Cornell University Library 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/cu31924073901302 ■ UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 073 901 302 Production Note Cornell University Library produced this volume to replace the irreparably deteriorated original . It was scanned using Xerox software and equipment at 600 dots per inch resolution and compressed prior to storage using CCITT Group 4 compression. The digital data were used to create Cornell's replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39. 48-1992. The production of this volume was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Digital file copyright by Cornell University Library 1995 . Scanned as part of the A. R. Mann Library project to preserve and enhance access to the Core Historical Literature of the Agricultural Sciences . Titles included in this collection are listed in the volumes piiblished by the Cornell University Press in the series THE LITERATURE OF THE AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, 1991-1995, Wallace C. Olsen, series editor. New York State College of Agriculture At Cornell University Ithaca, N. Y. The Professor Dwight Sanderson Rural Sociology Library Tzc^. /f/t . THE COUNTRY BOY Why does he want to leave his father's farm to go to the city? He ought to be able to find his highest happiness and usefulness in the country, his native environment, where he is sadly needed. Can we make It worth while for this boy to invest his life in rural leadership? THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY A Study of Country Life Opportunity GEORGE WALTER FISKE JUNIOR DEAN, OBERLIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OBERLIN, OHIO NEW YORK: 124 East 28th Street LONDON; 47 Paternoster Row, E. C. 1912 H^ ) This loss however was in the early half of the decade, as the state census shows. 6 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY in 1900; and nearly 50 millions in 1910. The last census reports almost 53J millions of people living in villages of 5,000 or less; or 58.2% of the population. It is obvious that in spite of dismal prophecies to the contrary from city specialists, and in spite of the undeniable drift to the city for decades, the total country population in America has continued to grow. Rural America is still growing 11.2% in a decade. Outside of the densely populated north-eastern states, the nation as a whole is still rural and will long remain so. Where the soil is poor, further rural depletion must be expected; but with normal conditions and with an increasingly attractive rural life, most coun- try towns and villages may be expected to hold their own reasonably well against the city tide. We hear little to-day about the abandoned farms of New England. In the decade past they have steadily found a market and hundreds of them have been reclaimed for summer occupancy or for suburban homes for city men. Even in rural counties where decay has been notable in many townships, there are always prosperous towns and villages, along the rivers and the railroads, where substantial prosperity will doubtless continue for many years to come. A False and Misleading Comparison Unquestionably a false impression on this question has prevailed in the cities for a generation past be- cause of obviously unjust comparisons. Families coming from decadent villages to prosperous cities have talked much of rural decadence. Stories of murders and low morals in neglected rural communi- THE RURAL PROBLEM 7 ties have made a great impression on people living in clean city wards. Meanwhile, not five blocks away, congested city slums never visited by the prosperous, concealed from popular view, festering social corrup- tion and indescribable poverty and vice. Let us be fair in our sociological comparisons and no longer judge our rural worst by our urban best. Let the rural slum be compared with the city slum and the city avenues with the prosperous, self-respecting sec- tions of the country; then contrasts will not be so lurid and we shall see the facts in fair perspective. As soon as we learn to discriminate we find that country life as a whole is wholesome, that country people as a rule are as happy as city people and fully as jovial and light-hearted and that the fundamental prosperity of most country districts has been gaining these past two decades. While rural depletion is widespread, rural decadence must be studied not as a general condition at all, but as the abnormal, un- usual state found in special sections, such as regions handicapped by poor soil, sections drained by neigh- boring industrial centers, isolated mountain districts where life is bare and strenuous, and the open country away from railroads and the great life currents. With this word of caution let us examine the latest reports of rural depletion. III. Rural Depletion and Rural Degeneracy. The Present Extent of Rural Depletion The thirteenth census (1910) shows that in spite of the steady gain in the country districts of the United 8 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY States as a whole, thousands of rural townships have continued to lose population. These shrinking com- munities are found everywhere except in the newest agricultural regions of the West and in the black belt of the South. The older the communities the earlier this tendency to rural depletion became serious. The trouble began in New England, but now the rural problem is moving west. Until the last census New England was the only section of the country to show this loss as a whole; but the 1910 figures just reported give a net rural loss for the first time in the group of states known as the " east north central." Yet in both cases, the net rural loss for the section was less than 1%. Taking 2,500 as the dividing line, the last census re- ports that in every state in the country the urban population has increased since 1900, but in six states the rural population has diminished. In two states, Montana and Wyoming, the country has outstripped the city; but in general, the country over, the cities grew from 1900 to 1910 three times as fast as the rural sections. While the country communities of the United States have grown 11.2% the cities and towns above 2,500 have increased 34.8%. In the prosper- ous state of Iowa, the only state reporting an abso- lute loss, the rural sections lost nearly 120,000. Rural Indiana lost 83,127, or 5.1%; rural Missouri lost 68,- 716, or 3.5% ; rural villages in New Hampshire show a net loss of 10,108, or 5.4% ; and rural Vermont has suffered a further loss of 8,222, or 4.2%, though the state as a whole made the largest gain for forty years. These latest facts from the census are valuable for THE RURAL PROBLEM 9 correcting false notions of rural depletion. It is un- fair to count up the number of rural townships in a state which have failed to grow and report that state rurally decadent. For example, a very large majority of the Illinois townships with less than 2,500 people failed to hold their own the past decade, — 1,113 out of 1,592. But in many cases the loss was merely nominal; consequently we find, in spite of the tre- mendous drain to Chicago, the rural population of the state as a whole made a slight gain. This case is typical. Thousands of rural villages have lost popu- lation ; yet other thousands have gained enough to off- set these losses in all but the six states mentioned. Losses in Country Towns New England continues to report losses, not only in the rural villages, but also in the country towns of between 2,500 and 5,000 population. This was true the last decade in every New England state except Vermont. Massachusetts towns of this type made a net loss of about 30,000, or 15% ; although nearly all the larger towns and many villages in that remarkably prosperous state made gains. This class of towns has also made net losses the past decade in Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, South Carolina, Alabama and Miss- issippi, although in these last four states the smaller communities under 2,500 made substantial gains. This indicates in some widely different sections of the coun- try an apparently better prosperity in the open country than in many country towns. Similarly in several states, the larger towns between five and ten thou- sand population have netted a loss in the last decade, lO THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY as in New York State, although the smaller villages have on the average prospered. The Need of Qualitative Analysis of the Census We must not be staggered by mere figures. A qualitative analysis of the census sometimes saves us from pessimism. Someone has said " Even a grow- ing town has no moral insurance." Mere growth does not necessarily mean improvement either in business or morals. It is quite possible that some of the " de- cadent" villages which have lost i$% oi their popu- lation are really better places for residence than they were before and possibly fully as prosperous. It de- pends entirely on the kind of people that remain. If it is really the survival of the fittest, there will be no serious problem. But if it is " the heritage of the un- fit," if only the unambitious and shiftless have re- mained, then the village is probably doomed. In any case, the situation is due to the inevitable process of social and economic adjustment. Changes in agricultural method and opportunity are respon- sible for much of it. Doubtless farm machinery has driven many laborers away. Likewise the rising price of land has sent away the speculative farmer to pas- tures new, especially from eastern Canada and the middle west in the States to the low-priced lands of the rich Canadian west.^ The falling native birth- ' For the year ending March 31, 19T0, 103,798 immigrants from the United States settled in Western Canada, while only 59,790 came from Great Britain and Ireland. The wealth of the immigrants set- tling in western Canada during the five years previous to that date was estimated as follows. British, cash, $37,546,000; effects, $18,773,000. From United States, cash, $157,260,000; effects, $110,982,000. — The Toronto Globe, July 27, 1912. THE RURAL PROBLEM II rate, especially in New England, has been as potent a factor in diminishing rural sections as has the lure of the cities. " In the main," says Dr. Anderson in his very dis- criminating study of the problem, " rural depletion is over. In its whole course it has been an adjustment of industrial necessity and of economic health; every- where it is a phase of progress and lends itself to the optimist that discerns deeper meanings. Nevertheless depletion has gone so far as to affect seriously all rural problems within the area of its action. " The difficult and perplexing problems are found where the people are reduced in number. That broad though irregular belt of depleted rural communities, stretching from the marshes of the Atlantic shore to the banks of the Missouri, which have surrendered from ten to forty per cent, of their people, within which are many localities destined to experience fur- ther losses, calls for patient study of social forces and requires a reconstruction of the whole social outfit. But it should be remembered that an increasing popu- lation gathers in rural towns thickly strewn through- out the depleted tratt, and that the cheer of their growth and thrift is as much a part of the rural situa- tion as the perplexity incident to a diminishing body of people." ^ Whereas the main trend in rural districts is toward better social and moral conditions as well as material prosperity, we do not have to look far to find local degeneracy in the isolated places among the hills or in unfertile sections which have been deserted by the * " The Country Town," p. 76, 12 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY ambitious and intelligent, leaving a pitiable residuum of " poor whites " behind. Such localities furnish the facts for the startling disclosures which form the basis of occasional newspaper and magazine articles such as RoUin Lynde Hartt's in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 83, The Forum, June 1892, the Si. Albans Messenger Jan. 2, 1904, et cetera. The Question of Degeneracy in City and Country The question has long been debated as to whether criminals and defectives are more common in the city or the country. Dwellers in prosperous, well-gov- erned suburban cities, that know no slums, are posi- tive that the rural districts are degenerate. Country people in prosperous rural sections of Kansas, for instance, where no poor-house or jail can be found for many miles, insist that degeneracy is a city symp- tom! It is obvious that discrimination is necessary. The great majority of folks in both city and country are living a decent life ; degeneracy is everywhere the exception. It would be fully as reasonable to condemn the city as a whole for the breeding places of vice, insanity and crime which we call the slums, as it is to characterize rural life in general as degenerate. In view of the evident fact that both urban and rural communities have their defectives and delin- quents, in varying ratio, depending on local condi- tions, Professor Giddings suggests a clear line of dis- crimination. " Degeneration manifests itself in the protean forms of suicide, insanity, crime and vice, which abound in the highest civilization, where the tension of life is extreme, and in those places from Rural Schools in Daviess County, Indiana. THE RURAL PROBLEM 1 3 which civilization has ebbed and from which population has been drained, leaving a discouraged remnant to struggle against deteriorating conditions. . . . Like insanity, crime occurs most frequently in densely popu- lated towns on the one hand, and on the other in par- tially deserted rural districts. Murder is a phenome- non of both the frontier life of an advancing population and of the declining civilization in its rear ; it is pre- eminently the crime of the new town and the decaying town. . . . Crimes of all kinds are less frequent in prosperous agricultural communities and in thriving towns of moderate size, where the relation of income to the standard of living is such that the life struggle is not severe."* Stages and Symptoms of Rural Decadence In his discussion of the country problem, Dr. Josiah Strong reminds us that rural decadence comes as an easy evolution passing through rather distinct stages, when the rural community has really lost its best blood. Roads deteriorate, — ^those all-important arteries of country life; then property soon depreciates; schools and churches are weakened ; often foreign immigrants crowd out the native stock, sometimes infusing real strength, but often introducing the continental sys- tem of rural peasantry, with absentee landlords. Then isolation increases, with a strong tendency toward de- generacy and demoralization. Where this process is going on we are not surprised to find such conditions as Rev. H. L. Hutchins de- scribed in 1906 in an address before the annual * Principles of Sociology, Giddings, p. 348. 