Ill; I !l ■ ALBERT R. MAWIM LIBRARY AT ORNELL UNIVERSE CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 074 171 947 DATE DUE GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S.A. The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924074171947 THE TWO PROBLEM BOOKS Comprising 50 statements on the "problems" of rural affairs, representing the judgment of the author after 25 years of public service in New York on a wide range of situations, personal, educational, economic, social. These judgments and enthusiasms apply to North American con- ditions in general, as well as to New York. They are opinions rendered when the problems were up for discussion. CONTENTS OF VOL. I CHAPTER THE PROBLEMS page I The Young Farmer Who Goes Forth - 5 II Where to Take Hold 6 III The Need of Contact-Work in Country-Life Affairs .......g IV Personal Skill in Farming - - - - 13 V Manual-Training by Means of Agriculture - 17 VI The Look Country-ward - - - - 23 VII A School-Lot on the Farm - - - - 29 VIII What the High-School in the Large City Can Do for Country Life - - - - 35 IX The Things at Home ----- 41 X Dry-Farming in Relation to New York Condi- tions -------48 XI Housing Conditions on Farms in New York State 55 XII Woman's Place in a Scheme of Agricultural Education ------ 62 XIII The Playground in Farming Communities - 70 XIV Little Fishes in the Brook - - - - 79 XV Farmers' Week and the Country-Bond - - 89 XVI The Farm Vegetable-Garden - - - 99 XVII The Place of Agriculture in Higher Education 109 XVIII Needful Reconstructive Sentiment in Parts of the Old East ------ 120 XIX The Farm-Bureau Idea - - - - 1^2 XX The Farm Residence ----- 147 XXI The Hill Lands of New York - - - 163 XXII The Cost of Living 178 XXIII The Student-Labor Problem - - - 194 XXIV SomB Early Agricultural Legislation in New York; with Particular Allusions to the Fairs 213 XXV The Survey-Idea in Country-Life Work - 238 YORK STATE RURAL PROBLEMS II By L. H. BAILEY ALBANY J. B. LYON COMPANY PUBLISHERS 1915 HT BiSy PRINTED AND BOUND BY J a. LYON COMPANY ALBANY, NEW YORK THE PROBLEMS Chapter Page I. To Jericho 7 II. To Students, Greeting 9 III. The Privilege of the Farm Family 13 IV. Tlie Mother at Home 17 V. Undivided Money 22 VI. The Neighborly Gathering 26 VII. The Social Center and the Intellectual Center 30 VIII. The Need of an Out-Door Natural History 33 IX. The Preservation of Birds: What it Means 41 X. A State Biological Survey 50 XI. What is Extension Work 53 XII. How Shall we Meet the Demands in the Localities for Instruction in Agri- culture? 62 XIII. Boys' and Girls' Contest Clubs 71 XIV. The Farm-Bureau Movement 80 XV. Once More the Fairs: A State Plan 103 XVI. Some Popular Bogies and Delusions. ... no XVII. Making Beef by Law 120 XVIII. An Office of Advice in the Great Cities. . 129 XIX. Benevolent Urbanism, and Other Things. 133 XX. The Next Step in the Country-Life Movement 143 XXI. The Looks of the Rural Hamlet 158 Iv] vi THE PROBLEMS Chapter Page XXII. A New Range in Public Service 171 XXIII. The Situation Now, and the Situation Then 173 XXIV. The Outlook for the College of Agri- culture 189 XXV. The Extension Schools, and Other His- tory 228 RURAL PROBLEMS I TO JERICHO To a group of students, asking YONDER Is an attractive highway. You can see it from where we sit, a narrow band running up over the hillside and then veering off into a farming country. The houses and the barns look to be good and wholesome. The trees along the roadside are abundant with life. Troops of crows fly over it at morning and at night. The fields seem to be full of harvest, and the forest patches are cool with shade. You can make out the specks of cattle in shining fields. Heavy loads of produce roll down into the city. The whole picture is of plenty and satisfaction. And yet I am told that within the range of our vision there are at least three old persons living alone and in want both of the necessaries of hfe and of companionship. You ask me what work you may do. Before the sun sets to-morrow, you and your fellows may have the privilege of going along that road and calling [7] 8 RURAL PROBLEMS on those three persons. You must not hire a " rig," or let your friends take you in an automobile. I want you to walk, that you may know the feeling of the road and that you may understand what the exertion means. Call on those persons quietly, as passers-by. Find out how you can be helpful without being either afraid or impertinent. Do not go prepared to-day to supply what they may need. You must first be welcome. I hope you will be carrying water and cutting a little pile of wood. I hope that you will find a neighbor who will stop. I hope that you will say a cheery word about the roadside. And I also hope that your visits will not be few. Some of you are soon going home to the long highways that lie back of the cities and the towns. I think there will be lonely persons somewhere on those roadsides. I think that buoyant young life is very good to those who are looking toward the sunset and to those whose measure of satisfaction is small. II TO STUDENTS. GREETING: At the opening of the College year — Cornell Countryman WE have all come back to work. There is no excellence without labor. One cannot dream oneself into either usefulness or happiness. Every person needs the dream, if he is to be sensitive to his place in the world and if he would really accomplish ; but the result comes only through good application. I hope that all of you have had a busy summer. It is now much the practice to waste the summer. Vacations often result in more harm than good be- cause they are likely to be vacant. The most effective men do not often break training, although they may change their work. The real farmer does not waste much time in idle vacation ; and in this respect he is contributing good example to all our people. So, if you have not droned your summer away, you will come back keen for work and you will easily find yourself usefully occupied. The quality of your work, as also your healthfulness and satis- [9] lo RURAL PROBLEMS faction in it, will depend largely on the way in which you organize your time. If you play, you will have a time for play and you will play with spirit. You will study without haste and without friction if you order your work well. I find that most students who complain of lack of time do not know how to economize time. Their days are unplanned and, therefore, lack progressive motion. Very few students really know how to study. The busiest persons usually have the most time: they work expeditiously, surely, lose no motions, and overlook the non-essentials. Very many persons lose their way because they get flurried. They " flare up " and are then " upset." All good work depends on an even temper. A person can acquire a level spirit. If he does not chance to be born with one ; it is merely self-control. In fact, I think the most effective evenness of keel is one that is held in turbulent seas. I suggest that each student give himself lessons this year in the gentle art of keeping cool. Many troubles solve themselves if you let them alone. I like to emphasize the time-element In educa- tion. We think of this as a high-strung and rapid age ; but it need not be a hurried age. One may walk very fast without being in a hurry. In col- lege, particularly, do we need to take time. Things TO STUDENTS, GREETING n must soak in now if they ever are to soak in. If I could be sure that the student would take proper time and patience with his work, I should be glad to see the amount of subject-matter reduced by one-half. Education Is a process of ripening. One does not have equal opportunity for ripening after one leaves college. The student in agriculture in these days is fitting himself for a great work. The burden of civilization will fall more and more on the man who produces the supplies out of the earth: we begin to see the end of the process of merely ap- propriating the supplies that lie In new and un- tried places. The attention of the people is being halted to this fact, and also to the necessity of reaching effectively the social and educational and immaterial needs of the background of our civiliza- tion. Students in agriculture are doing much more than fitting themselves to follow an occupation. They are to take part in a great regeneration. This regeneration will come gradually and per- haps even slowly; and this is all the more reason why it will be worth while to be connected with It. Rural civilization will express Itself in the voice of the people. So you are coming here to take part, 12 RURAL PROBLEMS and to assume a hopeful responsibility. I want you to have the steady forward look. Your college days should be a conscious prepara- tion for this larger usefulness ; you should be ready when the time arrives for your commencement of it. The small college world, even though an ideal world, should typify in some degree the world of wider service. Your first duty is to your formal studies, but it will not be worth your while to come to college if you acquire only subject-matter. I hope you will work with your fellows on questions of student interest, take active part in the affairs of the college, and train yourselves in good public spirit. Loyalty to an institution is a kind of patri- otism; when it expands, it becomes loyalty to a neighborhood, a state, a nation, and to humanity. You are now in training to enter the fraternity of those who are building a sufficient country life. Ill THE PRIVILEGE OF THE FARM FAMILY The Cornell Countryman, May, 1914 IT HAS been my good fortune to have been entertained in many homes. These homes have represented a wide variety of persons and of countries. Every home has been interesting to the inhabitants and, therefore, it has been in- teresting to the guest. The type of conversation in the home circle is always significant. It expresses the nearest and most personal interest. It reveals the organizing sentiment of the home. I am impressed that in most homes outside the rural places the conversa- tion does not turn very much on the occupation or the profession in which the head of the house is engaged. There is a curious notion in men's heads that one should not talk " shop," whereas this sub- ject is likely to be most interesting both to the guest and to the host, because it is immediate, vital, and personal. I always like to hear a man or woman talk about the thing that is just then under [I3l 14 RURAL PROBLEMS way ; the person speaks with authority and knowl- edge, and, therefore, interestingly. When I go to a farm home, I want to hear conversation about the farming; and seldom am I disappointed. The important thing about this farm home con- versation, beyond its immediate interest to the per- sons concerned, is the fact that all members of the family speak of common knowledge and they are all partakers in- the farming enterprise. They all work at it. They all cooperate in it, to the extent of their strength and their abilities. The guest soon comes to know that the farming is a family undertaking. I do not find this to be the case to any extent in other families. I seldom hear much conversation of the business or the occupation on the part of the wife and older children, if the father is a merchant or a mechanic or if he is a professional man. They are not necessarily a part of the business ; they are only supported by it. The business is his, not theirs. I have been a guest when to the end of my visit I have not certainly known the business or profession of the host. This commonality of discussion in the farm home appeals to me as having much significance. If all the members cooperate on one economic basis, we have not only a school in democracy but PRIVILEGE OF FARM FAMILY 15 a means of the most effective intellectual develop- ment. It is also difficult to disrupt a family that is founded not only In affection, but also in a relation- ship of common economic and intellectual interest. As rapidly as we add new knowledge to the farm enterprise, and stimulate new incentive in it, we shall find the new Interest reflected in the home circle. Every new resource added to the farm is a contribution to the home life. This may not be apparent in all homes, nor all at once, but it lies in the necessity of the situation and in the main it is now a reality. With the greater division of knowl- edge among the different members of the house- hold, consequent on the increasing complexity of farming, this cooperative conference will increase. If the farming is well conducted, the home will feel the effect of it directly, and even quite in- dependently of the financial influence. I think that the common economic situation of the members of the farm family has much to do with the relatively little concern that these mem- bers — both men and women — take In some of the violent propaganda of the day; but into this subject I am not now to enter. I am for the moment expressing the conviction that in the nature of Its constitution the farm home Is a power- ful means of education and an indispensable organ i6 RURAL PROBLEMS of public welfare; and I would impress on young farm folk the vast importance of maintaining the farm as a family enterprise and of using this enter- prise more effectively than it has yet been used for the development of the highest responsiveness in every member of the household. IV THE MOTHER AT HOME Rural New-Yorker, Dec. 20, 19 13 WHENEVER I stand before a group of agricultural students, I am conscious of the places whence they have come and of the sacrifices that have sent them to college or to school. I see the farms on many plains and hills. I see cattle in the fields, men and boys plowing, children going to school on long highways, the barn floor on winter days, hard labor in growing crops, the chores at morning and at night; and I see homes all over the land, separate, each one the center of a little world of interest and activity, and everyone full of labor. And I think how fortunate is the people that has these farm homes far in the background, set close against the bosom of the earth, and everyone of them forced to develop a serious purpose in life. And I think of the father and mother, what it means to them to have sent these boys and girls away to school. It has not been simple or easy. The farm standards are not the city standards. (I7l 1 8 RURAL PROBLEMS The farm is a place in which to live rather than an opportunity to make money ; if it were not so, the farms would not make the contribution they are now making to the good of the world. And re- sults come slowly and they sometimes come very hard ; but sooner or later they come, and they mean the more because they are the result of waiting and of effort. We do not know what things mean when they come too fast. The coming to college of many of these boys and girls has meant real denial to more persons than one. In both country and town I see fathers and mothers planning for them and working for them through many doubtful days. And my thought goes often specially to the mother, who may have had no good advantages herself, who has had little actual contact with the world but who has had knowledge of it as a thing far off and who desires that her children shall have every useful opportunity. Patiently and carefully she has planned and worked and saved, and has steadfastly overcome prejudice. The savings may have been small, sometimes a few cents here and a few more there ; she has foregone clothing that other women are proud to wear ; she has remained at home when she might have gone; she has raised chickens, guarded the returns from butter and garden stuff THE MOTHER AT HOME 19 and canned fruit ; and she has brought up the chil- dren thriftily, to be moderate in their desires and careful of their expenditures. And finally the proud day comes when the boy or girl goes to college. And what a product she is able to send, — a boy or a girl who will work I The seed is always small. The whole process of nature is to grow from small things to big ones. The oak tree is in the acorn and the perfect ear of corn is in the kernel. The sacrifice of the mother is in the boy and the girl : the little things make the life. Nothing is too small to be of consequence if it expresses itself in a living product. It is a great thing for us that so many mothers are willing to make these denials for the succeeding generation; I should fear for the generations if it were not so. Not only is the seed small, but it is mostly hid- den. No mother complains of these sacrifices, and for the reason that to her they are not sacrifices but a duty rendered cheerfully even if laboriously. She has no thought of praise ; she is giving herself for the son and daughter. But those of us who know may give the credit and bestow the praise. It is our duty to give this recognition to the mothers who prepare these boys and girls. Perhaps it is not well to praise too loudly, for no one should become self-conscious In service such as these 20 RURAL PROBLEMS mothers render. The fine spirit of it is a mighty power. It is a power that school or college or organization or social movements can never render. The mother's savings and the mother's care make a powerful contribution to the common good. I have been impressed with the confidence of these mothers in their plans. I have known them to work for years to the one end, unfalteringly and tirelessly. There is no doubt as to the wisdom of it: the purpose is clear and the end must be gained. This is worth more than many brilliant but short-lived efforts. In my dealings with these students I am often conscious of the mother's work standing behind them constantly. They feel it and they appreciate it. The long years of steady and careful labor have sunk deep into their natures. It is not a ques- tion of precept and preaching, but the actual self- denial and love that have given them the oppor- tunity. It may not have expressed itself in much outward sentiment, but it has strained the sinews and taxed the resources; and therefore it is real and beyond dispute. The boy who goes out to strange conditions and to untried situations does not forget. I think that the old home goes with him till the end; and he desires that father and mother shall have their reward. THE MOTHER AT HOME 21 The homes back on the farms, and the labor of the persons in them, and the patient homely work to give a child an opportunity, are very real forces in the world. These are problems, and of national importance. The mother and the father make these homes. V UNDIVIDED MONEY To a company of farmers, April, 1914 THERE is need of a new basis of voluntary contribution, on the part of the farmer, to public expenses. You are well enough familiar with the feeling that the farmer does not give freely to church and school and to other community necessities, but per- haps you have not considered the historical reasons for his attitude. You must first recall the fact that in times past the farmer has handled very little actual money. His occupation was conducted on the basis of raising the products that would supply his needs, — his food, his clothing, the materials to provide shelter for himself and his goods. The days of the homespun are not far behind us, — the making up of the wool and flax and cotton in the family, the whole process from planting of the seed to the finished clothing being domestic. It is not so long ago that hides were tanned at home or in the neighborhood, and that the shoemaker went from house to house to make the yearly footwear of the family. Whenever I go back to my boy- [22] UNDIVIDED MONEY 23 hood home, I look at the old candle-molds and re- call the time when I helped to wick the molds and to pour the tallow for the candles ; and this mutton tallow had been " rendered " over the " elevated oven " stove in the kitchen. The old cheese-press is still there ( and so is the cat-hole in the cellar door). Only in our own time has the setting of milk and the making of butter begun to go out of the household. Until very recent time, the farmer has not been a specialist in production, and commonly he is not so even yet. He traded his surplus at the store or let the tin-peddler have it in return for household supplies. The woman traded the butter and eggs and milk and garden-stuff. Little money changed hands ; and this money was not divided to any ex- tent with others. But the farmer was free and liberal with his goods. These he divided. He took flour and beef and potatoes to the minister. The " donation parties " were events that not only brought out supplies but that had considerable social meaning. The farmer also gave of his time. He did not think of his time so much in terms of money as in terms of trade. He " changed work " with the neighbor. He took part in " bees " to supply the minister, the teacher and others with fuel, and to 24 RURAL PROBLEMS help "raise" the barn (in the days before the studding and the plank barn came into existence). Bees were made to put the school ground in order, to clean up a piece of highway, to build a bridge. I recall the erection of a substantial exhibition hall by a similar process, and it stood for more than thirty years. Both the products and the time of the old-day farmer were divisible ; but money was not divisible, because there was very little of it to divide. The townsman had more ready cash ; he used the bank as a place of deposit (letting other persons keep his money for him) long before the farmer used it; he had no products to give for public uses, and so he gave more freely of money. He called the farmer a " tightwad." But nowadays the farmer raises a certain line of products for sale for cash. He buys his supplies in the open market. He has become a business man in the new way. Everyone competes for his products. Every egg or pound of butter or barrel of good apples is in demand, and is paid for in cash. His time and labor are worth cash. He has losit to the old extent his habit of dividing his produce and his time, and he may still think of money as indivisible. The donation parties are going; and this is fortunate, for they now are in UNDIVIDED MONEY 25 the nature of charity. I find young man after young man who does not know what I am talking about when I speak of " bees." Much of the neighborly feeling has gone with the passing of this old division of one's product and one's self. I am convinced that many country ministers are suffering for lack of the bare necessities of life at the same time that the region is really full of plenty. In many districts there are worthy people who are wretchedly poor. Of course the farmer is giving very liberally in many cases and in many localities, and often he is giving all that he can afford to give. But I have wanted to explain the change in the farmer's necessary at- titude toward contributions, and to suggest that a new basis of giving is needed. When products and time are so readily turned into money. It Is necessary that money itself be- come more readily divisible. VI THE NEIGHBORLY GATHERING A talk at a farmhouse gathering, January, 19 14 THIS is a pleasant meeting, and I am sure that it will be profitable. You are here as neighbors, knowing each other well, and all of you are farmers and interested in this local- ity. You are come together at this good farm- house, and next month you will come together at some other house. You are discussing the present problems of this locality in a simple way, without aspiration for notoriety and with no idea of form- ing an " organization." I think it a privilege to be with you. I often doubt the value of the big meeting or the great convention, but I have no doubts or misgivings about the neighborhood gathering. I shall have more satisfaction in speak- ing to this neighborly group of twenty-five persons than I could have in speaking to ten or twenty times that number in a public hall. I think my re- marks, if they have any value at all, will probably be more effective if spoken here than if spoken there. [J6J NEIGHBORLY GATHERING 27 You represent a neighborhood. This is im- portant, in these times when we hear so much about the " community." A neighborhood comprises the region of neighboring. It is personal. The community represents commonality of interests rather than friendship of follcs. I want the com- munity to develop, and to have a better church and school and grange and library ; but within the com- munity there may be several neighborhoods, and it is important that the neighborhood activities be not forgotten or overlooked in our grasp for bigger things. A community cannot accomplish much if the neighborhoods are dead or if they are torn by petty dissensions. Notwithstanding the disputes over the line-fence and the difficulties of dickering and the jealousies between families, the old-time neighborhood was very much a unit and a reality. The quarrels be- tween two neighborhoods were usually harder fought than the quarrels between two neighbors. There was much emulation, also. Now that we are becoming citizens of the world by means of telegraph and telephone, the city paper, the uni- versal market, the traversable roads and the au- tomobile, and are watching the sky for flying- machines, we must take care that we do not lose our neighborhood feeling. A man Is not a good 28 RURAL PROBLEMS farmer, — as we think of farmers in these days, — unless he is a good neighbor. The things at home are the most important things in the world. Even the bird that is swift of wing and that covers the space from the arctic to the tropic builds itself a home ; and it is there that it sings and makes love. The community has its institutions and its public buildings, but the neigh- borhood has its homes. I like these meetings in the homes, — the fire that burns from one's own wood, the dog by the door and the cat by the hearth, the clock on the mantel, the boys and girls, the piece played on the organ or piano, the drink- ing-water that belongs to the place and has a quality of its own, and the abundant edibles that come from the different households; then the friendly chat, the comparing of notes on the wheat and the markets, the regard for the old men when they express an opinion, the deference to the person who has made good. All these things are very much worth the while of the newcomer, the college man, and the expert. I have noticed the young man over there. He has recently graduated from a great school; all the evening he has sat alert and interested but has said nothing. He has learned how to listen and to be advised. I think he will make good. NEIGHBORLY GATHERING 29 These are great days In which to live. The world is full with expectancy. We are looking long distances. But do not be misled: here is where you live, and here is where you neighbor; and do not forego this privilege of coming to- gether every month. VII THE SOCIAL CENTER AND THE IN- TELLECTUAL CENTER To one who inquired YOUR purpose to make a community center at the country school-house is good. It is well in line with the general consent of the day that the school should have vital connec- tion with the welfare of its district and that the building and the equipment should be utilized in the developing of community feeling. And yet I am wondering whether you are not confusing two things. We are talking much about social centers, when we oftenest mean intellectual centers. The use of the school-house for lectures, entertainments, and meetings for discussion, may extend its use as a center of education, and this is much to be desired; but these enterprises in them- selves do not make a social center. The social center develops around a habitation. This is why the city settlement-house may become such an effective social center. The parsonage contributes to the social center at the church. Under the present situation, the best social center In a rural [30] THE SOCIAL CENTER 31 community is the home of some person of talent and of public leadership. It is a real fault of our rural schools that a teacher with his family does not live at the school. The best school is the family home; and so the best school for a community or region should be an educational enterprise that is connected with a home. We take the heart out of a school when we take out the living human home element. The European school wherein the master lives and wherefrom he becomes a part of his people, often supplies a feeling and a source of power that our more impersonal schools sadly lack. Under such conditions may develop the school-garden, the handcraft, the local history, and the counsel that is effective because it is not delivered as a canon of education. Our country schools are impersonal not only be- cause there are no homes in them, but also because of the frequent change of teachers. The change in office, which is a part of our popular political heritage, breaks up our schools into fragments of teaching. In Germany, on the contrary, the teacher is an officer of the state service, holds office for life and is not removable except for extraordinary reasons: he becomes a factor in the community. He plays the organ in the church. With a con- 32 RURAL PROBLEMS tinuing mastership and a home establishment, there may arise both skill in meeting the educa- tional needs of the locality and a centralizing social influence. While your plan to centralize activities at your school-house should have hearty approval, I am sure that you will see how difficult it is in most American rural districts to secure in any real sense an abiding social center there. A social center has continuity. It has traditions. We endeavor to provide continuity by systems of state control; but the real continuity comes from within. A teacher of even moderate ability but of long-continuing service will accomplish much more for his people, if he has good qualities of the heart, than any number of highly trained pedagogs who take their baggage into the community and then take it out of it. Your social center plan does not go far enough : you should endeavor to establish a master in your school and to build the school-house as part of a home. VIII THE NEED OF AN OUT-DOOR NATURAL HISTORY Before the Agassiz Club, Cornell University, May, 19 14 WE may consider our subject in two parts, — the first part dealing somewhat with the work of such a club as this, and the second and more important part with the point of view on natural history studies in its general human significance. I wish to compliment the work of the Agassiz Club, because it stands for study and ob- servation actually out of doors, and also for the ■whole range of natural history, including the animals and plants, the surface of the earth, and the inter-relations of living beings. In these days of great specialization, it is very important that certain organizations should keep in mind the oneness of natural history effort. It is essential that we never miss the wholeness of life. This caution is specially necessary in a great university, in which the different subjects are divided into " departments," as if they were real entities In themselves. These " departments," however, are 3 [33] 34 RURAL PROBLEMS more or less arbitrary divisions of organization, and they do not necessarily represent distinct and separate departments of knowledge ; at all events, they do not express the point of view of the lay- man and the general man on the meaning of the natural world. You will understand that I am using the term natural history in its old-fashioned sense, — for a knowledge of the kinds and classification, and habits of life, of the beings and organisms on the planet, as well as all the exact and minute dissec- tions in laboratories. It is important that we do not forget or overlook the systematic work and the collecting: it gives us a broad view, bases for com- parison, and understanding of common phenomena. In this discussion I shall not use the technical names that designate the professional and special- ized studies of organic life. The Significance of Natural-History Training A broad natural history brings one into touch with one's complete surrounding conditions. Therefore, it makes for generous sympathies and also for a broad training in life, at the same time that it demands exact knowledge and painstaking inquiry in some particular subject. It is Interesting NEED OF OUT-DOOR HISTORY 35 to note the increasing contribution that these studies are making to public questions. The naturalist is a person trained to investigation, and to the making of generalizations only on the re- sults of exact studies ; and yet the large field of his environment ought to give him a wide outlook. He is put close against phenomena and situations as they occur, and is trained from the first to reason from cause to effect. This course of reasoning is likely to be very direct, and with the fewest possible intermediate terms. I have thought of Lincoln as having the essential qualities of the natu- ralist. He was a good observer of human qualities and characteristics, and his generalizations seem to have come out of his personal experience. His many apt stories illustrate this. We need the steadying and regulating influence of scientific training in the politics of the day. These political movements are likely to be de- termined too much by currents of indefinite opinion and to be founded too little on fact and investiga- tion. The methods of the naturalist are superior, in themselves, to political and legal methods. We begin to see the general natural-history methods coloring our discussions in health and sanitation, eugenics, medicine, and much other public work. We now have great examples of 36 RURAL PROBLEMS publicists who are naturalists, as Roosevelt, David Starr Jordan, and others. We must begin to solve our human problems on the basis of a good knowl- edge of animals and plants. In many ways, natural history is a better training for public life than engineering or mechanics or the physical sciences, from the fact that it deals with life. A good natural history infiltrates into the con- sciousness of any people, and becomes an important democratizing agency. It considers the life of every individual. It is opposed to aristocratic tendencies and to arbitrary overhead domination. Natural history should be a very real means of education because of the character of intellectual training it provides, and also because it may be- come a powerful resource to persons who in later life are otherwise engaged. A sympathetic con- tact with the world in which one lives provides satisfaction and power to one engaged in business, in the professions and in the different occupations. To know the notes and songs of the common insects, the frogs and birds is one of the greatest resources and should be a part of every liberal education.