boys and girls.

Remedies. Among the influences already at work to
check this drift to the cities the following are of chief impor-
tance :

(1) The development of scientific farming, which is giv-
ing the farmer a larger and more certain return, developing
the spirit of business enterprise, and showing the younger
people that farming is a business which calls for brains as
well as brawn.

(2) The wider use of labor saving machinery and the
regulation of the hours of labor, which are lessening the drudg-
ery of the farm and making it more and more true that labor
on the farm must be skilled.

(3) The awakened interest in country life, which is bring-
ing to the farmer greater social recognition and more oppor-

38

tunities for a life of distinguished service. The University of
Wisconsin some time ago conferred rewards of merit upon
several men who had distinguished themselves by service to
rural communities, upon one man for example who had im-
proved the grade of stock in a certain county.

(4) The possibility of a larger amount of daily happiness
upon the farms through the development of better homes, bet-
ter schools, better churches, better means of communication.

Problems of Organization. There are in the main three
purposes underlying all rural organizations, economic, educa-
tional and social. Economic organizations aim to improve in-
dustrial conditions on the farms; educational organizations
tend to improve the standards of life and thought; social or-
ganizations to creat more fellowship and to provide recreation
and amusement.

Some Typical Organizations. Chief among the organiza-
tions found in rural communities are the Grange, the Society
of Equity, the Farmers' Union, Farmers' Clubs, Stockbreed-
ers' associations, Local Improvement Associations, Woman's
Clubs, Boys' and Girls' Clubs, Christian Associations, Farmers'
Institutes, School Patrons Clubs, Lecture Course societies,
and others.

The Grange, which may be taken as an example, is one of
the most powerful of rural organizations. It was started in
1867 and now has more than a million members scattered
through thirty states. It aims to develop a higher and better
manhood and womanhood, to advance agriculture, to encour-
age agricultural education, and to inculcate a proper appre-
ciation of the abilities and sphere of woman, and to promote
the general welfare of rural communities. The unit of or-
ganization is the local grange, meeting once or twice a month
with programs looking to the advancement of country life.
The local Granges are united into a county grange, the county
granges into a state Grange, and the state Granges into a na-
tional Grange. The Grange is unique in the equality given
women in its membership, staff of officers, and business.

39

stockbreeders' Associations are organized to improve the
breed of cattle and horses ; but they serve also as a means of
education to the farmer, giving him renewed interest in farm-
ing and a different point of view.

Organizations of Women are often among the most effec-
tive in improving conditions making for better homes and
schools.

One of the chief educational organizations is the farmers'
institute. The institute is a one, two, or three day school for
farmers and farmers' wives, maintained and organized usual-
ly by some state agency, — the agricultural college, experiment
station, or state department of agriculture. About 8,000 far-
mers institutes were held in the United States in 1913 with a
total attendance of nearly three million. In the institutes
problems related to the farm, the home, and the school are tak-
en up and discussed by local people and by paid lecturers.

Boys' and Girls' Clubs. One of the most successful move-
ments to interest young people in farm life has been the or-
ganizations of boys' and girls' clubs. These clubs have vari-
ous aims depending upon local conditions. The corn club may
be taken as an example. The boys and sometimes the girls of
a community are interested in the production of better corn
and organized into clubs the members of which are to plant a
small piece of corn, carefully selecting the seed and following
directions as to the manner of cultivation. Prizes are given
to the one who produces the best corn or the largest yield.
The advantages of these clubs may be summarized as follows :

1. To teach the principles of agriculture in a practical
manner.

2. To teach facts of the soil and of plant life and show
communities the value of their land.

3. To dignify labor and make it intelligent and effective.

4. To give purpose and direction to youthful lives at the
opportune time.

5. To impress the value of individual ownership and earn-
ing.

6. To help the family by having all of its members con-
tribute to its support.

40

7. To show the value of healthy rivalry and cooperation
in producing and marketing crops.

8. To train farm managers and home makers.

9. To vitalize school work.

10. To develop manhood and womanhood.

Rural Social Surveys. The first recommendation of the
Commission on Country Life was that surveys should be tak-
en of rural communities. In order to get the most out of a
survey we must know definitely what information we desire,
the best means of securing it, and we must be open minded,
that is, we must not be trying to prove ideas which we already
have. The principal kinds of survey are (1) the farm survey,
setting forth business conditions and methods of farming,