14 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY meeting of the Connecticut Bible Society at New Haven. From a very intimate experience of many years in the rural sections of Connecticut, he gave a most disheartening report, dwelling upon the in- creasing ignorance of the people, their growing vices, the open contempt for and disregard of mar- riage, the alarming growth of idiocy, partly the result of inbreeding and incest, some localities being cited where practically all the residents were brothers and and sisters or cousins, often of the same name, so that surnames were wholly displaced by nicknames; the omnipresence of cheap whiskey with its terrible effects, the resulting frequency of crimes of violence; the feebleness and backwardness of the schools and the neglect and decay of the churches, resulting in in- evitable lapse into virtual paganism and barbarism, in sections that two generations ago were inhabited by stalwart Christian men and women of the staunch old New England families. Doubtless similar illustrations of degradation could be cited from the neglected corners of all the older states of the country, where several generations of social evolution have ensued under bad circumstances. In all the central states, conditions of rural degen- eracy now exist which a few years ago were supposed to be confined to New England ; for the same causes have been repeating themselves in other surroundings. An illustration of " discouraged remnants " is cited by Dr. Warren H. Wilson. " I remember driving, in my early ministry, from a prosperous farming sec- tion into a weakened community, whose lands had a lowered value because they lay too far from the rail- THE RURAL PROBLEM 15 road. My path to a chapel service on Sunday after- noon lay past seven successive farmhouses in each of which lived one member of a family, clinging in solitary misery to a small acreage which had a few years earliei* supported a household. In that same neighborhood was one group of descendants of two brothers, which had in two generations produced six- teen suicides. ' They could not stand trouble,' the neighbors said. The lowered value of their land, with consequent burdens, humiliation and strain, had crushed them. The very ability and distinction of the family in the earlier period had the effect by contrast to sink them lower down." " The Nam's Hollow Case Ordinary rural degeneracy, however, is more apt to be associated with feeble-mindedness. An alarming, but perhaps typical case is described in a recent issue of The Survey. A small rural community in New York state, which the author calls for convenience Nam's Hollow, contains 232 licentious women and 199 licentious men out of a total population of 669; the great proportion being mentally as well as morally de- fective. A great amount of consanguineous marriage has taken place, — mostly without the formalities pre- scribed by law. Sex relations past and present are hopelessly entangled. Fifty-four of the inhabitants of the Hollow have been in custody either in county houses or asylums, many are paupers, and forty have served terms in state's prison or jail. There are 192 ' " The Church in the Open Country," p. 9. l6 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY persons who are besotted by the use of liquor " in ex- treme quantities." Apparently most of this degeneracy can be traced back to a single family whose descendants have num- bered 800. With all sorts of evil traits to begin with, this family by constant inbreeding have made persis- tent these evil characteristics in all the different house- holds and have cursed the whole life of the Hollow, not to mention the unknown evil wrought elsewhere, whither some of them have gone. " The imbeciles and harlots and criminalistic are bred in the Hollow, but they do not all stay there." A case is cited of a family of only five which has cost the county up to date $6,300, and the expense likely to continue for many years yet. " Would you rouse yourself if you learned there were ten cases of bubonic plague at a point not 200 miles away?" asks the investigator of Nam's Hollow. " Is not a breeding spot of uncon- trolled animalism as much of a menace to our civiliza- tion?"* A Note of Warning These sad stories of rural degeneracy must not make us pessimists. We need not lose our faith in the open country. It is only the exceptional community which has really become decadent and demoralized. These communities however warn us that even self-respect- ing rural villages are in danger of following the same sad process of decay unless they are kept on the high plane of wholesome Christian living and 'The Survey, March a, 1912. "The Nams; the Feeble-minded as Country Dwellers." Charles B. Davenport. Ph.D. THE RURAL PROBLEM I7 community efficiency. What is to prevent thousands of other rural townships, which are now losing popula- tion, gradually sinking to the low level of personal shiftlessness and institutional uselessness which are the marks of degeneracy? Nothing can prevent this but the right kind of intelligent, consecrated leader- ship. It is not so largely a quantitative matter, how- ever, as Dr. Josiah Strong suggested twenty years ago in his stirring treatment of the subject. After citing the fact that 932 townships in New England were losing population in 1890, and 641 in New York, 919 in Pennsylvania, 775 in Ohio, et cetera, he sug- gests : " If this migration continues, and no new pre- ventive measures are devised, I see no reason why iso- lation, irreligion, ignorance, vice and degradation should not increase in the country until we have a rural American peasantry, illiterate and immoral, pos- sessing the rights of citizenship, but utterly incapable of performing or comprehending its duties." After twenty years we find the rural depletion still continuing. Though New England in 1910 reports 143 fewer losing towns than in 1890, the census of 1910 in general furnishes little hope that the migra- tion from the country sections is diminishing.' Our ^ New England Towns Losing Population 1890 1910 Total towns (in 191a) Maine 348 291 523 New Hampshire 1 52 163 2*4 Vermont 187 156 229 Massachusetts I54 123 321 Rhode Island 12 8 32 Connecticut 79 48 J 52 932 789 1481 l8 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY hope for the country rests in the fact that the problem has at last been recognized as a national issue and that a Country Life Movement of immense significance is actually bringing in a new rural civilization. " We must expect the steady deterioration of our rural popu- lation, unless effective preventive measures are de- vised," was Dr. Strong's warning two decades ago. To-day the challenge of the country not only quotes the peril of rural depletion and threatened degeneracy, but also appeals to consecrated young manhood and womanhood with a living faith in the permanency of a reconstructed rural life. Our rural communities must be saved from de- cadence, for the sake of the nation. Professor Gid- _dings well says : " Genius is rarely bom in the city. The city owes the great discoveries and immortal crea- tions to those who have lived with nature and with simple folk. The country produces the original ideas, the raw materials of social life, and the city combines ideas and forms the social mind." In the threatened decadence of depleted rural communities, and in the lack of adequate leadership in many places, to revive a dying church, to equip a modern school, to develop a new rural civilization, to build a cooperating com- munity with a really satisfying and efficient life, we have a problem which challenges both our patriotism and our religious spirit, for the problem is funda- mentally a religious one. IV. The Urgency of the Problem. A broad-minded leader of the religious life of col- lege men has recently expressed his opinion that the An Abandoned Church, Daviess County, Indiana. THE RURAL PROBLEM I9 rural problem is more pressing just now than any other North American problem. He is a city man and is giving his attention impartially to the needs of all sections. Two classes of people will be surprised by his statement. Many of his city neighbors are so overwhelmed by the serious needs of the city, they near-sightedly cannot see any particular problem in the country, — except how to take the next train for New York! And doubtless many country people, contented with second-rate conditions, are even un- aware that they and their environment are being studied as a problem at all. Some prosperous farmers really resent the " interference " of people interested in better rural conditions and say " the country would be all right if let alone." But neither sor- did rural complacency nor urban obliviousness can satisfy thinking people. We know there is something the matter with country life. We discover that the vitality and stability of rural life is in very many places threatened. It is the business of Christian students and leaders to study the conditions and try to remove or remedy the causes. A Hunt for Fundamental Causes Depletion added to isolation, and later tending to- ward degeneracy, is what makes the rural problem acute. It is the growth of the city which has made the problem serious. If we would discover a con- structive policy for handling this problem successfully by making country life worth while, and better able to compete with the city, then we must find out why the boys and girls go to the big towns and why their 20 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY parents rent the farm and move into the village. For two generations there has been a mighty life- current toward the cities, sweeping off the farm many of the brightest boys and most ambitious girls in all the country-side, whom the country could ill afford to spare. The city needed many of them doubtless; but not all, for it has not used all of them well. Every- where the country has suffered from the loss of them. Why did they go ? It is evident that a larger proportion of the brightest country boys and girls must be kept on the farms if the rural communities are to hold their own and the new rural civilization really have a chance to develop as it should. The Unfortunate Urbanizing of Rural Life As a rule the whole educational trend is toward the city. The teachers of rural schools are mostly from the larger villages and towns where they have caught the city fever, and they infect the children. Even in the lower grades the stories of city life begin early to allure the country children, and with a subtle sug- gestion the echoes of the distant city's surging life come with all the power of the Arabian Nights tales. Early visits to the enchanted land of busy streets and wonderful stores and factories, the circus and the theater, deepen the impression, 'and the fascination grows. In proportion to the nearness to the city, there has been a distinct urbanizing of rural life. To a degree this has been well. It has raised the standard of com- fort in country homes and has had a distinct in- fluence in favor of real culture and a higher plane of THE RURAL PROBLEM 21 living. But the impression has come to prevail widely that the city is the source of all that is interesting, profitable and worth while, until many country folks have really come to think meanly of themselves and their surroundings, taking the superficial city estimate of rural values as the true one. A real slavery to city fashions has been growing in- sidiously in the country. So far as this has afifected the facial adornments of the farmer, it has made for progress ; but as seen in the adoption of unhospitable vertical city architecture for country homes, — an in- sult to broad acres which suggest home-like horizontals, — and the wearing by the women of cheap imitations of the flaunting finery of returning " cityfied " sten- ographers, it is surely an abomination pure and simple. Bulky catalogs of mail-order houses, alluringly illustrated, have added to the craze, and the new fur- nishings of many rural homes resemble the tinsel trap- pings of cheap city flats, while substantial heirlooms of real taste and dignity are relegated to the attic. Fine rural discrimination as to the appropriate and the artistic is fast crumbling before the all-convincing argument, " It is the thing now in the city." To be sure there is much the country may well learn from the city, the finer phases of real culture, the culti- vation of social graces in place of rustic bashfulness and boorish manners, and the saving element of in- dustrial cooperation ; but let these gains not be bought by surrendering rural self-respect or compromising rural sincerity, or losing the wholesome ruggedness of the country character. The new rural civilization 22 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY must be indigenous to the soil, not a mere urbanizing veneer. Only so can it foster genuine community pride and loyalty to its own environment. But herein is the heart of our problem. Why Country Boys and Girls Leave the Farm The mere summary of reasons alleged by many in- dividuals will be sufficient for our purpose, without enlarging upon them. Many of these were obtained by Director L. H. Bailey of Cornell, the master student of this problem. Countless boys have fled from the farm because they found the work monotonous, labori- ous and uncongenial, the hours long, the work un- organized and apparently unrewarding, the father or employer hard, exacting and unfeeling. Many of them with experience only with old-fashioned methods, are sure that farming does not pay, that there is no money in the business compared with city employ- ments, that the farmer cannot control prices, is forced to buy high and sell low, is handicapped by big mort- gages, high taxes, and pressing creditors. It is both encouraging and suggestive that many country boys, with a real love for rural life, but feeling that farming requires a great deal of capital, are planning " to farm someday, after making enough money in some other business." The phantom of farm drudgery haunts many boys. They feel that the work is too hard in old age, and that it cannot even be relieved sufficiently by machinery, that it is not intellectual enough and furthermore leaves a man too tired at night to enjoy reading or THE RURAL PROBLEM 2$ social opportunities. The work of farming seems to them quite unscientific and too dependent upon luck and chance and the fickle whims of the weather. Farm life is shunned by many boys and girls be- cause they say it is too narrow and confining, lacking in freedom, social advantages, activities and pleasures, which the city offers in infinite variety. They see their* mother overworked and growing old before her time, getting along with few comforts or conveniences, a patient, uncomplaining drudge, living in social isola- tion, except for uncultivated neighbors who gossip in-^ cessantly. Many ambitious young people see little future on the farm. They feel that the farmer never can be famous in the outside world and that people have a low regard for him. In their village high school they have caught visions of high ideals; but they fail to discover high ideals in farm life and feel that high and noble achievement is impossible there, that the farmer cannot serve humanity in any large way and can attain little political influence or personal power. With an adolescent craving for excitement, " some- thing doing all the time," they are famished in the quiet open country and are irresistibly drawn to the high-geared city life, bizarre, spectacular, noisy, full of variety in sights, sounds, experiences, pleasures, comradeships, like a living vaudeville; and offering freedom from restraint in a life of easy incognito, with more time for recreation and " doing as you please." But with all the attractiveness of city life for the boys and girls, as compared with the simplicity of the rural home, the main pull cityward is probably 24 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY " the job." They follow what they think is the easiest road to making a living, fancying that great prizes await them in the business life of the town. Superficial and unreasonable as most of these alleged reasons are to-day, we must study them as genuine symptoms of a serious problem. If country life is to develop a permanently satisfying opportunity for the farm boys and girls, these conditions must be met. Isolation and drudgery must be somehow conquered. The business of farming must be made more profitable, until clerking in the city cannot stand the competition. The social and recreative side of rural life must be de- veloped. The rural community must be socialized and the country school must really fit for rural life. The lot of the farm mothers and daug^iters must be made easier and happier. Scientific farming must worthily appeal to the boys as a genuine profession, not a mere matter of luck with the weather, and the farm boy must no longer be treated as a slave but a partner in the firm.* The Folly of Exploiting the Country Boy An eminent Western lawyer addressing a rural life conference in Missouri a few weeks ago explained thus his leaving the farm : " When I was a boy on * The -writer wishes to mal^e it quite clear that he is thinking, in this discussion, merely of the boys and girls who ought to stay on the farm. Unquestionably many of them must and should go to the city. This book pleads merely for a fatr share of the farm boys and girls to stay in the country, — those best fitted to maintain country life and rural institutions. Country life must be made so attractive and so worth-while that it will be to the advantage of more of the finest young people to invest their lives there. Every effort should be made to prevent a boy's going from the farm to the city, provided he is likely to make only a meager success in the city or possibly a failure. THE RURAL PROBLEM 25 the farm we were compelled to rise about 4 o'clock every morning. From the time we got on our clothes until 7:30 we fed the live stock and milked the cows. Then breakfast. After breakfast, we worked in the field until 1 1 :30, when, after spending at least a half hour caring for the teams we went to dinner. We went back to work at i o'clock and remained in the field until 7:30 o'clock. After quitting the fields we did chores until 8:30 or 9 o'clock, and then we were advised to go to bed right away so that we would be able to do a good day's work on the morrow." No wonder the boy rebelled ! This story harks back to the days when a father owned his son's labor until the boy was twenty-one, and could either use the boy on his own farm or have him " bound out " for a term of years for the father's personal profit. Such harsh tactlessness is seldom found today; but little of it will be found in the new rural civilization.