* To know any phase or quality of the natural environment and to know it well, develops a source of strength and of consolation that is beyond estimation. *The Nature-Study Idea, Rev. Ed. pp. 46-47. NEED OF OUT-DOOR HISTORY 37 A good natural history should help us to over- come our attitude of fear, an attitude in which most of us have lived to some extent. To be sure, we have now passed the time when we think that the changes in the weather are due to the disturbances of imps residing in the atmosphere, but neverthe- less nearly every person has a fear of the weather, or the night, or the storm, or of some other per- fectly natural and understandable quality of the en- vironment. The evolution doctrine will do as much as anything else to work the fear of nature out of us. If it does nothing else, it will put us into relationship with the environment because it ex- plains that we are all units and parts in the great program. The Out-Door Laboratory Coming to a discussion of the more specia.1 or technical work of the naturalist, we must consider the need of a real out-door experience and contact The in-door laboratory should be subordinate to the out-of-doors. It is necessary, of course, to develop the most exact in-door laboratory methods and apparatus, but we should not forget that the out-of-doors is still a laboratory. I have been im- pressed with the use that the students in Cornell University make of their nature background. I 38 RURAL PROBLEMS have seen the same practice groiving in other edu- cational institutions. The students are taught to frequent certain places in the vicinity for the ob- servation of the flora and of particular faunas. In the neighborhood of our great schools, we are to preserve the gulches, many of the forest lands, the shores, and some of the swamps and the plains, not only because they are interesting to the general nature-lover but also because they may be places for the making of serious studies. The numbers of theses and special papers that have been pre- pared in the universities on the geology, physiog- raphy, fauna and flora of particular areas in their regions is an illustration that these areas are prized as adjuncts to a university establishment. In the same way, the farms and gardens attached to this College of Agriculture and other colleges of agriculture are to be considered as real labora- tories, and they are to be as much protected from encroachment as the laboratories in buildings. In fact, less damage may be wrought in the removal of an in-door laboratory than in the removal of a field laboratory, for it often requires a good num- ber of years in which to develop a field laboratory and also to secure the results from work of re- search. Apparatus and equipment may be moved from one building to another with relative ease. NEED OF OUT-DOOR HISTORY 39 but one cannot remove a fertilizer experiment or a rotation experiment or an ecological laboratory without greatly injuring or even destroying the experiment or laboratory itself. All institutions that are teaching natural-history subjects effec- tively, are, of course, emphasizing the importance of out-door work; but of all the institutions that ought to emphasize this method, the colleges of agriculture must be the chief because they are deal- ing with out-door subjects and are also training men and women for living largely in the out-of- doors. We do not yet realize how important this phase of the work is to be. In fifty years from now, we shall have arrived at a way of so using fields and out-door laboratories as to constitute practically a new method of education. Even now we do not recognize the importance or the extent of the contribution that these field laboratories in the colleges of agriculture are making both to edu- cation and to technical literature. Some of the best natural histories we now have are published as textbooks of agriculture. The Naturist It is unfortunate that we have no word in common use that really expresses the train- ing and outlook of the man who studies natu- 40 RURAL PROBLEMS ral history in this broad and sympathetic way. The old word "naturalist" carries too many limitations and too many implications to be definite. It has long been used in such a semi-special sense and has tended to fall so much into disrepute that I would like to use some other word for the man or woman who is both the nature-student and the nature-lover. I suggest that we adopt the old word " naturist," which now has no particular application and, therefore, no history to live down, and that we apply it to this modem natural-history student. The naturist is a person who inquires carefully and who develops a close and accurate knowledge in some particular field. This field may be very narrow, but as he matures he finds himself inter- ested in the general phenomena in nature. He tries to understand the laws, to attain a broad view, and to apply them for the guidance of his own life. He is first of all in sympathy with his natural en- vironment; and, therefore, he saves himself half the energy of life. A person with this training and these sympathies will be much needed not only for the furtherance of his own special subject but as a participant in public life. IX THE PRESERVATION OF BIRDS: WHAT IT MEANS Before Cayuga Bird Club, Ithaca, Nov. 5, 19 13 (Abstract) THIS is a large and representative gathering. You have come for the purpose of con- sidering the means to be taken to preserve the bird life in this region. All our people are in- terested in the preservation of birds if they are interested in public questions at all ; and this large body of persons is an illustration of this fact. Al- though you may all be interested in the preserva- tion of birds, you may not have analyzed for your- selves all the reasons. Inasmuch as I happen to have been asked to address you, I shall make it the occasion to state some of the reasons that lie in my own mind. I shall begin with those that are evi- dent, but which, nevertheless, are insufficient, in my estimation, fully to account for such an intelli- gent interest as is expressed here to-night; and I shall then try to state what I think to be an under- lying explanation. [41] 42 RURAL PROBLEMS I Perhaps most of us would say at first thought that we are interested in the preservation of birds because they are beautiful objects. A bird is the perfection of grace and of form. The colors are varied and marvelously disposed. The songs are wonderful ; if these songs were not so common, we should consider them to be among the great mar- vels of the creation. Birds show astonishing adaptations to their conditions. They inhabit the air, which we think of as invisible; they are per- fectly at home in this transparent medium. Their habits are all interesting, as the fabrication of the nest, the instinct or habit that impels each species to build characteristically. There is the wonder of the eggs, their interesting forms and colors and how they came to be as they are; the mystery of incubation ; the mothering and the fathering habits. We are interested in the fledglings and the flight, — specially in the flight, when the untried young set off into the air and partake unhinderlngly of freedom in an element that man cannot traverse ; or if latterly he has come to traverse it, he does it dangerously and crudely. We are interested in the mystery of migration. There is marvelous variety in the ways in which the forms of life have adapted themselves to the long process of the re- PRESERVATION OF BIRDS 43 frigeration of the earth. The trees drop their functioning parts and tuck up their tender tips in compact buds ; quadrupeds hibernate ; some animals have adapted themselves to live and to thrive di- rectly in the open in the teeth of winter; but the birds for the most part come and go with the seasons. The atmosphere has been theirs, and the atmosphere knows no bounds on the surface of the earth. From the arctic to the tropics these birds go, superior to winter and spring and summer and autumn, masters of the changes of the year. I have seen them in the winter in the pinelands of Florida ; I have seen them with the palms and the hibiscus in the tropics ; and I wondered whether they might be the very birds that have nested by my eaves in summer. I have seen the puffins by tens of thou- sands in the Orkneys and Shetlands, and suddenly they disappear and no one knows where they go. The migratory birds of North America are some- times taken in Europe. England knows a number of them. Up and down the earth they go, from Africa to Europe and Asia, and from tropical America to Labrador. All this boundless flight excites our wonder and challenges our admiration. It is one of the great phenomena of the world. And yet I think that not all these things really account for the interest that we express to-night in the preservation of the birds. 44 RURAL PROBLEMS II Just now many of us are coming to the rescue of the birds. We are placing ourselves at the relief of all dumb creatures. Humane societies are being organized. We are trying to protect the creatures from man. This is a marvelous attitude. We are standing against the wantonness, the thoughtless- ness, and even the sheer brutality of our own race. Surprising is the lack of feeling of responsibility in the boy with the gun. He will shoot the country clean of every squirrel and every bird, even though he has no desire for either a squirrel or a bird. He may be tender in his sympathies with every one of his fellows, and yet kill everything that comes within the range of his gun that is not the property of some person or is not protected by law or regulation. I suppose that all of us have some- thing of the hunter in us. It is the expression of an old desire and of a primitive relation to the world. I am sure that there is something in it to be commended and to be encouraged. I am also sure, however, that there is something In it to be reprehended. The mere fact of slaughter does not appeal to me so much as the unfairness in com- bat and the lack of something better to do. In fact, there is no combat; there is no relation be- tween equals. You will see the hunter with a long- PRESERVATION OF BIRDS 45 range rifle lying prone behind a log, or in the spring-time establishing himself behind a cone of ice on the shore of the lake, and then without any risk to himself and without being discovered and without warning, or without giving quarter or any chance for escape, he will slay any winged or footed creature that comes within the range of his bullet. Often the killing is for the sake of the killing, or merely to prove skill in markmanship. Surely man is the king of beasts.* The thoughtlessness of the weapon-carrier is really more dangerous in many ways than some of the forms of brutality. It is more difficult to reach. It is not repulsive. It has the outward air of re- spectability. In these times when we are accumu- lating so much of the goods of life and when we have become self-centered in our enjoyment of them, we are likely not to consider the sources from which we derive our fancies and our toys, or the hardships that may be entailed in all the proc- esses of securing them. I think that thoughtless- ness largely accounts for the use of so much plumage in dress. Man is the only animal that masks himself in the habiliments of other animals. I object to plumage in its common gross uses be- cause the employment of it is not adapted to its ♦The Nature^Study Idea, Rev. Ed., p. 141. 46 RURAL PROBLEMS ends. It meets no necessity; it adds nothing in effectiveness or in beauty; it is out of place; and when objects are out of place, they have small value and significance. The use of plumage in dress may be adornment, but it is not art. And yet all this hopeful interest in the lessen- ing of pain in the individuals of the animal crea- tion does not account for our presence here to- night. There is much sentimental foolishness in this prevention of cruelty of animals. Man has dominion ; he was given it in the beginning ; he has the right to modify the balance in nature; he has the right to take life In the lesser creation, if he has the right to live at all ; in fact, the taking of life is the very condition of his own existence. It all de- pends on the way In which he exercises his right; he expresses himself by the means that he employs and by the extent to which he goes. Undoubtedly man had a right to kill the bisons, but he exposed his poor judgment and he also expressed to the world the shallowness of his own resources. It showed that satisfactions in life were of a low order. Man has a right to take the life of the animals and plants, but in his own Interest, as well as In their interest, he should not take It wantonly. We now are enacting laws to make man humane. If PRESERVATION OF BIRDS 47 it is man's right to kill the potato-bug, it is his equal right to lessen the English sparrow. Persons object to destroying the sparrows because they are beautiful creatures; but I do not know that an English sparrow is any handsomer than a potato- bug, and I am sure that the potato-bug is as proud of himself, and has a right to be as proud of himself, as has the English sparrow or any other bird. It is all a question of maintaining such a balance of nature as will be best for man and for the general welfare of all concerned. And if we have a right to control the English sparrow, we equally have a right to control the cats. I like cats as well as I like birds; but in the interest of birds and also in the interest of neighborliness I would like to have the cats controlled. For many years as a boy I rode horseback in the grazing season to bring up the cattle. They ran in the highways and the woods. Finally the sentiment of the com- munity demanded that cattle should not run in the highways; some of us were shocked. We now keep the pigs out of the highways and town squares, and also the horses; and we have agreed that a man has no right to keep his goat in his neighbor's yard. We have even come to the point of feeling that a dog should be kept at home or with his master. We shall have the same attitude in regard 48 RURAL PROBLEMS to the cat. If a person cannot keep his goat or chickens at home, then in the interests of neighbor- liness and good fellowship he should not have them. A cat on another person's property should be regarded as a trespasser, as much as a dog or a rooster. If there are vermin to be kept in sub- jection, there are other ways to accomplish it than by utilizing roaming and irresponsible cats. If a man loves his cat, he will keep it home. Ill And now, why are we here ? Of course I do not know. But at aU events we are a part of the world; we are partakers in the plan; we are elements in the creation. All this is undisputed, but we may not have thought of it. Our actions are directed very largely by our unconscious and unexpressed convictions. Man needs to keep his relation with his back- grounds. He needs to cultivate his fellowship with the earth. We are living in a distinct reaction from formal and over-organized situations as ex- pressed in our cities and in corporate affairs, and we are trying to get ourselves back in some way to the essentials. Many of us desire to get back to the unsophisticated, and the undisguised, and the uncontrolled. We desire to have contact. PRESERVATION OF BIRDS 49 The conservation movement is a moral move- ment. In its best expression, it is a movement of sentiment. We are beginning to recognize our dependence on the surface of the earth and its products, and we are also beginning to desire to express this dependence. We are desiring to be thoughtful where heretofore we have been, waste- ful.. We are taking account of stock> The con- servation movement has made its appeal very largely on the economic side, but the sentiment that lies in it is in the end more important than tons of coal, or mines of iron, or carloads of crops, or millions of feet of timber. I think that we are really developing a quickened attitude of respect and responsibility to the nature background. We are interested to preserve plants, to protect fish, to stay the destruction of scenery, to desire the forests and the birds, and to keep the silences. I think that the underlying reason why we are interested in the preservation of birds, whether we know the reason or not, is that birds constitute one very apparent factor in the developing of our attitude toward the creation. X A STATE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY Plant Industry Seminary, Cornell University, April, 1 9 13 {Summary) A COMPLETE survey of a state or other area comprises the taking account of all the natural resources and factors that make up the territory. It comprises the human factors and the native or aboriginal constituents. We need the fact and knowledge to give us a true picture of the State and to enable us to found our actions rationally. A comprehensive State survey comprises a stock- taking in agricultural objects and wealth, the streams, the mines, the coast lines, the weather conditions, and all the rest. One part of it should be a thorough note-taking on all the forms of life, that we may procure a complete inventory of them and have the knowledge classified and accessible. We should know the living things as well as the dead things, and all the wild things as well as the tame and domesticated things. We cannot under- stand our background and natural conditions un- less we understand the forms of life that exist in the territory. The survey-idea for country life [30] A STATE BIOLOGICAL SURVEY 51 contemplates a study of the natural history as well as of the agriculture.* We have taken up many pieces of this survey work, but we have not yet made any comprehen- sive plan nor have we organized the efforts and tied them together. We should have something like a State enterprise that will proceed with volume and some degree of regularity, while allowing every person who cooperates in it to hold his utmost independence and separateness. I wish that some responsible authority or per- son would call together all the agencies, or their representatives, in the Empire State that are inter- ested broadly in the species of animals and plants, to the end that such a meeting or convention might lay out a plan of action whereby all the animals and plants, from highest to lowest, shall be made known, well catalogued and specimens preserved, and to be sure that no important groups are omitted. We have many good lists of special groups and for special localities, but there is no coordination of all this effort into an undertaking that covers the entire field or represents the prob- lem as a whole. It is surprising how many naturalists there are in the State. I have before me a list of 237 per- sons in New York State who have collections of * York State Rural Problems, I, p. 258. S3 RURAL PROBLEMS insects. There must be numbers of collections of birds and mammals, plants, and other groups, col- lections perhaps that are practically unknown but which might constitute an important contribution to a natural history inventory. A survey would, interest the great army of amateurs, and give their work plan and meaning and make it of use to the. State and to science. I would have something more than a formal official or governmental survey. My suggestion, then, is that all the, persons and agencies in New York interested in the species of plants and of animals and who are able to do any field work shall be united in some kind of an understanding, or at least in knowledge of each other, so that the work may be brought together and perhaps directed. There is much scattered publication that should be incorporated into a plan for a natural history survey. The elements that should cooperate in such a survey are the State departments that deal with biological material, all the educational institutions, various societies and organizations and institutes, and all the separate amateur collectors scattered far and wide, I have had some correspondence looking to this end but I do not know that it is yet very hopeful, although everyone appreciates the necessity of such a coming together. My only purpose to-day is to. make the suggestion, hoping that it may take root with: you. XI WHAT IS EXTENSION WORK? Thirteenth Annual Banquet of the students of the New York State College of Agriculture, Cornell University, March 26, 19 13 GOVERNOR SULZER'S Committee of In^ quiry has recommended that the extension work in agriculture be made a unified State program ; and it is well to enquire what extension work is. I shall therefore outline my understand- ing of It, quoting somewhat from former addresses. Extension work is not exhortation, — we are long past that point. Nor is it exploitation of the people, or advertising of an institution, or publicity work for securing students. It is a plain, earnest and continuous effort to meet the needs of the people on their own farms and in the localities. We should deprecate the popular tendency to ex- tend to the .farmer enterprises that the farmer does not want and does not need. The farmer is undoubtedly being exploited by concerns and agencies. There will be a reaction from all ficti- tious work, and we shall soon hear the farmers asking to be let alone. [S3) 54 RURAL PROBLEMS Rural conditions need to be improved not be- cause they are worse than other conditions, but be- cause all human situations are capable of better- ment. We should deplore the application to country life of terms that are employed in the slum work and the rescue work of cities. While there undoubtedly are certain rural communities in which there is decadence, these are clearly exceptions and need special treatment. We are not sending mis- sionaries to the country districts. The needful rural work is not an " uplift," and the use of this and similar attitudes in the country-life discussions is unfortunate. A large part of the program is merely to extend the educational work to the people, let them see it and understand it and then take such action as they may think to be wise. We should be very careful not to project on the rural folk a set of organizations and movements that are devised by persons from the outside, not even from persons who are managing the colleges of agri- culture. Even though the movements arise some- what slowly, nevertheless they will in the end ac- complish the best results if they come up out of the rural population itself; and it is surprising how soon suggestions will take root and begin to assume form in the discussions of the country people. WHAT IS EXTENSION WORK? 55 The Definition Extension work in agriculture comprises all edu- cational efforts at the homes and on the lands of the farming people, and also such particular work at the institution itself as centers directly in inter- ests away from the institution and is maintained exclusively as a part of the outside program. It extends an institution beyond itself to work with the people out where the people are. Extension work is welfare work of an educational kind, and is properly a necessary part of an institution that is maintained by the people for the service of the people. Extension work in agriculture should aid the people in the solving of their own problems of farming and also the social, economic, and educa- tional problems of farming communities. To this end, it is necessary that trained men and women be available in many different lines of agricultural work. Persons must be specially trained for this work, as well trained as for regular teaching or for research or administration. The Motive The temptation is to use extension work as a means of publicity of the institution. This will fail in the end, and it will react unfavorably on the S6 RURAL PROBLEMS institution itself. The whole motive must be sincerely to help the people, not to push or adver- tise the institution, nor to make publicity for any person. If the colleges of agriculture, and other rural institutions and agencies, ever come to be dom- inated by the desire to aggrandize themselves, or to exploit the people for the sake of appropria- tions, they will fail of their purpose and be re- pudiated by the people. Only so long as they have the spirit of service and of substantial disinterested work will they have reason permanently to exist. The Nature of the Work It is proper that every public institution doing good work at home should extend itself to the people, but it is well to bear in mind that it should not begin the process until it has something to ex- tend. Extension efforts should be the result of work rather than the beginning of work. One is likely to make the mistake of beginning the extension work first, whereas the extension work should grow gradually as the institution grows and be the natural expression to the people of the work that arises in the institution itself. The people should not be too anxious to have WHAT IS EXTENSION WORK? 57 -extension work issue from any prarticular depart- ment of the institution. The extension should come rn tiie process of time, as the work ripens ; and tinder such conditions it will be substantial when it comes and will produce real results. What any locality gets in extension work should depend directly on what it wants and ^hat it puts into the effort. The rapidly growing farm-bureau work is an illustration of the fact that farmers are now taking the initiative in efforts in the localities, often supplying even a good part of the funds. At this day, extension should meet demands rather than to make demands. Extension enterprises are of many kinds, — of any kind whereby a department or institution or organization may reach out and apply itself to its constituency. Some of the extension methods In agriculture are itinerant lectures, institutes, exten- sion schools, reading-courses, travelrng-libraries, publication, farm trains, tests on farms and in gar- dens, follow-up work of many kinds, demonstra- tion farms, farm bureaus or agencies, organized correspondence. Actual demonstration, and work directly with persons on their special problems, and enterprises related intimately to the community life, are in the end the best form of extension enter- prise. Eventually, there must be sustained teach- ing in the localities. S8 RURAL PROBLEMS The widespread extension effort is one of the most hopeful applications of the time. It may also be one of the most inefficient, depending on how it is done and particularly on the motive that propels it. We have now passed the early experimental stages. To be most useful, extension work must be well organized, — as well organized as any work at the institution itself. While extension work should be organized, the organization should not be of the dictator kind. The spirit of free personality in the undertaking is absolutely essential. All domineering and insti- tutional selfishness must be eliminated. The au- tocratic type of organization cannot do effective ex- tension work. Everything depends In the end on the spirit of the place from which the effort emanates. Let the Demand Grow Up in the Com- munities The many educational agencies are now fairly established, and the country people in general are aware of the aids that they may secure ; and they are also aware for the most part of the deficiencies. There are some regions and places, of course, Into which extension enterprises must be carried bodily and as a gift; but these are now relatively few. WHAT IS EXTENSION WORK? 59 It Is best to let the desires originate In the people themselves even if It is not as rapid as some of us would wish, and to be cautious of the plans of those who sit in offices. Speaking for the New York State College of Agriculture, it was formerly our practice to pay all the traveling expenses of members of the staff in the several lines of extension work. Demands for assistance from the College grew very rapidly. During this time we had an opportunity to study the situation. Two facts became outstanding: 1st, that our appropriations would always be in- adequate to meet the needs of the state; 2d, that we were sending assistance to many communities that were able to pay something toward these ex- penses themselves. We found that many com- munities took a deeper interest In a particular piece of extension work when there was contribu- tion on the part of the community toward the ex- penses: the people naturally felt as if they were partakers rather than onlookers. As a result of these observations, we have finally arrived at the policy, excepting some special reason to the contrary, of withholding until each commu- nity, society or Individual Is ready to meet the traveling expenses dollar for dollar. There Is no charge In such cases for salary or per diem. 6o RURAL PROBLEMS The pollq^ has proceeded successfully with the extension schools, in which the tuition fee of $1.50 each student meets practically one-half the travel- ing expenses of the teachers. Single lectures and exercises, lectures in series, cooperative experi- ments, and the like, are usually conducted on this basis. This policy automatically relieves the college of those requests that do not represent the solid back- ing and serious thought of the community in ques- tion. It also stimulates those who actually con- tribute to make the necessary arrangements in proper form so that each contributor may receive at least the fuU value of his contribution. Of course, when the society, community or in- dividual cannot really afford to pay half the travel- ing expenses, we judge the situation on its own merits and often pay all of the expenses until such time as the community may get itself on a working basis. We always reserve the right to aid back- ward or disadvantaged localities, and to meet special cases. Now and then there is a feeling that the com- munity is entitled to this service without direct ex- pense because the individuals have paid for it in their taxes. This feeling is not marked, however, and is easily met by pointing out the very small WHAT IS EXTENSION WORK? 6i amount of extension service that could ever come to any given rural community merely in return for the taxes paid. The community cannot expect any very special aid on the basis of taxation alone; taxation supports the institution and maintains the staff and the facilities: the institution is here, for such use as the people desire to make of it in an extension way. In General We have arrived at standardized methods of college teaching, in the sciences, professions and arts. We are beginning to standardize our regular college instruction in agriculture, as experience accumulates. We shall also arrive at standard methods of ex- tension work. We appear to be now in an epoch of exploitation, and the putting over of enter- prises. I am afraid of many of the variegated schemes. The safety in the situation lies in the fact that the farmer is more concerned in his plowing than in anybody's pet scheme. Assuredly we need attention to government in rural communities, better economic opportunities, better social privileges, better institutions and or- ganizations, and all that ; but our problem here is to let the educational processes work themselves out. XII HOW SHALL WE MEET THE DEMANDS IN THE LOCALITIES FOR INSTRUC- TION IN AGRICULTURE? Before School for Leadership in Country Life, Ithaca, July i, 1913; and elsewhere. THERE is a widespread and growing demand in North America for agricultural instruc- tion to be given in the localities. Many ways have been suggested of meeting this demand and of working out some kind of an educational plan, but no single or standardized program has yet been adopted the country over. It is to be questioned whether all the demand from the localities is really founded on necessity and whether in fact it is always legitimate. The general agricultural movement is now under great headway and the localities are becoming interested to utilize it. Many persons who may not have im- mediate touch with the situation but who desire honestly to be useful, are likely to make plans that are not very close to the problem. Perhaps some localities see a means of securing a local establish- ment or a local institution by taking advantage of the agricultural movement. It is easy to justify HOW SHALL WE MEET THE DEMANDS? 63 these local requests by citing the decadent condition of the agriculture of the region, or by describing the very forward condition of it, as the case may be. It is natural for any locality to desire some public enterprise or institution in its midst. The rural communities have not had the advantage of many such enterprises; and whenever one com- munity is recognized. It is natural that other com- munities should contend that they have equal rights to recognition. There is no way whereby this situation can really be met except by having a plan or outline that covers a state. Even though the plan be not perfect, it nevertheless is better to follow it than to allow the institutions and agencies to grow piece by piece as a result of local request or " pull," and without reference to a well understood policy. If these local enterprises are maintained by public money, it must be remembered that they are state enterprises even though their sphere of activity Is bound by a definite locality; and if they are state enterprises, then they ought to be part of a state program. The states are much in need of plans that will allow the legitimate needs of the different localities to be met effectively, and yet without unnecessary expenditure of funds and great waste of effort. 64 RURAL PROBLEMS The Four Ways For New York, I will mention four particular ways in which these needs may be met more or less completely. In this discussion, I naturally omit the many existing agencies of a more or less ex- tension character, as the regular extension work of the State College of Agriculture, the widespread activities of the State Department of Agriculture in its inspection and farmers' institutes and other- wise, the outside work of the State Experiment Station and other institutions. We assume that all these will be continued. (i) It is evident that the first way of meeting the demands of the localities for instruction in agriculture is by opening the public schools to the work and equipping them for it. Fortunately, this procedure is already under way and distinct pro- gress is being made. As experience accumulates, a still more liberal policy will need to be adopted toward this and similar work in the public schools. Instruction by means of agriculture is rightly en- titled to consideration in the public schools along with other subjects of great importance and of singular human interest. (2) The needs of localities may be met in part by means of demonstration farms, farm bureauSj HOW SHALL WE MEET THE DEMANDS? 65 and various kinds of co-operative enterprises and movements, and other means that arise to a large extent out of the localities. These may not be formally educational, but they may nevertheless be of very great value in spreading information in the localities and in discovering and assembling knowl- edge that will aid the farming people to solve their problems, and also in bringing out local talent. ( 3 ) Separate or special schools for agriculture may be established. New York has now estab- lished six of these, three of which are in one general geographical region of the east-central part of the State, one is in the northern part of the State, one is on Long Island, and one is in the southwestern part. If the same geographical ratio is to obtain for the whole State as is now established for the east-central section, it will be necessary more than to triple or quadruple the present undertaking in these schools. These schools should be for regions rather than for localities. Lest I be misunderstood, let me say that I am committed to the idea of separate schools. I think, however, that they ^ould be limited in number, properly placed, and founded definitely on a state plan. They should be well equipped and, well supported. I have been pleased with the work of the schools already in operation in New 66 RURAL PROBLEMS York State. A great extension in the number of these schools would be unfortunate. It would be a pity to duplicate a public school system. It would be unwise and unnecessary policy to do so. It is probable that the State will never establish so many separate or special schools for agriculture as will serve the needs of every com- munity. It is probable also that the public schools will never fill all the needs of the different farming communities, because these needs are not only the education of the young but also the meeting of the problems of mature farmers. There must be other kinds of enterprises to supplement the public schools, the few special schools of agriculture that may be needed for regions, and the various kinds of local agents and farm bureaus that may be estab- lished. We need something in the localities be- sides founded institutions. Such institutions are not flexible and movable, and they demand a very large outlay in property and equipment in propor- tion to the needs of special localities and the local results that they can accomplish. I am afraid that there is a tendency in some parts of the country to establish too large farms in connection with high-schools and other public schools. It is only seldom that a school which is a part of the general state system should have much HOW SHALL WE MEET THE DEMANDS? 67 land for actual farming. I think that every rural school should have one or two acres of land that may be developed as an inexpensive park or planta- tion on which may be placed the trees, shrubs and other features of the region, and on which school- gardens and other laboratory equipments may be placed; but for the teaching of agriculture, the idea ought to be established that the schools in general are to make greater use of the actual farms of the neighborhood rather than to develop large and ex- pensive and burdensome farms of their own. Of course, I am not now speaking of the farms that are established In connection with the few special or separate schools of agriculture. (4) We may now consider what other type of enterprise may be called into existence to meet the important and pressing needs of the different rural communities. I am convinced that it should be in the nature of an extension enterprise. I think that the state should provide a means of holding regular winter-schools In many different localities, the schools to be perhaps one month to three months in duration. Such winter-schools would not require any very elaborate establishment, the lock- ing up of a great amount of funds in property and equipment, and they would be amenable enough to 68 RURAL PROBLEMS adapt themselves readily to the different communi- ties and to the changes that take place therein. The State already has a number of agencies en- gaged more or less in extension work, I have long felt and many times urged that the State should now define a regular extension ■policy in agriculture and country life, comprising the extension features of the difEerent agricultural agencies it already has established. This would amount in effect to the organizing of the extension work in which the State is now engaged, bringing it all together as an agency for the public good, and managing it by means of an advisory board, which would also have power, representing every institution that is con- cerned in the work. I am convinced that a plan of co-action can be devised that will expend the ener- gies of the State more effectively than it is possible to expend them under the present unrelated meth- ods, and enable the State to make the most of its investments. I have not desired a strongly central- ized administration, but a union of forces, on a plan of co-action determined by the legislature, even at the risk, of a possible lower executive efficiency. The holding of short movable schools In local- ities is not a new enterprise. It has been tried HOW SHALL WE MEET THE EffiMANDS? 