(2) the rural school survey, testing the efficiency of the schools

(3) the rural church survey, (4) soil surveys, (5) general so-
cial surveys. An interesting bulletin entitled "Social Surveys
of Rural School Districts" has been prepared by C. J. Galpin of
the University of Wisconsin and County Superintendent George
W. Davies of Sauk county, Wisconsin. This bulletin may be
had on application to the University of Wisconsin and should
be in the hands of every teacher. The general plan of the sur-
vey as outlined is as follows. The survey is made by the teach-
er and the pupils. The facts collected are those which bear on
the history of the district, those which relate to farm progress,
those which relate to the manufacturing interests of the com-
munity, as mills, shops, factories, etc., facts relating to so-
cial development, facts relating to local government. An
accurate record is kept of the information and later
it is reduced to maps of which many kinds may be
made to set forth the facts learned. Thus we may have a
cow map, sheep, swine, and poultry maps, to show the number
of each in the district, maps to show the number of acres of
corn, silos, creameries, cheese factories, soils, home improve-
ments, etc. These surveys give not only the teacher and chil-
dren a better knowledge of the neighborhood in which they
live but also the fathers and mothers. Such surveys connect
subjects such as civics, geography, history, arithmetic now

41

taught in the schools with the practical affairs of life, arousing
the children's interest and enthusiasm.

Other Important Agencies for Advancement

Libraries. The libraries in the school houses and those
sent out by the public libraries located in the state are helpful
agencies for good.

Telephones. The telephone is not only a social but also
an economic convenience. Economically it often saves the time
of the farmer in ordering and in communicating with his
neighbors and friends. Socially it is widening the vision of
the people who live in the country. It makes them belong to
a larger group and thus gives broader ideals.

Rural Delivery. The rural delivery is now an accepted
feature of country life. By means of the daily mail service
the farmer and his family are kept in touch with the news of
the world. It has a great economic value too as the farmer is
enabled by means of the daily paper to keep in touch with
market quotations. There is still a dearth of magazines and
books devoted to the interests of rural people. The agricul-
tural press has a larger field of usefulness before it.

Roads. One of the most serious drawbacks of country
life is the condition of the roads. Bad roads are responsible
for much of the isolation of country life. The school in the
country has lagged behind because better schools, especially
the consolidated schools, depend upon good roads. A few les-
sons in regard to roads should be taught in every country
school. (1) The lesson that we do not live for ourselves alone
nor for the immediate present but that we have duties towards
others and responsibilities to the future and that chief among
the duties which confront us in the country is that of provid-
ing better roads. (2) Children should be trained to see that a
tax for a road is an investment by the community for the good
of all. (3) It should be shown that good roads increase the
value of farm property. (4) The relation between good roads,
good schools, churches, and general community progress
should be clearly pointed out. (5) Studies should be made of

42

the roads in the neighborhood, the number of miles of good
roads and something of the method of good road construction.
(6) Pupils in rural schools should be trained to see that good
roads save time, money, wagons, harness, and horseflesh as
well as the temper of the driver. Larger loads can be hauled
over good roads ; hence the cost of delivery is cut down. (7)
Good roads attract those who are looking for farms to buy.
One of the greatest benefits resulting from free delivery of
mail is that the government has insisted upon certain road
improvements.

Rural Electric Lines. The growth of rural electric lines
in the United States is tending to bring city and country clos-
er together. Thus far one of the most far reaching effects has
been the tendency of the electric lines to develop village or
suburban life and to make the village a stronger connecting
link between city and country life. Electric lines add to the
value of farm property, lessen isolation and foster particular
farm occupations, such as dairying, etc., in that they facili-
tate delivery.