® Country boys must not be exploited if we expect them to stay in the country as community builders. Many of them will gladly stay if given a real life chance. The City's Dependence upon the Country The country is the natural source of supply for the nation. The city has never yet been self-sustaining. It has always drawn its raw materials and its popula- tion from the open country. The country must con- tinue to produce the food, the hardiest young men and •Yet in a class of 115 college men at the Lake Geneva Student Conference in June, 1912, a surprising number stated that they had suffered a similar experience as boys at home, though usually at times when the farm work was particularly pressing. One claimed that he had driven a riding cultivator by moonlight at 2 a. m. 26 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY women, and much of the idealism and best leadership of the nation. All of these have proven to be in- digenous to country life. Our civilization is funda- mentally rural, and the rural problem is a national problem, equally vital to the city and the whole coun- try. The cities should remember that they have a vast deal at stake in the welfare of the rural districts. The country for centuries got along fairly well without the city, and could continue to do so ; but the city could not live a month without the country ! The great railway strike last fall in England revealed the fact that Birmingham had but a week's food supply. A serious famine threatened, and this forced a speedy settlement. Meanwhile food could not be brought to the city except in small quantities, and the people of Birmingham learned in a striking way their utter de- pendence upon the country as their source of supply. The philosophy of one of the sages of China, uttered ages ago, is still profoundly true : " The well-being of a people is like a tree ; agriculture is its root, manu- factures and commerce are its branches and its life; but if the root be injured, the leaves fall, the branches break away and the tree dies." ^^ That far-seeing Irish leader. Sir Horace Plunkett, after a searching study of American conditions, is in- clined to think that our great prosperous cities are blundering seriously in not concerning themselves more earnestly with the rural problem: "Has it been suf- ficiently considered how far the moral and physical health of the modem city depends upon the constant " Quoted by M. Jules Meline (Premier of France) in " The Return to the Land." THE RURAL PROBLEM 2"] influx of fresh blood from the country, which has ever been the source from which the town draws its best citizenship? You cannot keep on indefinitely skim- ming the pan and have equally good milk left. Sooner or later, if the balance of trade in this human traffic be not adjusted, the raw material out of which urban society is made will be seriously deteriorated, and the symptoms of national degeneracy will be properly charged against those who neglected to foresee the evil and treat the cause. . . . The people of every state are largely bred in rural districts, and the physi- cal and moral well-being of those districts must eventu- ally influence the quality of the whole people." ^^ V. A Challenge to Faith. The seriousness of our problem is sufficiently clear. Our consideration in this chapter has been confined mainly to the personal factors. Certain important social and institutional factors will be further consid- ered in Chapter V under Country Life Deficiencies. With all its serious difficulties and discouragements the rural problem is a splendid challenge to faith. There are many with the narrow city outlook who de- . spair of the rural problem and consider that coun- try life is doomed. There are still others who have faith in the country town and village but have lost their faith in the open country as an abiding place for rural homes. Before giving such people of little faith further hearing, we must voice the testimony of a host of country lovers who have a great and enduring faith " " The Rural Life Problem of the United States," p. 47. 28 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY in the country as the best place for breeding men, the most natural arena for developing character, the most favorable place for happy homes, and, for a splendid host of country boys and girls the most challenging opportunity for a life of service. Test Questions on Chapter I ■How would you define the Rural Problem? , — Illustrate how the growth of the city has affected the rural problem. ■Explain the terms rural, urban, city, town, and village. ■What misleading comparisons have been made between city and country conditions ? -In what six states has the rural population, as a whole, shown a net loss in the last ten years ? — To what extent has rural America grown in pop- ulation the past half century? 7. — Describe the symptoms of a decadent village. 8. — Under what conditions do you find a village im- proving even when losing population? 9. — Discuss carefully the comparative degeneracy of the city and the country. ID. — Describe some of the stages of rural degeneracy. II. — What signs of rural degeneracy have come under your personal observation and how do you ac- count for the conditions? 12. — What evidences have you seen of the " urbaniz- ing " of rural life, and what do you think about it? 13. — Why do country boys and girls leave the farm and go to the city? THE RURAL PROBLEM 29 14. — What must be done to make country life worth while, so that a fair share of the boys and girls may be expected to stay there? IS- — How do you think a farmer ought to treat his boys? 16. — To what extent is the city dependent upon the country ? 17. — Why do so many prosperous farmers rent their farms and give up country life? 18. — How does the village problem differ from the problem of the open country? 19. — Do you believe the open country will be perma- nently occupied by American homes, or must we develop a hamlet system, as in Europe and Asia? 20. — To what extent have you faith in the ultimate so- lution of the country problem ? CHAPTER II COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM CHAPTER II Country Life Optimism I. Signs of a New Faith in Rural Life A tribute from the city. The Country Boy's Creed. City-bred students in agricultural colleges. Reasons for this city-to-country movement II. The Privilege of Living in the Country Some city life drawbacks. The attractiveness of country life. The partnership with nature. Rural sincerity and real neighborliness. The challenge of the difficult in rural life. III. The Country Life Movement Its real significance. Its objective: a campaign for rural progress. Its early history: various plans for rural welfare. Its modern sponsors : the agricultural colleges. The Roosevelt Commission on Country Life. Its call for rural leadership. Its constructive program for rural betterment. IV. Institutions and Agencies at Work Organized forces making for a better rural life. CHAPTER II COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM I. Signs of a New Faith in Rural Life. THE FARM : BEST HOME OF THE FAMILY I MAIN SOURCE OF NATIONAL WEALTH: FOUNDATION OF CIVILIZED society: THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE This tribute to the fundamental value of rural life is a part of the classic inscription, cut in the marble over the massive entrances, on the new union rail- road station at Washington, D. C. Its calm, clear faith is reassuring. It reminds us that there is unquestionably an abiding optimism in this matter of country life. It suggests, that in spite of rural depletion and decadence here and there, country life is so essential to our national welfare it will permanently maintain itself. So long as there is a city civilization to be fed and clothed, there must al- ways be a rural civilization to produce the raw ma- terials. The question is, will it be a Christian civiliza- tion? Our opening chapter has made it clear, that if the rural problem is to be handled constructively and suc- cessfully, rural life must be made permanently satis- fying and worth while. It must not only be attractive enough to retain a fair share of the boys and girls, but also rich enough in opportunity for self-expression, 33 34 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY development and service to warrant their investing a life-time there without regrets. The writer believes there are certain great attrac- tions in country life and certain drawbacks and disad- vantages in city life which, if fairly considered by the country boy, would help him to appreciate the priv- ilege of living in the country. It is certainly true that there is a strong and growing sentiment in the city favoring rural life. Many city people are longing for the freedom of the open country and would be glad of the chance to move out on the land for their own sake as well as for the sake of their children. In this connection the most interesting fact is the new interest in country life opportunity which city boys and young men are manifesting. The discontented country boy who has come to seek his fortune in the city finds there the city boy anxious to fit himself for a successful life in the country ! In view of the facts, the farm boy tired of the old farm ought to ponder well Fishin' 'Zeke's philosophy: "Fish don't bite just for the wishin', Keep a pullin'! Change your bait and keep on fishin'; Keep a pullin'! Luck ain't nailed to any spot; Men you envy, like as not. Envy you your job and lot.' Keep a pullin' ! " In many agricultural colleges and state universities, we find an increasing proportion of students coming from the cities for training in the science of agricul- COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 35 ture and the arts of rural life. This is a very signifi- cant and encouraging fact. It shows us that the tide has begun to turn. Rural life is coming to its own, for country life is beginning to be appreciated again _after several decades of disfavor and neglect. Our purpose in this chapter is to discuss these matters in detail. It is difficult to find a more comprehensive state- ment of the attractiveness of country life, in concrete terms, than this fine bit of rural optimism entitled The Country Boy's Creed : THE COUNTRY BOY'S CREED " I believe that the country which God made is more beautiful than the city which man made; that life out-of-doors and in touch with the earth is the natiual life of man. I believe that work is work wherever I find it; but that work with Na- ture is more inspiring than work with the most intricate machinery. I believe that the dignity of labor depends not on what you do, but on how you do it; that opportimity comes to a boy on the farm as often as to a boy in the city; that life is larger and freer and happier on the farm than in the town; that my success depends not upon my location, but upon myself, — not upon my dreams, but upon what I actually do, not upon luck but upon pluck. I be- lieve in working when you work and playing when you play, and in giving and demanding a square deal in every act of life." '■ There are many contented country boys in comfort- able modern homes and prosperous rural communities, • By Edwin Osgood Grover, the son of a country minister. 36 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY who heartily assent to this rural confession of faith. " For substance of doctrine " many a man would frankly accept it after a more or less disappointing life in the city whirl. It is not difficult to find men who really regret that they left the farm in young man- hood, now that country life has so greatly increased in attractiveness. " Farm life has changed a great deal," says one with a tone of regret, " since I left the farm twelve years ago. Machinery has been added, making the work easier; farming has become more scientific, giving scope to the man who does not wish to be a mere nobody. For the last few years there has been more money in farming." Every year now at Cornell University, some men change their course from the overcrowded engineer- ing to the agricultural department. This confession of a late change of heart about country life comes from one of the engineers who apparently wishes he had done likewise : " When I entered the university and registered in mechanical engineering, I had the idea that a fellow had to get off the farm, as the saying goes, 'to make something of himself in the world,' and that a living could be made more easily, with more enjoyment, in another profession. But now, after seeing a little of the other side of the question, if I had the four years back again, agriculture would be my college course. As for country life being unattractive, I have always found it much the reverse. The best and happiest days of my life have been on the farm, and I cannot but wish that I were going back again when thrqugh with school work." COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 37 City-bred Students in Agricultural Colleges In reply to the question " Why are so many city boys studying agriculture ? " a dean of a college of agriculture replied, " I think it is safe to say that a large number of city-bred boys are attracted to the agricultural colleges as a result of the general move- ment of our cities toward the country. The agitation which has caused the business man to look upon the rural community as more desirable than the city, leads him to send his son to an agricultural college in preference to other departments of the university." This city-to-country movement is naturally strong- est where the country-to-city movement has long been developing. The Massachusetts State College reports only about 25% of its new students sons of farmers and 50% of its enrollment from the cities. Yet even in the rural state of North Carolina, with 86% in rural territory (under 2,500), the number of city boys studying agriculture in the state college is " large enough to make the fact striking." In the College of Agriculture of the University of Illinois, there are 756 students enrolled this year. Eighty-one of these came from Chicago and 257 from other cities and towns above 5,000; making 45% from urban centers.^ One-third of the agricultural students at the Uni- versity of Missouri last year enrolled from cities of 8,000 or over, communities which formed 36% of the state's population. In general it seems to be true that the proportion of city boys in the various agricultural • Some allowance should be made for the possibility of students en- rolling from a small city who actually live on a suburban farm. 38 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY colleges is approximately as large as the ratio of city population in the state ; which indicates that city boys are almost as likely to seek technical training for coun- try professions as the country boys are. In a few cases, as in Massachusetts, it is partly accounted for by the fact that the Agricultural College is the only state institution with free tuition. The breadth of the courses also draws many who do not plan for general farming but for specialized farming and the increasing variety of the modern rural professions. The facts clearly show that the city boys in state after state are seeing the vision of country life opportunity. A study of the home addresses of American students at the New York State College of Agriculture, Cor- nell University, for a period of twelve years prior to 1907 shows 19% from large cities, 34% from small cities and towns, and 47% from rural communities under 2,cxx). The proportion of city students is evi- dently now increasing, as indicated by this year's figures. Of the new students entering this year from within the state 57% came from cities of 5,000 or over, 51% of whom came from cities of 10,000 upwards. Making considerable allowance for the neglect to add " R. F. D." in registration, it is still evident that the splendid equipment for country life leadership offered at Cornell is attracting more and more young men and women from the cities. Reasons for this City-to-Country Movement Two months ago the agricultural students at the Uni- versity of Illinois who came from cities and larger towns were asked, " What were the considerations COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 39 which led you to choose an agricultural course ? " Over two hundred gave their answers in writing. Love of country life was the main reason mentioned by 131; dislike for the city, 22; the financial induce- ments, 62 ; and, land in the family, 36. Farming was stated as the ambition of 167, teaching 21, experiment station work 23, landscape gardening 6, and other rural professions 15. — In a similar referendum at Cornell the city students mentioned many reasons for choosing their life work in the country. Among them were cited the love of nature and farm life, the desire to live out of doors, love for growing things, and love for animals, the financial rewards of farming, its independence, its interesting character and the