69 with success in many places for many years. The methods need now to be systematized and the schools to be much extended. Undoubtedly the State could accomplish more for many localities by some such means as this than by the establishing of any number of separate institutions or enterprises. It would not be difficult in some localities to relate such regular winter-courses to the existing school work of the place. In some places a hall could be put into condition cheaply to meet the needs of suchTvinter-Eourses. The courses should represent a genuine community enterprise, bringing, in the ex- perience of the best farmers to supplement the in- struction of ^ood professional teachers. TTi^y should be so organized as to touch the affairs'of the localities directly and to meet the acutal problems that the farmers of the particular community are facing. Naturally every such school would leave a line of problems to be investigated or demonstrated on the farms in the locality. Such winter-courses could be held year after year in a community, if necessary, and become a part of the enterprise of the locality without the expense and difficulty of founding an institution. The probability is that, by interesting the old people as well as the young people, such courses could really accomplish more 70 RURAL PROBLEMS than almost any other kind of undertaking; and the community would not be commiting itself irre- vocably to one type of effort, or running the risk of having its work tied up in an institution that might become crystallized and unresponsive to sug- gestions. The main thing is to have a program. In New York we have no program. Of course, the sugges- tions that I make would allow each institution or agency the opportunity to continue to do its own kind of work. As a citizen desiring to see the greatest good accomplished in the different locali- ties with the least expenditure of money, I am making these suggestions ; and I am convinced that in this way a given appropriation can be made to reach more people and more localities with real effectiveness (aside from the public school system) than by any other means or agency. XIII BOYS' AND GIRLS' CONTEST CLUBS Forest City Grange, Ithaca, N. Y., November 21, 1914 AMONG the many enterprises that are at present undertaken for the betterment of country life and agriculture, boys' and girls' dubs are holding much public attention. These clubs are in the nature of organized con- tests, with emoluments, prizes or public recogni- tion standing as rewards. Contests may lie in the growing of prize crops, in the feeding of animals, in the making of gardens, in the organizing of prize-winning canning-clubs, bread-clubs and others. The organization of these clubs in recent years has undoubtedly constituted a distinct con- tribution toward the stimulation of interest in rural affairs and the development of pride and incentive on the part of many of the country people. The Danger in Club Work I have watched their growth with much interest and have had something to do in giving them encouragement and facilities. However, there are certain perils in this kind of effort, and this evening I desire to offer some suggestions of warning, [71 1 72 RURAL PROBLEMS while at the same time reaffirming my approval of the general idea of organizing boys and girls for mutual emulation and improvement. We are now coming to a new era in our agricultural work, consequent on the passage by Congress of the great extension bill and the beginning of the organ- ization of many kinds of rural betterment enter- prises on a national basis. It is time, therefore, that we challenge all our old practices and make plans in a new way. I see considerable dangers in the boys' and girls' club work, as some of it is undertaken at the pres- ent time or into which it may drift In the future. Perhaps there are other dangers, but four will be sufficient for discussion at the moment. ( I ) These clubs or contests may not represent real effort on the part of the child. Work that Is credited to the child may be done by father, mother, brother, sister or by associates. Probably in many cases the child's responsibility is only nom- inal. The boy or girl may receive credit for accom- plishments that are not his or hers and that there- fore are not real ; and if they are not genuine, then, of course, they are dishonest. They start the child on a wrong basis and on false pretenses. All such work should be under careful and continuous control. BOYS' AND GIRLS' CONTEST CLUBS 73 (2) The rewards may be out of all proportion to the effort expended. The prize should have relation to the value of the effort or the earning- power of the work, or it is likely to be damaging to the child and to arouse opposition in his com- munity or among his associates. Rewards in agri- culture have not come easily, and this has been one of the merits of the occupation in the training of the race, and it is one of the reasons why agri- culture is a strong and important national asset. When we make the rewards too easy, we not only cheapen the effort, but we lose the training value of the work. We must be careful that we do not let the rewards in agriculture come more cheaply or more easily than in other occupations. The person must work for what he gets and really earn it, or else the occupation will lose in dignity and standing with the people. Agriculture should not accept gratuities. Some time ago a young woman came to my office to secure a subscription, saying that if she accom- plished a certain number of hundred, she would win a scholarship. She was willing to expend "weeks of very hard work, to go to much incon- venience for the purpose of earning the scholar- ship. About the same tim«, certain young boys were brought to my office as one stage in a trip 74 RURAL PROBLEMS that was given them for relatively unimportant effort in an agricultural contest. I could not help feeling that the rewards of exertion were unjustly distributed. The travel-prizes are specially likely to be out of keeping with the original effort expended by the child. We should take every pains to let the children feel that the rewards in life come only with the expenditure of adequate effort. (3) The effect of these contests may be to in- flate the child and to give him undue and untruth- ful estimate of his own importance. A shrewd observer of a boy's prize excursion remarked that every boy after he got home should be punished; but another observer suggested that the boys in the neighborhood would probably prevent him from getting the bigh^ad. I do not indorse these remarks, but it illustrates the dangers that are likely to accrue unconsciously to the child. It is a doubtful undertaking to single out certain children in a community for unusual recognition or reward. (4) The children are liable to be exploited, and this is one of the most apparent dangers in the whole situation. They are likely to be used in the making of political or other public reputation, or in accomplishing advertising and propaganda for institutions, organizations, publications, com- BOYS' AND GIRLS' CONTEST CLUBS 75 mercial concerns, and other enterprises, or to ex- ploit the resources of the state or the agriculture of a region. Children should never be made the means of floating anybody's enterprise. Every part of the " boom " and " boost " ele- ment must be taken out of this work, and all efforts to make a display or a demonstration. Substantial enterprises may stand on their own feet, and the work with children may stand on its own feet and not be tied up to undertakings to which it does not belong. The Safeguards Recognizing the dangers that may come from the organization of boys' and girls' clubs, how can we so safeguard them in the new time that these dangers will be eliminated or at least reduced to the minimum ? I think that we can safeguard them if only we recognize the essential nature and func- tion of such contests. The fundamental consideration is that all this kind of work is educational. It is not primarily agricultural work, not undertaken directly to im- prove the farming of a region. The primary con- sideration is its effect on the child. If we cannot accept these propositions, then I should be in favor of giving up the boys' and girls' contests. 76 RURAL PROBLEMS It Is legitimate to use domestic animals and crops for the primary purpose of improving and adver- tising the agriculture of a region ; but we must not use children this way. Animals and crops are agri- cultural products; children are not agricultural products. If these positions are granted, we shall agree that this contest work between children must be put more and more into the hands of those who are trained in education and who carry the respon- sibility before the public for educational effort. I think that this kind of work should be a part of the public school system. On their own account, schools must take up this and similar work if they are to secure the best results for themselves and to cover their own fields. The organizing of laboratory work at home under the direction of the teacher is one of the most important means of tying the schools and the homes together and making the school a real part and parcel of the community. When this time shall come, the work with crops and domestic animals and home practices will be a regular part of the school day, incorporated inseverably with the program of education. We must hope for the time when there shall he no necessity for the separate organization of such BOYS* AND GIRLS' CONTEST CLUBS 77 clubs, the school having reached and stimulated the situation on every farm and in every home. It is sometimes said that the agricultural agents organize the contest work better than the teachers. Perhaps ; but the work is essentially school work, nevertheless, and we should now be looking for results in the long future. We now have many agencies that may contribute to the betterment of rural affairs and conditions. We should encourage each of these agencies to do its best in its own field. Political organizations or agencies naturally take care of the ordinary politi- cal work; the highway organizations or agencies take care of the highway work; the public health agencies cover the sanitary inspection; the com- mercial agencies take care of the general business; the religious agencies naturally work in the re- ligious field; the farm-bureau agencies cover the agricultural field; the educational agencies should cover the educational field. Each of these agencies should be ready and willing to work with all the other agencies, but each one should recognize that each of the others has its own function and should have the same privilege in its field, that a given agency demands for itself. I do not like the present tendency of many agri- cultural enterprises or groups to assume the sole 78 RURAL PROBLEMS leadership in the club and contest work for the young in the open country. While I would not like to tie the hands of the recognized agricultural representative (whatever he may represent) In such a way that he could not undertake useful pieces of work even in rather unusual or outlying fields when the necessity seems to require it, the same as I would not want to tie hard and fast the hands of any other person, nevertheless I think the philosophy of the situation is that this educa- tional work is the proper function of the regular educational establishment that is founded by the people and that is supposed to provide the training for it. So far as the technical agricultural officer or agent is able to help these agencies by means of suggestions, cooperation and contribution, it will, of course, be his privilege and his. happiness to do so. The training of the young is the particular responsibility of the educational organization, out- side the home, and in general I think that this organization should be given a free opportunity to handle it, and the responsibility should be placed upon it. Supervisors and superintendents of schools and teachers will need the demonstration-practice and the subject-matter that the agricultural agent can give them ; they will increasingly call on this agent; BOYS' AND GIRLS' CONTEST CLUBS 79 and herein will be another effective means of tying all rural work together on a basis of cooperation and co-action. Speaking broadly, I am glad of what has been done by any and all of the special agricultural and other agencies in organizing the boys and girls. So far so good; but I am now looking forward rather than backward. As I said at the beginning, we are coming to a new time. We must now step away from all more or less exploitive, temporary, discontinuous and occasional work in the organiz- ing of the boys and girls in their contests, while recognizing that it has been undertaken with the best of motives and has been carried with much self-devotion and success, and we must concede the work to be educational and begin to place it directly on an educational basis. If it is said that the schools will not take up the work, then I am willing to wait. My predic- tion is that the schools will very soon undertake it. They are now taking it up in many places. The opportunity, and I think the obligation, is theirs. Enough new movements are now starting in the open country to occupy our time and to con- vince us that we are making progress. These new movements are good and will have far-reaching effect; we should now understand that we have time to be patient. XIV THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT Before the Erie County Farm Bureau Association at Buffalo, N. Y., March ij, 19 14 THERE is much discussion as to the advisa- bility of farm-bureau agents and the char- acter of the work that they shall under- take. Some persons are very positive of the neces- sity of farm bureaus ; and others feel that there is much danger in them and that great caution should be exercised or even that the movement should be discouraged. This differing attitude is due in part to the want of a clear analysis of the situation, and in part to lack of good definitions of the work, itself. Let me say at the outset, that I am in full sym- pathy with the placing of agents in localities. I have urged it for many years as a means of devel- oping the neighborhoods and communities. Some years ago I expressed the conviction that such an agent or local leader " should be to the agricultural interests what the teacher is to educational interests and the pastor is to religious interests."* I have * In an address, wfaicb was printed in pamphlet: form, on the occasion of Parmers* Week at the New York State College of Agriculture, February 26, 1909; also " The Training of Farmers," pp. 257-8, 1909. [80] THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 8i not been convinced that all the tendencies have been sound, and I have had some fear that we might be in danger of going too fast. I have already pub- licly expressed what I think are some of the perils.* All new movements are, of course, unstandardized and more or less diffuse. It is to be expected that, there will be misdirections and possibly positive mistakes. These all correct themselves in the course of time if the underlying, conception itself is sound and if the work is administered by those who understand the nature of the situation and who are able, honest and disinterested. While I have had my doubts about particular parts of the work in New York State, nevertheless I am much pleased with its general tendency; and I am looking for results of unusual value to come from the move- ment. I wish to congratulate those who are actively engaged in it for the service they are rendering, not only to their localities but to the general improvement of the rural background. Reasons for the Farm Bureaus The reason for the introduction of agents into the localities lies in the nature of the situation it- self. For many years we have been reorganizing our ideas as to the agricultural and rural basis of * York state Rural Problems, 1, 132-146. 82 RURAL PROBLEMS our civilization. We have devised institutions and agencies of research and of instruction. We are constantly discovering, preaching, teaching, direct- ing. All this body of new fact and all the interest- ing and stimulating ideas must be applied ; and the application must be made directly in the localities to the persons who live on the farms. This means that there must be some system of agencies, some avenues of communication, from those who discover and teach directly to those who are to assimilate and apply. One of the means of reaching the people at home is the bulletin. This will reach a certain number, but it is not a sufficient agency to activate an entire average community. Another means is the traveling speaker and lec- turer sent out by farmers' institutes, extension de- partments and other groups or organizations. These may carry farther than the bulletins, but they are not sufficiently continuous and persistent to meet the entire situation. Various voluntary organizations are also effective agencies in the ap- plication of the ideas to the folk, but these are not universal; they are also more or less inelastic and they require that persons shall be organized before they may be helped. The most effective herald of the new country life is a person, a man or a woman, who resides in the community and is a THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 83 part of it, and whose business it is to apply and to lead. This person cannot solve all the problems or meet all the perplexities, and he will not displace the other agencies or interfere with them; but he will desire to aid and extend them all, as well as to have a sphere of his own. If we are to make the most of our great efforts and expenditures for the betterment of country life, then some kind of local application is requisite. If the farmer is to reach out and to apprehend the fact and facilities that are now available to his purpose he must have someone in his locality to ask for him, to sort and to sift the information and to bring it to him in the most direct and avail- able form. If the farming people are to express themselves, to give voice to their needs and cbsires, they must have acknowledged spokesmen. If a neighborhood or locality itself is to operate as a unit and to have new life, it must have a responsible representative and organizer. For these reasons, I consider the local agent or representative to be an essential part in the fabric of rural life. The Demand for Agents The farmers and others are asking for such agents and representatives. They are asking for more than they are aware. In fact, they are 84 RURAL PROBLEMS changing leaders, although they may not know it. The political representative may not actually repre- sent them or meet the need in our modern life. The movement is very recent in its actual de- velopment, and yet it is widespread. This is an indication that the desire for a new form o£ repre- sentation is essentially spontaneous. It is our part to try to direct it, to see that it meets the situation and that it does not become a means of exploita- tion. I have purposely laid emphasis on the continuity oi the local agency. I cannot think that it is a temporary or a passing movement. Perhaps we have not yet arrived at the proper means of ad- ministration; perhaps we have not yet clearly de- fined the specific duties of the agent himself; per- haps we have not yet fully related the work to other movements and to drifts of public sentiment ; all these phases may now be in a temporary stage, but the movement itself must be permanent because it is necessary. There is much proper fear of the placing of ready-made plans on the farming community. We may need at the first to superimpose the movement to some extent; but we must always have it in mind that we are continuously to shift the respansihility to the people of the locahties and; regions. How- THE FARM.BUREAU MOVEMENT 85 ever a given agency is started and organized, if the particular agent himself is successful the popu- lation of the community or region will find itself more and more interested, more willing to support the undertaking, more proud of its achievements, and more ready to take over the responsibility of it. If this responsibility does not develop, then the place is not ready for a farm bureau. I shall look for many local and subsidiary move- ments to arise, being stimulated in different neigh- borhoods by the success of the general movement in the county or large region. Persons will be dis- covered in their neighborhoods who have particular adaptabilities for certain pieces of public or semi- public work. These will be set into action. Within a few years we shall. find ourselves behold- ing a whole series of rather complex neighbor- hood developments, perhaps at first operating somewhat inharmoniously or even at .cross-pur- poses, but all welding themselves at the xnd into a forward and progressive process. That is to say, I am looking for the farm-bureau movement to stimulate many persons, to cause the neighbor- hoods to find themselves, to be the means of de- veloping the best resident forces, and to allow the people to express themselves in a new way. 86 RURAL PROBLEMS The Local Forces At this point I wish to say a word about these so-called resident forces. I have been one of those who has insisted on the necessity of developing these forces in rural regions. I think we some- times err, however, in supposing that a resident leader must have arisen in the very locality in which he leads. The essential factors that make resident leadership are, knowledge of the particular situa- tion, sympathy with it, success in the management of affairs, a clear conception of the problems. It very often happens, perhaps most usually happens, that a person with these qualifications may operate much more successfully in a neighbor- ing community than in his own. At all events, he is freer to express himself in the other community, because he does not have property interests at stake, he will have fewer family connections, fewer personal friends, and be less bound by the ties of the group and of association. He will be a resi- dent factor so far as being qualified to handle the situation is concerned, and he will become a citizen of his new community. He will come up out of the farming conditions. I have noticed the tend- ency in the farm-bureau work, for example, for the counties to desire a man from another county. There is good human and psychological reason for THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 87 this. Because a person comes from another com- munity or another state, it does not follow that he is superimposed on the community: he is merely transferred from one field to another. Whether he is superimposed or not, will depend more on the type of organization than on the actual place of his bringing up and his residence. I shall expect,, however, that this farm-bureau agent, operating in a county or a series of townships, will develop the indigenous forces in all parts of his domain. It will be a good thing for all of us if the farm bureau brings some shifting and interchange of men and of ideas between the different regions. I anticipate that much of the new life that may arise in the regions will not be expressed in separate persons here and there, but in committees that will be constituted among the people to look after the business and other affairs. Many persons will be set at work, on a great number of different problems. There are those who feel that the farm-bureau agent will himself pass out after the local forces have been discovered and sufficiently stimulated. I have not been able to picture to myself such a result. My feeling is that the more the local forces are stimulated, the greater will be the need of additional and more advanced leadership. We 88 RURAL PROBLEMS have been preaching'the gospel in all our communi- ties for these centuries, and yet we know that the preacher i« not less important than at the begin- ning. We have been teaching by means of schools, and yet no one thinks that the regular teacher will pass away and that the work of education will be left to forces that arise spontaneously out of the community itself. My judgment is that we shall find ourselves asking for more farm-bureau agents rather than fewer (perhaps under other names) and that the numbers of local forces will be so many as to demand such agents for purposes of administration as well as for leadership. My outlook, therefore, is that we are just now at the beginning of a new range in the organiza- tion of rural society. We are introducing a new factor. I think we have not quite caught the drift and the promise of the farm-bureau movement. Perhaps we have been too exclusively engrossed in the perplexities and the defence work that lie im- mediately in the foreground; perhaps we have dwelt too much on the dangers, although I am very -glad that these have been put forward prominently at the beginning to keep us from wandering off in the swamps rather than making our journey to the hills. THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 89 The Work or Effort of the Farm-Bureau Agent The foregoing statements represent my concep- tion of the reason for the farm agent. Just what the details of the work shall be in any locality, cannot be determined by myself and not by any person who is unfamiliar with the conditions and with the people of the given region. I am not here to discuss the details of farm-i)ureau work; I have not followed the work in its close particulars and have no mind to do so. I am intensely inter- ested, however, in the part that the local agent may play in the reconstruction of society. Those be- fore me are better qualified to speak on the details of the agent's work. Undoubtedly we have been short-sighted in placing so muCh emphasis on the advice-giving feature of the farm-bureau work to individual farmers. I wish that we had never used the title " farm adviser," because it is so likely to be mis- understood. Fortunately, we have escaped the use of the title " farm uplifter." The farm- bureau agent cannot remove from any man the responsibility of managing his own farm and rais- ing his own products. Of course, he should be ready to go to any farm on call, so far as he is able, for the purpose of giving particular advice 90 RURAL PROBLEMS on any subject on which he is well qualified; but his larger relation is to be public rather than private. Only to a very limited extent can he direct persons in their farm practices. He is to represent the community or the region ; he is to stimulate it ; he is to point the way; he is to project meetings, policies, methods of work as applicable to the place ; he is to bring in experts and specialists when needed; he is to have an oiEce in which the facts pertaining to the agriculture of the region are assembled and where they will be available for the use of any person who desires them. There are no such facts at the present time. There are head- quarters for city affairs, for political affairs, and for other affairs; but we have had no headquarters for local agricultural affairs. He is to be an organizer of information and of movements. He will become a director of agricultural enterprises within his region. Every agent will attempt first to meet the evident needs of his people. In a particular locality it may be the question of the liming of the land and the ways of securing the lime ; in another it may be the means of spraying orchards and the securing of the machinery and materials; in another it may be the health of the live-stock and the means of improving it ; in another it may be combined action THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 91 in buying of certain supplies or In the selling of certain products; In still another region It may be the question of Information and careful publicity as to the value of available lands for sale; in another region it may be the reorganization of the marketing facilities ; It may be seed selection, or the making of demonstrations; it may be a means of exchange ; and so on to the end. I would speak to the county agents before me. Some special difficulty will be apparent. You must meet that difficulty; but you must always have in your mind the background conditions of your region and the underlying necessities. You must say to yourself that certain forces must be set in motion that will persist after you are gone. You must ask whether after you have been ten years away from the region, the people will remember you merely as an agreeable or industrious person, or whether they will also say that certain move- ments and Important new directions of thought were set going because you had been there. By what I have just said, you will understand that I feel that there must be some underlying and continuous purpose or philosophy In your work. This is exactly what I want to say. I think that you should endeavor to take such action as will tend to collect the agricultural fact in your community 92 RURAL PROBLEMS and to place it in such form that the peopk can find it and understand it. Thi« means some kind of survey, such as we are now familiar with in the farm-management survey, some method of accumu- lation of records of all the farms and the products. This will afford the background on which other work may be projected. Merely to meet the present-day difficulties is not sufficient effort for a farm-bureau agency. Some persons feel that relations with buying- and-selling efforts lie outside the function of the farm-bureau agent, but I am not prepared to accept this view. I think that the agent should not him- self act as buyer or seller in any case; I think he should not be an officer in any commercial organ- ization; he should not handle funds; but I am con- vinced that he may attempt to discover where such cooperating groups are needed, and that he may give information as to the best means of estab- lishing and operating them. The cooperators may constitute themselves into a buying organization or they may trade through the regular dealers. The responsibility of the business relations should lie with the people or with their regularly estab- lished commercial representatives. In general, it will be found that such co-action in buying can be extended usefully only or chiefly to those materials THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 93 that are needed in the making of agricultural products, rather than in supplies for household and personal use. The cooperative store has largely failed. This is because it deals with such a variety of products and has such a volume of small trade as to require the attention of a person who is thoroughly trained in the business. The farmers may well co-act, as farmers, however, to buy such things as lime, fertilizers, feed, machinery, fencing, and other supplies that go into the business rather than into the home and the personal living. I feel as strongly on the side of the selling busi- ness. I doubt whether most communities can combine effectively to sell the small and incidental products. We have over-emphasized the impor- tance of such efforts. It may be worth whUe, how- ever, to cooperate in the handling and the market- ing of the staple products of the community whether milk or meat, or eggs, or fruit, or live-stock, or land. Undoubtedly very much can be done, for example, to find better markets for the live-stock of any region, particularly of those areas that are not well known as live-stock places and that do not as yet have standing in the market. I think that very much can be done, also, to aid in the real estate sales. The farm-bureau agent should not buy and sell real estate nor should he be connected 94 RURAL PROBLEMS with any commercial real estate agency; yet I think it is clearly within his province to take action as to the best means of making known the advan- tages of the community, analyzing the situation, and compiling the facts. Inasmuch as the char- acter of every newcomer in a community is of great importance to that community and will be of more importance in the future than it has been in the past, it is clearly within the province of the resi- dents in the region to express their convictions on the change of population so far as it follows the transfer of real estate. One great feature of the essential agricultural development in most regions has been overlooked ; this is the necessity of standardizing the cropping. The most profitable fruit-growing is usually in those regions in which there is the most fruit. This is not only because the region may be specially adapted to fruit, but also because the quantity at- tracts buyers, stimulates emulation, standardizes the reputation of the region, and unifies the efforts. The same is true of any other crop or product, — it is usually better for one who desires to make a specialty in a given crop or product to seek resi- dence in a community that has made reputation in that product. Now, most of our communities have no recognized reputation for any particular prod- uct. The farm-bureau agent should determine the THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 95 crop or the product to which the region is al- together best adapted, and should then make such effort as seems to be wise to increase that particular product, to unify the methods, and to regularize the reputation. Very likely the cropping of many of our communities can be gradually changed with very good results. The best agricultural develop- ment of a region comes only when it arrives at a reputation for a product or a set of products. If the farm-bureau agent is of the right stuff, he will be ready to cooperate with larger movements and to contribute his region to them. He will be glad to give his people the benefit of the extension movements of State institutions, of the work of State and National departments, and of the enter- prises that arise from voluntary organizations. If this is to be the case, then the State will find itself in possession here of a most useful agency of promulgation. If the State desires to spread the idea of better organization and completer cooperation, for example. It should at least call on the agents for suggestion and possibly it may find itself able in many cases to accomplish better results by working through such agencies than by establishing wholly new ones. We are now coming to the time when the farm bureau cannot be overlooked by new publicity enterprises. As far and as rapidly as the farm bureaus make 96 RURAL PROBLEMS good, such public movements will find it to their disadvantage to neglect them. The Administration of the Agencies Administration follows funds. As a rule, the sources of these funds will determine the character of the controL In this State, the funds are derived in part from the Federal Government, in part from the State, in part from the localities, and in part from outside private sources. If the farm bureaus establish themselves and become most effective, the appropriation of local funds will gradually and prominently increase. This will more and more place the control of the farm bureau in the hands of the people, for they will manage it from among themselves. However, there should be some uniformity of management within the State and also within the Nation; and the larger methods and relations should be standardized. This means that some- where and somehow there must be useful super- vision. Even if the farm bureau were supported wholly by local funds, nevertheless it would be greatly to the interest of that bureau to place itself within the State plan so that it might have the benefit of advisory oversight, and of the work of all similar organizations. I THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 97 have already said that the farm bureau itself should not engage in commercial transactions. Everybody knows that it should not engage in par- tisan politics. Everybody knows also that it should not take part in questions of denominational religion. It is not an advertising agency. In other words, the office of the farm bureau is educational within the agricultural field. Its gen- eral oversight should come from an educational center, rather than from a commercial or a politi- cal center. This is not only right as a question of policy, but it is also useful in practice because it puts behind the farm bureau the aid of the greatest number of experts in the greatest number of sub- jects. Inasmuch as the farm bureau is for all the people of its region, so should all of these people accept the privilege of its support. I like the idea of a public-membership organization, on which the farm bureau rests, every member paying his annual dues. A man will not derive much benefit from a farm bureau until his mind is flexible enough to allow him to contribute money. If there is such an organization contributing a good round sum ( in the end certainly not less than one thousand or two thousand dollars in each good agricultural county annually) then the organization may safely 4 98 RURAL PROBLEMS accept funds from the outside. These funds would not then be gifts that might control the situation ; they would be contributions from people and groups that desire to help. The support of farm bureaus by chambers of commerce is a passing phase. I hope that contributions from such bodies will continue, but they should be only contributions and not control or ownership. Under such con- ditions the farming community may well accept the funds from the chamber of commerce ; and the con- tribution is a privilege which the chamber of com- merce on its own part should not allow itself to lose. I know that persons ask why they should con- tribute to the farm bureau if it is the duty of the State and the Nation to support it. They may feel that they pay for it in their taxes. It may be a question whether it is the duty of the State or Nation wholly to support such work. Government will found the plan, provide the machinery of supervision; but even government action must be cooperative with the people if it is to be effective. Taxes support government, rather than the special welfare work of communities. It is not the fur\c- tion of State and National government to carry the details in the localities. The localities should be themselves self-acting. The residents cannot THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT 99 expect to exercise much control over the work if they do not make direct contribution to it. They will be more likely to secure a good money return if they put money into it ; and it must be recognized that the farm bureau is also to have a community function. As the agency work develops, it may be found that the people will think it well directly to provide the extra helpers for the different localities and for the special problems, and to see that the work grows. The agent will soon need assistants : who will provide them ? Different localities within the agency will want agents or sub-agents of their own : who will supply them ? In practice it will be found that the government will not provide suffi- cient funds to support all the work that will be wanted. It is also due the agent that he have the backing of his people. I do not see how it is possible for the farm bureau to get very far until there is a good background organization with a voting membership. Having the fundamental organization in the farming community, then I should be glad of the funds appropriated by vote of the county Board of Supervisors, of the State, or of other public depart- ments or divisions of government. Such funds may in fact be necessary in order to insure the con- tinuity of the enterprise. I understand, of course, loo RURAL PROBLEMS that at the beginning it may be impossible to secure the voluntary organization; it is proper that gov- ernment should lead the way when necessary; it may set things going ; but as the work develops, the difficulties will be fewer and the farm bureau should find itself increasingly more independent. A new situation in the administration of farm bureaus is about to arise in the expected passage of the Agriculture Extension Bill by Congress. This bill has passed both Houses and is now in con- ference and very soon will become a law.* It is an act to apply additional duties and funds to the agricultural colleges founded on the land-grant act of 1862. These colleges constitute the only series of federal educational institutions in the states. The new act provides for cooperative agricultural extension work between these different agricultural colleges and the United States Department of Agri- culture, and makes liberal appropriations therefor. The federal government will deal with the recog- nized officer of the state, but the work is to be under the immediate control and supervision of the land-grant college. The state has no right to divert the money to other institutions or purposes. It will be a matter of definition, to be determined by the federal and other officers of administration, * Signed by President Wilson, May 8, 1914. THE FARM-BUREAU MOVEMENT loi as to just what is meant by extension work within the language of the act; and these federal officers will exercise general supervision. It is expected that farm-bureau work may be supported in part by the funds accruing from this act. This will place the farm bureaus in very close relation with the agricultural colleges. How much of the money may be used in any state for farm-bureau extension is all to be determined. I would not care to ex- press an opinion on this proportion; for this re- quires very careful study of the entire situation as regards extension work in the given state, with due regard to enterprises that already are established and under way. The Situation The outlook of the farm-bureau work is toward a redirection of rural society. The movement is much more than the placing of technical aids in the communities. We are finally to find a way of applying our in- vestigation and our teaching to the persons for whose benefit these efforts are made. Here is the suggestion of another means of making over the farming, so far as it needs to be made over. It will be accomplished by those who know farming. We must bear in mind that the farm bureau is in its beginning stage, and that it needs careful 102 RURAL PROBLEMS counseL We are not to expect too much of it all at once. One man in a county cannot cover all the field. The agency will profit by the aid of every person who himself expects to be aided. One of the best results will be the stimulation of persons to help themselves. While I am much interested in the farm-bureau movement, I am in no hurry. I am willing that the demand shall grow. The more completely the demand represents the desires of the given region, the more useful and the more permanent will any farm bureau be, other things being equal. There need be no conflict between the farm bureau and other extension agencies, and no dis- turbing duplication of effort. The farm bureau will accept the situation as it exists, work with all other genuine and useful enterprises for the public benefit. It will find work of its own, for there is work enough to be done. If the general movement is properly and wisely directed, we shall discover here a reconstructive force more significant than the old local political leadership. I grant that all this may be a good way off ; I am willing to admit all the difficulties, and I know the imperfection of human material : but the pos- sibilities lie in the work. XV ONCE MORE THE FAIRS; A STATE PLAN Niagara County Farmers' Club, Jan. 31, 1914 IT has been my privilege on several occasions to raise questions about the local and county fairs, and twice have I published my views concerning them.