Pictures. To many, pictures speak in a plainer tongue
than books, yet to many people in both city and country the
companionship of good pictures is unknown. It is no longer
necessary to have money in order to possess copies of the works
of great artists for there are several firms, such as the Perry
Picture Co., which put out good prints of the truly great and
beautiful pictures for a few cents each. Every farm home can
have these upon its walls. From some libraries traveling ex-
hibits are sent out in the same way that the traveling librar-
ies of books are sent. It is to be hoped that this movement
will be extended.

Magazines. The increasing number of good magazines
which are issued at a relatively low cost makes it possible for
each home to have at least one or two. These bring each
month new lines of thought and are another valuable agency
for keeping the isolated home in touch with the outside world.

Recreation. Probably nothing has been more neglected
in the life of the American farmer than play. Today there is

43

a revival of play. In European countries we find that in near-
ly all rural communities there are forms of play peculiar to
those communities. Folk dancing, games, and contests are
common at their ''play festivals" and in them all the people of
the community take part. In America there has been danger
of letting all our play become commercialized. The moving pic-
ture show is a type of this commercialized recreation. The
county fair of today has degenerated because it became com-
mercialized. Especially in rural communities is needed a strong
movement toward wholesome recreation. In some sections of
the United States strides are being made through musical or-
ganizations, where people get together to sing. As the ac-
quaintance with good music increases, the moral tone of all
social life is raised. In other places drama is being studied
and given. The present interest in old fashioned dances and
"folk" dances is doing much to bring a change into the country
dance, which is being restored to the really social play of the
old colonial times in which young and old participated. Re-
creation or play should express the best there is in country
life. It should be produced by the people and express their
thought. It is through such recreation that mind and body
is kept youthful.

Betts in his "New Ideals in Rural Schools" gives the fol-
lowing vivid summary of some of the agencies at work for ad-
vancement in methods of farming: "Special corn trains and
dairy trains have traversed nearly every county in many states
teaching the farmers scientific methods. Lectures on scienti-
fic agriculture have found their way into many communities.
The Federal government has encouraged in every way the
spread of information and the development of enthusiasm in
agriculture. The agricultural schools and colleges have given
courses on instruction during the winter to farmers. Far-
mers' institutes have been organized; corn-judging and stock-
judging contests have been held; prizes have been offered for
the best results in the raising of grain and of vegetables or
stock. New varieties of grains have been introduced, im-
proved methods of cultivation have been discovered, and
means of enriching and conserving the soil devised. Stock

44

breeding and the care of animals is becoming a science. Farm-
ing bids fair to become soon one of the skilled occupations."

New Fields of Work in Rural Communities. We are de-
veloping new lines of trained service in rural communities.
The schools are training teachers for country schools, the
breeders' associations are training experts in cattle raising;
the University is sending out its farm managers, or county
agents. All along the line there is a renewed interest in the
development of country life. The object of this greater ac-
tivity has been well stated by Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey of
Cornell Agricultural College when he says that a good farmer
is a man who has the ability :

1. To make a full and a comfortable living from the land,

2. To rear a family carefully and well,

3. To be of good service to the community,

4. To leave the farm more productive than it was when
he took it.

The Farmer's Creed

The fundamental purpose of all rural economic and social
teaching is admirably summed up in Mann's Farmer's Creed:

I believe in a permanent agriculture, a soil that shall grow
richer rather than poorer year by year.

I beheve in hundred bushel corn and fifty bushel wheat, and
I shall not be satisfied with anything less.

I believe that the only good weed is a dead weed, and that
a clean farm is as important as a clean conscience.

I believe in the farm boy and the farm girl, the farmer's
best crops and the future's best hope.

I believe in the farm woman and will do all in my power to
make her life easier and happier..

I beheve in a country school that prepares for country, and
a country church that teaches its people to love deeply and to
live honorably.

46

I believe in a community spirit, a pride in home and neigh-
bors, ajnd 1 will do my part to make my own community the
best in the State.

I believe in the farmer. I believe in farm life, I believe in
the inspiration of the open country.