healthful life it makes possible. Other interesting reasons given will be cited later in this chapter. II. The Privilege of Living in the Country. Some City Life Drawbacks Millions of people unquestionably live in the country from choice. They would not live in the city unless compelled to do so. A peculiarly amusing kind of provincialism is the attitude of the superficial city dweller who cannot understand why any one could possibly prefer to live in the country! Yet an un- usually able college professor with a national reputa- tion recently remarked that he could not conceive of anything which could induce him to live in the city. With all the attractions of the city, it has serious drawbacks which are not found in the country. If 40 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY country boys actually understood the conditions of the struggle into which they were entering in the city, more of them would stay on the farm. " I lived one year in the city; which was long enough," writes a country boy. The severe nervous tension of city life, the high speed of both social life and industry and the tyranny to hours and close confinement in offices, banks and stores are particularly hard for the country bred. The many disadvantages of the wage-earner, slack work alternating with the cruel pace, occasional strikes or lockouts, and the impersonal character of the corporation employer, coupled with the fact often realized that in spite of the crowds there are " no neighbors " in the city, reminds the country-bred la- borer of the truth of President Roosevelt's words: " There is not in the cities the same sense of common tmderlying brotherliness which there is still in the country districts." A striking cartoon was recently published by the Paterson (N. J.) Guardian entitled "The City Prob- lem." It represented " Mr. Ruralite " in the fore- ground halting at the road which leads down to the city, while from the factory blocks by the river two colossal grimy hands are raised in warning, with the message, GO back! On one hand is written high prices; on the other poor health. With the recent improvement in city sanitation, which has perceptibly lowered the death rate, the city is physically a safer place to live in than it used to be ; but slum sections are still reeking with contagion, and through most of the city wilderness the smoke and COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 4I grime is perpetual and both pure air and clear sunshine are luxuries indeed. For most people the crowded city offers little attraction for a home. The heart of great cities has ceased to grow. The growing sections are the outlying wards and the suburbs, for obvious reasons. The moral dangers of the city where the saloon is usually entrenched in politics and vice is flagrantly tolerated if not actually protected help to explain the fact that a continuous procession of city families is seeking homes in subur- ban or rural towns where the perils surrounding their children are not so serious. The Attractiveness of Country Life It is evidently true, as Dean Bailey suggests, " Even in this epoch of hurried city-building, the love of the open country and of plain, quiet living still remains as a real and vital force." The chance to live in the open air, to do out of door work and enjoy consequently a vigorous health, is a great boon which is coming to be more and more appreciated. " I intend to stick to farm life," writes a Cornell agricultural student, " for I see nothing in the turmoil of city life to tempt me to leave the quiet, calm and nearness to nature with which we, as farmers, are surrounded. I also see the possibilities of just as great financial success on a farm as in any profession which my circumstances permit me to attain." Another contented country boy writes, " I think the farm offers the best opportunity for the ideal home. I believe that farming is the far- thest removed of any business from the blind struggle 42 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY after money, and that the farmer with a modest cap- ital can be rich in independence, contentment and happiness." A variety of other significant reasons have been collected by Director Bailey from boys who are loyal to their country homes. Many speak of the profit- ableness of scientific farming, but the majority are thinking of other privileges in rural life which out- weigh financial rewards, such as the fact that the farmer is really producing wealth first-hand and is serving the primary needs of society. " I expect to make a business of breeding live-stock. I like to work out of doors, where the sun shines and the wind blows, where I can look up from my work and not be obliged to look at a wall. I dislike to use a pen as a business. I want to make new things and create new wealth, not to collect to myself the money earned by others. I cannot feel the sympathy which makes me a part of nature, unless I can be nearer to it than office or university life allows. I like to create things. Had I been dexterous with my hands, I might have been an artist; but I have found that I can make use of as high ideals, use as much patience, and be of as much use in the world by modeling in flesh and bone as I can by modeling in marble." In spite of the common notion of the farm boys who shirk country life, there is a great attraction now in the fact that farming really requires brains of a high order, offers infinite opportunity for broad and deep study, a chance for developing technical skill and personal initiative in quite a variety of lines of work, all of which means a growing, broadening COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 43 life and increasing self-respect and satisfaction. The Partnership With Nature Any briefest mention of the attractiveness of coun- try life would be incomplete without reference to the nearness to nature and the privilege of her inspiring comradeship. Not only is the farmer's sense of part- nership with nature a mighty impulse which tends to make him an elemental man ; but every dweller in the country with any fineness of perception cannot fail to respond to the subtle appeal of the beautiful in the natural life about him. As Washington Irving wrote, in describing rural life in England, " In rural occupa- tion there is nothing mean and debasing. It leads a man forth among scenes of natural grandeur and beauty ; it leaves him to the working of his own mind, operated upon by the purest and most elevating of external influences. Such a man may be simple and rough, but he cannot be vulgar." As young Bryant wrote among the beautiful Berk- shire hills, " To him who in the love of nature holds communion with her visible forms, she speaks a various language." Without an interpreter, sometimes the message to the soul is heard as in a foreign tongue ; but the message is voiced again like the music of perennial springs, and others hear it with ear and heart, and it brings peace and comfort and God's love. In his beautiful chapter on this topic Dr. W. L. An- derson writes : " By a subtle potency the rural en- vironment comes to be not the obtrusive masses of earth, nor the monotonous acres of grass, nor the daz- zling stress of endless flowers, nor the disturbing chat- 44 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY ter of the birds ; but instead of these, hills that speak of freedom, a sky that brings the infinite near, meadows verdant with beauty, air vocal with song. Beauty, sublimity, music, freedom, are in the soul." ^ Surely the uplifting influence of nature is a wonderful gift to those who are fortunate enough to live in the country. It takes the petty and sordid out of life. It trans- figures common things with beauty and fresh meaning, with the cycle of the seasons and ever freshness of the days. It brings to those who listen a quiet message of content. Rural Sincerity and Real N eighborliness Among the country privileges not often mentioned is the chance one has to live with real folks. There is a genuineness about country people that is not often found in crowded towns where conventionalities of life veneer even the ways of friends, and where custom dictates and fashion rules and the very breadth of social opportunity makes superficial people, flitting from friend to friend, not pausing to find the depths in the eye or the gold in the character. With fine simplicity, sometimes with blunt speech to be sure, our rural friends pierce through the arti- ficial and find us where we are ; honoring only what is worthy, caring nothing for titles or baubles, slow to welcome or woo or even to approve ; but quick to be- friend when real need appears, and having once be- friended, steady and true in friendship, awkward in expression, maybe, but true as steel. To live with such country folks is to know the joy of real neigh- » "The Country Town," p. 185. COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 4$ bors. To work with them takes patience, honest ef- fort to overcome inborn conservatism, and a brother's sincere spirit; but when cooperation is once promised, your goal is gained. They will say what they mean. They will do as they say. The Challenge of the Difficult in Rural Life Since the invention of the sulky plow, the mowing machine and the riding harrow, et cetera, an American humorist remarked that farming is rapidly becoming a sedentary occupation ! Drudgery has so largely been removed that it is probably true that there is no more " hack-work " or dull routine in agriculture than in other lines of business. But plenty of hard work re- mains the fanner's task. There is enough of the dif- ficult left to challenge the strong and to frighten the weakling, and in this very fact is a bit of rural op- timism. It applies not merely to farming but to coun- try life in general. Our pioneer days certainly developed a sturdy race of men. They lived a strenuous life with plenty of hardship, toil and danger, but it put iron into the blood of their children and made wonderful physiques, clear intellects, strong characters. This heroic training nurtured a remarkable race of continent conquerors fitted for colossal tasks and undaunted by difficulties. The rise of great commonwealths, developing rapidly now into rich agricultural empires, has rewarded the pioneers' faith and sacrifice. All are thankful that the rigor of those heroic days is gone with the conquest of the wilderness. But few discern in the luxurious comfort of hyper-civilized life 46 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY a peculiar peril. Our fathers, with a fine scorn for the weather, braved the wintry storms with a courage which brought its own rewards in toughened fiber and lungs full of ozone. To-day in our super-heated houses we defy the winter to do us any good. We have reduced comfort to a fine art. Even heaven has lost its attractiveness to our generation. Luxury has become a national habit .if not a national vice. Our food is not coarse enough to maintain good di- gestion. Our desk-ridden thousands are losing the vigor that comes only from out-of-door life. Exer- cise for most men has become a lost art; they smoke instead! What with electric cars for the poor man and motor cars for the near rich, walking is losing out fast with the city multitudes. Our base ball we take by proxy, sitting on the bleachers; our recreation is done for us by professional entertainers in theater, club and opera. In a score of ways the creature com- forts of a luxury loving age are surely enervating those who yield to them. Our modern flats equipped with every conceivable convenience to lure a man and a woman into losing the work habit and reducing to the minimum the expenditure of energy, are doing their share to take effort out of life and to make us merely effete products of civilization ! Modern city life, for the comfortably situated, is too luxurious to be good for the body, the mind or the morals. It dulls the " fighting edge " ; it kills am- bition with complacency ; it often takes the best incen- tives out of life; it makes subtle assault upon early ideals and insidiously undermines the moral standards. We are fast losing the zest for the climbing life. We COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 4/ need the challenge of the-difficultlQ..spur us on tQ real conquests and to fit us for larger tasks. It is the glory of country life that it is by no means enervated or over-civilized. Enough of the rough still remains for all practical purposes. Farm homes are comfortable usually but not luxurious. Rural life is full* of the physical zest that keeps men young and vigorous. As Dr. F. E. Clark suggests, farming fur- nishes an ideal "moral equivalent of war." The an- nual conquest of farm difficulties makes splendid fight- ing. There are plenty of natural enemies which must be fought to keep a man's fighting edge keen and to keep him physically and mentally alert. What with the weeds and the weather, the cut-worms, the gypsy, and the codling moths, the lice, the maggots, the cater- pillars, the San Jose scale and the scurvy, the borers, the blight and the gorger, the peach yellows and the deadly curculio, the man behind the bug gun and the sprayer finds plenty of exercise for ingenuity and a royal chance to fight the good fight. Effeminacy is not a rural trait. Country life is great for making men ; men of robust health and mental resources well tested by difficulty, men of the open-air life and the skyward outlook. Country dwellers may well be thankful for the challenge of the difficult. It tends to keep rural life strong. Our rural optimism however does not rest solely upon the attractiveness of country life and the various assets which country life possesses. We find new courage in the fact that these assets have at last been capitalized and a great modern movement is pro- moting the enterprise. 48 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY III. The Country Life Movement. Its Real Significance The modern country life movement in America has little in common with the "back to the soil" agita- tion in recent years. This latter is mainly the cry of real estate speculators plus newspaper echoes. The recent years of high prices and exorbitant cost of city living have popularized this slogan, the assumption being that if there were only more farmers, then food prices would be lower. This assumes that the art of farming is easily acquired and that the untrained city man could go back to the soil and succeed. What we really need is better fajmerg rather than more farmers ; and the untrained city man who buys a farm is rather apt to make a failure of it, — furnishing free amuse- ment meanwhile for the natives, — for the work of farming is highly technical, and requires probably more technical knowledge than any other profession except the practice of medicine. There are few abandoned farms to-day within easy distance of the cities. For several years it has been quite the fad for city men of means to buy a farm, and when a competent farm manager is placed in charge the experiment is usually a safe one. Often it proves a costly experiment and seldom does the city-bred owner really become a valuable citizen among his rural neighbors. He remains socially a visitor, rather than a real factor in country life. Conspicuous excep- tions could of course be cited, but unfortunately this seems to be the rule. The kindly purpose of well-meaning philanthropists Rural Redirection by the County Committee of tlie Lake County, Ohio, Associations. One hundred and forty farmers in "five day school," the Ohio Agricultural College cooperating. A girls' exhibit in cut flower contest. A May pole dance at a township school picnic. One of the boys participating in corn growing contest. The winner of the strawberry growing contest. COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 49 to transplant among the farmers the dwellers in the city slums is resented by both! It would be a ques- tionable kindness anyway, for the slum dweller would be an unhappy misfit in the country and escape to his crowded alley on the earliest opportunity, like a drunk- ard to his cups. Sometimes a hard-working city clerk or tradesman hears the call to the country and suc- ceeds in wresting his living from the soil. The city man need not fail as a farmer. It depends upon his capacity to learn and his power of adaptation to a strange environment. The " back to the soil " move- ment is not to be discouraged; but let us not expect great things from it. The real " Country Life Move- ment " is something quite diffierent. Its Objective: A Campaign for Rural Progress The back-to-the-soil trend is a city movement. The real country life movement is a campaign for rural progress conducted mainly by rural people, not a paternalistic plan on the part of city folks for rural redemption. It is defined by one of the great rural leaders as the working out of the desire to make rural civilization as effective and satisfying as