* These views have touched the question of the content of the fairs, or their organ- ization and work in the localities. I have tried to challenge the character of the exhibitions and the purposes that have been set before the public. In these discussions I had not touched the question of the State fair, nor had I said anything directly about the general organization of the fairs on a state basis. I am now proposing to take up these questions. Although my remarks are meant to touch New York State specially, the same principles will un- doubtedly apply elsewhere; for it is doubtful whether we have yet arrived in any commonwealth at a thoroughly satisfactory organization of public- maintained fairs and expositions. *"The Country-Life Movement," pp. 16S-177 ; "York State Rural Prob- lems," I, pp. 213-237. [I03l I04 RURAL PROBLEMS It will be found that the State fairs in the differ- ent commonwealths have had interesting history; and in the older parts, this history is long and sometimes most suggestive of misdirections or lost opportunities. In New York, the fairs have passed through significant phases. This is particularly true of the county fairs. The " Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts and Manufac- tures " was founded in 1791 and chartered by the Legislature in 1793. This Society was to divide the State Into districts (or counties), with a secre- tary to reside therein, whose duty it should be to convene the members in that district and to collect information about the agriculture of the region and to forward it to the president; and the presi- dent was to turn over these communications to a "committee of publication." A report of the Society was published in four parts from 1792 to 1799, containing essays and papers on agricultural subjects. The charter of this organization expired in 1 804, and in that year the Legislature adopted a new act of organization for a body called " The Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts in the State of New York." This was followed by an act in 1 8 19, establishing a Board of Agriculture, and this Board was instituted in January of 1826.* This Board was also founded on the basis of the •See "York State Rural Problems," I, pp. 214-216. ONCE MORE THE FAIRS; A STATE PLAN 105 county societies, all of which were to correspond with the Board, giving information about the agri- cultural affairs in the respective localities. These several county societies were empowered to hold exhibitions and to award premiums on such articles and productions as they thought to be best calcu- lated to promote the agricultural and manufactur- ing interests of the State. Subsequently, the State Agricultural Society was founded on the same basis of cooperation with the county societies. It is from these beginnings that our county fairs, main- tained in part by the State, came into existence and have been continued to the present time. The pur- pose of these fairs, as expressed in the original statements, seems to have been wholly educational. After more than 100 years of effort, we have not yet reached, in New York, the purposes that were set forth by these prophetic persons in the beginning. We now have county and local fairs, and also a State fair. We have no real connection throughout the whole, forming what might be called a system. It is true that appropriations are made by the legislature and that the Department of Agriculture has some supervision over the county fairs, but there is not sufficient statutory coordination of effort to constitute a constructive State plan, although the Commissioner of Agri- culture is authorized by law to prevent abuses. io6 RURAL PROBLEMS It must be understood that I am not " criticis- ing " the fairs, as that word is ordinarily under- stood. I am trying to find the weak place in a very imperfect situation, and to suggest some way whereby the effort of the State in respect to fairs can be improved. I doubt very much, for example, whether the State fair accomplishes all that we expect. This implies no criticisms of persons. In fact, I am surprised that such good results have been secured with the State fair. Persons con- nected with it are undoubtedly giving good service to the people ; but I think that the kind of organ- ization is not adapted to securing the most useful results. The Weak Points ; and a Way Out There are two faults in the situation, as I see It : ( 1 ) Our present system or lack of system provides for no continuous leadership by an expert or by a person trained particularly in exhibition work; ( 2 ) It secures no union of all the forces, or of all the fairs, of the State. The fairs should be considered as educational agencies. There is no other sufficient reason for their existence. To make all the fairs useful to their localities and the State fair thoroughly useful to the State, we must utilize these many plants more ONCE MORE THE FAIRS; A STATE PLAN 107 continuously and more effectively than we are now able to do. The properties should be kept in use more or less throughout the year, and the enter- prises should be tied up with other things. In the localities, the fair properties should be utilized in connection with the local activities, as with recre- ation, school-gardening, festivals, demonstration plats, and many seasonal affairs and displays. The county fairs now have no organic connec- tion with the State fair or relation to it. They should all be combined into one program as a recognized branch of the State educational service for agriculture and rural life. One man should be in charge of this entire service, as a director. He should hold office dur- ing the period of good service, in much the same way as we secure a State commissioner of educa- tion or as a college or university or experiment station secures its director or president. This will need some kind of a background board or organ- ization. This board should be composed of un- paid members and should be directly responsible to the State ; and it should secure the very best ability to direct the State fair, wherever such ability can be found. This director should stand in a very im- portant advisory and even supervisory relation to all the fairs in the State. All the fairs should have io8 RURAL PROBLEMS much local autonomy and freedom in the making of premium lists and otherwise, but in the interest of efficiency they should be combined into one sys- tem, and this system should have positive direction. How this background board shall be created is a difficult problem. The agricultural affairs of New York are sadly in need of being brought to- gether. If they are brought together under a State body, the fairs should come with the rest. Failing this, a separate board may be created, on a differ- ent basis from the present board. Perhaps this board might be comprised of members representing judicial districts or other large divisions that do not express themselves directly in partisan poli- tics. Perhaps the members of such a board might be chosen by certain non-political societies or or- ganizations, recognized by the legislature; or other means may be found to constitute the govern- ing body outside of political control. The State should probably be represented by the Commis- sioner of Agriculture, the Director of the State College of Agriculture, and possibly others, al- though the board may easily be too large. The director of the fairs should give his whole time and his whole year to the enterprise, keeping this branch of the public service up to the standard of the best organized effort in the State. The State ONCE MORE THE FAIRS; A STATE PLAN 109 fair should be the crowning enterprise in this branch of the public service. All the local and small fairs should contribute to its success. Local fairs may be ever so good, but we can never expect the best results from them until they are operating as a part of a program. All the fairs should be conceived of as parts of one systematized educa- tional enterprise with a distinct, continuing and responsible head. They should have organic re- lations with the State extension work. I think that we are coming to the time when we must either do something of this kind with publicly maintained fairs, or else challenge the efforts of the State in maintaining them. XVI SOME POPULAR BOGIES AND DE- LUSIONS Before Business Men's Association, Interlaken, N. Y., February 19, 19 14; and elsewhere. THE oddest notions are current on the eco- nomic relations of agriculture. These errors are not new or peculiar to any locality, but seem to be an attitude of the public mind. In spite of the many warnings and state- ments of competent men who know the situation, some paragraph writers and the public still enter- tain ideas on the farming situation that are several years behind the time. It is too bad that we must expend so much of our energy combating positions that on their face are un- sound or even absurd. A half dozen of these positions may be mentioned. Of course, only very general statements can be made on an occasion like this; there are many reasons that I must omit, and many qualifying conditions that I must disregard. I am not here to teach economics, but only to present a point of view. The point of view turns on the much-discussed problem of the agricultural decline in New York. It is not my [IIO] SOME POPULAR BOGIES AND DELUSIONS in purpose to try to determine whether there is an actual decline, but to challenge measurements that are usually applied and to suggest that statistics alone may be interpreted in more than one way. I The Abandoned Farm Bogy This old hoax is still with us — that there are numberless abandoned farms and that they must be reoccupied. If farms are abandoned, it is usually because they do not pay or are not worth the effort. It is an undirected process of re- assembling business units. To put another family on the farm may not solve anything and it may be a distinct unkindness to the family. Very few farms are really abandoned, although many of them are passing out of the uses that they once served. They may no longer be good economic units, any more than are some of the stores on streets from which the business has moved, or than factories and shops of a generation ago on the little creeks and in outlying hamlets. If agricul- ture is to be reorganized, the underlying farm units may need to be modified in very many cases. The shifting of agriculture is inevitable. This shifting will of course change the occupancy of land. It is one of the amazing incongruities of the time that publicists persist in making prophecies 112 RURAL PROBLEMS for agriculture at the same time that their ideas are grounded in conditions fifty years old. We make much of the idea that farming is changing rapidly, and yet it is expected that the same old accidental divisions of land shall be kept intact as separate farms. One's information should have at least some relation to one's prophecy. If we were to recognize the necessity of redis- tributing agricultural lands, we should be in posi- tion to direct the so-called abandonment of farms, and thereby produce a given useful result within a definite time. 2. The Number-of-Farms Bogy The census shows a less number of farms in New York than in 1900, and many good people jump at the conclusion that this means an alarming decline in agriculture. I do not know what it means as a whole; this requires study; but it is more likely to mean increased efficiency than de- creased efficiency. With better machinery, more thorough-going methods, and better use of capital, a man is able to handle more land. In the great general-farming regions, farms are becoming larger; the farmers are mastering their problems and are slowly adapting themselves to new con- ditions. Of course, there are regions and condi- SOME POPULAR BOGIES AND DELUSIONS 113 tions in which farms tend to become smaller, but these do not influence the point I am making here. In 1900, there were in New York 226,720 im- proved farms; in 1910, there were 215,597; this is a decrease of 5 per cent. The area of land under cultivation had decreased by 712,000 acres. By themselves, such figures look bad; but they cannot be interpreted alone. " The bare state- ment of the shift from 1900 to 19 10 in the number of farms as well as in the number of acres under cultivation gives no final idea of the conditions pre- vailing," Lauman says. " The decreases in number of farms have taken place primarily in the groups of farms up to ninety-nine acres in size, although also in the group from 100 to 174 acres. When this is considered in connection with the well- known fact that under the prevailing economic conditions the average-sized farm in New York is not as profitable a unit as a larger size, it is dangerous to deduce very much from the bare census figures. It must be expected that for some time to come there will be a considerable shifting in the size of farms in New York, as well as in other states, until we come to a more permanent and profitable agriculture. The decrease in the number of acres under cultivation is relatively small; scattered over the less favored counties. It 114 RURAL PROBLEMS would bring the amount thus lost to a very small amount for each such county. The lands thus eliminated from cultivation are very often better producers of wood than of field crops. We must realize that we have not yet arrived at a proper proportion between woodland and cultivated field." The shift from grain-growing to dairying probably accounts for much of the change In acreage of plowed land. Efficiency in farming does not necessarily express itself alone in tilled land. 3. The Decreasing-Population Bogy The relative rural population is decreasing. This Is a natural result of the multiplication of a man's power through the use of better tools and machinery and of the organization of his work on a good business basis. There are many other rea- sons for the decrease in relative population, but it is not my purpose to discuss them here. There are still many persons on the land who ought to be employed in the organized Industries of villages and cities. There are others in the cities who should be on the land. A highly developed agri- culture releases men for the arts and the trades. We shall never again be a rural people as we were in times past, and we ought not to be. The farmer is becoming a marked man just because his relative SOME POPULAR BOGIES AND DELUSIONS 115 numbers are decreasing; and more responsibility is placed on him. We are in the era of the making of better farmers. " The fact that the rural population of New York has increased less than i per cent, in the last ten years," to quote again from Lauman, " when the urban population has increased 25 per cent., is no reason for supposing that the present con- dition of agriculture in the State is decadent. Such a condition of things is expressed by the phrase, ' the law of diminishing returns,' which has very little to do with the increase or de- crease of urban population unless such increase makes it possible to expend more labor and capital on the lands at remunerative prices, and this may be accomplished without increasing the rural popu- lation." The fact that the food supply of the State has remained practically stationary, even though a certain amount of land has been withdrawn from cultivation and the rural population has decreased, is evidence that the agriculture of the State is im- proving, if by improvement we mean an increased production on a less number of acres. 4. The Decreasing-Yield Bogy There seems to be a widespread belief that yields are decreasing. This is not so. Yields are increasing, and probably about as rapidly as it ii6 RURAL PROBLEMS pays to increase them. Enthusiastic travelers are always comparing the yields of the older countries with those of the United States, with much dis- paragement of the latter. Of course, our farmers should increase their yields; this is one way of lessening the cost of the unit, but the amount of the yield is limited by the ability of the man to make the effort pay. In Europe labor is cheap. In this country, land is cheap and labor is high. Excepting under very special conditions, the Amer- ican cannot yet afford to raise the very heavy crops that many of the Europeans raise ; and, moreover, it does not pay to raise the maximum crop that the land is capable of producing. Within limits, the profits to be secured will de- termine the quantities of the staple crops. We are teaching the farmer how to increase his acre-yields, and this is essential ; but as things now are, he soon reaches a point beyond which he cannot go. We need better general economic relations for the farmer to enable him to make the best use, for himself and for society, of the scientific training we are now giving him. We are not getting the best possible results from our heavy investments in agricultural education. The problem of production is not the whole question; at least as much thought must be given SOME POPULAR BOGIES AND DELUSIONS 117 to the problem of distribution; and if tlie people are educated, the problem of production will largely adjust itself if the question of distribution and the returns is solved. 5. The Cost-of-Living Delusion It is now a common notion that we must send more people to the farms in order to raise more supplies to decrease the cost of living. This is absurd. The quantity of supplies depends on the profit that can be made in producing them. The farmer is now farming as a business, rather than merely to raise the supplies for his own needs. There are probably a sufficient number of persons now on the land to produce all the supplies that we need as soon as it pays them well to produce such supplies and as they are able to secure the proper credit, transportation, freedom of markets, and other desirabilities for doing their business; or if the number is anywhere insufficient, it will increase automatically as soon as the profits are in sight. Merely sending more people to the land does not solve any problem; it may multiply the problems. Persons seem to forget that agricul- ture is economic at bottom, and that it cannot be adjusted by the operation of mere unrelated sentiment. ii8 RURAL PROBLEMS i 6. The Save-the-City Delusion Many of our good people are obsessed of the idea that the city must be saved of its congestion and its troubles by sending the " surplus " to the farms. The farms do not want the surplus and cannot use it. The city must meet its problems as a part of its contribution to society; it cannot escape its problems or be relieved of them. I am in full sympathy with the going of the city boy to the farm so far as he desires to go and is well qualified to do so; but this is a different matter from the movement to place city people on farms because they are not wanted or are not successful in the city. Of course, many city people are not only suc- cessful on the land, but they contribute in many ways to the upbuilding of the best kind of rural life; it is not of this class that we are thinking here, for these people take care of themselves. Agriculture is not under obligation to save the city: the city must save itself; and, of course, the open country will help all it can or ought. The city and the country should not be set over against each other as opposing forces in society. We shall never solve our social and economic ills by asking either the country or the city to solve the problems of the other. The best civilization demands that SOME POPULAR BOGIES AND DELUSIONS 119 urban and rural shall work together, not that one shall merely make use of the other. The same species of human being inhabits both city and country. The Problem The problems before us are two: to teach the people not to draw hasty or superficial conclusions, and to find ways of discovering the actual condi- tions and the underlying reasons. All this empha- sizes the importance of careful surveys, economic and social, that will give us the facts and indicate the tendencies. The rural situation is too com- plex to be reselved by statistics alone, however valuable and accurate the compilations may be. Statistics show conditions rather than reasons. XVII MAKING BEEF BY LAW People's Forum, Ithaca, N. Y., March i, 19 14; and elsewhere IT is the common assumption that we are now suffering under a shortage of beef. Statis- tics can be cited in proof of it. Prices of beef are rising. There have been many suggestions looking toward the increasing of the supply. To a cer- tain type of mind, the simplest way of regulating or overcoming an economic law is by an act of the legislature. Therefore it is proposed that Con- gress shall make it a misdemeanor for a farmer to kill his calves, thereby allowing them to mature into beef animals. It becomes a most interesting problem as to whether Congress would be success- ful in compelling a man to keep an animal when it is unprofitable for him to do so, or when the keeping of it would not combine with his plan of farming. Why not a law requiring farmers to have their hens lay eggs in November and December? 1 120) MAKING BEEF BY LAW 121 The Reason Is Economic The reason why farmers kill their veals Is be- cause it does not pay them to raise the animals to maturity. Feed is too high priced in the main dairy regions. It may pay a man better to put his feed into milk in such regions, or to sell it direct. Sometimes It pays better to kill the calves at birth than to try to feed them even to the vealing age. No legislature can compel a man to conduct his personal business operations at a sacrifice or a loss. It is possible in some cases that a reorganization of a farming business might enable a farmer to raise more animals to maturity, but this Is a mat- ter that lies without the province of law, unless, Indeed, government hires the producer to hold his animals by providing a bounty. It Is a problem of the most economical use of feed and labor. The farmer produces so much grain: he cannot feed it to chickens and refeed it to beef cattle and then to dairy cattle. If he Is raising poultry as well as cattle, and it pays him better to feed his grain to chickens than to beef animals, he will so dispose of it, and no person can deny him that right. But the grain, If maize or some other good food crop, may support more human beings than will the animals produced from It; and it may be better for society in any given 122 RURAL PROBLEMS case, as well as more profitable to the producer, to sell it as human food. The calf is largely a by-product of the dairy business; the farmer finds that he can maintain his business better by dis- posing of his calves than by lessening his dairy production. He would produce no calves were it not the only means of freshening his cows. If, by law, society compels the dairy farmer to rear his calves for beef, it may then be complaining of shortage of milk. Beef cannot be produced with profit wherever cattle can be reared. The region may not grow sufficient grain for the purpose; there may be a good direct market for the hay; the feeding sea- son may be too long. Often the beef is not worth as much as the feed and labor that produce it. The Consumption of Beef We hear much about the " shortage " in the beef supply. This presumes a basis of compari- son. We base our assumption on the per capita supply in past years. But beef has been over- abundant ; or, rather, we have had more than was necessary. We have opened a continent with vast grazing areas; population has been small. As population increases in any country, the ratio of expensive and uneconomical foods decreases. MAKING BEEF BY LAW 123 Beef is probably the most expensive staple animal product for human food, because the yield is so small for the feed consumed. We are not to expect to continue the per capita supply of beef that we have had in the past. We shall use relatively more freely of other foods, as milk, poultry, fish, and many vegetable products. That is, instead merely of calling for more beef, we shall do something to meet the problem by changing the diet. We have now grown to be a veal-eating people. For myself, I wish that there was less eating of veal and that the people would regulate their desires in this regard ; but this is not for economic reasons, nor even for the usual sentimental reasons. Years ago there was a season when we ate veal. This season was perhaps two months. There was also a season when we ate oysters, and fresh cod- fish, and green peas, and tomatoes. Now, we want anything or everything every month in the year. We are forgetting what the year means to us, and we are also losing the great economic advan- tage of buying in season and of buying intelli- gently. We are losing the meaning of the months. Less demand for veal would do more than any law toward correcting some of our difficulties; but even so, the farmer will not raise the mature 124 RURAL PROBLEMS animal unless it pays him to do so; and perhaps, after all, it is wise to desire more veal. It is assumed by those who would produce beef by law, that because a calf weighs lOO pounds and a beef animal looo pounds, we lose 900 pounds when we slaughter the veal. They forget that we have consumed grain in making the beef, and the grain may be more useful than the beef; and they do not consider that one of the ways to secure more meat is to produce more veal. Interesting studies have been made on this subject by Dr. Pierre A. Fish of the New York State Veterinary College. He investigated the value of " bob veal," — of the veal of calves slaughtered before the legal age, which in New York is four weeks. He found that veal three weeks old and even two weeks old is wholesome. Now, the farmer often sacrifices the calf for the mere value of the hide, because he cannot afford to keep it to the legal age of four weeks ; and this meat is, therefore, lost for human food. "As an illustration of the waste," writes Dr. Fish," " that may occur in this way, of meat, which according to our experiments, is wholesome and nutritious, let us assume, conserva- tively, that only one calf on each of the farms of the State is disposed of in this way. According to the last census, there are 215,597 farms in New MAKING BEEF BY LAW 125 York State, 93.4% of which have domesticated animals upon them, or 201,367 farms upon which it may be expected that calves may be bom. The estimated average dressed weight of a number of bob calves used in our experiments was about fifty pounds. If only one bob calf was destroyed and thrown away each year on each of these farms it means a loss or waste of 10,068,350 pounds of wholesome meat. At the moderate price of ten cents, per pound, this would mean a loss of $1,006,835 annually for New York State alone. For the nation the waste and loss would be pro- portionately greater. Since the law prohibits the sale of bob veal for food, it is natural that the farmer should consider it unwholesome and unfit for consumption. Although the law prevents his marketing the bob calf, it does not prevent him nor his family from using it in their home. If farmers, generally, understood that bob veal is nutritious and wholesome and if safeguarded by the ordinary precautions used in keeping any form of meat sanitary, much of this tremendous waste might be reduced, in spite of the closed market, by consuming the flesh at their own tables." He considers the bob veal laws to be chaotic. The federal law for interstate commerce permits the use of calves over three weeks old. Pennsyl- 126 RURAL PROBLEMS vania has a similar age limit. Missouri and Arkansas require the calf to be six weeks old. Some states apparently have no law on the subject. Here, then, is a suggestion to increase the meat supply by allowing more calves to be vealed, which is quite the opposite of the propaganda of those who want a national beef law. Cooperative Slaughter-Houses Of course, we must take measures to increase the beef supply; these must be economic and edu- cational, rather than direct legislative measures; and the discussion of such measures is not my theme here. There is one consideration to which I wish to advert, however, because it would have other con- sequences in the community beside possibly influ- encing the beef supply. I think that much could be done to stimulate the production of beef by providing for local manipulating and manufactur- ing establishments. We have developed local co- operative creameries, cooperative grain elevators, shipping associations, evaporating establishments and others. I should like to see the development of local slaughter-houses, in charge of the raisers of meat, in all the localities In which it can pay to raise beef and other meats. The industry MAKING BEEF BY LAW 127 undoubtedly can be encouraged and the farmer would have more control, both of his output and of his market, and have more confidence in his business. A cooperative slaughter-house in which the farmers themselves would be interested is bet- ter so far as production is concerned than a munici- pal slaughter-house, which is more or less removed from the control and sympathies of the men who produce the supplies. Of course, the slaughter- houses should be rigidly inspected, but this can be done as well under one establishment as under the other. These enterprises would bring another industry into the locality and would tend to make the community more self-sustaining. Legal Aspects. The legal aspects of this proposed veal legisla- tion I should think would be very interesting. It is a question whether it is within the power of Congress or any legislature to enact such a law. The Federal Government, as I understand it, pos- sesses no general police power. It probably could not prevent the killing of veals, except when in- tended for interstate commerce; and probably it would then have to be shown that the prohibition is in the interest of health and comes under the pure food and drug act, or that there is some other reason than mere economic advantage. 128 RURAL PROBLEMS It is a question whether such legislation would be a violation of the guarantee against the taking of property without due process ; and it is not only a question of the taking of property, but also of the internal economic regulation of a man's busi- ness, modifying his farm scheme so far as the raising of feed is concerned, the employment of labor, the buying of supplies, and the shifting of the business in general. To raise beef cattle is one business; to raise milk is another business; veal is mostly a product of the milk business. Probably much can be done to modify the present order of things and to increase the beef supply on the farms in many parts of the United States; but it must be done with an understanding of the farm business, the size of the farm, and the locality or region in which it pays better to raise beef than to raise something else, rather than by mandatory legislation. It would be a difficult undertaking, on all sides, to make beef by law. XVIII AN OFFICE OF ADVICE IN THE GREAT CITIES Being part of an address on "Agricultural Educa- tion in Reference to Metropolitan Problems " before the Agricultural Education Association in conjunction with The Brooklyn Academy of Sciences, Brooklyn, November 29, 1913 JUST now we are expecting too much of our colleges and schools of agriculture. Natu- rally they cannot supply the practical train- ing that the person needs if he is to be a success- ful farmer. I fear there is a feeling in the large cities that a young man who would be a farmer can secure his whole practice and experience by attending one of the agricultural schools or col- leges. Every one connected with these institutions, however, knows that this is not the case. The young man who contemplates going to one of these institutions should spend a year on a good farm. He should spend it as a farmer. It is not- only a question of learning the farm methods, but also of apprehending the whole farm environment under which the farmer lives. Even though he [129] 130 RURAL PROBLEMS were to learn farm practices at the institution, he does not learn farm conditions there.