I am proud to be a farmer, and I will try earnestly to be
worthy of the name^

46

Small Library on Rural Economics and Rural Sociology

Bailey — The Country Life Movement, Macmillan Co., Chicago, $1.25.
The training- of Farmers, The Century Co., Chicago $1.25

Betts — New ideals in Rural Education. Riverside Educational Monographs.
Houghton, Mifflin Co., Chicago, $.60.

Buell, Jennie — One Woman's Work for Farm Women — Whitconib & Bar-
rows, Boston, $.50.

Butterfleld — Chapters in Rural Progress. University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, $1.00. The Country Church. The University of Chicago
Press, $1.00.

Burnliam — Two Types of Rural Schools. Columbia University, New York
City, $.75.

Cary — Agricultural or Rural Economics and Sociology. State Superin-
tendent C. P. Cary, Madison. Free pamphlet.

Carver — Principles of Rural Economics. Ginn & Co., Chicago, $1.30

Cubberley — Rural Life and Education. Houghton, Mifflin Co., $1.50.

Dodd, Mrs. Heien — The Healthful Farmhouse. Whitcomb & Barrows,
Boston.

Ely— Outlines of Economics. The MacMillan Co., $2.00.

FosrM — The American Rural School. MacMillan Co., Boston, $1.25.

Gillete's — Constructive Rural Sociology. Sturgis & Walton, $1.60.

Hagrsrard — Rural Denmark. Longsman, Green & Co., Chicago, $2.25.

Kern — Among Country Schools. Ginn &' Co., Chicago, $1.25.

McKeever — Farm Boys and Girls — The MacMillan Co., $1.50

Wilson — Church of Open Country. Missionary Education Movement, New
York, $.50.

From the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C, the following may
be had:

No. 12. 1914. Rural School Houses and Grounds. Free.
No. 24. 1914. Danish Elementary Rural Schools. Free,
No. 30. 1914. Consolidation of Rural Schools. Free.

The following bulletins will be found valuable:

Rural Social Centers in Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin, Madi-
son. Free.

Social and Civic Center Work in Country Communities. State Super-
intendent Cary, Madison. Free.

Method of Making a Social Survey of a Rural Community. Galpin.
University of Wisconsin, Madison. Free.

A Social Survey of a Rural School District. Galpin and Davies. Univer-
sity of Wisconsin. Free.

A Social Survey of Rural Communities. G. F. Wells. The author, 150
Fifth Avenue, New York, 10 cents.

Report of the Commission on Country Life. Superintendent of Docu-
ments, Washington, D. C. 10 cents.

Report of the Committee of Fifteen on Rural Schools. State Superin-
tendent Cary, Madison, Wis. Free.

Rural Church Surveys. Dept. of Church and Country Life. Board of
Home Missions, 756 Fifth Avenue, New York.

47

Agriculture and Rural Life Day. Superintendent of Documents, Wash-
ington, D, C. 10 cents.

Possibilities of the Country Home. Davenport University of Illinois,
Urbana, 111.

An Agricultural Survey. Bulletin 295. Cornell Agricultural College.
Ithaca, New York. Free.

A Course in the Practical Problems of Rural Life

BIGHTH GRADB

The purpose of this course is to relate the work of the school to the
life of the rural community. Every lesson we teach in school should have
some direct purpose, some reason for teaching it which we have in mind.
The questions presented here are suggestive only. The teacher's ingenuity
will suggest others. Their use will stimulate teachers to make the
■work of the schoolroom practical and will lead pupils to see the value
of the lessons they are learning in school.

Reading

Pupil's questions: Am I able to read a story book, a newspaper, a
popular magazine, a farm bulletin? Make a list of books you have
read.

1. The following places were mentioned in one Chicago daily.
Where are they? Petrograd, Vienna, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Po-
land, Belgium, Brooklyn.

2. Explain the following sentences which occurred in the same paper,
(a). The Supreme court handed down a decision, (b) A strike has

been declared by the United Mine Workers. The Department of Agricul-
ture has issued a bulletin.