other civiliza- tion; to make country life as satisfying as city life and country forces as effective as city forces. Inci- dentally he remarks, " We call it a new movement. In reality it is new only to those who have recently discovered it." Its Early History: Various Plans for Rural Welfare The father of the country life movement seems to have been George Washington. He and Benjamin Franklin were among the founders of the first 50 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY farmers' organization in America, the Philadelphia So- ciety for Promoting Agriculture, established in 1785. There were about a dozen such societies by 1800, pat- terned after similar organizations in England. Presi- dent Washington had an extensive correspondence with prominent men in England on this subject and made it the subject of his last message to Congress. He called attention to the fundamental importance of agriculture, advocated agricultural fairs, a national agricultural society and government support for in- stitutions making for rural progress. Since these early days there have been many organ- ized expressions of rural ambition, most of them only temporary but contributing more or less to the move- ment for the betterment of country life. There were over 900 agricultural societies in 1858 and these had increased to 1,350 by 1868 in spite of the setback of the civil war. Most of these were county organiza- tions whose chief activity was an annual fair. Agri- cultural conventions were occasionally held, sometimes national in scope, which discussed frankly the great questions vital to farmers ; and more permanent organ- izations soon developed which had a great influence in bringing the farmers of the country into cooperation with each other industrially and politically. Fore- most among these were the Grange (1867), the Farmers' Alliance (1875), the Farmers' Union (1885), Farmers' Mutual Benefit Organization (1883), and the Patrons of Industry (1887.) The Farmers' Na- tional Congress has met annually since 1880, and has exerted great influence upon legislation during this period, in the interest of the rural communities. COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 5 1 Its Modern Sponsors: The Agricultural Colleges Important as these efforts at organized cooperation among farmers have been, nothing has equalled the in- fluence of the agricultural colleges, which are now found in every state and are generously supported by the states in addition to revenue from the " land-grant funds " which all the colleges possess. These great institutions have done noble service in providing the intelligent leadership not only in farm interests but also in all the affairs of country life. At first planned to teach agriculture almost exclusively, many of them are now giving most thorough courses in liberal cul- ture interpreted in terms of country life. The vast service of these schools for rural welfare, in both intra-mural and extension work, can hardly be over- estimated. The Roosevelt Commission on Country Life It will be seen that the country life movement has been making progress for years. But it really became a national issue for the first time when President Roosevelt appointed his Country Life Commission. Though greeted by some as an unnecessary effort and handicapped by an unfriendly Congress which was playing politics, the Commission did a most significant work. Thirty hearings were held in various parts of the country and a painstaking investigation was con- ducted both orally and by mail, the latter including de- tailed information and suggestion from over 120,000 people. The Commission's report, with the Presi- dent's illuminating message, presents in the best form 52 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY available the real meaning of the country life move- ment. It will serve our purpose well to quote from this report a few significant paragraphs: " The farmers have hitherto had less than their full share of public attention along the lines of business and social life. There is too much belief among all our people that the prizes of life lie away from the farms. I am therefore anxious to bring before the people of the United States the question of securing better business and better living on the farm, whether by cooperation among the farmers for buying, selling and borrowing; by promoting social advantages and opportunities in the country, or by any other legitimate means that will help to make country life more gain- ful, more attractive, and fuller of opportunities, pleas- ures and rewards for the men, women and children of the farms." " The farm grows the raw material for the food and clothing of all our citizens; it supports directly al- most half of them ; and nearly half of the children of the United States are born and brought up on the farms. How can the life of the farm family be made less solitary, fuller of opportunity, freer from drudg- ery, more comfortable, happier and more attractive? Such a result is most earnestly to be desired. How can life on the farm be kept on the highest level, and where it is not already on that level, be so improved, dignified and brightened as to awaken and keep alive the pride and loyalty of the farmer's boys and girls, of the farmer's wife and of the farmer himself ? How can a compelling desire to live on the farm be aroused in the children that are born on the farm? All these COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 53 questions are of vital importance, not only to the farmer but to the whole nation." — Theodore Roosevelt. Its Call for Rural Leadership " We must picture to ourselves a new rural social structure, developed from the strong resident forces of the open country; and then we must set at work all the agencies that will tend to bring this about. The entire people need to be aroused to this avenue of use- fulness. Most of the new leaders must be farmers who can find not only a satisfactory business career on the farm, but who will throw themselves into the service of upbuilding the community. A new race of teachers is also to appear in the country. A new rural clergy is to be trained. These leaders will see the great underlying problem of country life, and to- gether they will work, each in his own field, for the one goal of a new and permanent rural civilization. Upon the development of this distinctively rural civili- zation rests ultimately our ability, by methods of farming requiring the highest intelligence, to continue to feed and clothe the hungry nations; to supply the city and metropolis with fresh blood, clean bodies and clear brains that can endure the strain of modern urban life; and to preserve a race of men in the open country that, in the future as in the past, will be the stay and strength of the nation in time of war and its guiding and controlling spirit in time of peace." " It is to be hoped that many young men and women, fresh from our schools and institutions of learning, 54 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY and quick with ambition and trained intelligence, will feel a new and strong call to service." Its Constructive Program for Rural Betterment The Commission suggested a broad campaign of publicity on the whole subject of rural life, until there is an awakened appreciation of the necessity of giving this phase of our national development as much atten- tion as has been given to other interests. They urge upon all country people a quickened sense of responsi- bility to the community and to the state in the con- serving of soil fertility, and the necessity for diversi- fying farming in order to conserve this fertility. The need of a better rural society is suggested; also the better safeguarding of the strength and happiness of the farm women ; a more widespread conviction of the necessity for organization, not only for economic but for social purposes, this organization to be more or less cooperative, so that all the people may share equally in the benefits and have voice in the essential affairs of the community. The farmer is reminded that he has a distinct natural responsibility toward the farm laborer, in providing him with good living facili- ties and in helping him to be a man among men ; and all the rural people are reminded of the obligation to protect and develop the natural scenery and attrac- tiveness of the open country. The Country Life Commission made the following specific recommendations to Congress: The encouragement of a system of thoroughgoing surveys of all agricultural regions in order to take stock and to collect local facts, with the idea of pro- COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 55 viding a basis on which to develop a scientifically and economically sound country life. The encouragement of a system of extension work in rural communities through all the land-grant col- leges with the people at their homes and on their farms. A thoroughgoing investigation by experts of the middleman system of handling farm products, coupled with a general inquiry into the farmer's disadvantages in respect to taxation, transportation rates, cooperative organizations and credit, and the general business system. An inquiry into the control and use of the streams of the United States with the object of protecting the people in their ownership and of saving for agricul- tural uses such benefits as should be reserved for such purposes. The establishing of a highway engineering service, or equivalent organization, to be at the call of the states in working out effective and economical high- way systems. The establishing of a system of parcels post and postal savings banks. The providing of some means or agency for the guidance of public opinion toward the development of a real rural society that shall rest directly on the land. The enlargement of the United States Bureau of Education, to enable it to stimulate and coordinate the educational work of the nation. Careful attention to the farmers' interests in legisla- tion on the tariff, on regulation of railroads, control or regulation of corporations and of speculation, legis- 56 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY lation in respect to rivers, forests and the utilization of swamp lands. Increasing the powers of the Federal government in respect to the supervision and control of the public health. Providing such regulations as will enable the states that do not permit the sale of liquors to protect them- selves from traffic from adjoining states. IV. Institutions and Agencies at Work Organized Forces Making for a Better Rural Life When we consider the vast scope of the Country Life Movement in America and the variety of agencies involved, it greatly increases our rural optimism. The following list was compiled by Dr. L. H. Bailey and is the most complete available. 1. Departments of Agriculture, national and state. 2. Colleges of agriculture, one for each state, territory, or province. 3. Agricultural experiment stations, in nearly all cases con- nected with the colleges of agriculture. 4. The public school system, into which agriculture is now being incorporated. Normal schools, into many of which ag- riculture is being introduced. 5. Special separate schools of agriculture and household subjects. 6. Special colleges, as veterinary and forestry institutions. 7. Departments or courses of agriculture in general or old- line colleges, and universities. 8. Farmers' Institutes, usually conducted by colleges of agriculture or by boards or departments of agriculture. (The above institutions may engage in various forms of extension work.) COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 57 9. The agricultural press. 10. The general rural newspapers. 11. Agricultural and horticultural societies of all kinds. 12. The Patrons of Husbandry, Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union, and other national organizations. 13. Business societies and agencies, many of them co- operative. 14. Business men's associations and chambers of commerce in cities and towns. 15. Local political organizations (much in need of redirec- tion-) . 16. Civic societies. 17. The church. 18. The Young Men's Christian Association, and other re- ligious organizations. 19. Women's clubs and organizations, of many kinds. 20. Fairs and expositions. 21. Rural libraries. 22. Village improvement societies. 23. Historical societies. 24. Public health regulation. 25. Fraternal societies. 26. Musical organizations. 27. Organizations aiming to develop recreation, and games and play. 28. Rural free delivery of mail (a general parcels post is a necessity). 29. Postal savings banks. 30. Rural banks (often in need of redirection in their re- lations to the development of the open country). 31. Labor distributing bureaus. 32. Good thoroughfares. 33. Railroads, and trolley extensions (the latter needed to pierce the remoter districts rather than merely to parallel railroads and to connect large towns). 34. Telephones. 35. Auto-vehicles. 36. Country stores and trading places (in some casesj. 58 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY 37. Insurance organizations. 38. Many government agencies to safeguard the people, as public service commissions. 39. Books on agriculture and country life. 40. Good fanners, living on the land. It is through the activity and growing cooperation of these various agencies that the new rural civilization is now rapidly developing. It will be the purpose of our next chapter to describe the process. Rural prog- ress in recent decades has been surprising and encour- aging in many quarters. Men of faith cannot fail to see that the providence of God is now using these modern forces in making a new world of the country. It may fairly be called a new world compared with the primitive past. Thus our rural optimism is justi- fied, and we have increasing faith in the future of country life in America. Test Questions on Chapter II I. — What tribute to country life is inscribed on the Washington Union Station? It is a just tribute ? 2. — Can you accept the "Country Boy's Creed " ? 3. — Why are so many city boys studying in agricul- tural colleges? How is it in your own state? 4. — Discuss some of the disadvantages and drawbacks of modern city life. 5. — Why is country life attractive to you? 6. — What do you reckon among the privileges of living in the country? COUNTRY LIFE OPTIMISM 59 7. — Discuss the real optimism you find in the " chal- lenge of the difficult " in country life. 8. — How do you explain the " back-to-the-soil move- ment" from the cities to suburban and rural villages ? 9. — Show how the real " Country Life Movement " differs from this. 10. — Mention some of the early plans for rural wel- fare in America. II. — What part have the agricultural colleges had in the Country Life Movement? 12. — When did rural betterment first become a national issue in the United States? 13. — What definite rural needs did President Roose- velt mention in his message to the Country Life Commission? 14. — What special call for rural leadership did this Commission voice? 15. — What do you think about the program for rural progress which the Commission proposed to Congress ? 16. — ^What do you think about the proposal to estab- lish a parcels post? 17. — In what special ways do the farmers' interests need safeguarding? 