* My first suggestion, therefore, is, that you do not expect the schools to solve all your troubles. My second suggestion is that a sentiment be de- veloped in cities and towns that if one Is to be a farmer he must learn what farming is before he goes to an agricultural school or college. I think that something special is needed for a city like New York. Persons who live in the metropolis or in any great city have equal rights with other citizens in securing agricultural infor- mation and advice at public expense. Of course, all the schools and colleges are open to them on the same terms as to others, and they make no distinction In giving advice ; but undoubtedly some particular organization is needed to meet the needs of the great cities. There should be some agency In a city like New York that will give the inquirer, — whether a young person going to college, or an older person seeking to buy a farm, or a citizen desiring gen- eral knowledge — direct and truthful information about farming and general rural conditions. The rural-minded citizens in the cities should have in- formation suited directly to their needs. I have • York State Rural Problems, I, pp. 6-8. OFFICE ADVICE IN THE GREAT CITIES 131 been impressed with a suggestion made by Dr. O. S. Morgan, Professor of Agriculture in Colum- bia University, looking toward this desirable end. He thinks that the state should provide such an organization or office in New York City. I am convinced that something of this kind might be very useful. It should be an arm of the public service. It should be free, and continuously open for the purpose of giving advice to persons who desire to know anything about agricultural and rural conditions. If it were in charge of a broad- minded man who had been reared in the country and knew farming conditions thoroughly, and who had no personal interests at stake and no political obligations, the office could be of great public service. I think it should be under the auspices of the State Department of Agriculture. I am not overlooking the excellent work that is being done by Columbia University or the work it is proposed to do at the School of Agriculture on Long Island, or the efforts of any persons or agencies that are now giving attention to this field ; I think that something additional is needed, which shall have official standing and which shall repre- sent directly the government of the state, but dis- tinct from offices maintained for the purpose of enforcing the agricultural law. Of course the use- 132 RURAL PROBLEMS fulness of any such oiEce or department would depend entirely on the person in charge of it, but the requirements could be met. I am not thinking of the founding of an institution or the giving of instruction, but a regular open office of advice for persons who desire to inquire. XIX BENEVOLENT URBANISM, AND OTHER THINGS Before the York State Country-Bond, February ^3) 1913) ^^'^ York State College of Agri- culture, at Farmers' Week IT is satisfactory to speak to a group of per- sons who are interested in a particular line of problems, for they are likely to put sug- gestions to the test and to make definite applica- tions. We all are committed to the organization- idea, — to the way of doing work by working to- gether. The great economic and political results have been secured by coalition of persons and interests. And yet I wish to present to you the great im- portance of individual and even unrelated action. Because we organize in business and politics, it does not follow that we must also organize collec- tively all the processes of our daily lives. I fear we have overlooked this fact, and are too much in the habit of thinking that because great results have been secured in the commercial world by incorporation and the like, comparable results are [133] 134 RURAL PROBLEMS to be secured by similar process in all lines of endeavor. Of course, the tendency is naturally toward organization or at least toward togetherness. The group-spirit is, strong in human beings. They come together almost unconsciously for mutual welfare, and they also follow leaders ; this results in two kinds or types of organization, — the kind that crystallizes about a person and the kind that develops out of a situation. Much of what we call organization is really only the imitation of a strong personality. We go in droves like sheep. We trail through life as the buffaloes trailed after each other on the western plains. We hunt in packs because there is a master hunter. Organiza- tion of this kind, or, in fact, of any kind, means that there is a separate individual around whom the organization crystallizes. Most of us run our ideas through well-worn grooves. Now, the group tends to perpetuate itself and to propagate its ideas. It is likely to become a formal organization; and when the organization becomes very rigid we call it a machine, because we have no other word that so well expresses the regularity of action and the interlocking of parts into a working concern. We ordinarily apply the terminology of machinery to the political organ- BENEVOLENT URBANISM, OTHER THINGS 135 izations, but it might be applied just as well to many commercial bodies. Political parties, as at present conceived, are expressions of an immature civilization. In themselves, organizations are not progres- sive. Their process is always one of crystalliza- tion. The strong individual breaks out of the organization and becomes a progressive, a rebel, or a radical; he attracts a following, finally as- sembles it, and a new organization is made; and this organization in turn becomes crystallized and finally other uncontrolled souls break out of it and still other groups are formed. For a time the group serves its original purpose; but the usual method of progress is by the breaking away from solidified organization. The world-spirits have been rebels. And yet we have come to look upon " regularity " and group-loyalty as one of the high virtues. When we begin to worship " regularity " we begin to go to seed. We cannot arrive at any great work by means of an organization that is self-satisfied and is con- cerned primarily in perpetuating itself, or that is out for glory. The test of any organization is that it shall be willing to spend and dissolve itself, if necessary, that it may accomplish a forward 136 RURAL PROBLEMS result. As with persons, so Is it with organizations, — he who loses his life shall find it. We are making the mistake of trying to work out many of our social and economical reforms by means of groups that are self-centered and which, whether they know it or not, are concerned pri- marily in upholding the name and the insignia of the organization. The only reason for an organ- ization that aims at anything more than entertain- ment or killing time, is that it shall contribute something worth while to the general welfare. As soon as the organizations become too insistent on themselves, by that fact they begin to perish. The flux from one organization Into another, so often seen In political parties, Is the rebellion against the concentrated group-spirit as personified in the master or boss of the group. I am always doubtful of any organization that has very much to say about " the cause." An organization or body may think It is standing for a cause when, as a matter of fact, it Is standing for Itself, and when the group-spirit may In reality be hurting the very cause that it names in its pro- gram. The group-spirit often so far forgets its cause that it is willing to go to any extreme of violence and disorganization in order to maintain Itself as a name before the public. BENEVOLENT URBANISM, OTHER THINGS 137 In action, some group-associations are essen- tially clans ; or they may be controlled by a gang- spirit. In some cases this expresses itself as a group-unsanity. The greater the number of organizations and the" more widespread the organization sentiment, the greater is the need of individual separate men and women who will think out something clearly, and who will stand for a final human result rather than for the name and associations of an order. Perhaps not one of us is really sure whether he is standing for a free result or whether he is domi- nated by loyalty to the group to which he belongs. Many of us are buried in orders and organizations. The CouNTRy-rLirE Result If I now apply this outhne to the field before us, you will see at once that it is possible to deflect or even to retard, if not in fact to injure, the de- sired country-life readjustment by a very strongly centralized organization drift. I think that the contemporaneous effort to help the farmer is one of the best expressions of the newsocial spirit, just because it does not aim to accomplish its result by hard and fast organization methods. We are safeguarded in the fact that the farmer is in the nature of the case a separate man. 138 RURAL PROBLEMS A few years ago I was almost anxiously ready for the organization of a great country-life asso- ciation. As, however, I began to contemplate the philosophy of the situation, I came to feel that the best results in the end will be secured by drop- ping suggestions here and there, by letting the educational processes take hold, by encouraging free discussion in thousands of little groups, and then by letting the organization come up in due time as a result of the stir and activities in the background communities. This will explain why I have not yet taken any active part toward the organization of a national association, to which in general terms I am committed. I think that such an association will come and ought to come, but I hope that it will not arrive ahead of its time or before it is needed. I have no desire to pick an organization out of the sky and to drop it on the farming folk. I hold rather the reverse attitude, which is that the farmer folk and those genuinely working with them will in due time need a set of organizations and possibly a national organization in which they may express themselves. Let the people know. Point the way. Be ready to wait. If it is essential that the organizations express the folk, then the constitution of these organiza- BENEVOLENT URBANISM, OTHER THINGS 139 tions is of first importance. It is, of course, impos- sible so to frame an organization as to prevent interested parties getting control of it, but it is possible to put the power in the hands of the country people themselves so that the organization cannot get too far away from the objects for which it is established. I fear that many of the groups assembled professedly in the interests of country life may really have ulterior motives. It is not too much to anticipate, now that good^ business is developing with the farming people, that some kinds of organizations will be controlled by busi- ness-centered or town-centered or city-centered in- terests, even though these interests do not appear on the surface. I suspect the genuineness of sev- eral movements and sets of plans that are already proposed. I think we should be on our guard that capitalistic and consolidated interests do not get hold of country affairs and dominate them as they have too often dominated city affairs. This is a matter that concerns not only rural affairs but also the color of our democracy. I hope that the rural people will be very cautious in the acceptance of benevolence. Political groups, the railroads, the boards of trade, the banks, the philanthropic and betterment societies have developed a surprising interest in 140 RURAL PROBLEMS the farmer within the last year or two. One need not doubt their entire sincerity, but if the farmer allows these outside agencies to organize him and promote him, he will become involved and will be very likely to suffer in the end. Benevolent Urbanism One of the features of the temper of the time is that cities and villages are taking a striking interest in rural affairs. I presume that the most of this is perfectly genuine. Perhaps all of it is genuine. It is to be expected that such movements will start in the cities. But perhaps the persons and organizations in the cities and villages do not themselves know what may be involved. The farmer has not been the recipient of much attention heretofore on the part of chambers of commerce, business men's associations, and other groups. Suddenly he finds himself much consulted, invited to the banquets, and much talked about. Under such conditions he is easily persuaded and he is off his guard. He allows the organizations of business men and others to plan his farm bureaus and other betterments for him. Undoubtedly, he needs the help and the contact with the town- centered enterprises, but he must not let his work BENEVOLENT URBANISM, OTHER THINGS 141 be done for him nor let things slip through his fingefsi I have spoken of the crystallization in organiza- tions. A village or a city is an organization with a very strong group-spirit. It takes things to itself. If it is a rural village or city, it lives largely on the surrounding country. The wealth of the coun- try builds up its trade. This: wealth, so far as it is not put into private fortune, is likely to be applied to the improvement of the town itself. The farmer may never have thought of this rela- tionship, but, nevertheless, it has become uncon- sciously a part of his psychology. When the country village puts in boulevard lights and cement sidewalks, he knows that these things are not of him; and while he may have a general pride in them as a part of the development of his region, they are nevertheless likely actually still further to accentuate the social difierence between himself and the. townsmen. The trouble is that the rural incorporated village has been interested mostly in the development of the village, and its general ambition is to attract trade and to become a city. But I contend that a village in a rural community should not desire to become a city, or, at all events, that this desire should be wholly incidental. The prevailing spirit 142 RURAL PROBLEMS of such a settlement-organization should be to remain a part of the country that made it and to exist for the entire region, village and country together, rather than for itself alone. It is too bad that we are obliged to have corporation lines. If we could obliterate these arbitrary boundaries of the rural villages and small cities, I suspect that we should develop a new philosophy of rural development. Perhaps, in that event, there would be no atti- tude of tolerance or condescension of the town folk toward the country folk. There would be no habit of accommodating them. It impresses me that there is a distinct temper of benevolence in the urban attitude. It is the result of a more or less artificial and arbitrary group-spirit that sorts and assembles the best things to itself and leaves the remainder for the others. It is a temper that is at the bottom antagonistic to the best personal development in rural civilization. I cannot think of the most wholesome rural progress resulting from a preponderant flowing-out of enterprises from the towns. XX THE NEXT STEP IN THE COUNTRY- LIFE MOVEMENT Country-Bond lecture at Farmers' Week, February 14. 1913 YESTERDAY I spoke to you on " Benevo- lent Urbanism," in an attempt to portray the attitude of benevolence, generosity and perhaps of condescension on the part of the big town toward the country people; and inas- much as the village is an organization, I intro- duced the discussion with a consideration of organ- ization-groups in general in rural affairs. To-day I desire to develop the theme. Rise of the Present Discussions The country-life movement is an effort to secure from society fair attention for agriculture as an industry and for the country folk as a part of society, and to attain for them their proper share of the common good. It is not a definite plan of certain things to be accomplished or of legis- lation to be secured. It is rather an outlook on the situation. It is a philosophy of approach or (143] 144 RURAL PROBLEMS an organization of ideas ; and as one's philosophy is, so will be his results. The. old-time habitual politician as, such cannot lead the country-life movement. He necessarily has his ear to the ground and, whether he is aware, of it or not, is an opportunist. He must work for applause or at least for approval. Of course, he may hit upon a great many excel- lent things and be the mover in much useful legis- lation; but these results are more likely to be unrelated pieces than the outcome of a philosophy of the situation. This means that the leadership in the country-life work must lie with those who are not obliged to work for approval. It Is practically impossible to trace the country- life movement to its sources, although we can make out certain epochs and we know that formal steps have been taken. One of the most marked of these steps was the passage of the Hatch Act in 1887, establishing experiment stations to make investigations into the truths underlying agricul- ture. It is significant that the Hatch Act touches only the general field of production, and does not enter the realm of the farmers' relationships. It was the purpose of the Act to base good agricul- tural practice on well ascertained fact; and this is the first step in any progress. THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT 14s The long lean years between 1880 and 1900 brought the whole rural situation into considera- tion. People began seriously to ask themselves whether it were possible for persons to live on the land with profit, and satisfaction. Discussions began to arise all over the country, led by editors, teachers, forward farmers, and public men of many attitudes. The difficulties were beginning to be seen. From about 1900 to 1909 was the era of general search for causes. All this cul- minated, in a way, in the appointment by Presi- dent Roosevelt of the Commission on Country Life in 1909. The report of the Commission was made at a time when the country needed an author- itative statement, a presentation of the few cardi- nal deficiencies, and the main lines of relief. We are now in the epoch of plan-making. It is interesting to watch the arrival of these plans. They seem to be numberless. Perhaps this epoch will last for some years yet. It cannot be very long, however, before we cease making schemes, — all of which are more or less personal, — and find ourselves working along somewhat standard- ized and experienced lines. Perhaps we shall find the real progress coming naturally out of an awakened interest and an extended intelligence rather than out of any set of definite undertakings. 146 RURAL PROBLEMS It is a question whether the next great progress lies in making further plans and schemes, or whether it will not lie in the breaking out of new paths. There are now schemes enough to accom- plish everything that seems to be accomplishable within the field that has been defined as the realm of action for country-life work. Perhaps the next great step will be in a somewhat radically different direction. The Next Marked Step in the Process. The " next step " follows logically from the dis- cussion of yesterday, in which was portrayed the prevailing benevolent urbanism that still separates the town and the open country and which, in the goodness of its heart, constantly projects enter- prises on the farming communities. The next step in the country-life progress, in my estimation, is to make the country town a real part of country life. This is the other half of the country-life movement. I use the word " town " in the sense of a rural village or city that depends primarily on its agri- cultural background, rather than in the New Eng- land sense of a self-governing township. While the real farm population of New York State is probably somewhat more than one million, there THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT 147 are about half as many other persons living in towns of four thousand and under. In New York State, according to the census of 1900 (the census results from 19 10 not yet being available in all the matters discussed) , there were 39 incorporated cities and villages with populations of 2500 and under 4000 and carrying a total state population of 121,697. There were 145 places of 1000 and under 2500 with a population of 231,521. There were 191 incorporated places under 1000 and with a state population of 1 13,367. This makes a total population, which is essentially rural, of 466,585. Much of the population in cities between 4000 and 8000 population is also rural; and of these places there were 36 with a total population of 196,372. It is impossible ever to energize and redirect country affairs unless the population of these towns is considered as a regular part in the process. The American farmers will still continue in the larger part to live on their farms and will not aggregate themselves into hamlets as in certain parts of Europe. The European hamlet system is an historical condition, and is a part of the social evolution of the European peoples. It is increas- ingly necessary that the farmer live on his farm if he is to make the most out of the business. 148 RURAL PROBLEMS because the business is becoming more complex and requires constant attention of a well-trained man. However, the country towns probably al- ways will exist At all events, they are a real part of the situation at the present time. The farmers will trade in town. It is in the town that many of the workers will live, because it is essential that they be at the places of meeting where they can barter their labor. In the town will be found the craftsmen of many kinds, as the carpenter, stone- mason, blacksmith, tinner, tinker, painter, harness- maker and wagon-maker. In the town also will he a good part of the traders and the professional men, as the merchant, the produce-dealer, the banker, many of the teachers, librarians, doctors, veterinarians and ministers. It is natural that these artisans^ traders and professional men should reside at the crossing-places whereby they will have access easily to all parts of the inclosing region. The Place of the Village in the Country- Life Movement Now, the point is that we have associated these rural towns with the large cities and the metropoli- tan places rather than with the open country. We have thcmght of them as essentially urban rather than as essentially rural. Their natural aflSJia- THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT 149 tlon, however, is with the farming country.. Their general look should be outward rather than in- ward. The domestic and social barriers that have grown up between the town and country can be corrected when we undertake a rational and con- sistent development of the towns and the farming country together. The development of the rural town should be as much a part of the country-life movement as the development of the farms them- selves. These towns are merely the ganglia or the tying-places of the open country. If a state college of agriculture is really effectively to reach the rural situation, it must reach the rural town with the rest. It will be fatal to the best results if we continue to draw an arbitrary barrier line in our educational and country-life work between the country town and the open farming regions. We are doing everything we can to devdo^p the industries and the pride of the open country. While we are doing this we should .also develop coordinately the industries and the pride of the rural town. If we are to extend the benefits of agricultural advancement into the towns, then we must equally extend the benefits of the town far into the agnLcultural country. We must compiletely attach the town to its surrounding country and we must put into it the ambition to serve its country I50 RURAL PROBLEMS to the utmost rather than to desire to become a city. It is better for the town itself, as well as for the whole region, that it develop local in- dustries than that it put its whole energy into the attracting of unrelated enterprises from the out- side. If the village makes an effort to grow, it is usually by seeking for outside or distant enter- prises, that they may be established in the place; and yet it may be overlooking the fact that its best chance lies in promoting the agriculture or other natural business of the region. A certain village made great effort to secure a certain foreign manufacturing concern, not knowing that a farmer nearby had produced a new and excellent variety of grain and that it was fairly possible to make the town known, and to secure trade, by developing the region for one or two special agricultural in- dustries. This might not have increased the size of the village itself, although it might have added much to the wealth and prosperity of the immedi- ate region ; and here is again an illustration of the extent to which the big country town is centered within itself. The first thing, then, for the village to under- stand is that it has a part to play in the general development of rural affairs. We are now begin- THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT 151 ning to understand that these rural affairs are sub- jects of great national concern. The directing and handling of them are to demand the best states- manship. The rural village must have a turn- about: it must face conscientiously and hopefully outward to the surrounding country rather than in- ward to the bi^ city. It must be a part of Ameri- can country life rather than a part of American city life. The urbanization of the country town has naturally proceeded farther and has been more marked in the older parts of the East. This is one result of greater age, of the greater popula- tion in cities, in some cases of a thriftless agricul- ture, and also of the great importance of manu- facture; and yet these towns are the inevitable centers for the rural population. It is to be hoped that the villages of the Middle West and the Farther West will keep to their proper function as trading centers and gathering places for the rural people, and as distributing agencies of the best gains in human achievement. Here is good op- portunity for village presidents to make a de- parture. If they were to come together to lay out a line of action, they could exert great influ- ence. This large body of officials is now practically unknown to the public at large. 152 RURAL PROBLEMS If these points of view are sound, then it follows that there should be one program for the develop- ing of town and country. Just how such a pro- gram may be organized or be worked out, it is yet too soon to say. It is probably not desirable that in the present stage we outline a very definite or thorough detailed scheme. The thing to do is to begin work, and as we have begun work for the rural country, piece by piece and step by step, and suggestion by suggestion. After a time, the town will begin to make its own program, and then the real progress will be under way. Much has been said about the necessity of re- directing the rural school so that it will meet the rural conditions. The town school should equally meet town conditions. Note the inadequacy of much of the manual-training, for example. The town school should react to the arts and crafts and trade of the town community. It should also meet the needs of the country that supports the town, not only for the good of the farmer children that attend it but also for the good of the town children that do not intend to become farmers. If govern- ment is democratic, then education must be still more democratic, for all popular government must rest on the intelligence of the people. An abstract education cannot apply to the vast majority of the THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT 153 folk, and It ought not to do so. If it is important that the agriculture of a region be developed, then it is equally important that the agriculture in the schools of that region be developed. The village library should be more than a vil- lage library : it should have relations. So should the village church have very real and active re- lations. Very definite things can be accomplished "for the machinist, and for the blacksmith and the car- penter and the stone-mason and the road-builder and the decorator and the hotel-keeper, and per- haps also for the retired resident of the country town. As soon as the interest of these townspeople is centered in their entire region, they will have a new incentive for development, they will devise entirely new plans, and they will reverse their out- look as to the functions of a rural settlement; and the attitude of benevolence will be absorbed in one of coordination. We look for the time when there will be just as many plans and suggestions made by the agricultural folk for the advancement of the town as are now made by the town folk for the advancement of the open country. We must outgrow the notion that we are bound to maintain the country town on its present basis of trade and organization. The opposition to the 1 54 RURAL PROBLEMS parcel post proceeded largely on the assumption that we must not disturb present trade relations, whereby the town is too often an agency for the exploiting of the people or for controlling their trade in the interest of organized or intrenched traders. We need to develop new courses and methods of trade, and to break up the present com- binations of intermediaries. The growing coop- erative enterprises will in time produce some sur- prising results. Many of the rural hamlets are pitifully unat- tractive and apparently hopelessly dead. They are likely to be sterile way-stations between the farming regions that are now taking on new life and the crushing activities of the larger cities. Perhaps many of them ought to pass away. It can be imagined that if all the people of a large and fairly thrifty rural region were to come to- gether and discuss the question as to whether given hamlets ought to exist, recommendations might be made for the actual demolition or removal of many of the old buildings, cleaning the places away, dis- posing of the property, and incorporating the area again into a farming enterprise. Some of the rural hamlets are merely traditional remainders, persisting because some one owns the property and because the buildings are of no value for other THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT 155 purposes or may be rented cheap. The streams of trade have gone elsewhere. As the value of farming land increases, many of these dried-out hamlet areas will be needed for the raising of buck- wheat and apples and fowls. On the other hand, many of these country places are energetic and very effective business communi- ties, turning over an amount of commerce that is wholly surprising to one who would measure their activities by their population and the looks of the buildings. The better and more thrifty towns are beginning now, particularly in the best agricultural regions, to relate themselves very effectively to the rural development. In the old East, however, tradition is in the way of a complete incorporation of the activities of the two. Even though the town life may be very highly developed, it may never- theless be in-growing and self-centered. There is a growing desire on the part of all the better rural towns to establish genuine relations with the farm- ing people. One of the most notable features of many rural towns is the lack of town or civic pride. They grow up in a haphazard way with no supervision or attention to the character of the architecture and even with very little consideration of the natural beauties of the place and no coordinated IS6 RURAL PROBLEMS effort at what is called " village improvement." In the open country, nature herself heals the sores. The sores are far between and they are not large. She covers the raw places with grass or bushes or trees. The banks after a while are clothed. There are no great areas of raw dumps. The neighbor- hood of the country town is likely to be repulsive. I have often tried to make suggestions for the or- ganization of improvement societies that will op- erate in the town and the surrounding country to- gether, and that will not only improve all the region consecutively but that will interest the townspeople in actual work lying beyond the cor- poration lines. These were only random suggestions to illustrate what I have in mind. We must reach the country town as well as the farming country and do what we can to attach it to that farming country and to begin a development that will take in all sides of the rural situation. I have no complete or ready-made plan, nothing more than a program. More than six years ago, on the occasion of the dedication of these buildings, I said that the next generation is to see the rise of the country town (page 212).* I have never lost sight of this fore- cast, and have had the outline of a piece of work *See also " The Country-Life Movement," p. 26. THE COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT 157 as large as the present country-life movement itself. Here is practically a virgin field for a large work, and in due time it will be taken up constructively. We must have a new kind of country town. XXI THE LOOKS OF THE RURAL HAMLET Being part of a talk before a gathering in a small settlement YOU have asked me to express an opinion on your interesting hamlet and to make some suggestions for the general external im- provement of it. I have known this hamlet for many years and I come to it often. It has made a very distinct impression on me although I have seen It only from the outside and have not known many of the persons in their homes. However, the external appearance of a place Is a very good index of the general point of view of its inhabit- ants, and I hope that the suggestions will not be far wrong if made from the observations of a casual visitor. I think that your hamlet or village has not made the most of itself and is not representative of the persons who live in it. In this respect you are not peculiar, except, perhaps, as you have a more interesting and distinctive location, and therefore [158] THE LOOKS OF THE RURAL HAMLET 159 carry greater responsibility. Before making any specific remarks, I hope you will allow me to develop a point of view. The Way We Look at the Problem Every person who is a part of any society carries a public obligation. He cannot live to himself alone, unless he abides widely separate from his fellows ; and even then I suspect he would carry a civic obligation not to pollute the streams or to despoil the landscape or to conduct himself in such a way as to be a public menace. None of us desires to live absolutely alone and without this neighborly obligation, however much one may wish to be independent and free. It is commonly said by diligent persons that they are so busy as to be prevented from engaging in any kind of civic work. No person has any right to be so busy that he cannot be a contributing factor in the community. Persons carry the mis- taken idea that one can fulfill his social obligation only by going forth and partaking in extraneous enterprises. We can express a very civic right- eousness merely by remaining at home if only we contribute our home itself to the public betterment. i6o RURAL PROBLEMS In fact, the first obligation of any person is to make his home and its surroundings agreeable to his neighbors and to the whole civic body. It is more Important that a person begin to express his social conscience in this way than by taking part in settlement work or church work or school work or other enterprises ; he expends himself best in those enterprises after he has made his habita- tion an integral part of the civic body. His per- sonal establishment ought to be a factor in the com- munity. As a matter of fact, his establishment is a factor, whether he will or no. He ought to make it a conscious and a worthy contribution. The increasing socialization of our outlook is well expressed in the way in which we are now contributing front-yards to the betterment and im- provement of the whole street. The old idea that every Englishman's house is his castle is an echo of feudalism and of military control. It is better in these days to say that every Englishman's house is his opportunity. Socialized city or village streets in America, with the front fences and front bound- aries removed and with the continuous parkways and planting, are a great contribution to social bet- terment and to orderly government as well as to the physical improvement of the thoroughfare. Undoubtedly, these open avenues have done much THE LOOKS OF THE RURAL HAMLET i6i to break down the barriers, to eliminate artificial lines, and to make social suggestions. There are those who regret the removal of the fences and other boundaries, feeling that it does something to eliminate independence and privacy. But persons who are able to contribute their front- yards to the public are able also to have the side- yards and the rear for privacy, for gardens, for outdoor rooms and any other desirable appur- tenances of a residence. It is desirable that much of the gardening be personal and private. One is fortunate, however, if, while having this personal satisfaction, one can also contribute some of one's property to what is essentially a city park or an extension of a parking system. Not all thorough- fares need be parked in this way, however. It may be better that some of the less formal streets and roads be given over to residences of the in- closed or fenced-in type. Persons who have only a small area of land and small opportunities should not be expected to give all of it to the pub- lic. They should have the privilege of privacies in gardens, in playgrounds, outdoor living-rooms, and retreats. But even in these cases, the residence owes something to the street on which it is located, in return for all the privileges that in these later days society gives to every resident in the way of 6 i62 RURAL PROBLEMS roads, sidewalks, fire protection, police protection, telephones, water connections and all the other facilities that have become a part of modern life. It should be assumed that one should express one- self to the public. A city Is more than a collection of houses, even though a good part of these houses are curiosities. A good hamlet expresses the natural situation in which it is placed. In this hamlet of yours, I think that there is only one residence which to any extent ties itself in with the background. We are likely to build our houses merely to please our own fancy or the fancy of the architect with- out any particular reference to the character of the country or. the nature of the place In which they are to stand, beyond the mere convenience of securing access and making the underground con- nections. Most of the buildings I see here would be as much in place on a level plain, a mountain or a hillside, or along a shore, as they are in the bottom of this narrow valley. From the external artistic point of view, the oldest houses here are the best. There is not so much conscious effort in them as in the newer ones; the lines are simpler, more direct, the proportions are better. They also seem to be more nearly in relation with their surroundings. THE LOOKS OF THE RURAL HAMLET 163 It is a great gain if a hamlet or village can express continuity, particularly if the natural set- ting of the place suggests it. Here you have the strongest suggestion of it, — the little river run- ning through the center, the road following the curves of the creek, the high banks bounding it on either side. No place could be more excellent for developing a unity of treatment with a resulting social cohesion. We are fond of many of the Old World ham- lets. The pictures of them appeal to us. A good part of their merit lies in this very element of con- tinuity, with no glaring inconsistencies in the treat- ment or the development. In these days, if we erect a building, we send to some architect at a distance for a plan or perhaps we ask some non- resident builder who has no particular interest in the community. We buy our materials largely in the shops, much of it ready-made. The local car- penters and stone-masons and others have moved away. Even the labor may have to be imported. It is no wonder that the different buildings look to be unrelated, and that some of them seem to be out of place. In the Old World hamlets, which we admire, the buildings were made by resident workmen, largely from local or native materials, and there were no ambitious plans calling for great differences. In America we are also so possessed 1 64 RURAL PROBLEMS of the spirit of personal independence that every man wants to be as unlike his neighbor as possible. It is well to express all this individuality, but one ought not to go to the extent of producing inhar- monious structures and hinder the growth of the community sense. It is possible to have a unity of feeling in such a hamlet as this at the same time that every person expresses all his individuality short of eccentricity. In this hamlet I have noticed little evidence of active community action or community pride. You have no community hall. You have no common organization. This is all well indicated in the external character of the place. You are not far from a small city. Are your interests all centered there, so that you become a mere appendage ? Is it worth while to have a community life of your own, something that shall be more than visiting? Your hamlet, like so many others the country over, has grown up without plan or direction ; but a new life is now stirring In the open country, and this ought to express itself in these hamlets and villages more directly than anywhere else. This settlement should be good not only in itself but it should express the best in its surrounding country. Are you a part, or do you want to be a part, of the surrounding country? Or will you let every- thing go past your doors to the city ? THE LOOKS OF THE RURAL HAMLET 165 What Is to Be Done The first thing needful is to clean the place up. Any place needs it. There should be a cleaning- day or a cleaning-week at once. I am referring not only to the yards but also to the weeds along the roadside, the rubbish by the creek, the trash in the vacant lots, and the litter of stones and sticks that has accumulated through many eventless years. The first essential of art as also of civic pride is that the village shall be kempt and clean. In the second place, there should be new neigh- borhood pride in the buildings. I do not expect that you are to take your buildings down or to build them over for the sake of making them pre- sentable and harmonious ; but you will be making repairs now and then, and these repairs and addi- tions ought to be made with the idea of improving the architectural appearance as well as to provide additional conveniences. I have noticed a very well proportioned old-fashioned house with box- cornices. Two porches have been added; one carries out the lines of the original building with square heavy posts; the other is constructed of spindle work from the mill, whirled out by the turning-lathe. The result is that the building is in- harmonious in itself and is therefore unattractive. Very much can be done to overcome the dishar- i66 RURAL PROBLEMS monies in buildings by the careful use of paint. In a small hamlet like this, which is in a very strong natural setting, it would profit much by having a general tone-effect in its color. It is not essential that all the buildings be painted alike; quite the contrary; but a tone-scheme would pro- duce surprising results. If you could agree on such a tone, then each person, when he paints his build- ings, may adopt his own choice of color so long as it lies within the harmony. Third: Some of the buildings are not well placed to produce the best effect. The natural lines and the roadway are winding and irregular. It is especially important, therefore, that careful attention be given to the placing of the buildings so that you will not have a miscellaneous and in- harmonious effect. In rectangular settlements on flat land, the placing of the buildings presents simple problems, but here you should exercise special care. Your hamlet Is growing. There are a good number of vacant lots. If the remaining buildings could be well placed with relation to those already existing and also in reference to the natural surroundings, you could do very much to tie to- gether what Is now more or less hit-and-miss. Fourth : you should now be actively engaged in saving your natural attractions before it is too late. THE LOOKS OF