3. Answer the following question:

(a). What farm papers do you know? (b) How many magazines
can you name? (c). What are the principal papers published in your
county and the politics of each? What are the leading Chicago papers.
How do you get a bulletin from the University? From the Department of
Agriculture? Name a woman's paper; a boy's paper.

4. What poem of country life do you know? Who is your favorite
poet? Author?

Agriculture

Pupil's question. Do I know enough to be a farmer? Try these ques-
tions:

1. What birds are common in the neighborhood? What do they eat?
Classify them as farmers' friends and farmers' enemies. Don't guess.

2. What weeds are common in the neighborhood? Can you recog-
nize them? How do they affect (a) the crop, (b) the value of land? What
is being done to eradicate them?

3. What insects are common in the neighborhood? What destroys
them? Find out from your fathers and by reading.

4. May a plant have a disease? Name some plant diseases in the
neighborhood. How cured, if curable?

5. Name crop^ which exhaust the soil, are hard on the soil as far-
mers say? What crops build up the soil? What crop rotations do you
know of in the neighborhood?

48

6. Show how there may be waste and bad management in (a) cara of
machinery, (b) time, (c) kind of milk cows kept, (d) care of animals, (e)
bad seed, (f) selling only such products as wheat, hay, corn, rather than
hogs, cattle, milk, etc.

7. What must a successful farmer know? What personal qualities
make for success? What are the advantages of farm life? What ar«
some of the disadvantages? What may be done to overcome the disadvan-
tages?

8. Every large factory has an experiment room. Show the value of
a small piece of ground used to try out new crops such as' alfalfii. soy
bean, etc.?

9. How can you get farm bulletins from the University? From the
Department of Agriculture? Of what value are these bulletins?

History

Test your knowledge of farm history by the following questions:

1. What did the Indians teach the early settler about farming?

2. Which of the principal farm products of your neighborhood, crops
and animals, are native to this country?

3. Make a list of the machines found on your father's farm. What
was used before each was invented? About how long since it was invent-
ed? How did it affect farming?

4. What does your father know about farming which your grand-
father did not know?

5. Write a sketch of the life of the first settlers in your district, de-
scribing their food, clothing, shelter, crops, tools, educational opportuni-
ties, travel, amusements, hardships.

6. Compare the w^ork which your mother has to do in the home with
the work which your great grandmother had to do.

7. How have railroads helped the farmer? When did this help come
to your neighborhood?

8. Write the history of the hoof and mouth disease.

9. What is the Department of Agriculture? What good does it do
your father? Look up its history. How do you get bulletins from it?

10. What is an agricultural college? What does it cost to attend an
agricultural college for a year? What would you learn there? How can
you get bulletins from the college? What bulletins have you.

11. What is a farmers institute? Give an account of what is done at
a farmers' institute?

12. What is a country agricultural agent? Who pays him? What
does he do? What is being done in your neighborhood to improve crops
in quality and quantity?

13. Tell what each of the following men have done for farmers: (a)
Washington, (b) Seaman A. Knapp, (c) Burbank, (d) O. H. Kelley, (e)
Babcock.

14. Write the history of your school, showing progress that has been
made since it was first started and pointing out ways in which it could be
improved still further.

49

Arithmetic

Pupil's question. Do I know enough arithmetic to be a farmer? Solve
the following.

(1) 2240 lbs. Clover Hay at $14 a ton. Solve.

(2) 3200 lbs. oats at $.32 a bushel. Solve.

(3) 400 lbs. hogs at $6.90 a hundred. Solve.

(4) Explain difference between quit claim and warranty deed.

(5) A farmer paid $125 for a binder. It lasted twelve years. Dur-
ing that time he paid out ten dollars for repairs. Interest at the rate of
six per cent. What did the binder cost him a year?

(6) Draw a check, a note, a receipt.

(7) Find out what it costs to raise corn, wheat or potatoes per bushel
by getting the figures from your father. To produce a pound of pork.

(8) How would you send money to Chicago? Name and describe
three ways.

(9) Explain the following common terms, — F. O. B.; Bill of lading;
Savings account.

(10) What makes a national bank safe?