18. — Make a list of improvements which you consider necessary in the country sections you know the best 19. — Name as many agencies as you can which are making a better rural life. 20. — On what do you base your faith in the new rural civilization ? CHAPTER III THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION CHAPTER III The New Rural Civilization Introductory: Rural Self-Respect and Progress I. The Triumph Over Isolation Conquering the great enemy of rural contentment. The social value of the telephone. Good roads, the index of civilization. Railroads, steam and electric. The rural postal service. The automobile, a western farm necessity. II. The Emancipation from Drudgery The social revolution wrought by machinery. The evolution of farm machinery. Power machinery on the modem farm. The social effects of lessened drudgery. III. Increased Popular Intelligence New agencies for popular education among the farms. IV. The New Social Consciousness Group loyalty and a true social spirit. V. The Effect of the New Order on Rural Insti- tions New efficiency in the Modem school, church and farm. Rural progress and the providence of God. CHAPTER III THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION FACTORS THAT ARE MAKING A NEW WORLD IN THE COUNTRY Introductory: Rural Self-Respect and Progress The faith of the country life movement is justified by the remarkable rural progress of the past genera- tion. City life has been revolutionized by inventive skill, modern machinery, new forms of wealth and higher standards of efficiency and comfort ; but mean- while this marvelous progress has not been confined to cities. To be sure depleted rural districts, drained of their best blood, have not kept pace. But suburban sections in close partnership with cities have shared the speed and the privileges of urban progress, and meanwhile healthy, self-sustaining rural counties, scorning any dependence upon cities except for market, have developed great prosperity of their own and a remarkably efficient and satisfying life, even though population may have somewhat declined. This is so radically different from the life of the past, we may justly call it a new rural civilization. It is distinctly a rural civilization, not merely because of its characteristics, but because it is a triumph of rural leadership and the product of rural evolution, by for- tunate selection and survival in the country of efficient 63 64 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY manhood and womanhood best adapted to cope with their environment. Thousands who failed in the country have gone to the cities, where it is often easier for incompetence to eke out an existence by Hving on casual jobs. Thou- sands of others have found better success in the city because they were better adapted to urban life. Often the net result of the migration has been profit for the country community which has held its best, that is, the country born and bred best adapted to be happy and successful in the rural environment. Where you find the new rural civilization well de- veloped, you find a self-respecting people, prosperous and happy, keeping abreast of the times in all im- portant human interests, keenly alert to all new de- velopments in agriculture and often proud of their country heritage. Because of this new prosperity and self-respect, ridicule of the " countryman " has ceased to be popular among intelligent people. The title " farmer " has taken on an utterly new meaning and is becoming a term of respect. All this marks a return to the former days, before the age of supercilious cities, when most of the wealth and culture and family pride was in the open country and the village. To be sure in some sections of America this frank pride in rural life has never ceased. The real aristocracy of the South has always been mainly rural. Many of the "first families of Virginia" still live on the old plantations and main- tain a highly self-respecting life, free from the cor- rosive envy of city conditions, often pitying the man whose business requires him to live in the crowded THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 65 town, and rejoicing in the freedom and the whole- some joys of country life. The hospitable country mansions of the South still remind us of the fame of Westover, Mount Vernon and Monticello as centers of social grace and leadership; and the most select social groups in Richmond welcome the country gentle- men and women of refinement from these country homes, not merely because of the honored family names they bear, but because they themselves are worthy scions of a continuously worthy rural civiliza- tion. They have never pitied themselves for living in the country. They do not want to live in the city. They are justly proud of their rural heritage and their country homes. I. The Triumph over Isolation. Conquering the Great Enemy of Rural Contentment The depressing effect of isolation has always been the most serious enemy of country life in America. Nowhere else in the world have farm homes been so scattered. Instead of living in hamlets, like the rest of the rural world, with outlying farms in the open country, American pioneers with characteristic inde- pendence have lived on their farms regardless of dis- tance to neighbors. But social hungers, especially of the young people, could not safely be so disregarded, and in various ways the social instincts have had their revenge. Isolation has proved to be the curse of the country, as its opposite, congestion, has in the city. The wonder is that the rural population of the country as a whole has steadily gained, nearly doubling in a 66 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY generation, in spite of this handicap. Obviously the social handicap of isolation must be in a measure over- come, if country life becomes permanently satisfying. We are not surprised, therefore, to find that the new rural civilization has developed many means of inter- communication, bringing the remotest country dis- tricts into vital touch with the world. Among the factors that have revolutionized the life of country people and hastened the new rural civiliza- tion are the telephone, the daily mail service by rural free delivery, the rapid extension of good roads, the introduction of newspapers and magazines and farm journals, and traveling libraries as well, the extension of the trolley systems throughout the older states, and the rapid introduction of automobiles, especially through the West. In these various ways the fruits of modem in- ventive skill and enterprise have enriched country life and have banished forever the extreme isolation which used to vex the farm household of the past. The farm now is conveniently near the market. The town churches and stores and schools are near enough to the farms. The world's daily messages are brought to the farmer's fireside. And the voice of the near- est neighbor may be heard in the room, though she may live a mile away. The Social Value of the Telephone Among these modern blessings in the country home, one of the most significant is the telephone. A busi- ness necessity in the city, it is a great social asset in the rural home, like an additional member of the THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 67 family circle. It used to be said, though often ques- tioned, that farmers' wives on western farms fur- nished the largest quota of insane asylum inmates, be- cause of the monotony and loneliness of their life. The tendency was especially noticeable in the case of Scandinavian immigrant women, accustomed in the old home to the farm hamlet with its community life. To-day the farmer's wife suffers no such isola- tion. To be sure the wizards of invention have not yet given us the teleblepone, by which the faces of dis- tant friends can be made visible; but the telephone brings to us that wonderfully personal element, the human voice, the best possible substitute for the per- sonal presence. Socially, the telephone is a priceless boon to the country home, especially for the women, who have been most affected by isolation in the past. They can now lighten the lonely hours by a chat with neighbors over household matters, or even have a neighborhood council, with five on the line, to settle some question of village scandal! All sorts of com- munity doings are speedily passed from ear to ear. Details of social plans for church or grange are con- veniently arranged by wire. Symptoms are described by an anxious mother to a resourceful grandmother and a remedy prescribed which will cure the baby be- fore the horse could even be harnessed. Or at any hour of the day or night the doctor in the village can be quickly summoned and a critical hour saved, which means the saving of precious life. On some country Unes a general ring at six o'clock calls all who care to hear the daily market quotations ; and at noon the weather report for the day is issued. 68 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY If the weather is not right, the gang of men coming from the village can be intercepted by phone. Or if the quotations are not satisfactory, a distant city can be called on the wire and the day's shipment sent to the highest bidder — saving money, time, and miles of travel. All things considered the telephone is fully as valu- able in the country as in the city and its development has been just as remarkable, especially in the middle West where thousands of independent rural lines have been extended in recent years, at very low expense. In 1902 there were 21,577 rural lines in the United States, with a total length of 259,306 miles of wires, and 266,969 rural phones. Good Roads, the Index of Civilisation When John Frederick Oberlin began his remarkable work of community building in the stagnant villages of the Vosges Mountains, his very first move was to build a road. The status of any civilization is fairly clearly indicated by the condition of the highways. The first sign of rural decay in a discouraged com- munity has often been the neglect of the thorough- fares. One of the widespread signs of rural prog- ress is the recent attention given to good roads. In ,1892 the Good Roads Association was formed. In the previous year the first state aid for good road building was granted, and since then state after state has appropriated millions of dollars for this purpose. The proposal that a great macadam road be built by Congress from Washington to Gettysburg, as a me- morial to President Lincoln, whether a wise proposi- THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 69 tion or not, shows how prominent this subject has finally become, in the eyes of the nation. Progressive farmers have discovered that a bad road is a tax upon every ton of produce hauled to market; that in effect it lengthens the three mile dis- tance to ten ; that the trip requires three hours instead of one ; and that a good macadam road, or some form of paving, varying with the nearness of materials, pays for itself again and again, in the saving of time and money, and wear and tear on rolling stock and teams. The social effects of good roads are almost as clear as the industrial benefits. There is more social coopera- tion. People go oftener to town, they gather more easily at church and social functions, and the intermin- gling means better acquaintance and more helpful friendships. Better business, better social life, better neighborhoods, follow the trail of better roads — and a far better chance for the country church. Railroads, Steam and Electric It is hard for us to imagine a world without rail- roads! Yet before 1830 all long distance travel was by stage coach or by water. The world-view of most men was very tiny and their mental outlook corre- spondingly narrow. Farm life was seriously re- stricted by the fact that a distant market for most goods was impossible. It cost $10 per ton per hun- dred miles to haul merchandise to market, a tax which only high-grade goods could stand. The triumph of the railroads in conquering the con- tinent has been one of the national marvels. Suffice it to say, though the railroad has helped to concentrate 70 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY population in the cities, it has also served in a won- derful way to develop the country communities, to open up whole sections for settlement, furnishing a market and a base of supplies, making extensive agri- culture possible and distant commerce profitable; meanwhile serving as main arteries of communication, with a constant influx of fresh world thought and life. The interurban trolleys are doing much that the steam roads cannot do, connecting vast rural sections which hitherto have been aside from the beaten paths of life. The relative cheapness of building these electric lines, and the less expense for power, equip- ment and maintenance make their further extension probable as well as necessary for years to come. Their frequent trips, the near approach to thousands of farm homes, their short stops and low rates make them particularly serviceable for country people. " No king one hundred years ago," says Dr. Roads, " could have had a coach, warmed in winter, lighted up to read at night, running smoothly with scarcely a jolt, and more swiftly than his fastest horses. Through the loving providence of the heavenly Father, his poorest children have them now." ^ It is too early yet to estimate rightly the contribution the trolley has made to the new rural civilization. It has doubtless lessened in some respects the prestige of the village and especially of the village stores ; and has brought in some evils, but it has interwoven, with its rapid shuttles, the city and the country, vastly enrich- ing country life with broadened opportunity and making thousands more contented to hve in country ^" Rural Christendom," Roads, p. 84. THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 7I homes, because of lessened isolation as well as de- veloping the suburban village, the most rapidly grow- ing of all communities in America to-day. The Rural Postal Service The day of the moss-back who went for his mail once every week, the same day he got shaved and sold his butter, is gone forever, so far as most of our country is concerned. To-day about 20,cxK),ooo of our rural neighbors receive their mail at their own farms, delivered by Uncle Sam's messengers ; and this great change has occurred in a decade and a half. In 1897 $40,000 was the appropriation by Congress for the experiment in rural free delivery. In 1909 the expense was about $36,000,000, and on June i of that year there were 40,637 rural routes, nearly all of them daily service. This rural army of the civil service is almost as large as the whole military force of the country and possibly quite as useful. It is rapidly driving from our rural homes the specters of igno- rance, superstitution, provincialism and prejudice, and the positive good accomplished cannot be estimated. Letter writing makes and keeps friends. Thousands of farmers' families have joined The League of the Golden Pen in recent years. Their mail collected and distributed doubles in four or five years after the local R. F. D. is started. Among the new civilizing factors is the metropoli- tan daily, bringing to millions of farmers the daily stimulus to thought and action which the continued story of the throbbing life of the struggling world unfailingly brings. On one rural route the number of daily papers delivered increased in three years 72 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY from thirteen to 113. The great interests of human- ity are now intelligently discussed by the farmer and his boys as they go about their work, and the broaden- ing of interests is what prevents stagnation and en- riches life. We are not surprised to find a wonderful increase of magazines and other periodical literature in the country, especially the farm journals which have at- tained such influence and excellence. R. F. D. did it. Likewise the remarkable increase of shopping by mail is due to the same cause. Though many such pur- chases are doubtless foolishly made, it is undoubtedly true that even the great catalogs of mail-order houses with their description of many of the comforts of modern civilization have been of great educative value and have stimulated the ambition of countless country homes for an improved scale of living. A recent rural survey of Ohio revealed the fact that pianos or organs were found in 25.9% of the 300,000 rural homes of the state, though only 4.8% had bath tubs ! We venture to guess that many of these musical instruments were bought by mail, after the family had for many days studied the alluring catalogs of Chicago mail-order houses. Incidentally, it would be well for Chicago to sell more bath tubs! The new rural civilization is rapidly requiring them. The Automobile, a Western Farm Necessity Often merely a luxurious plaything in the city, a saucy bit of flaunting pride particularly irritating to envious neighbors, the automobile finds great useful- ness in the country. The average village as yet cares THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 73 little for it ; but the western farmer in the open coun- try is finding it almost a necessity. The proportion of autos to farms, in the prosperous corn and wheat belt, is very surprising. Low salaried tradesmen in the cities have mortgaged their homes to buy the coveted automobile; the thrifty farmer has also been known to do the same, but with vastly better reason. A certain bank in a Mississippi valley state tried to stop the withdrawal of funds for the purchase of ma- chines, the vast sums being withdrawn from the state for this purpose had become so alarming; but it was like damming Niagara! In a prosperous little farm community in Iowa with only a few scattering fam- ilies, there were nine automobiles last summer; and the situation is probably typical of prosperous western communities. A reliable authority vouches for the fact that 179 automobiles were sold in Cawker City, Kansas, in 191 1. The population of the "city" in 1910 was 870. Obviously most of these machines must have been distributed among the farms in the outlying country. The village itself had last year but twenty-one automobiles. Quite likely the per capita number of machines is greater in our great agricultural states than in the cities. It is needless to emphasize the social possi- bilities of this newest of our agencies for the newer rural civilization. As a means of communication it outstrips all but the telephone. It brings farm life right up to the minute for progressiveness, with a par- donable pride in being able to keep pace with the city. It annihilates distance and makes isolation a myth; and as the expense becomes less and less with every 74 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY year, the time is soon coming when every farmer who can now afford the ordinary farm machinery will be able also to possess this newest symbol of rural pros- perity. II. The Emancipation from Drudgery. The Social Revolution Wrought by Machinery Next to the great social transformation caused by these modern means of fighting isolation comes the emancipation from drudgery brought in by farm ma- chinery. Labor saving machinery is just as much a feature of modern civilization in the country as it is in the city. Machinery, by developing the factory system, centralized industry and produced the great cities, attracting thousands from the farms to man the looms. But this is only half the story. Meanwhile the invention of agricultural machinery made it pos- sible for the farm work of the country to be done by fewer men. Therefore the farm population of the United States decreased from 47.6% in 1870 to 35.7% in 1900, representing a change from agriculture to other employments by three and a half millions of people. Meanwhile, comparing the average value of farms, and the relative purchasing power of money, the average farmer was 42% better off at the end of the century than fifty years before.