THE RURAL HAMLET 167 You have some good waterfalls within sound of this meeting-place, but there is no good access to them. You could open a few walks or rambles along the creek-side. These walks may be simple and inexpensive and made from time to time ; but there should be a community plan as to what at- tractions you want to save and make accessible. Fifth : something should be done at once about the planting. You now have all kinds of planting or no planting at all. Adjacent properties should be planted somewhat with reference to each other, even when allowing every planter to express his own personality. I have already referred to the beauty of the English roads and lanes. A good part of this beauty lies in the continuity of the planting, even though the planting is not designed. Nature produces a continuous effect at the same time that she introduces great variety. Sometimes one plant-form will tie together an otherwise in- harmonious relation, as the ivy holds together so many of the foreign thoroughfares. In your set- ting, you should use mostly of good native ma- terial, — the trees, bushes, vines and herbs of the neighborhood. A " bee " now and then would bring together much material. The interesting ex- otic plants should not be discarded, but I think they should not comprise the dominant note in your i68 RURAL PROBLEMS planting. Very much of the inharmony in the buildings and in the subdivision of the properties can be overcome by a careful attention in the planting. By a good use of plant material you can. tie your buildings to the backgrounds. An Association The only way whereby any or all of these results can be brought to a finish is by an association com- prising the whole hamlet, to develop public senti- ment. If there were some man of means and pub- lic spirit who would himself undertake all these improvements, the results would be nowhere near so good as if you brought them about yourselves. The association should come out of the situation and not out of a philanthropy. You do not need much money, perhaps for the ordinary improve- ment only the annual dues of a dollar or so. The essential thing is to stimulate every resident to do something with his own place, and then to do it with reference to a community plan. You must have a village improvement society with active working committees. There should be one committee to see that the place is kept clean and that a proper disposition is made of garbage and waste. You should have another committee to look after the planting, itself making the plant- THE LOOKS OF THE RURAL HAMLET 169 ings in the open and public spaces and developing a plan for the whole hamlet that may be placed in the hands of every resident and to which he may work as closely as he desires; it should save the trees ; it should plant the bare and raw banks. Another committee might have charge of build- ings, to keep your people alive to the necessity of keeping their barns and fences as well as resi- dences in repair, to plan a few public lectures on the subject and in other ways to develop a com- munity pride as to improvements, painting and otherwise. There should be one committee to look after making the walks, to open up the at- tractive retreats and bits of scenery, to clean the groves and rambles, to preserve the comer-posts and the landmarks. This or some other commit- tee should look after the approaches to the settle- ment, to see that the roadways and paths are at- tractive to travelers; and also the approaches to culverts and bridges to see that they are safe. There should be a committee also to look after tent-caterpillars and other insects and pests. In this work, as also in much of the other enterprise, the children can be enhsted as very effective helpers. Around these improvements as a center, many other enterprises would develop, as the extension I70 RURAL PROBLEMS of electric lighting, fire protection, adequate water supplies and sewage disposal, the securing of lec- tures and entertainments, and eventually the build- ing of a community hall; and I hope, also, that the activities of the association may not be confined to the settlement itself, but gradually extend itself to your contributory country. XXII A NEW RANGE IN PUBLIC SERVICE Extract from an Address Before the Topiary Club, Cornell University, March lo, 19 14 WE need local directive agencies in the rural communities. The recent spread of the farm-bureau movement is one of the ex- pressions of such a need. It is but the beginning. In the field of landscape work, the village improve- ment society, or similar association, is practically the only representative organization. The village improvement society utilizes the background of community sentiment and it attacks the evident faults and it cleans up the unsightly places. For the most part, however, it is really not construc- tive. It lacks expert guidance. Rarely does it conceive of the artistic development of its region as a unit. I have spoken of the great necessity of some kind of recognized public agency that shall reach the artistic development of the open country. The professional architect and the professional land- scape artist will not have great influence directly in developing the art of the open country, not only because the people in the open country are unmind- [171] 172 RURAL PROBLEMS ful of them but also because the fees are not suffi- cient in these small and separate and remote pieces of work to warrant the professional man in seek- ing the clients. I think we have a hint, however, in various forms of public service. I should like to see every city and important village develop a landscape department that shall have charge of the parks, public squares, cemeteries, roadsides, school properties, and the general non-personal scenery. I should like to see, as I have already intimated, a well-trained landscape artist in charge of such a department. I should like him or her to be available for consultation by any person within the range who may desire advice on his back-yard or his front-yard or his roadside or the subdivision and general improvement of his property. This artist should be available at a moderate fee for the landscape work of the region to which he is assigned or for which he is employed. Here is a new expression in public service. It will surely come in time. We should begin to bring it about. American agriculture will never have arrived, rural life will never have attained its full satisfaction, until its artistic expression begins to be felt and to be expressed. Here is the oppor- tunity of this Department to start a movement and to put men and women Into the work. XXIII THE SITUATION NOW. AND THE SITUATION THEN BEING STATEMENTS OF SOME OF THE DE- FICIENCIES AND CONSEQUENCES OF AGRICULTURE-TEACHING Before Association of New York Agricultural Principals and Teachers, Syracuse, Dec. 20, 19 13 THE teaching of agriculture in the colleges and the schools has now delevoped far enough to give us some indication of its value and to suggest some fairly reliable state- ments as to its results and general effects. We have now passed the point of thinking that the teaching of agriculture is of value only to farmers or that it has interest to those alone who are en- gaged in this particular kind of educational work. We now realize that the introduction of this work in the schools and colleges is making a marked impression on educational activity in general, both in methods of teaching and in the organization of educational enterprises. What some of these re- flex and corollary effects are I shall attempt very briefly to state. tl73l 174 RURAL PROBLEMS We are undoubtedly in the presence of certain dangers and misdirections in the teaching of agri- culture, as, in fact, we are face to face with dangers and shortcomings in the country-life movement itself. Inasmuch as I shall indicate some of these hindrances or inadequacies in the educational field, I desire also at the outset to indicate some of the dangers in the general field of country-life activi- ties. In doing so I am not to be understood as expressing doubt of the country-life movement as a whole, for I think the general trend of the situa- tion is wholesome and that much real progress is making. There are always dangers and mis- directions in great public movements, because none of us is infallible and some of us are inade- quately prepared and lack wisdom. There are always persons who confuse situations because of lack of understanding; and, we are to expect that in any great public movement there will be self- seekers and demagogues. These difficulties and dangers are the by-products of the situation. It is impossible to spoil or permanently to misdirect the folk-movements of epochs. I purposely do not now speak of the advancement itself so much as of some deficiencies with which we must reckon. It is necessary to mention them if we are to get a real measure of the situation. While we could THE SITUATION NOW AND THEN 175 make better progress if these inharmonles and dangers did not exist, nevertheless, as things are, we must accept them as a part of the condition. It is best for us to know how much baggage we carry. The educational outlook so far as it touches agriculture and country life is involved in this general economic and social and political situation. Therefore every teacher must of necessity be in- terested in the general subject of country-life pro- gress if he is really to understand the meaning of his teaching in particulars. Now : The Several Dangers in the Country- Life Situation Particular future dangers* that He in the rural situation are the increasing likelihood of over organization; the applying of the method of the untempered social worker who is burning with zeal ; the grotesque undertakings of many of those who would go into farming for the purpose of showing the farmer how ; the moving out from the cities to the farms of persons who ought never to think of being farmers ; the selling of rural prop- erties of little value to confident purchasers; the *Largdy a transcrtation from an address before the New York State Bankeis' Association, Ottawa, Ontario, June 14, 1913. 176 RURAL PROBLEMS inflating of the opportunities in farming by many kinds of shows and attractive advertising; the utilizing of the rural movement to achieve personal notoriety and advancement and particularly to gain office and political ends; the employing of the methods of politics for the attempted solution of economic and social problems; the foisting of many kinds of fantatistic and cranky schemes on the public; the arising of damaging jealousies between interested parties, and counter currents ; the divert- ing of the attention from the homely essentials by overhead and ready-made schemes ; the playing of institutions to the situation for the purpose of securing appropriations and advertisement; the displaying of beautiful pictures and superficial writings that misrepresent the farming condition even while they tell the truth; and the starting of many enterprises essentially fictitious or at least unnecessary and that will bring confused if not serious results in the end, and that may entail more expense of maintenance than the situation warrants and that may not follow either sound educational ideas or good business administration. There is the ever-present danger of starting pieces of work here and there without knowing why or what they signify and without any real study of the situation or any program or policy; we are in this situation in New York at this moment. THE SITUATION NOW AND THEN 177 It undoubtedly will be found that those who know the rural conditions best will tend to be more and more conservative, and it will appear to an impatient class of very zealous and anxious citizens that these men are attempting to hold back the development. It will be known in time, how- ever, that the sure results will be those that come rather slowly and as the result of patient study rather than from any uncareful, showy, advertis- ing, or exploiting work. We shall probably find many persons making headway with attractive schemes that have no substantial foundation. There Is danger that the situation may frequently get Into the hands of those who will agitate It rather than solve it. The educational field in particular I am proud of the advancement that has been made In the teaching of agriculture In the schools and the colleges. I am not expecting, however, to touch this phase of the subject at this point. There are misdirections and dangers In a special educational field that should be mentioned. Some of these difficulties and hindrances are the stepping- stones by which we have come. If we recognize them to be stepping-stones we are not misled. 178 RURAL PROBLEMS It is singular how we work around the edges of all our big problems. This is a part of the process of beginnings. After we have experimented with these smaller parts for a certain length of time, we secure the knowledge and the confidence that en- able us to attack the central problem itself. When- ever a new interest arouses in any situation, the symptoms and the difficulties of the situation first appear. It is natural that these symptoms should be attacked. It has been so with medicine ; and we have transferred the expectations of medicine to agriculture. It is, of course, essential that we meet the special difficulties of the farmer, such as the depredations of injurious insects, the ravages of diseases of animals and plants, and the lessening fertility of the land. All kinds of defense work have gained prominence; and yet a farmer may master all these difficulties and still be very far from success. We are just now beginning to reach the basis of the situation in the new studies of farm- management, whereby we are to understand the nature of the organization of a farming business. It will probably be increasingly necessary to de- fend the farmer against his dangers and his diffi- culties; but we can never help him best until we place before him an analysis of his farming organi- zation and show him wherein he is weak and THE SITUATION NOW AND THEN 179 wherein he is strong so that he may reorganize his affairs from the bottom up and apply sound busi- ness principles to his occupation. He cannot apply the methods of business organization that are ap- plied in any other occupation whatever. The situa- tion must be worked out of the farming occupa- tion, and it must be worked out largely for every farmer independently. In the varied social and educational rural work, the same process must finally obtain. The present mode of treating symptoms, or of " hitting heads," is largely little more than palliative. I do not say that it is not worth doing ; but I am sure that other things are more worth doing. In our school work in agriculture, we began in much the same way. Our first efforts at the ap- proach to agriculture-teaching in the schools was largely the teaching of chemistry or other science as agriculture, the giving of mere practical in- formation (which may not be teaching at all), or the teaching of a kind of nature-study that at- taches itself to things that are " pretty " and " in- teresting," to the things that look good, that sing, that behave, and that children like to gather. In our manual-training work in the schools we have given relatively too much attention in the past to patterns and models and to all kinds of make- i8o RURAL PROBLEMS believe work rather than to the realities that every child must meet if he is to meet life at all. I do not know why manual-training should begin with pattern-work rather than with real work, — with the driving of nails, the using of a plane, the saw- ing of boards, the repairing of locks and tools, the putting together of a pump, the mending of a chair, and the using of all the various implements and devices that make any man or woman to be effective. Tools are great trainers of mental pro- cesses. They are good teachers. I should like to set every child at work (seriously at work, not at play) with twelve of the great tools, as the jack- knife, the hammer, the saw, the auger, the chisel, the plane, the draw-shave, the ax, the trowel, the hoe, the rake, and the spade. With these should go the measuring instruments as the yard-stick, the square, the compass, the tape-line, the level, and others. If any child is able to understand what all these tools really mean to him, he will have had a better start toward life, in my estimation, than any kind of pattern-work or model-work or play-work will afford him. Here I am not thinking of training-schools or apprentice-schools: these are special applications lying quite outside the present discussion. Nor do I know how completely this education by means of THE SITUATION NOW AND THEN i8i tools can be effected in the school alone. Un- doubtedly we shall be obliged to make home-work a part of the school enterprise ; and isolated han- dling of such effort exclusively in the school rooms necessarily results in much that is unrelated and only make-believe, and all make-believe should be eliminated from schools. I am wholly committed to the organizing of play to make it an educational force; and yet I think it is easily possible to give it too much promi- nence in school-work, more prominence than it should hold in life. Society is now weakened by the lack of a serious purpose in life ; we would not see the suggestive and grotesque costumes on our streets if our persons were seriously purposed — the costumes are the postures of mental vacancy. The violent efforts of persons to entertain them- selves and to try to satisfy themselves with life are similarly the postures of vacancy. We must be careful that the schools do not contribute to this light estimate of life. If we educationalize the play we must be more than equally careful to edu- cationalize the work. In our agriculture-teaching we are in the epoch of rapid growth and striking physical develop- ment. These are always dangerous epochs. They are most interesting and inspiring, but it is well 1 82 RURAL PROBLEMS when we have passed them safely. We are not yet past the era of rapid development, but we see the necessity of regularizing the work and of solidifying it ; this is now our problem. Then : Some of the Consequences of Agriculture-Teaching In the field of agriculture-teaching we are in special danger of making the work too bookish, too much of the laboratory, too much merely literary, too separate from life. Perhaps I can best illustrate what I mean by indicating what I consider to be some of the results of the teaching of agriculture, to which you may direct your at- tention. I. The degree of effectiveness with which it puts the pupils and the people in active Intellectual and spiritual contact with their work and their con- ditions is the measure of the teaching of agricul- ture. When we are discussing the difficulties and the short-comings of agriculture-teaching, we find no very general agreement as to standards of value. Every teacher has his own methods. A good teacher will secure better results with poor methods than a poor teacher will secure with good methods. It is difficult to standardize methods without sub- tracting the spirit from the teaching. I should not THE SITUATION NOW AND THEN 183 spend too much energy in trying to grade the value of this particular method or of that : I should pre- fer to expend my effort in trying to determine whether the work as a whole hits the mark, and I have tried to give you the measure. If the work in agriculture in any school does not develop the pupils and the people into sympathetic and intel- lectual response to their own conditions, then the work is of little real value even though it may meet all the formal educational tests. This fuller agriculture-work will be nature-study in its true and its best sense. It will be a study not of the pretty things, but of all things and any things. If one must pick, let him pick the signifi- cant things; and he may then pick a rainy day as well as a pleasant day or a muddy road as well as a grassy orchard. I think that we should ask of every school that teaches agriculture the question. What does this school mean to these people? It is very important that the teacher does not ask. What does this school mean to me? 2. The measure of good work is no longer the number of pupils or students who take it. There was a time when we were obliged to take count of the numbers, because they were so very few. The present danger is that we shall have too many rather than too few. We are not now to make our i84 RURAL PROBLEMS plea for public support on the number that we teach. The number does not indicate the school value nor the public value. 3. The teaching of agriculture is doing its part, along with the teaching of other real subjects, toward the setting of new standards of value in^ education. We once thought that the new educa- tion and the old were in conflict, much as we once thought that evolution and religion were in conflict. In this latter field the feeling of com- petition is past, and the preacher has become an evolutionist ; and the preaching has gained and the spirituality has been deepened. We are now be- ginning to see that the situation brought about by the introduction of agriculture-teaching is not con- flict with the old; the professor in mathematics and classics and literature is becoming an agricul- turist. It would seem as if everyone were now becoming an agriculturist. In other words, we are now accepting agricul- ture-teaching as part of a useful and realizable plan for the training of human beings. We are trying to forget the contrast of the " cultural " and the " practical," for we know that all education that really is education is both and that it is one. We are coming gradually to understand that there are good educational values in all good teaching. THE SITUATION NOW AND THEN 185 4. The agriculture-teaching is reacting on the method of teaching in the older subjects. It is helping to free these subjects ; to make them real ; to give them relations to living men. Probably there has never been a time when men have been more in need than now of an understanding of the meaning of ancient Greek literature and life. Of course the methods that are employed in the older subjects have their influence on the teaching of agriculture, but these methods were incorporated at the beginning of agriculture-teaching and are a part of it ; the agriculture-teaching accepted the ex- perience of the other subjects, probably even too literally; we all recognize this influence and our dependence on it: my point now is that the in- fluence is really reciprocal. My judgment is that the teaching of agriculture is making a contribution of far-reaching importance to educational practice in the historical subjects. Its effect in stimulating intellectual curiosity is a needful contribution to our time. Of course you understand that I am not making these assertions because of pride in the methods of agriculture-teaching, or because these methods themselves are necessarily applicable to other sub- jects; I have in mind the intention and the point of view that is inherent in the work. 1 86 RURAL PROBLEMS 5. This teaching demands new subject-matter and expert knowledge of it; and its emphasis is on good subject-matter rather than on methods of teaching. 6. The agriculture-teaching is relating the school to the community more directly than is any other teaching. In fact, as I have indicated, this teaching is not good unless it reaches the community as well as the pupils. The person who is teaching agri- culture is dealing with a life rather than with a technical subject alone. He is dealing with men and women in their home conditions, and is not merely developing the skill or the technique of a trade or the learning of a profession. The social and brotherhood element in the agriculture-teach- ing is a mighty contribution not only to education but to politics and to ethics. It is bringing the schools back to the needs of the localities. Agriculture-teaching differs radically in its re- sults from mechanics-teaching. The teaching in mechanics arts is interested in the products of manufacture and not directly in the home con- ditions of its people. The shop does not run directly into the homes. The farm, however, is the home. The business and the home are to- gether and practically inseparable. Thus it is that good agriculture-teaching is folk-teaching. THE SITUATION NOW AND THEN 187 7. The teaching of agriculture will eventuate into new ways of handling the rural problem. It matters not so much whether the schools teach these ways, as that they give the country man and the country woman a clear knowledge of the con- ditions, a method of contact, and a real vision of the future. The people will work out the problems in time. Just now it would seem as if the rural situation is to be conducted chiefly by city folk and to a large extent by non-residents; but in the end the problems will be worked out by the folk in the country. These folk will not let it be handled for them by the city, by the publicist, by the professor, or by the man consumed in the politics of a party. A good part of the political shift in recent years is due to the fact that the country folk, as well as other folk, are beginning to comprehend their own problems. The farmer is now able, also, to make a living without consuming all his effort in the process; and he is finding himself in possession of a little time and strength to give to public work. If all this means anything, it will work itself out in new intentions in our educational efforts. In- stitutions tend to become very self-centered. The opposite process must obtain in an institution that is to reach the rural field. The first thought must be the folk and the community and the affairs i88 RURAL PROBLEMS rather than the aggrandizement of the institution or the enterprise. The work will not only apply itself more and more where the people live, but to an increasing ex- tent it will actually be accomplished where the people live. An increasing amount of our educa- tional work will be done in the first place in the fields and in the shops. The greatest of teachers taught in the market-place. My judgment is that the new kinds of work we are beginning to install and the new attitudes here and there becoming apparent, will grow them- selves into new programs ; and these programs will mean new kinds of institutions. The teaching of agriculture is much more than the handling of a particular subject: It Is the introduction of a new set of ideas in education. I think that the introduction of agriculture- teaching will have more consequences than we foresee. XXIV THE OUTLOOK FOR THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE Address on the occasion of the dedication of the buildings of the New York State College of Agriculture at ]Cornell University, April 27, 1907 THE dedication of these great buildings raises two questions — the question of their pur- pose and the question of their significance. In discussing these questions, it is likely that we shall review a type of problems that is scwnewhat unusual to university gatherings, and we may ar- rive at a new outlook. It is first necessary to state a point of view. This College of Agriculture is not established to serve or to magnify Cornell University. It belongs to the people of the State. It will justify its ex- istence only as it serves the people of the State. The farmers of the State have secured it; no Note. — This address is included in the collection because of its historical character, as recording some of the purposes that were uppermost in the establishing of the College of Agriculture on a State basis in New York. Amplification and re-application of this address have formed the basis of several subsequent pieces of writing. [189] igo RURAL PROBLEMS amount of academic sentiment would have secured it. Their influence has placed it here. They will keep it close to the ground. The final establishing of this college, after many years of experiment and of waiting, is another epoch in the fulfillment of the dream of our great Founder. His outlook was one of service, and he would serve by founding an institution in which any person may find instruction in any study. We should never forget at such a time as this to value the services of our former Director, whose long, patient and tenacious work has made this day possible. To more than one of us, Professor Roberts has been guide, philosopher and friend. I. The Purpose of the College The purpose of this College of Agriculture is fully expressed in the act of administration : " The object of said college of agriculture shall be to improve the agricultural methods of the State ; to develop the agricultural resources of the State in the production of crops of all kinds, in the rearing and breeding of livestock, in the manufac- ture of dairy and other products, in determining better methods of handling and marketing such products, and in other ways; and to increase in- telligence and elevate the standards of living in THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 191 the rural districts. For the attainment of these ob- jects the college is authorized to give instruction in the sciences, arts and practices relating thereto, in such courses and in such manner as shall best serve the interests of the State ; to conduct extension work in disseminating agricultural knowledge through- out the State by means of experiments and demon- strations on farms and gardens, investigations of the economic and social status of agriculture, lectures, publication of bulletins and reports, and in such other ways as may be deemed advisable in the furtherance of the aforesaid objects; to make researches in the physical, chemical, biological and other problems of agriculture, the application of such investigations to the agriculture of New York, and the publication of the results thereof." II. The Significance of the College The significance of this new State institution is determined by the public need of it, and by the promise it makes of meeting these needs. The need of an institution that stands primarily and directly for the people who live on the land is apparent when we consider that one-third of the persons in the Union are farmers, and that even in New York State, dominated as it is by great cities and by corporate interests, there are apparently 192 RURAL PROBLEMS more farmers than in any other state in the Union, outside the slave states, excepting only Illinois and Ohio, and when we further consider that all other special educational institutions of whatever kind or name, are organized and maintained in the interest of professions or affairs that center in towns and cities. Not only do one-third of our people till the land for a living, but the prosperity of the other two-thirds is directly or indirectly conditioned on the products that this one-third raises out of the soil. The weal and welfare of these persons who live under the open sky determine, therefore, to a great extent the welfare of the general public ; and, equally, the point of view and the attitude of these numberless people are reflected in every national question. In the United States there are 5,739,657 farms carrying about 25 million farmers. There are five million farm homes, — not persons living in rented houses, or boarding in strangers' families, or living in flats and milking a tin cow ; but persons living in homes that they own or mean to own, going about their business in their own way, earning their living, — not receiving it or getting it, but earning it — self-respecting, staunch, of good original fiber, asking favors of no man, but wanting opportunity and waiting for it. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 193 As they are near the objects with which they live, so do their mental processes run directly from fact to conclusion with little regard for proper forms of logic. So also are they likely to measure men and affairs by real standards. The city man is re- moved from first-hand contact with sources of supply. His supplies come in packages, with labels and coloring matter, and he is not content unless they are sophisticated or fixed up. He not only drinks water from bottles, but adulterates it with carbonic acid gas. The farmer drinks uninflated water. The position of agriculture in the affairs of the nation is further evidenced by the fact that 35.7 per cent of all persons over ten years of age en- gaged in gainful occupations are in agricultural pursuits, as against 24.3 per cent in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, 16.3 per cent in trade and transportation, and 23.7 per cent in professional, domestic and personal service. The value of all farm property in the last census year was $20,514,001,838, while the entire capital in all forms of manufacture for the same year was less than half this amount, or $9,874,664,087. The total horse-power employed in all factories was 11,300,081, whereas the total number of horses and mules on farms in the United States was 7 194 RURAL PROBLEMS 18,276,551. Aside from this, very many farmers are using other power than horses and mules and most of them use machines that multiply the power of horses and mules. Agricultural Position of New York State Coming now to the State of New York, we find that there are nearly 227,000 farms. The number of farms with buildings is 223,836. If we assume that each of these farms with buildings has a family of the average size of families in the census year (4.7 persons), we find that there are more than one million persons living directly on the land in New York State. There are six states in the Union that have a valuation of farm property exceeding one billion dollars, and in this list New York State stands fourth, being exceeded by Illinois, Iowa and Ohio. In the total value of farm products New York has the same rank, being exceeded by Iowa, Illinois and Ohio. In the value of farm crops in 1899 it held fifth place, being exceeded by Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Ohio. Considered with reference to the value of farm products to the acre it heads the states in this list, the figures being. New York $15.73 an acre; Ohio, $13.36; Illinois, $12.48; Texas, $12.25; Iowa, $12.12. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 195 New York State has about sixty-seven and one- half thousand dairy farms, or one-sixth of all those in the entire Union. This is more than twice those in Pennsylvania, and nearly twice as many as in Illinois, Iowa and Ohio combined. The milk pro- duced in New York in the year 1899 was 771,- 799i352 gallons. New York State ranks first in the Union in the production of hay and forage, in this commodity producing about one-ninth of the product of the United States; in milk, butter and cheese, exceeding by about twenty millions of dol- lars its nearest competitor; in the number of dairy cows, exceeding one and one-half millions (the only county in the Union having more than three millions of dollars worth of dairy products is St. Lawrence county, N. Y.) ; also in potatoes, vege- tables, farm-forest products, apples, hops, flowers and plants, small fruits, and nursery products. These great figures of the agricultural effective- ness of New York State are often lost sight of in the preponderating influence of our many cities. Eighty-five per cent of the taxes of New York State, for example, are paid by Greater New York and Erie county. We must bear in mind, how- ever, that this wealth did not originate in these cities. The raw material comes somewhere from mother earth, and a good part of it comes from 196 RURAL PROBLEMS farms in New York State or elsewhere. There are only three sources of raw materials — the soil, the mines, and the sea. If one were to judge by the temper of recent events, one might think that some of the raw material in cities is derived from the wind. It is a wrong philosophy that would apply the proceeds of taxation only to the localities in which they originate. The state is an organism, and cities, like the country, are only parts thereof. Whatever may be said for or against strong cen- tralization of government, it has the tremendous advantage of being able to expend the revenues collected of all the people in the interests of all the people. All along the cities seem to have carried the idea that the country is responsible chiefly to them; the city also is equally obligated to aid its contributory country — to do its share in the con- tributing of public revenues to build country high- ways, country churches, country schools, and other rural institutions, for it is from the country that the city derives its raw materials which it works over into immediate wealth. The city has a distinct ob- ligation to the country. Without the country there would be no city ; without the city there would still be land. Great as the cities are and much as they mean to our modern civilization, the city cannot live to itself alone. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 197 The Agricultural Decline in New York Great and commanding as are all these figures of agricultural wealth, there is nevertheless another side to the picture. So far as statistics exhibit the facts, there is in many ways a marked decline in the agriculture of New York State.* In 1850, i860 and 1870 New York held first place in the value of farm property. In 1880 it lost first place to Ohio; in 1890 it took third place, being ex- ceeded by Illinois and Ohio; in 1900 (as already stated) it took fourth place, being exceeded by Illinois, Iowa and Ohio. In population there has been a marked decline in rural communities. Ac- cording to the figures of Rossiter, in 1850 five rural counties showed a decrease in population ; in i860 nine; in 1870 nineteen; in 1880 eight; in 1890 twenty-three; in 1900 twenty-two; in 1905 (State census) twenty-one. It appears that 43 counties have shown a decrease in population at some period in the past century. Twenty-eight counties, or one half those outside the metropolitan districts, have a smaller population to-day than they have had at some previous time, and these counties represent nearly one-half the entire area of the State. There has been a decline under the ♦See a later reference to this subject in Problem XVI (pages 111-117). 