(11) Explain the following principles of investment: (a) safety first,
(b) high rate of interest, great risk.

Geography

1. What are the principal farm products of your districts? Explain
what has made these the principal products.

2. For what products is your state noted? What conditions have
made these products possible?

3. Locate on a map the principal corn, cotton, wheat, beef, pork, and
dairy sections of the United States. Explain why those areas are known
for the particular products.

4. Make a soil map of your district. Locate on this map the princi-
pal farm crops. Locate the dairy farms; the silos.

5. Compare the life on your farm with the life on a farm in England.
In Russia. In Germany.

6. Make a map of your township, locating churches, schools, creamer-
ies, villages, best roads.

7. Why is truck farming carried on near Chicago?

8. Take a time table and find out how soon you could reach Cincin-
nati. Denver.

9. Show how the farming carried on in the West differs from the
farming in the Central States. Why is this?

10. Show how altitudes, light, heat, rainfall, soil, and means of trans-
portation affect farm products.

50

Civics

Test your ideas of citizenship by the following:

1. If you were elected school clerk what would you do to make your
school a better one?

2. What kinds of taxes do we pay and what do we get in return?
Get a tax receipt from your father and be definite in your answers. Are
taxes a blessing: or an evil?

3. What roads in your district need to be improved?

4. What other public improvements might be made?

5. Describe your day's work if you were a member of the legislature
of your state. Explain how you would introduce a bill and what is done
with it to get it through. Write one bill you would introduce if you were
a member of the legislature. What qualities make a good member of the
legislature.

6. Should your mother vote as well as your father?

7. Tell what you would have to do were you (a) drawn on jury, (b)
subpoenaed as a witness, (c) elected county superintendent of schools.

8. Name all the schools that we support by taxation and tell what
good we derive from each.

9. What is the value of (a) pure food laws, (b) milk inspection laws,
(c) weed laws, (d) fish and game laws?

10. How is your community provided with (a) high school advantages,
(b) churches, (c) farmers' clubs?

11. Compare the value of land near a city in your county with the
value of land far from the city. Account for the difference. Compare the
value now with that of 20 years ago.

12 What is a good road? Look up the history of Macadam, What is
a macadam road? What does a good road cost a mile to build? How does
a good road affect the value of farm property? How does it affect schools,
churches, social life?

13. What is the most common form of rent in the neighborhood — share
or cash? Are tenants or owners more likely to improve the farm, the farm
home, the community? Why?

Hygiene

1. What are the most common communicable diseases in your neigh-
borhood? How do we catch them? How can we prevent them?

2. Why do more children, especially babies, die during the fly season
than at any other time? Explain how to get rid of the fly?

3. How may the farm home be made more sanitary? The farm well?

5. Name some things which would make the farm home more com-
fortable.

6. Secure from the state departments, from the State University, and
from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, bulletins giving plans for sani-
tary outside toilets, etc.

7. How may the drainage of the farm yard affect the health of the
family? Draw diagrams to show.

8. At what temperature must milk be kept in order for it to be safe
milk to feed babies? How may this be accomplished? How many farm
homes in your neighborhood are supplied with ice?

9. How should an ice house be built? What is the nearest place from
which ice can be drawn in the winter? Does an ice supply in your neigh-
borhood cost much money? Much labor?

10. Give two reasons why manure should be hauled to the fields as
made.

51

Choice of an Occupation

What occupation requires least investment? Farmer, doctor, lawyer,
merchant, minister, clerk, machinist, laborer.

"What occupation requires the least education? As above.

What occupation requires the most investment?

What requires the most education?

What occupation requires most of both?

What occupation requires the longest hours of work?

What occupation requires the most responsibility?

What are the objectionable features to each occupation?

What occupation appeals to you as the best? Why?

What part should your personal liking play in making your decision?

What wages do clerks receive? Factory employees?

What wages do skilled laborers command? Unskilled laborers?

What are the advantages of each?

What must a farmer know to be a good farmer? a doctor? a lawyer?

What personal qualities make for success in each occupation?

52

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