^ The tendency of farm machinery to throw men out of employment and send many to the city is shown by these facts from the thirteenth annual report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor. The sowing of small °H. W. Quaintance. in Cyc. of Am. Agric. IV; p. 109. THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 75 grains is accomplished nowadays by machine methods in from one-fifth to one-fourth the time formerly re- quired for hand-sowing. One man with a modern harvester can now do the work of eight men using the old methods, while the modern threshing machine has displaced fourteen to twenty-nine farm laborers. Machinery displaces the labor or increases the crop, according to circumstances ; but usually both. It has greatly increased the output of farm products, some- times reduced prices, and vastly increased the effi- ciency of the workers. Of nine of the more impor- tant crops, the average increase in labor efficiency in the past two generations has been 500%, while in the case of barley it was over 2,200%, and nearly the same for wheat.* The Evolution of Farm Machinery The great incentive in America for our astonishing development of farm machinery has been our cheap lands and our relatively high wages. But the noble de- sire to rise above the slavery of drudgery has con- stantly had its influence. American ambition has combined with Yankee ingenuity to produce this won- derful story. The plow, that greatest of all imple- ments, has passed through constant changes, from the crude simplicity of early days to the giant steam gang-plow of the present. The first steel plow was made in 1837 from an old saw blade! The first mowing machine was patented in 183 1. Imperfect reapers appeared two years later and were made practicable by 1840, one of the tri- ' Publication of the Amer. Econ. Assn. V; pp. 817-821. •^d THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY umphs of modern industry. Meanwhile threshing machines began to come into use and separaters were combined with them by 1850. The first steam thresher appeared in i860. It was a dramatic moment in history when at the Paris Exhibition of '55 a hopeless contest was waged between six sturdy workmen with the old hand flail, and threshing machines from four different countries. In the half-day test the six men threshed out by hand sixty liters of wheat; while a single American with his machine threshed 740 liters and easily beat all con- testants. By the time of the civil war great saving of labor had been effected by the invention of the corn planter and the two-horse cultivator. By 1865, about 250,- 000 reaping machines were in use and by 1880 our country had become the greatest exporter of wheat in the world. The invention of the twine-binder made this possible, making practicable the raising of greater crops of wheat; for as Professor T. N. Carver says: " The harvesting of the grain crop is the crucial point. The farmer has to ask himself, not, ' How much grain can I grow?' but, 'How much can I harvest with such help as I can get?'" By the late seventies the steam thresher was fast supplanting horse-power and a great impetus was given wheat growing when the roller process for manufacturing flour was invented. By this process better flour was made from spring wheat than had ever been produced from the winter grain, and this made Minneapolis the Flour City, in place of Rochester. In rapid succession the check-rower, permitting THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION JJ cross cultivation of corn, the lister, for deep plow- ing and planting, the weeder, the riding cultivator, the disk harrow and other kindred machines greatly helped the production of corn, our greatest crop. Cheese and butter factories and improvements in dairy methods helped to make Americans probably the largest consumers of butter in the world. The Babcock test for determining the butter fat, and the centrifugal separater for extracting the cream, were most important. The Evolution of the Plow In the last quarter century the improvement on these earlier farm machines has been remarkable and elaborate. One of the most wonderful continued stories of human ingenuity is the evolution of the plow, from the historic crooked stick that merely tickled the surface of the ground (and is still used in many countries) to the steam gang-plow which tears up the earth at an astonishing pace, and thoroughly prepares the soil meanwhile. When with a gang- plow and five horses, it became possible for a man to plow five acres a day, it was supposed the acme of progress was attained. But soon steam traction was introduced on the prairies and two men were able thus to plow a dozen furrows at once and cover thirty to forty acres in a day. Now, however, a iio-horse power machine, a mon- ster of titanic power and expert skill, plows a strip thirty feet wide, as fast as a man could comfortably walk, and also does the harrowing and sowing simulta- neously. This completes the work of plowing and 78 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY planting at the rate of 80 to 100 acres in a working day, or under favorable conditions even twelve acres an hour, thus doing the work of forty to fifty teams and men. Yet millions of people in the cities are not yet awake to the fact that we have a new rural civiliza- tion! When we think of the thousands of men who have patiently experimented and labored to perfect the plow, many of them now unknown, we must con- sider the modern planting machine not an individual but a race triumph. Among these innumerable ex- perimenters was no less a man than Thomas Jeffer- son, gentleman farmer, who gave months and years of study in nature's laboratory to the single problem of perfecting the moldboard of the plow, that it might do the most thorough work with the least unnecessary friction. Likewise the harrow, so simple in our grandfathers' days, has remarkably developed, and we have peg- tooth, spring-tooth, disk, spader and pulverizer har- rows, drawn by horses or mules, which follow the plow with a four- to twenty-foot swath. But here again the city mechanic must tip his hat to the prairie farmer who uses twentieth century machinery, for we have now a harrowing machine lOO feet in reach which harrows thirty acres in an hour or a whole section of land in about two days ! These astonishing facts are particularly staggering to the small farmer, but they need discourage only the incompetent. They have of course combined small farms into great enterprises, and have driven some slovenly farmers from poor soil. The pace is so fast. But specialized farming and intensive farming have their own successes to- THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 79 day as well as extensive farming, and it all tends to elevate the whole scale of living and standard of efficiency upon the farms; in short producing a new rural civilization.* Power Machinery on the Modern Farm A most interesting chapter in the story of human in- dustry is the evolution of power machinery. Grad- ually the drudgery of hand labor has been relieved by water power, horse power, steam power, wind power and the modern gasolene and electricity. The giant gang-plow with its iio-horsepower traction engine is a prairie triumph, but it has very little in- terest for the ordinary farmer on an average farm. Yet even the small farmer finds the gasolene portable engine wonderfully useful and a great labor-saver at slight expense. Perhaps the surest way for a farmer to interest his discontented boy, who is crazy for the city, is to buy a gasolene engine. A machine shop on the farm is a * The financial results of these improvements in farm machinery will not at all surprise us. It follows as a matter of course that machinery has greatly reduced the cost of production. A leading agricultural engineer at Washington is authority for this comparison. In 1830 a bushel of wheat represented over three hours of labor; while in 1896 only ten minutes; making a saving in the labor cost of produc- ing wheat equal to the difference between 17 3-4 and 33 1-2 cents. In 1850 it required 4 1-2 hours labor to produce a bushel of corn; while in 1894 it was reduced to 41 minutes. Likewise the labor represented in a ton of baled hay has been reduced from 35 1-2 hours in i860 to II 1-2 in 1894; reducing the labor cost of a ton of hay from $3 to $1.29. It has been estimated that the use of agricultural machinery saved in human labor in this country alone, in the year 1899, the vast sum of about seven hundred million dollars, with doubtless a great increase the past decade. No wonder American farmers are spending a hundred million dollars a year for their implements, and for this very reason have outstripped the farmers of the world, not only in the vast amount of production, but also in the increased comforts and satisfac- tions of farm life. 80 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY great educator and a great resource for the boy as well as a money-saver for the farmer. But best of all is the portable engine, which not only relieves the boy of the most back-breaking labor but gives him the keen de- light of controlling power, — a mighty fascination for every normal boy. The most recent publication of a great farm ma- chinery trust entitled " Three Hundred Years of Power Development," dismisses electricity as impracticable for farm uses because of its expense ; and says of wind power : " This power at best is unreliable and usually unavailable when most needed." Yet the writer has discovered a 1,120-acre farm in North Da- kota where electricity is generated by wind, and wind power is stored in electricity at a very slight cost, and it meets many of the mechanical needs of this pros- perous farm. So far as known this is the first in- stance of a storage-battery electric plant upon a farm, the battery being charged by wind power! The in- genious older son, now a graduate of the State School of Science, experimented with this plan all through his boyhood and is now securing patent rights to protect his invention.^ He discovered from the U. S. Weather Bureau reports the mean wind velocity which could be depended upon at Mooreton, N. D., and built his windmill accordingly. An ingenious automatic regu- lator protects the battery from over-charging. The electricity provides 75 lights for house, barn and other farm buildings ; power for wheat elevator, all laundry machinery, washing, ironing, centrifugal drying; cream separater and other dairy machinery; electric " George Manikowske, Mooreton, N. D. THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 8l cook Stove, et cetera, in the farm kitchen ; electric fans for the summer and bed warmers in the winter ; electric pumps for irrigating, and even an electric vulcanizer for repairing the auto tires! This is the way one farm boy succeeded in harnessing the fierce prairie winds and compelling them to do his drudgery. The Social Effect of Lessened Drudgery To the mechanic the story of agricultural machinery suggests the miracle of the conquest of nature by hu- man ingenuity and perfected mechanical skill. To the economist it suggests fascinating new problems of production and consumption, and the new values of land, labor and capital. To the speculator it means a greatly enlarged field for manipulation and wilder dreams of profit. But to the country lover rejoicing in the new rural prosperity it first of all suggests that from thousands of progessive farms has the curse of drudgery been lifted.® Hard, grinding, back-breaking labor, often with surprisingly meager returns, and in some seasons with total crop failure, has been in the past the bitter lot of the husbandman. Many a farm boy has thus had the courage crushed out of him in early teens and has ignominiously retreated to the city. Many a farm- er's wife has grown prematurely old and has slaved herself to death, leaving her children and her home to a younger successor. These conditions of course still continue even in the new age. Great numbers of farmers are still hopelessly poor, many of them need- lessly so, through ignorance, slovenly management, 'See Genesis 3:17-19. 82 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY laziness or willful unprogressiveness. But the rural moss-back is being laid upon the shelf with other fos- sils and soon will possess only historical interest. Great organized effort is being made to redeem him by the gospel of scientific farming before he dies, and the effort is by no means vain. III. Increased Popular Intelligence. The new rural civilization, however, is by no means a mere matter of methods. The farmer himself has been growing mere intelligent. County agricultural societies, first organized in 1810, set the farmers to thinking. Many farm journals have contributed widely to the farmers' education. But in the past twenty years many agencies have united in what has been a great rural uplift. The government's depart- ment of agriculture, the experiment stations estab- lished in each state, the better-farming trains with their highly educative exhibits, the countless farmers' institutes for fruitful discussions, the extension work of state universities, the local and traveling libraries, and especially the agricultural colleges, through their short courses in the winter, their stimulating and in- structive bulletins, their great variety of extension service through their territory, are among the many agencies for popular education in country districts which are becoming thoroughly appreciated and highly effective. In a great variety of ways a genuine rural culture is being developed, with its own special char- acteristics and enduring values. All this is helping to make country life vastly worth while. ....