198 RURAL PROBLEMS maximum of more than 80 thousand persons in the rural counties of the State. This decline seems to be expressed ( i ) in migration of population to cities and to other regions; (2) in lower birth rate. In the occupancy of farms there has also been considerable change. While there were nearly 1,200 more farm families in the State in 1900 than in 1890, there were 3,479 less families own- ing farms and 3,238 more families hiring farms. The percentage of farms operated by owners had decreased in the ten years from 79.8 to 74.4; the percentage operated by tenants had increased from 20.2 to 23.9. Of the nearly 227,000 farms in the State in 1900, 34 per cent are reported as encum- bered. Moreover, between the years 1880 and 1900 there was an annual decrease in value of farm property of seven and one-third millions of dol- lars. For the same period there was an annual de- crease in the value of land and improvements of nearly eight and one-half millions of dollars. It is worth while to recall that the density of population in New York State in 1905, according to Rossiter's figures, is only 169.4 persons to the square mile, notwithstanding the fact that in New York City it is 12,000 to the square mile. In the remainder of the State (outside New York City) it is 86, or one person to each 7.4 acres; yet we THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 199 have been reading for many years of " Ten Acres Enough" and the latest contribution to this litera- ture is called " Three Acres and Liberty." The Real Significance of these Figures Startling as these figures seem to be, they really are not cause for great alarm. They are measures of a condition; and this condition must be under- stood and fairly met. This condition represents the greatest internal economic problem in New York State to-day. In the face of all this statistical decline three facts stand out prominently : ( i ) markets are as good as ever, for there is no decline in the pur- chasing power of the people ( rather there is a re- verse tendency) ; (2) the land is still productive, notwithstanding a popular impression to the con- trary; (3) good farmers are better off to-day than they ever were before. We have heard much about the abandonment of farms and we are likely to think that it measures a lessening efficiency of agriculture. We must not be misled, however, by surface indications. We must distinguish sharply between abandoned farms and abandoned lands. We are now in the era of a process of the survival of the fit. Two opposite movements are very apparent in the agriculture of 200 RURAL PROBLEMS the time: certain fanners are increasing in pros- perity, and certain other farmers are decreasing in, prosperity. The former class is gradually occupy- ing the land and extending its power and influence. The other is leaving the land. Abandoned farms are not necessarily to be deplored ; rather they are to be looked on as an expression of a social and economic condition. The older farming was prac- tically a self-regulating business, comprising not only the raising of food and of material for cloth- ing, but also the preparation and manufacture of these products. The farmer depended on himself, having little necessity for neighbors or for associa- tion with other crafts. In the breaking up of the old stratification under the development of manu- facture and transportation and the consequent re- crystaUizing of society, the old line-fence still re- mained; persons clung to the farm as if it were a divinely ordained and indivisible unit. This atomic conception of the farm settled the business into rigidity. The abandoned farms are forsaken atoms ; and there are many other atoms, large and small, to which the owner still clings with a for- lorn hope. In most cases, the rehabilitation of these farms must be molecular. The traditional boundaries must often be disregarded. Old farms are largely social rather than economic units. Be- THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 201 cause a certain eighty acres is enclosed with one kind of fence and assessed to one man does not signify that it has the proper combination of con ditions to make a good farm. We regret, often without reason, when a family gives up the farm for the town; we drop a tear for the abandoned hearthstones. But in the end, sentiments are per- sonal. New farms will be made out of the old. Rome is built on the ruins of Rome. We must consider that the agriculture of the eastern states is changing rapidly. It has passed through several epochs. Farming has been a very easy business, as measured by the old ideals and standards. With the increasing demands and com- petitions of civilization, however, it is coming to be much more complex and is demanding a much higher grade of intelligence and greater business ability. The farm of the future must be very much better equipped than the farm of the past has been. The future of agriculture in New York State lies largely in its diversification. This diversifica- tion is already a feature of the State. It is signifi- cant that while New York ranks fourth in value of farm property, it ranks as low as seventeenth in farm acreage, showing that the yield to the acre is far greater than in many of the competing states. Considering the fact that New York State is one of 202 RURAL PROBLEMS the largest states east of the Mississippi, this con- dition also indicates that New York is internally less developed than some of its competing states. Illinois ranks first in value of farm property and first in available farm acreage ; Iowa ranks second in value of farm property and second in available acreage; Ohio ranks third in value of farm prop- erty and third in available acreage; New York ranks fourth in value of farm property and seven- teenth in available acreage. Moreover, only 69 per cent of the total acreage of New York State is improved land. We have already seen that the value of products to the acre in New York State is greater than in the competing states that we have considered. A further evidence of the great diversification of agricultural enterprises in New York State is shown in the fact that in twenty-two of the leading products of this latitude New York State stands first in the production of eleven of them, whereas no other state ranks first In more than two or three. Fifty years ago, fifty millions of pounds of cheese were made on farms in New York State, whereas only two and one-half million pounds are now manufactured in that way; but more than 127 million pounds are made in factories. Indicating a very great change in conditions of manufacture as THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 203 well as showing the increase in the total product. It does not need figures to convince any person who has traveled in New York State that the agri- cultural resources of the commonwealth are un- developed. Agriculturally, New York is a new state. One-third of it is in woodland. A good part of the State to-day is a howling wilderness. Farmers in certain parts of the State are now peti- tioning the Legislature to protect them from bears. Education is the Solution The problem, therefore, is one of readjustment to new conditions, and this readjustment can occur only through the diffusion of greater intelligence. Knowledge and education lie at the very founda- tion of the welfare of the open country of the Em- pire State. Information and knowledge, however, and even education, do not of themselves consti- tute reform or progress. We need legislation and broad redirection of social and economic forces; but education lies behind and at the bottom of all these movements and without it no lasting progress is possible. There are many reasons why New York State should be first in agricultural activity : ( i ) it has already held the leadership and it should be a matter of State pride to regain that position ; ( 2 ) 204 RURAL PROBLEMS because of its geographical position and its great markets; (3) because of its large area; (4) be- cause of the diversity of its soils and its products ; (5) because of the steady and forceful character of its rural population. But first place in agricul- ture also means first place in the intelligence and enterprise of its farmers. Some of the states to the west of us have taken great pains to develop their agricultural conditions. Their conditions, how- ever, are often easy and simple as compared with ours. Highly diversified agriculture demands the highest degree of special and technical skill, as it also develops a wide diversity of affairs and a high type of citizenship. American agriculture is yet raw and undeveloped. I look for its first real evolution in the old East rather than in the West. In the West they are still in the epoch of self-con- gratulation, and a man who criticizes or who gives some other state the credit of more tons of prod- uce is in danger of being much criticized. We in the East have reached the point where we are will- ing to look the facts squarely in the face. If knowledge and education supply the basis of all progress, it next concerns us to inquire what manner of education the farming people need. It would seem to require no argument to convince any one that education in agriculture should be ex- pressed in terms of the daily life. Our education THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 205 has not been so expressed. We have been passing through a long epoch of experimenting in methods of teaching agriculture. Leaders have been pro- duced, literature has been written, and a broad basis of scientific fact has been developed. We are now able to put agricultural questions and affairs into pedagogic form so that agriculture is made a means of education. There is no reason why country-life subjects should not be made to be as eifective in training men as those associated with mechanics or engineering or history or medicine or law. Because this has not been accomplished in the past is no reason why it may not be accom- plished in the future. We shall probably see as much progress in the next ten years in these regards as we have witnessed in the past fifty years. These purposes are well expressed in the Land-Grant Act of 1862, which is the magna charta of education, probably being the most important enactment ever drawn in the interests of educational policy. All funds accruing from the Land-Grant Act are to be used, in the language of the act, " in order to pro- mote the liberal and practical education of the in- dustrial classes in the several pursuits and profes- sions in life." 2o6 RURAL PROBLEMS The New Yoek State College of Agri- culture Having discussed the need of an institution that shall be a normal and natural expression of agri- cultural affairs and that shall represent them in all their varied activities, we may now consider what promise this State College of Agriculture makes of meeting this great need. ( I ) First of all, I call attention to the fact that this college contains men and women. Here are my colleagues, sitting with their fellows from the other faculties of this great University, well trained, high-purposed, standing equal with their associates in the esteem of their colleagues and of all the world. There are sixty-nine members in the staff, appointed by the Board of Trustees, and I am sure that I am safe in saying that no other equal body of men in the world excels them in their ability to study and to solve the questions to which they have devoted their lives. And before me are the students, men and women — not a few Ill-prepared men apologizing for the subjects they pursue, but hundreds of them, old and new, earnest, well-prepared, with a purpose in life, and Industry and grit to carry it out, and every one of them as proud as he can be that he Is a member of the College of Agriculture. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 207 The number of students in this University pur- suing agriculture alone during the present year is 542, of which 241 were winter-course students. Not counting the graduate students, which have in- creased very greatly, there has been an increase in attendance of students in agriculture in Cornell University in the last ten years of 390 per cent. These figures now place the New York State Col- lege of Agriculture amongst the first three or four in the Union; and yet the college has only begun its work — this dedication begins a college, not completes it. There are 100,000 boys and girls back on those farms that should be receiving in- struction in agriculture this very day, and when our work is in full swing next winter, yonder buildings, large as they seem with their nearly three acres of floor space, will not be able to accommodate the student body properly. This year Faculty and students in agriculture alone number 610; the main auditorium, which you are soon to inspect, seats 550 persons. Nearly 2,000 students have left us, far the larger part of them having gone directly to the farms and dairy establishments of New York State. In twenty-five years there should be at least 10,000 more. In that day they will be the leaders. They will dominate not only the agricultural prac- tice, but the social and political ideals of the open 2o8 RURAL PROBLEMS country. It is possible that they may dictate the control of the balance of power in New York State. (2) The second assurance of promise and suc- cess lies in the fact that the interest in education by means of agriculture is not local. It is now more in the public mind than any other phase of educa- tion. This statement is well illustrated in the at- tendance of students of agriculture in the Land- Grant colleges of the country. In the year 1 894-5 there were 2,712 such students in attendance in the United States. In 1905 the number exceeded 7,000, representing a gain in ten years of more than 350 per cent. The gain in the next ten years will undoubtedly be very much larger. The leader- ship in rural affairs is rapidly passing to the in- terests that associate themselves with the agricul- tural colleges and experiment stations. In twenty- five years there will be a new political and social philosophy of the open country born out of these institutions. (3) The third note of promise Is the fact that we have here the framework of a serviceable col- lege of agriculture. Most of the main depart- ments in a modern college that stands for education by means of agriculture are now represented in the faculty and the curriculum. This college now <;omprises such distinctly agricultural departments, THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 209 already organized or in process of organization, as agronomy, horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy industry, farm mechanics and machinery, rural engineering, rural art (landscape garden- ing), rural architecture, rural economy, home economics, and the normal department; also the extension work and the experiment station. Aside from these departments, are the special applica- tions of some of the biological and physical sciences, as chemistry and botany and zoology in their relations with agriculture. Two or three other great departments are needed to make this college fully representative of the activities and affairs of the open country; but the foundation is laid. These departments represent the framework of a modern college of agriculture. On this frame- work the completed structure is to be erected. The mere enumeration of these departments in- dicates that, while the main or central business of a college of agriculture is to teach the science and the practice of farming, such an institution really stands for the whole open country beyond the bounds of cities, taking this field because it is in- divisible and also because other institutions have passed it by. There are whole universities that have a lesser scope than these leading colleges of agriculture. These institutions mean not one iota 2IO RURAL PROBLEMS less than the redirecting of the practices and ideals of country life, and they are to-day making the greatest single contribution to constructive peda- gogical politics, and for the very good reason that they deal with the commonplace and fundamental facts and necessities of life. There was a day when universities tolerated instruction in agricul- ture. The time will soon be, if it is not already here, when a university that is a university must include agriculture if it is to meet the problems of the people. (4) We are now witnessing a radical change in methods of teaching. These agricultural col- leges have slipped their academic bonds. They are getting hold of the real objects and the real affairs. Land and animals and orchards and machines and crops are no longer regarded as mere museums, but they are laboratories and laboratory materials to be used for the same purpose and in the same pedagogical spirit as the geologist uses rocks or the chemist uses chemicals and chemical problems. In yonder buildings which we now dedicate there is a classroom into which real live cattle and sheep and other animals may be taken for study. These animals will be laboratory material. If it is worth while to study live bacteria and live insects, it is equally worth while to study live cows. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 211 In other words, the spirit of the modern agri- cultural college is to teach in the terms of the actual daily life, making nature and the farm a real part of one's living and the foundation of his philosophy of life. The lack of appreciation of this laboratory significance has prevented the proper growth of these agricultural institutions. Never have they had money enough or freedom enough to work out the problems fundamentally. Agricultural education is the most expensive to maintain of all education because its laboratories are so large, so various, and so expensive in their up-keep. Institutions centering about city ideas re- ceive no end of money and study. The open coun- try is finally coming to its own. With money and men the rural problem can be solved, and the State is under the necessity to solve it for its own preser- vation. The Re-directing of Rural Institutions We are all aware of the present return of country-life sentiment. It is of two kinds : the de- sire of many persons to escape to the country, which is reasonable; the desire of certain other well meaning persons, mostly doctrinaires, to " uplift " the farmer, which is mostly misdirected and unnecessary, but usually harmless and it keeps 212 RURAL PROBLEMS them occupied. The fanner stands on his own feet, and he needs no apology. The help that he needs is the removal of conditions that disadvant- age him, so that he can work out his own progress. Now, mostly through no fault of his own, the in- stitutions which are nearest to him are in a state of arrested development or even of decadence. The greatest need at the present day, whether in state or national issues, is a fundamental redirect- ing of rural institutions. There must be a new crystallization of ideas, and perhaps to some extent a new political philosophy. The main effort of the agricultural colleges thus far has been to establish themselves and to teach their students how to make the land more pro- ductive. While a study of the means of increasing the productivity of land must always be the central effort of these institutions, as I have said, they have now taken on a much larger scope and must deal also with the farm as a part of the community and consider farming interests with reference to the welfare and the weal of the commonwealth. We have lived in an epoch of city-building. The avenues of trade and the movements of population have drained the country into the city. The next generation is to see the rise of the small town. The agricultural colleges and experiment stations THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 213 are an essential part of this new redirecting of effort and all the work of these institutions event- uates in social ends. Agricultural institutions are not isolated agencies. They contribute to the public welfare in a very broad way, extending their influence far beyond the technique of agricultural trades. Out of all our facts and discoveries we must now begin to formulate a new social economy. With the growth of urban sentiment, the native- ness of urban institutions has been allowed to die out. City institutions have taken their places. The attention of all the people has been directed city- ward; even though they live in the country, they think of the town and city as the proper place in which to go to church, to school, to seek enlighten- ment and amusement. Socially, the country has been left sterilized. If we need a fundamental redirection of country institutions, I may be allowed to indicate a very few of those which seem to me most to need new and careful study. I. Organization. — We need to organize the affairs of the agricultural country. There are many small organizations crystallizing about local questions. These questions are largely economic. They may be societies of corn growers, of creamery men, of evaporated fruit men, clubs organized tem- porarily to check tuberculosis, reading-clubs, and 214 RURAL PROBLEMS the like. Some central agency should coordinate and integrate all these local and isolated organiza- tions so that, while every one maintains its com- plete autonomy, altogether they may proceed to- ward definite ends. Most of the rural organiza- tions are really conventions meeting once a year or possibly once a month. In the interim they have no effective and continuing interest; thereby they lose their efficiency. In contradistinction to all this is the Grange which conducts its business through- out the year, its offices always being open; and this is why the Grange, with its more than seventy thousand members in New York State, has such tremendous influence. 2. Communication. — The city has developed greatly because of the perfecting of means of com- munication. The country is now beginning to con- sider this question. Trolleys, rural free deliveries, and other agencies are now well established. We must take care that these means of communication do not result in draining the country into many small cities or towns, as the railroads and canals have heretofore drained it into metropolitan centers. Good roads are a means of doing busi- ness expeditiously and economically; they are also a means of overcoming isolation and they will have a great influence in organizing social movements THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 215 in the open country. All other avenues of com- merce have been primarily city feeders. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that country highways serve country necessities. 3. Entertainment. — The city has developed high effectiveness in entertainment and amusement. Country people are looking to the city for their entertainment. I am wondering whether the time will not come when we shall endeavor to reestab- lish some of the good old country entertainments and games. I have already said to the students in this college that I would like them to have an athletic field of their own if, thereby, they could develop native games in which many persons could participate rather than those in which a few per- form feats of skill and all the others look on. There is no essential or necessary reason why country people should look wholly to the town or city for amusement or entertainment. 4. Schools. — The rural school needs funda- mental re-direction. While it is better now than it ever was before, it is nevertheless in a state of arrested development as compared with town schools and city schools. The small country school is a good school just because it is small and also because it is close to the actual problems of the people. In spite of this fact, however, the teaching 2i6 RURAL PROBLEMS in these schools is little related to its environment. Our good old Professor Roberts, whom we all delight to remember and to honor, used to say that he had graduated from all the country schools, and the only thing he ever learned that had relation to the farm was that cider is made from apples. I suppose it is indisputable that all effective education should develop out of experience; and also that every school should be the natural ex- pression of its community. If these statements are accepted, then it will be seen that the mere addition of a subject here and there to the school curricu- lum may not be sufficient to put the school into real relationship with its environment. I am thoroughly in sympathy with the establishment of secondary special schools for the teaching of agriculture whenever they can be well organized and the sub- jects thoroughly well taught. I am also much in sympathy with the introducing of agriculture as a special subject in rural schools, whenever it can be effectively handled. These two agencies ought to be effective in arousing and crystallizing public sentiment to the need of a new kind of education. However, these cannot solve the problem of rural education in terms of the daily life. The separate agricultural school may be thoroughly effective from the pedagogical point of view, but even one THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 217 in every county cannot reach all the people. Sup- pose there were fifty-five agricultural high schools established in the rural counties in New York. State, and that each should have a capacity of graduating fifty students per year who had re- ceived elementary agricultural instruction. In order that one boy from each farm in the State should have a chance in such a high school would require about eighty-one years. Moreover, there should be at least two persons from every farm educated in terms of farm life, and new genera- tions are being born. The final ineffectiveness of merely adding agriculture in the rural schools lies in the fact that it does not constitute a fundamental re-direction of the whole point of view of the school itself, although it may be a most useful means of starting a revolution that will bring about that desirable end. I believe in the nativeness of the rural schools. I should like to see them numer- ous and relatively small. In certain cases con- solidation of rural schools may be advantageous. It is advantageous only when they need to be con- solidated or centralized for pedagogical reasons. It is not wise to consolidate them merely to secure greater funds to maintain a combined school; for it is the duty of the State to see that its people are educated, and if we expend millions of dollars for 2i8 RURAL PROBLEMS canals and for roads and for other objects, we can also afford to spend more millions of dollars for the education of our children. I should be sorry for the time when local taxation for the mainte- nance of schools would ever be eliminated or re- duced, for we need the spur of taxation to interest the community in its own affairs ; but, on the other hand, I also look for the time when the State will cooperate even more fully than at present in mak- ing direct appropriations to the rural schools. The school should represent local interest. We have become so much In the habit of moving from place to place that we are likely to lose our attachment to particular pieces of land. I strongly sympathize with the feeling of farming communities that when a school is discontinued in a neighborhood a vital spark has gone out of the community. It is not necessary to have an entirely new cur- riculum in order to redirect the rural school. If geography is taught, let it be taught in the terms of its environment. Geography is the surface of the earth. It may well concern itself with the school grounds, the highways, the fields and what grow in them, the forests, hills and streams, the hamlet, the people and their affairs. When I be- gan to study geography it was a ballooning process. I began somewhere off in the universe and gradu- THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 219 ally dropped down through the solar system until I reached the earth. When I landed on the earth it was in South America and Asia. I learned about the anacondas and boa constrictors of South Amer- ica and the lions and tigers of the Old World jungles. I never learned anything about the pigs and chickens on our own farm. What I learned about these animals was of two categories: there are certain animals that deserve to be studied be- cause they afford products useful to man ; there are certain other animals that need to be studied be- cause they are terrible creatures that eat folks up. All this, of course, is rapidly changing. We are now interesting the child In the earth on which he stands, and as his mind grows we take him out to the larger view. A good part of geography in a rural community should be agriculture, whether so- called or not. Geography can be so reorganized and so redirected as in ten years to revolutionize the agriculture of New York State. I might make similar remarks about arithmetic. The principles of number are, I suppose, the same everywhere; but there is no reason why the prac- tice problems should not have local application. In my day at least, a good part of the practice problems were mere numerical puzzles. I fancy that even at the present day the old people are 220 RURAL PROBLEMS Interested in the problems that the child takes home merely because the child is in a fix and his pre- dicament appeals to their sympathies. When, how- ever, the child takes home a problem that has ap- plication to the daily life, there is a different atti- tude on the part of the parents not only to the problem, but to the school which gave the problem. A good part of agricultural practice can be ex- pressed in mathematical form. How to measure land, how to figure the cost of operation, how to compound a ration or a spray mixture, how much it costs to fight bugs in the potato field, the mathe- matics of rainfall and utilization of water by plants — these and a thousand other problems that are personal and vital could be made the means of so redirecting and reorganizing number work as to make it possible, by means of the schools, to revolu- tionize the agriculture of New York State. My hearer can at once make applications of this line of thought to the reading, to the manual train- ing, and to the other customary work of the school. I recall the case of a young teacher who was told when he went into a community that persons could not spell as they did in the old days. He saw his opportunity. He discarded the spelling books and made up a list of two hundred words that were in common use in the community. He taught the THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 221 people to spell and, at the same time, he Interested them in a new way in their own affairs. Starting from this beginning he has come to be a man of much more than State reputation. You have only to consider the school houses to see that the rural school is in a state of arrested development. Go with me from Maine to Minne- sota and back again and you will see in the open country practically the same kind of schoolhouse all the way, and this is the kind in which our fathers went to school. There is nothing about it to sug- gest the activities of the community or to be at- tractive to children. Standing in an agricultural country, it is scant of land and bare of trees. I think that if a room or wing were added to every rural school house to which children could take their collections or in which they could do work with their hands, it would start a revolution in the ideals of country-school teaching even with our present teachers. Such a room would challenge every person in the community. They would want to know what relation hand-training and nature- study and similar activities bear to teaching. Such a room would ask a hundred questions every day. The teacher could not refuse to answer them. It was with some such Idea as this that we have erected on the Cornell campus, in connection with 222 RURAL PROBLEMS the College of Agriculture, a rural school building which has the ordinary teaching room and also a work room. This building, costing only $i,8oo, is also designed to be comfortable and attractive and sanitary — three conditions which I fear are little present in the average rural school building. I want to see the time when some great university, wishing to contribute perhaps more than its accus- tomed share to the public welfare, will establish a plain, simple, redirected rural school as an example and incentive to all men. The problem of the rural school, therefore, is not so much one of subjects at it is of methods of teaching. The whole enterprise needs to be devel- oped natively and from a new point of view ; for, in an agricultural country, agriculture should be as much a part of the rural school as oxygen is a part of the air. 5. Government. — It is a question whether we do not also need a redirection in rural government. The rural people are not inert, as they are often said to be, nor are they incompetent, but the sys- tems whereby men are organized and affairs are directed are likely to be incomplete, ineffective and to lack vitality. I think we need more active and compact rural government. I am afraid that some of our systems may be found to be antiquated and inadequate. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 223 6. Financial institutions. — We all know that the farmer is disadvantaged in our financial institu- tions. Banks, for example, give him almost no direct aid in his business, however much they may aid those who trade in money. We need banking institutions that shall have for their main purpose the developing of the country from which they draw their trade. 7. Churches. — The rural church also needs radical attention. What I have said about the rural school-houses will apply very largely also to the country church buildings. They consist chiefly of a preaching room and a vestibule. They have changed very little within two generations. Concerned in too many cases with technical reli- gion, formal piety, small and empty social duties, the country church lacks the activity and real con- nection with life to appeal to many of the strong personalities in its community. The country church offers a great opportunity for young men who wish to be of service to their fellows, providing they see a new horizon and desire to recast the church effort into line with daily living. Every pastor who hopes to do the greatest service in the open country should have training in an agricultural college, or in some similar institution. Religion is the natural expression of living, not a set of actions 224 RURAL PROBLEMS or of habits, or a posture of mind added to the daily living. The type of religion, therefore, is conditioned on the kind of living ; and the kind of living is conditioned, in its turn, very largely on the physical and economic effectiveness of life. I should like to see on every important four corners in the open country four buildings — on one a general assembly place, as a town meeting hall or a grange hall; on another corner I should like to see a building into which the products of the community, historical mementos, books, biogra- phies of the inhabitants, and the like could be collected and preserved. Such a building would develop a strong local interest and attach persons to the land on which they live. On another of the corners I should like to see a redirected rural school devoid of all fidgets and fads, which should be as much a native expression of the community as are the farms and the homes themselves. On the other of the four corners I should like to see a country church which would stand for aspirations and ideals, but which should have its roots, never- theless, run deep into the indigenous affairs of the country. Everything with which men have to do needs to be spiritualized. This is much more effective for our civilization than merely to spirit- ualize things that we hope for. THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 225 From this brief sketch we see that the rural country needs a new direction of effort, a new out- look, and a new inspiration. Some man some day will see the opportunity and seize it. The result of his work will be simply a new way of thinking, but it will eventuate into a new political and social economy. When his statue is finally cast in bronze, he will not be placed on a prancing steed nor sur- rounded by any symbols of carnage or of war. He will be a plain man in citizen's clothes, but he will stand on the ground and his face will be to- wards the daylight. The Outlook Young men and young women who have the love of the open country in your hearts, there lies the opportunity for new leadership ! With the great growth of urban sentiment and affairs we have overlooked the value and significance of the plain country institutions, and also of the common things of life. Other ends in life have come into prominence and persons have been attracted by the high points and by objects and affairs remote from them. Real leadership lies in taking hold of the first and commonest problems that present them- selves when you go home. I have spoken of the young man who attained to leadership because he 8 226 RURAL PROBLEMS taught the persons of his community how to spelL I know one other man who is organizing new methods of farming practices in his community. Recently he was called by President Roosevelt in consultation. Leaving this institution you will be asked more than one question when you alight from the train on your way home. Some one has a problem. Whatever it is and however small, seize it. If you have not studied the problem, you ought at least to have the organizing ability to take hold of it and to understand it. Some one can help you. Concentrate the sentiment of the community on it. Take hold of it with a will and because you feel that it will help your fellow men. No man should enter into service for the purpose of developing leadership ; he should serve for the sake of the service. Leadership is a result of good service and will come as a natural con- sequence. Whatever the problem and no matter how small it may seem to you, if you solve it greater opportunities await you. The opportuni- ties will be measured only by your ability to see them and to handle them. Most of us are so blind that we never see the opportunity that lies directly before us. I bid you, then, go back into the rural country fully inspired with the idea that great THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE 227 opportunity for service awaits you. Here is a new thing in the world. These are some of the visions that we see. The Governor, with great words and in the name of the people of the Empire State, has dedicated these buildings to the interests of the persons who stand on the land. We accept the responsibility. We accept it because we have seen the vision. We know that we cannot reap the harvest, but we hope that we may so well prepare the land and so diligently sow the seed that our successors may gather the ripened grain. Joining hands with the State Department of Agriculture, with the State Experiment Station, with all other institutions, public or private, that work for the welfare of the open land, and with the men who stand on that land, we hope to contribute our part to the work that Ires before us all. Our problem lies with the people both here and yonder. If there is any man standing on the land, unattached, uncontrolled, who feels that he has a disadvantage and a prob- lem, this college of agriculture stands for that man. XXV THE EXTENSION SCHOOLS. AND OTHER HISTORY IN discussing the question of farmers' institutes in the Tribune Farmer of September i8, 19 13, at the request of the editor, I made the following statement: " The work of the College has grown out of the demands made on it, and out of the natural internal evolution of the purposes for which it is established. It is only recently that we have begun to understand the function of a state coUege of agriculture. One of these functions Is extension work of many kinds and parts; and to do extension work is likewise one of the obligations imposed on the New York State College of Agri- culture by the law defining its administration. The ' extension schools ' are one of the essential forms of this teaching work. It may be interesting to know that these extension schools are a revival of similar schools held by myself and others before I became the director of the College. They were discontinued on our own motion because it was thought that they might interfere with the insti- tutes ; but after many years they were again under- [228] EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 229 taken, after full discussion, because the growing extension work seemed to demand them and be- cause they seemed to be a supplement to the insti- tutes. I shall write a history of these early ' schools of agriculture.' " I shall now present this history ; and to give it the proper relation to the State work of which it is a part, I shall recount some of the general history of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University so far as my own responsibility may extend. Before doing so, however, it may be well to explain what is meant by an extension school; and for this purpose I quote from the Announcer of the College of Agriculture, for December, 191 1 : "The College of Agriculture is prepared, for the coming year, to place a few extension schools in different parts of the state. In these schools definite instruction with special reference to the immediate locality concerned will be given. These schools are of one to two weeks' duration, con- ducted by members of the College staff. " Popular lectures will be given at these schools in the evening, but the days will be occupied by regular instruction on subjects applicable to the 23° RURAL PROBLEMS region. The program for one of the schools is as follows : Monday Registration. Lesson — Corn Selection and Breeding. Lesson — The Old Apple Orchard — Part I. Lesson — Alfalfa. Practice Period — Corn Selection and Judging. 9 :oo-io :oo A. M. 10:00-11 :oo A. M. II :oo-i2:oo A. M. 1 :oo- 2 :oo P. M. 2 :oo- 4 :oo P. M. Tuesday 9 :oo-io :oo A. M. Lesson — The Old Apple Orchard — Part 2. 10:00-11:00 A. M. Lesson — Potato Selection and Breeding. 11:00-12:00 A. M. Lesson — Clovers. 1 :oo- 2 :oo P. M. Lessons — Farm Management and Farm Accounts. 2 :oo- 4 :oo P. M. Practice Period — Potato Selection and Breeding. 9:00-10:00 A. 10:00-11 :oo A. II :oo-i2:oo A. 1 :oo- 2 :oo P. 2 :oo- 4 :oo P. M. M. M. Wednesday Lesson — Pastures. Lesson — Soil Fertility. (A) Causes of Decline. (B) Role of Humus. Quiz — Corn and Potatoes. Lesson — Manures and Cover Crops. Practice Period — Legumes and Grass Seeds. Thursday 9:00-10:00 A. M. Lesson— (A) Lime and Its Uses. (B) Commercial Fertilizers. 10:00-11 :oo A. M. Lesson — Plant Growth. 11:00-12:00 A. M. Lesson — Feeds and Feeding — Part I. I :qo- 2 :30 P. M. Discussion and Quiz — Fertilizers and Manure. 2:30- 4:00 P. M. Lesson— Apple Scab. EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 231 Fkiday 9 :oo-io :oo A. M. Lesson — Feeds and Feeding — Part 2. 10:00-12:00 A. M. Lesson — Bean Diseases. I :oo- 2:30 P. M. Lesson — Improving Dairy Herd — Part I. 2 :30- 4 :oo P. M. Lesson and Practice Period — Smuts. Saturday 9:00-10:00 A. M. Lesson — Improving Dairy Herd — Part 2. 10 :oo-i2 :oo A. M. Lesson — Potato Blight. I :oo- 2 :30 P. M. Lesson — Care and Handling of Milk. 2 :3o- 4 :oo P. M. Discussion and Quiz — Plant Diseases. " Special attention is given not only to lectures but to demonstrations, quizzes, and general prac- tice periods. The aim is rather to carry a few important lines of study throughout the course than to give a smattering of a large number of subjects. Large classes are not expected nor de- sired. Twenty-five to seventy-five persons make a satisfactory class. " The schools are placed only on request, and only when the local expenses are borne by the members. Regular tuition fees are usually charged by the local organization, and students (of what- ever age) are regularly enrolled as in a class. About fifteen schools have now been placed for the winter." Some of the Early History When the Land-Grant Act of 1862 was passed by Congress, and on which the American Colleges of Agriculture are founded, there was a system 232 RURAL PROBLEMS of state support for higher education in the central and western states, and it was therefore only an extension of the state program to supplement the Congressional Act. In those states, the institu- tions founded on the Land-Grant Act became at once state institutions. It was not so in all the eastern states, in which there was no recognized or constitutional provision for the establishment of state universities or colleges and for making them a part of the educational plan of the common- wealth. The reader will therefore understand why it has been so difficult to establish an agri- cultural college on a state basis in New York, and he will also comprehend how it is that we have drifted into serious and unnecessary difficulties by having no comprehensive policy. The first direct appropriation by the State of New York for college education in agriculture (beyond the early unsuccessful attempts to found colleges*) was for the dairy building at Cornell University In 1893. The appropriation was $50,- 000, " for the Cornell university, for the erection upon its grounds of a building for Instruction in dairy husbandry and for the equipment thereof." In 1894, the State Veterinary College was founded at Cornell University. In 1898, the State ♦York State Rural Problems, I, p. 228. EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 333 College of Forestry at Cornell University was established. In 1904, the College of Agriculture was founded on a State basis, although the College or Department had been in existence from the opening of the University, maintained by other than State funds. Long before 1893, however, the conviction had been growing in the minds of leading men that the State must come to the sup- port of agricultural education. Director Roberts, of the College of Agriculture, had foreseen this necessity and had made plans for it. Dr. Schur- man had made an able presentation for State aid, agriculture and veterinary science included, in his inaugural address as President of Cornell Uni- versity, November 11, 1892. Some of the requirements then in sight, as well as the educational problems involved, were out- lined by myself in a lecture on "Agricultural Education, and its Place in the University Curricu- lum," before the Agricultural Association of Cor- nell University, January 31, 1893. This lecture was published in pamphlet form and widely dis- tributed. This was before the appropriation for the dairy building was secured, or the State had made any appropriation for agricultural education, and before the State Department of Agriculture was established. In those days the teaching of 234 RURAL PROBLEMS agriculture had not been much systematized, and certainly not standardized. The texts were few. The body of public sympathy with the work was smalL We were struggling on without adequate support, confident that some day the ways would open and the opportunities would come. " We are simply feeling our way as pioneers," I find I said in that lecture. "And until we can teach, how can we expect to reach students? The oldest and the best teachers of agriculture will admit the truth of my statements. He who for twenty years has struggled at the helm of this Agricultural College [Director Roberts] will tell you that he does not know how to teach agriculture. Yet no man has been more successful than he. I have never known an instance of a more sublime and abiding faith than his in the ultimate success of his labor. I have never known a man who year by year has so resolutely borne discouragements and disappointments, whose work has been so much misunderstood and unappreciated both at home and abroad, or who, looking now down the after- noon of life, having burned up the fibre of his younger days that he might kindle a holy fire upon every hilltop in this Empire State, finds himself at last so unrequited in sympathy." EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 235 The enlargement of the College of Agriculture to meet the needs of the State was the theme of the lecture. The departments then specially urged, aside from general agriculture, were dairy husbandry, horticulture, veterinary science, for- estry, and " a very prominent subdivision * * * devoted to roads " ; and floriculture was also urged. " The greatest need in specific laboratory equip- ment is the establishment of a department of Dairy Husbandry upon such a basis that it can give instruction adequate to the great demands of the State. Through this department the major part of the larger and less productive farms of the State can be reached and revivified. Upon the farms alone of New York State, 10,000,000 pounds of cheese, 120,000,000 pounds of butter are produced annually, and 300,000,000 gallons of milk are sold to butter and cheese factories. Much of the product is inferior and unprofitable. For the establishment of this department, the first gift should not be less than $50,000." " Horticulture comes next in importance in New York State. All the great interests of fruits and vegatables and ornamental gardening, with the wealth of botanical science connected therewith, should find adequate representation here. The fruit interests of New York are greater than those 236 RURAL PROBLEMS of any other state, save only those of California. The cultivation of the finer plant products is yearly becoming more attractive and profitable to those who understand it, and it is the chief encourage- ment of small holdings of land. One division of horticulture has been entirely overlooked in edu- cational institutions. This is Floriculture, which is probably expanding more rapidly as a business than any other agricultural occupation. Two years ago, nearly 20,000 people were engaged in commercial floriculture chiefly under glass, and the value of the product was over $26,000,000. It is an industry to which women are specially adapted, and about 2,000 women were engaged in it in the census year. Moreover, the amateur interest in flowers and ornamental gardening is enormous, probably even exceeding that of fruits in the eastern states. Yet there is no school in North America to which the florists can turn for professional instruction. The Society of American Florists, which is the strongest agricultural organization in America, has re- peatedly urged the importance of floricultural edu- cation. There is probably no class of our popula- tion of equal extent which is entirely without the means of higher education. Here is an unex- ampled opportunity to make a signal departure in educational institutions. Shall Cornell first enter EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 237 the field? For the equipment of a working plant in pomology, floriculture and kindred horticul- tural pursuits, at least $50,000 is needed at once." " Of veterinary science I need say little. Every- one must recognize its importance to any complete agricultural instruction, and its demands in exten- sion and equipment have been fully displayed very recently, as you know, by Professor Law.* Veter- inary science has assumed additional importance in recent years because of its place in the study of comparative medicine and comparative surgery. Not only does the study of the lower animals throw much light upon the vital functions and processes of disease in man, but many of the very worst diseases of man — of which tuberculosis is the chief — are common in the domestic animals and are transferred from them to him. Veteri- nary science is now, therefore, an indispensable ad- junct to any adequate study and control of the public health." " Forestry has not yet received adequate atten- tion in the educational institutions of America. It is a great subject, intimately associated with the wealth and civilization of any country. The forest is not only a stupendous crop which furnishes fuel * Importance of a Higher Veterinary Education. A Lecture delivered before the State Agricultural Society at Albany, January i8, 1893. Separately printed. 238 RURAL PROBLEMS and lumber and material for a thousand trades, but it is a cover which conserves the moisture, equalizes the distribution of water and protects the arable lands. A large part of the country must always find its most profitable use in the growth of the forest cover, but the common intelligence upon the subject is so low that even wise legislation upon forestry matters is jeopardized. We shall soon find, to our sorrow, that forestal instruction should have been given long ago. In the meantime, I hope that Cornell may take a new and advanced position in regard to it, and that the State will open its forest reservations as laboratories to students. An appropriation of $10,000, with the privilege of the reservations would put such a department upon a satisfactory basis." It was considered to be essential that students in the regular course in agriculture should have a ground-work in the sciences allied to agricul- ture, and in history, economics and other branches. Political economy was considered to be " quite as important as any specific agricultural topic," inasmuch as we are to train citizens as well as farmers; and " no part of our population is now giving more original thought to economic prob- lems than the farmers." It may interest the reader to know what was EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 239 the constitution of the College of Agriculture twenty-two years ago, long before it became a state institution. " The statute of the University defines the College of Agriculture to be ' Con- stituted by the co-ordination of the departments of General, Analytical and Agricultural Chem- istry, Botany, Horticulture, Vertebrate and In- vertebrate Zoology and Entomology, Veterinary Science, Geology, and the several branches of Theoretical and Practical Agriculture.' " Under this definition the number of students at present in the College of Agriculture is over 900. But the legal constitution of the College is not con- sidered by those who are always willing to measure the value of its work by the sizes of its classes, and their comparisons refer to those three or four departments of instruction which they consider to be specially agricultural. Even in these few departments — Agriculture, Horti- culture, Dairy Husbandry, Veterinary Science — the number in actual attendance at this writing is over one hundred: Post-graduates 13 Regulars (4 years' course) 22 Specials (2 years' course) 23 Short Course 48 106 240 RURAL PROBLEMS "The numbers of classes, with attendance, are as follows: Agriculture, two classes, with attendance of 48 and 18. Horticulture, six, with 42, 15, 43, 9. 10, 6. Dairy Husbandry, five, with 33, 34, 17, 4, 5. Veterinary Science, one, with 40. Agricultural Chemistry, three, with 43, 13, 5." The Outside Work The extensional applications of agriculture- teaching were urged in the lecture from which I have been quoting. " For the teaching of agricul- ture, then, we must make a new species of curricu- lum, and some of the instruction must be given away from the university, where special needs or special requirements exist. This instruction, for best results, should be given partly in class-work, partly in actual laboratory practice upon a sufficient scale to demonstrate the value of the methods as farm operations, and partly upon farms and in gardens in various parts of the State. Instruction by the teachers and instructors in charge, must be liberally supplemented by lectures upon special topics from men who have made signal success in those directions." " The agricultural community is becoming alert to the need of better education. The primary education In the district schools is unsatisfactory. The agricultural press and the farmers' institutes EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 241 have agitated every intellectual reform and have inspired new hope everywhere. The college-bred men who have gone back to the farm here and there have been so many missionaries ; and of late, the experiment stations have inaugurated a new epoch. There is no class of our population which is now rising so rapidly and safely as the farming communities. This I say in full knowledge of the boldness of the generalization. No one can attend the farmers' meetings long without becoming deeply convinced of this fact and gaining new hope for the safety of his country. The farmers want education, but they want a kind which shall be adapted to their needs and means. There is no disguising the fact that educators, even when ad- mitting the need of supplying agricultural educa- tion, seldom have any real or vital sympathy with the conditions which they discuss. The effort all along has been to force the farmer into the ac- cepted university or academic methods. He has refused to accept them, and has spurned the artificialisms of university life. Now, I hope, the university will be taken to the farmer, will be adapted to his needs and the genius of the time. The small attendance of farmers' sons upon the agricultural courses is quite as much the fault of the universities as the fault of the farmer." 242 RURAL PROBLEMS " I have referred several times to the farmers' institutes. These, more than any single movement, have been the means of reforming the farm methods and of lending new aspirations to rural life. They are powerful educators. Almost the last grain of prejudice against them has been re- moved, at least in New York State, and they are uniformly well attended. Those who have ob- served closely the institute work in this State from its beginning four or five years ago, see a marked improvement in the character of the papers and discussions ; and there is now a great demand for specific scientific instruction. In every state, the Land-Grant college or university has connected it- self, either directly or indirectly, with the institute movement, and in many of them the institutes are creatures of the colleges. The movement is de- cidedly an educational one. It is the most effective for ultimate good of any form of the modern im- pulse which in more specific forms is known as University Extension. In this work Cornell Uni- versity has taken a prominent part. I am sure that no one would restrict the university's influence in this direction if he understood the motives and results at issue. The university is a public servant. Patriotism demands that the agricultural classes be alleviated and educated. The institutes have EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 243 proved themselves capable of arousing these classes. It is the duty of the university, then, to lend itself to this movement to the full extent of its powers." The first direct effort to establish extension work by the State — and probably the first in any state by a special law and appropriation for the pur- pose — was expressed in an Act in 1894, whereby $16,000 was appropriated as follows: "The sum of eight thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appro- priated, to be paid to the New York State Agri- cultural Experiment Station, at Geneva, for the purpose of agricultural experiments, investigations, instruction and information, in the second judicial department, pursuant to section eighty-five of the agricultural law, and the sum of eight thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated out of any moneys in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated, to be paid to the agricultural experiment station at Cornell uni- versity, for the purpose of horticultural experi- ments, investigations, instruction and information, in the fifth judicial department, pursuant to section eighty-seven of the agricultural law. Such moneys shall be paid by the treasurer upon the warrant of 244 RURAL PROBLEMS the Comptroller, upon vouchers approved by the Commissioner of Agriculture." This was part of an Act " to amend the agricultural law, in relation to agricultural experiment stations within the state, and to make an appropriation therefor." In 1895, the appropriation for the Cornell work was $16,000, made in a special Act, " for horticultural investigations in the fifth judicial de- partment," which comprised western New York. The following year, the amount remained the same, but the Act was amplified in Its phraseology, and, because of the reorganization of judicial districts, it was applied to the fourth judicial de- partment, which still comprised western New York but an enlarged territory; the appropriation was still for horticultural work, and to be ex- pended by the experiment station at Cornell uni- versity. In 1897, the appropriation was for $25,000, " for the promotion of agriculture " " throughout the state," by means of extension methods and otherwise ; and the appropriation was to be expended by " the college of agriculture " of Cornell University. The appropriation in 1898 and 1899 was $35,000. In 1900, the appropria- tion, $35,000, was included in the Appropriation Bill, " for Cornell university, for the promotion of agricultural knowledge throughout the State." EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 245 The appropriation remained $35,000 in the years 1901, 1902, 1903; in 1904, $40,000; in 1905, $50,000 in two items. These successive appro- priations became associated with the name of Hon. S. F. Nixon, long a Member of Assembly and also Speaker, and who took special interest in the work from the first. In 1906, when the first maintenance money was appropriated to the newly founded State College of Agriculture, the extension money was incor- porated with the regular appropriation, and the law read: "For the state college of agriculture at Cornell university for the promotion of agri- cultural knowledge throughout the state * * * and for the maintenance, equipment and necessary material to conduct the college of agriculture," $100,000. From this point, the maintenance and growth of the extension work is too recent and well understood to form a part of this history. The Extension Schools in Particular In the prosecution of the extension work, many meetings were held about the State; and late in 1894 the first regular extension school was held, although not known by that name. This departure was thus explained in Bulletin iio: " The most exact work which has been done in 246 RURAL PROBLEMS extension teaching, however, is in the holding of certain meetings which we have called ' Horticul- tural schools.' These are designed to carry the most useful features of university extension meth- ods to the aid of the rural communities. The in- struction is designed to be somewhat fundamental in character, of such a nature that it interests the listener in the subject because of its intellectual relish, and thereby sets him to thinking. If the farmer thinks correctly, he then does correctly. In the treatment of insects, for example, the listener is asked to consider the anatomy, physi- ology, natural history, and habits of insects, and little is said about the means of destroying noxious kinds. He can read current literature the more in- telligently and with keener interest, for having even a little of the fundamental knowledge, and he is very likely to carry the new habit of thought directly into the field with him. Another feature of these schools which has met with much favor is the training of the powers of observation by placing specimens of twigs, fruits, flowers, or other objects, in the hands of the participants, ask- ing that they explain what they see. It is true that most persons do not see what they look at, and still fewer persons draw correct conclusions from what they see. It has been our habit to enroll EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 247 those persons who signify a desire to attend all the sessions of a school, in order that they may feel themselves to be intimately identified with the movement; and the roll is generally called at the opening of each session. An average attendance of forty or fifty persons is sufficient for a successful school." It may interest the reader to have the program of the first school of horticulture : CONSPECTUS of a SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE to be held at FREDONIA, CHAUTAUQUA CO., N. Y., Dec. 26-29, 1894 Under the auspices of The Experiment Station Extension, or Nixon, Bill. Conducted by L. H. Bailey, and A committee of Chautauqua Horticulturists, consisting of John W. Spencer, S. S. Crissey, I. A. Wilcox, G. Schoen- feld, U. E. Dodge, E. K. Hough, F. W. Howard, L. Roesch, F. M. Southwick, G. Jaarda, J. C. Thies, S. G. Bardett. Day sessions will be held in Temple of Honor Hall and evening sessions in the large Normal Hall. Wednesday, Dec. 26. 2 P. M. 7 P. M. 1. Announcements. 2. Observation upon Twigs. 3. How Plants Live and Grow. With demon- strations with the microscope. W. W. RowLEE, Assistant Professor of Botany in Cornell University. 4. An Analysis of Landscapes, with stereopticon views. L. H. Bailey. 248 RURAL PROBLEMS 9.30 A. M. 2 P. M. 7 P. M. 9.30 A. M. 2 P. M. 7 P. M. 9.30 A. M. 2 P. M. Thursday, Dec. 27. 5. Observations upon Fruit Buds. o. The Nursery. Discussion upon the propaga- tion of plants, illustrated with the operations and nursery-grown specimens. Nelson C. Smith, Geneva. 7. Observation upon Seeds. 8. A Brief of the Evolution of Plants. Origina- tion of varieties. Philosophy of domestica- tion and pruning. L. H. Bailey. 9. The Geological History of Soils. With ste- reopticon views. R. S. Takr, Assistant Pro- fessor of Dynamic Geology and Physical Geography in Cornell University. Friday, Dec. 28. 10. Observation upon Leaves. 11. Chemistry of the Grape and of Soils. G. C. Caldwell, Professor of Chemistry in Cornell University. 12. Observation upon Flowers. 13. Theory of Tillage and Productivity of Land. I. P. Roberts, Director of the College of Agriculture, Cornell University. 14. What are Fungi? Considered with special reference to the grape, with stereopticon views. E. G. Lodeman, Instructor in Horti- culture in Cornell University. Saturday, Dec. 29. 15. Observation upon Fruits. 16. Commercial Grape Culture in Chautauqua County. Considered in various aspects, by S. S. Crissey, Fredonia; G. Schoenfeld, Westfield; J. A. Tennant, Ripley. 17. Observation upon The Apple. 18. Continuation of No. 16. 19. General Question Box. 20. Final exercises. EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 249 The Bulletin no, which is a report of "Ex- tension work in horticulture," contains programs of schools at Fredonia, Dec. 26-29, 1894. Youngstown, Aug. 16-17, 1895. Jamestown, Oct. 3r-Nov. 2, 1895. Lockport, Nov. 29-30, 1895. Fredonia, Dec. 30, 1895-Jan. 2, 1896. The bulletin also prints the synopsis or outlines of the lessons, as used by the instructors, and also the roster of those enrolled in some of the schools. Bulletin 122, being the second report, gives a list of 24 horticultural schools, held between Aug. 28 and Sept. 25, 1896. In this bulletin, the fol- lowing statement was made : "As a result of the holding of many of these schools, I am now of the opinion that they cannot be used as primary factors in university extension ; they are capable of accom- plishing a great amount of good when the com- munity has been awakened by simpler and more elementary means. I should therefore consider that they could serve their best uses when they are given as a reward to those communities in which the greatest amount of interest in reading-courses, in horticultural clubs, institutes and such other public factors has been developed. There are centers enough in New York State where such 2SO RURAL PROBLEMS schools can be held with distinct advantage at the present moment; but they should be the culmina- tion of a series of extension teaching efforts rather than a primary or preliminary means of awakening the rural communities." Reporting three years later after further ex- perience (Bull. 159, Jan. 1899), it was said: " With this sentiment we still agree. The larger part of our work can be done more economically than by the holding of schools. Yet, these schools are of the greatest value in particular places and cases. During the present winter we have decided to hold ten of them, locating them, so far as pos- sible, in places in which the reading-course has made some progress. At this writing, four of these schools have been held, in Niagara, Saratoga, Cattaraugus and Genesee Counties. " In these schools, an attempt is made to teach the fundamental principles of the given subject, — that is, to educate the participants. One session is devoted to one topic, and this is placed in the hands of an expert in that subject. These schools do not in any way conflict with the farmers' institutes, but are rather supplementary to the work which they are doing. We believe that the institutes have done and are doing the greatest good to the farming interests, and the itinerant schools are in no sense rivals of them. EXTENSION SCHOOLS, AND HISTORY 251 " Special dairy schools have also been held dur- ing the past summer in factories at Ox Bow, Soraerville, Hannibal, Houseville, Carthage, Win- decker, McGraw, Windsor, Lyons, Willink, North Cuba, Canisteo and Belfast. These were largely in the nature of practical demonstrations. "A dairy instructor was also sent to cheese fac- tories and creameries in the following counties: St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Washington, Montgomery, Oneida, Cayuga, Broome, Che- nango, Cortland, Steuben, Allegany. About 75 factories were visited." The " primary factors " we conceived to be the efforts with the rising generation. " However much we may experiment, and teach the farmer, we are not striking at the root of the rural prob- lem. We must begin with the child. Teaching the grown-up farmer is productive of great good, but the crop of grown-up farmers is constantly re- curring. The time to educate is when the person is young." We had now begun to turn our at- tention actively in the way of reaching the rural children, chiefly through the nature-study move- ment as a means of giving them an essential back- ground. As early as 1 896, the nature-study leaflets had been established, to be regularly published. These were probably the first regular recognized 2S2 RURAL PROBLEMS extension publications of the colleges of agricul- ture. Many other lines of work had grown, to require attention and funds, and the horticultural schools, or " schools of agriculture " as they came later to be called, were discontinued but with no thought that they might not be taken up again or that they were outside the purpose of the extension work. In 1910-1 1, the schools were revived, as a necessary part of the extension enterprise of the College of Agriculture. My judgment is that they will be very useful, so long as they are continued. They will take on new form as time goes on, per- haps new names, and they will tend to be more concrete, to be held for longer periods, and to be a recognized part of the work in the localities. In many places they should develop into the short- courses that have been recommended on page 67. Something has been said about the part such enterprises as this should play in the administration of the agricultural affairs of the State. As I in- dicated in the Tribune Farmer correspondence from which I quoted at the outset of this article, we are now not so much confronted with the details of these various pieces of work as with a question of public policy in respect to the organization of the State's efforts in behalf of agriculture. INDEX Page Abandoned farms 1 1 Advice, office of, in cities 129 Adviser, farm 89 Agassiz Club 33 Agents, farm 83 Agricultural chemistry, students in 239 Agricultural schools 65 Agriculture in schools 64 Agriculture-teaching 173 Arithmetic-teaching 219 Arkansas veal law 126 Auger 180 Ax 180 Balance in nature 46 Banker 148 Banks and farmers 139 Bam raising 24 Bears, protection from 203 Bees, neighborhood 23, 167 Beef, by law 120 Benevolent urbanism 133, 140 Biological survey SO Birds, preservation of 4* Bisons, extermination 46 Blacksmith 148, 153 Board of trade 139 Bob veal 124 Bogies and delusions no Boys' and girls' clubs 7^ (253) 254 INDEX Page Bulletins 82 Buying-and-selling agencies 9Z Candle-molds 23 Carpenter 148, IS3. 163 Cat-hole 23 Cats, controlling 47 Census, 1900 147 Center, social 30 Chamber of Commerce 98 Changing work 23 Cheese-press 23 Chemistry, agricultural, students in 239 Children, exploitation of 74 Chisel 180 Church as social center 30 Churches 153, 223 Cities, office of advice in 129 City-building 212 City-people in country n8 City, to save n8 Civic pride 155, 164 Clubs, boys' and girls' 71 College of Agriculture, history 228 Columbia University 13 1 Commission on Country Life 145 Communication 214 Cummunity and neighborhood 27 Community pride 164 Compass 180 Congress, law for beef 120 Consequences of agriculture-teaching 182 INDEX 2SS Page Contest clubs 71 Conversation 13 Cooperative slaughter-houses 126 Cornell University, College of Agriculture . ... 189, 229 Cost-of-living 117 Costumes i8i Country-Life Commission 145 Country-life situation, dangers in 175 County agents 91 County fairs 107 Cropping, standardizing 94 Cruelty to animals 46 Cultural education 184 Dairy Husbandry, Department 235, 239 Dairying, figures of 195 Dangers in movements 175 Decline in New York 197 Decorator 153 Decreasing farms 112 Decreasing population 1 14 Decreasing yields I15 Dedication address 189 Defense work 178 Delusions and bogies no Demands, meeting 62 Demonstration plats and fairs 107 Demonstration work S7> 64 Department of Agriculture, State 64, 131 Director of fairs 107 Doctors in villages 148 Donation parties ^ 23» 24 2S6 INDEX Page Draw-shave i8o Dress i8i Economics, teaching in 238 Education, solution 203 EngHshman's house his castle 160 English sparrows 47 Entertainment 215 Entomologists 51 Extension Act 72, 100 Extension enterprise 67 Extension schools 228 Extension work defined ^^ Extension work, history 240 Fairs, State plan 103 Family, farm 13 Farm boys and girls 18 Farm bureau as extension work 57, 64, 171 Farm-bureau movement 80 Farm family 13 Farm management 178 Farms as laboratories 38 Farms decreasing 112 Fences, removal 160 Festivals and fairs 107 Financial institutions 223 Fish, Dr. P. A., quoted 124 Floriculture, teaching for 236 Folk-teaching 186 Follow-up work 57 Forestry College 233 Forestry, teaching in 237 INDEX 257 Page Four-comers 224 Gathering, neighborly 26 Geography-teaching 219 Germany, schools in 31 Government of rural districts 222 Greek 185 Group-spirit 136 Gun, boy with 44 Hamlet, looks of 158 Hamlet system 147, 163 Hamlets, condition of 154, 155 Hammer 180 Harness-maker 148 Hatch Act 144 Hens, to lay in November 1 20 Highways, cattle in 47 History of College of Agriculture 228 History of fairs 104 Hitting heads 179 Homes on farm 21 Home-work 76, 181 Horticulture, Department of 235, 239 Horticultural schools 245 Hotel-keeper IS3 Hunting 44 Institutes 57. 64, 82, 228, 241, 249 Intellectual center 3° Jack-knife . 180 Jericho, road to 7 Jordan, David Starr 36 9 25 8 INDEX Page King of beasts 45 Laboratory, out-door. 37 Landscape work 158, 171 Lauman, G. N., quoted 113, 115 Law, James 237 Law, making beef by 120 Leadership 225 Leadership, advanced 87 Leaflets, nature-study 251 Level, the 180 Librarians in villages 148, 153 Libraries, traveling 57 Lincoln 35 Line fence 27 Localities, meeting needs 62 Machinist 153 Manual-training. 152, 179 Mechanics-teaching 186 Merchant 148 Migration of birds 42 Ministers in villages 148 Missionaries 54 Missouri veal law 126 Model-work 180 Money, undivided 22 Morgan, Dr. O. S 131 Mother at home 17 Natural history 33 Natural history survey 50 Nature-study 179, 183, 221 Nature-study leaflets 251 INDEX 259 Page Naturist 39 Neighborly gathering 26 New York veal law 124 Next step in country life 143 Nixon, S. F 244 Number of farms 112 Office of advice in cities 129 Old world hamlets 163 Organ in church 31 Organization 213 Organization problems 133 Orkney Islands 43 Out-door natural history 33 Outlook for College of Agriculture 189 Painter 148 Parcel post 154 Parsonage 30 Pennsylvania veal law 126 Plane 180 Plan-making, epoch of 145 Play 181 Play-work 180 Politician 84, 144, 187 Population, decreasing 114 Population, rural 147 Post-graduate students 9 Potato-bug 47 Preservation of birds 41 Privilege of farm family 13 Prizes, clubs 7^ Produce-dealer 148 26o INDEX Page Publicity and extension work 53, 55 Public life, training for 36 Public schools, instruction in 64 Public services, new range in 171 Puffins 43 Pump 180 Railroads and farmers 139 Range, new, in public service 171 Reading-courses 57 Recreation and fairs 107 Redirecting rural institutions 211 Road-builder 153 Roads and streets 160 Roads, good 214 Roberts, LP 190, 216, 233, 234 Rome on ruins of Rome 201 Roosevelt 36 Roosevelt and Country-Life Commission 145 Rossiter, quoted 197, 198 Save-the-city 118 Saw 180 School-gardening and fairs 107 School-houses as social center 30 School-houses 221 School, clubs in 76 Schoolmaster 31 School situation 173 Schools of agriculture 229 Schools in winter 67 Schools, movable 67, 68 Schools need redirection 215 INDEX 261 Page Schools, public 64 Schools, redirection of 152 Schools, special 65 Schurman, J. G 233 Settlement-house 30 Shetland Islands 43 Shooting 44 Shop talk 13 Shortage of beef 122 Situation now and then 173 Size of farms 113 Slaughter-houses, cooperative 126 Slum work 54 Social center 30 Socialization 160 Society Promotion Useful Arts 104 Sparrow, English 47 Special schools 65 Square, the 180 Standards, farm 17 State fair, plan 103 Statistics of agriculture 112, 192-198 Stone-mason 148, 163 Streets 160 Students in agriculture 10 Sulzer, Governor S3 Supervisors and farm bureaus 99 Survey, biological '. 5° Symptoms, treating 178, i79 Tape-line 180 Teachers in villages 148 262 INDEX Page Teaching agriculture, consequences of 182 Tightwad 24 Tinker 148 Tinner 148 Tin-peddler 23 Tools, twelve great 180 Topiary Club 171 Town and country 141, 146 Trains, farm 57 Tribune Farmer, quoted 228, 252 Trowel 1 80 Undivided money 22 Uplift of farmers 54, 89, 211 Urbanism, benevolent 133, 140 Urbanization 151 Vacations 9 Veal and beef 120 Veal-eating 123 Veterinarians 148 Veterinary College 232 Veterinary science, teaching in 237, 239 Village and country 141, 146, 148 Village improvement 155, 156, 158, 160, 168, 171 Wagon-maker 148 Water, uninflated 193 Winter-schools 67 Work, students 9 Yard-stick 180 Yields, decreasing 115