-^• This picture illustrates school garden work at the Macdonald Con- solidated School, Guelph, Canada, E. A. Howes, Trincipal. The time is June. The same garden at harvest time, in September. THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 83 This increased culture among country people is a great factor in the new rural civilization which must be given due consideration. It is this which is over- coming rural narrowness and provincialism. Herein is great hope for the future of the open country as a worthy home for people of the finest tastes and of genuine culture. This important topic will be consid- ered in detail in Chapter VI, under Education for Country Life. IV. The New Social Consciousness. In these days when the gospel of class conscious- ness is being preached by labor union leaders, as requi- site to success, the farmers may well heed the lesson. Let them stop the luxury of self-pity and discover "S genuine_j)ride in^their life calling^ Thousands do not in the least need this exhortation. They rejoice in their privilege as scientific tillers of the soil. They are also discovering a real social spirit among them- selves which speaks well for the future. As a class they are claiming their rights with a new insistence and a new dignity which is commanding a respectful hearing. Legislatures and the national Congress are taking notice; likewise the railroads; but the middleman re- mains unterrified, secure in his speculative castle. He may look well to his profits however, for the days of organized agriculture are not far distant. The farm- ers are getting together for business and are com- paring notes with the consumers. The producer finds he is often getting less than half what the consumer 84 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY pays and the cooperative spirit grows apace. The efficiency of farmers' organizations for mutual profit has varied greatly in different sections, but they serve a genuine need and have a great future, as class con- sciousness increases among farmers. But the new social consciousness in the country is not merely a matter of group loyalty. It has to do with the interests of the whole community. The self- ish days of the independent farmer are rapidly pass- ing. The social spirit of mutual interdependence is certainly growing. One of the tests of modern civiliza- tion is the capacity for cooperation. Tardily, very tardily, the country has been following the city in this ability to cooperate for common ends and the com- munity welfare, but improvement is very evident. The problem of community socialization will be treated in Chapter V. We shall find that the need of cooperation runs through every phase of rural life and explains the common weakness of every rural institu- tion. But leaders of country life, both East and West, have caught the social vision and are sharing it with their neighbors. " Together " is the watchword of the new day in the country, and the incentive of coopera- tive endeavor is the key to the new success in every rural interest and organization. V. Effect of the New Order on Rural Institutions. For several decades we have been seriously troubled by the decay of rural institutions. The strain upon them resulting from rural depletion has been very THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 85 serious. First of all the country schools began to deteriorate and thousands of them doubtless have been closed. With the decay of the village, the village store, that social center and fountain of all wisdom, has lost prestige and most of its trade. The trolley and the mail order houses have made it unnecessary. With the coming of the rural delivery route, even the village post-office has lost all social importance. With the advent of farm machinery and fewer farm hands, many of the jolly social functions of the past, such as husking bees, bam raisings, spelling bees and lyceums, have ceased to be; while the rural churches in all depleted sections have suffered sadly and in hun- dreds of cases have succumbed. In some scattered communities, away from the beaten paths, this social decay has resulted in de-so- cializing the neighborhood. Feuds, grudges, gross im- moralities have followed and the people have relapsed into practical heathenism. But in many places social readjustment has come, with a new efficiency in rural institutions. Centralized schools have brought a new largeness of vision in place of the little district knowledge shop. The great advantages of the rural free delivery have certainly outweighed the loss of the social prestige of the post-office, just as the trolley is more valuable than the village store. Many of the old time social functions were worth while, but new insti- tutions like the Grange and the farmers' clubs, institutes and cooperative organizations are better fitted to the modern age and are contributing largely to the new rural civilization, while the village church and the church in the open country are discovering new op- 86 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY portunities for service, broader community usefulness and a great social mission. The new rural civilization is bringing a new pros- perity into the great business of farming. It is bring- ing new and permanent satisfactions and comforts into country homes. It has greatly diminished the vexed problem of rural isolation, with its many new ways of communication. It has to a remarkable de- gree eliminated drudgery, through the use of wonder- ful machinery. It has popularized education and de- veloped a new social consciousness and new efficiency in rural institutions, amounting often to a total redi- rection of the community life. But fundamentally the new civilization is naturally religious. It is re- vealing the strong religious sentiment in country folks, even when they are not associated with churches. It is calling upon the church to gird itself for new tasks and under a new, virile type of leadership undertake real community building with the modern church as the center of activity and source of inspiration and guidance. The church should be, and with adequate leadership is, the local power house of the country life 1 movement. Rural Progress and the Providence of God Every man of faith must see in this new rural civ- ilization the purpose of God to redeem the country from the dangers of a rural peasantry and moral decadence. Progress is the will of God. Christ's ^vision of a Kingdom of Heaven involved a redeemed world. That Kingdom of Heaven is coming ulti- mately in the country as well as in the city. Every Plan of Macdonald Consolidated School grounds and gardens, Bowes- ville, Ontario, Canada. THE NEW RURAL CIVILIZATION 87 sign of rural progress indicates it and should be hailed with joy by men of faith. The triumph over isolation and the gradual emancipation from drudgery, the de- velopment of good roads, trolleys, telephones, rural mail service, automobiles, and the wonderful evolution of farm machinery are all way-marks in the providence of God indicating the ultimate coming of his King- dom. The increased intelligence among farming people, the many new agencies for popular education, the new social consciousness and growing spirit of co- operation, the new efficiency of rural institutions, a better school, a community-serving church, a character- building home, as well as a scientifically conducted farm, every one of these makes for better rural morals and better religion, and should delight the heart of every earnest man who " desires a better country, that is a heavenly." Test Questions on Chapter III I. — Why are the terms " countryman " and " farmer " ceasing to be used as terms of ridicule? 2. — What effect, in past years, has isolation had upon people living in the country? 3. — What modern means of intercommunication have largely overcome the evils of rural isolation ? 4. — What are the social possibilities of the telephone for people living in the open country ? 5. — Why are good roads so essential, socially and in- dustrially, in the country sections? 6. — When was the " Good Roads Association " formed, and how much has your state expended 88 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY for state roads the past twenty years? (In- quire of your County Surveyor.) 7. — What do the rural sections owe to the steam rail- road system of the country ? 8. — What have the trolleys accomplished which the steam roads could not do? 9. — ^What changes in rural life are due to the rural free delivery of mail ? ID. — ^Describe what these changes have accomplished in your own home county. II. — ^To what extent has machinery relieved farm labor of its drudgery? 12. — Describe the evolution of the plow and the har- row. 13. — What inventions in farm machinery have had the greatest influence on rural progress? 14. — What can you say about the increase of intelli- gence in the country sections you have known? 15. — What agencies are now at work in the country making popular education possible? 16. — Have you observed anywhere yet the new social consciousness or class consciousness among farmers ? 17. — To what extent do you think cooperation has gained acceptance in the country? 18. — In what rural institutions is cooperation still greatly lacking? 19. — What changes have already come in rural insti- tutions ? 20. — How is this new rural civilization revealing the will of God, and what relation has it to the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven ? CHAPTER IV TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE CHAPTER IV Triumphs of Scientific Agriculture I. Its Struggle with Rural Conservatism Modem efficiency in city and country. The natural conservatism of farmers. What is progressive agriculture? Its development by government patronage. II. Some Special Aspects of Scientific Agriculture Intensive fanning and conservation of fertility. Achievements of scientific breeding. Marvels of plant production. Irrigation and the problem of the desert. Dry farming possibilities. III. Some Results of Scientific Farming Agriculture now a profession. Conservation: a new appeal to patriotism. Permanency of rural Christendom now possible. CHAPTER IV TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE I. Its Struggle with Rural Conservatism. Modern EMciency not Confined to Cities Efficiency is everywhere demanded by the spirit of our times. We are living in an age that does things. Whatever the difficulties, it somehow gets things done. It brings to pass even the seemingly impossible. Are there mountains in the way? It goes over, under, or through. — There are no moun- tains! Is there an isthmus, preventing the union of great seas and blocking commerce? It erases the isthmus from the world's map. — There is no isthmus ! ' The masterful time-spirit has little patience with put- tering inefficiency. It expects every man to pull his weight, to earn his keep, to do his own task, and not to whimper. •" Our cities are hives of efficiency, cruel efficiency often. With new pace-makers every year, the wheels of industry speed ever faster, raising the percentage of effectiveness, per dollar of capital and per capita em- ployed. Hundreds at the wheels, with scant nerves, fail to keep the pace ; and the race goes by them. But the pace keeps up. Other workmen grow more deft and skillful. The product is both cheapened and per- 91 92 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY fected. The plant becomes more profitable, under fine executive efficiency. The junk-heap grows apace: Out goes every obsolete half-success. In comes every new machine which reduces friction, doubles results, halves the cost of maintenance, and swells dividends. Surely efficiency is the modern shibboleth. Here is the new Tungsten electric lamp, which uses half the current, at low voltage, but doubles the light ; the very dazzling symbol of efficiency. How it anti- quates the best Edison lamp of yesterday! Yet the Tungsten becomes old-fashioned in a year. It is too fragile and is speedily displaced by the improved Mazda. But city life has no monopoly on efficiency. In fact we do not find in the mills or factories the best illustrations of modern effectiveness. We have to go back to the soil. Agriculture has become the newest of the arts, by the grace of modern science. To make two blades of grass grow where one grew before is too easy now. Multiplying by two is small boys' play. Burbank has out-Edisoned Edison! He and other experimenters in the scientific breeding of plants and animals have increased the efficiency of every live farmer in the land, and have added perhaps a billion dollars a year to the nation's wealth. They have not yet crossed the bee and the firefly, as some one has suggested, to produce an illuminated bee that could work at night by his own light. Nor have they produced woven-wire fences by crossing the spider and the wire-worm! Not yet; but they have done better. By skillful cross-breeding, they have raised the efficiency of the sugar beet from 7% TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 93 to 15% sugar. They have produced hardy, seedless oranges, plums, apples, and strawberry plants which will stand the climate of the frozen north. They have developed fine, long-stapled cotton, high-yielding ce- real grains, and mammoth carnations and chrysanthe- mums. They have produced the wonderberry . the Wealthy Apple and the Burbank Potato. They have developed flax with 25% more seed. And the " Min- nesota Number Thirteen Corn," so hardy and sure, has carried the cornbelt in three great states fully fifty miles further to the north, with its magnificent wake of golden profits. No wonder America feeds the world. Such is our splendid Yankee genius for effi- ciency. It is the master-spirit, the ruling genius of our age; and it shows itself best on our fields and prairies. Other nations compete fairly well with our manufactures. They outstrip us in commerce. But they are hopelessly behind our American agricul- ture. The farm products of this country amounted in the year 1910 to almost nine billion dollars. The corn crop alone was worth a billion and a half ; enough to cancel the entire interest-bearing debt of the United States, buy all of the gold and silver mined in all the countries of the earth in 1909, and still leave the farm- ers pocket-money.^ The Natural Conservatism of Farmers In all fairness it must be said, the modern gospel of progressiveness has not been everywhere accepted, far from it. Plenty of farmers, dQab.tl £ss_ .the majority^., are still following the old traditions. Country folks ' Keport of the U. S. Sec. of Agric. for 1910, p. 11. 94 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY as a rule are conservative. They like the old ways and are suspicious of " new-fangled notions." Di- rector Bailey of Cornell enjoys telling the comment he overheard one day from a farmer of this sort. It was after he had been speaking at a rural life conference, doubtless proposing various plans for better farming, which differed from the honored superstitions of the neighborhood. A stolid native was overheard say- ing to his neighbor, "John, let them blow! They can't hurt me none." He prided himself on being immune to all appeals at such a rural life revival. Such a man is very common among the hills, and wherever the soil is poor ; but he is beginning to feel lonesome in really prosperous rural communities, for the new agriculture is fast winning its way. That is, the application of science to agriculture has proved its efficiency by actual tangible results. A farmer may be so superstitious as to begin nothing on a Friday, nor butcher during a waning moon for fear his meat will shrink, nor use an iron plow for fear it may poison the soil! But when his neighbor by modern methods adds 50% to his crop, he knows there must be .something in it. The new theory he always greets with "I don't believe it!" but the knock-down argu- ment of facts compels his reluctant faith. Soon he gives the new heresy a trial himself; and success makes him a convert to the new gospel. An experience like this is a serious thing for a hide- bound conservative, long wedded to old methods. It means that " the former things are passed away and behold all things are become new." He loses his su- perstitions as he discovers the laws of cause and effect. TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 95 He gradually concludes that farming is not a matter of luck but largely a matter of science ; that it is not merely tickling Dame Nature till she grudgingly shares her bounties, but that it is a scientific process, the laws of which may be discovered. This means mental growth for the farmer, the stimulus of many new ideas which bring wider horizons and a larger life; and incidentally a heightened respect for his own life- work. What is Progressive Agriculture f The old-fashioned farmer, particularly in America where methods have been so wasteful because of the cheapness of land, has planted and harvested just for the season's returns, with little regard for the future. The modern farmer, self-respecting and far-sighted, plans for the future welfare of his farm. He learns liafflL^t o ana lyzg and treat his soil and to conserve its fertility, just as he would protect his capital in any business investment. Scientific management and farm economy are taking the place of mere soil-mining and reckless waste. The best farmers plan to leave their farms a little more fertile than they found them. Good authorities in rural economics assert that if de- pletion of soil fertility were taken into account, the wasteful methods of American agriculture in the past, though producing apparently large returns, have ac- tually been unprofitable. So long as new land could easily be obtained from the government for a mere song and a few months' patience, the pioneer farmer was utterly careless in his treatment of the soil. He moved from state to state, skimming the fat of the 96 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY land but never fertilizing, following the frontier line westward and leaving half-wasted lands in his trail. It was really a blessing to the land when the scarc- ity of free homesteads brought this wasteful process towards its end. When new lands became scarce, the farms of the middle West increased in value. For twenty years farm values have been rising steadily, with two evident results : intensive farming and specu- lation. The demoralizing effects of the latter are at once apparent. It was a sad day when the prairie farmer ceased to think of his farm as a permanent home, but as a speculative asset. But it was a good day for the business of farming when the farmer dis- covered the need of more careful, intensive cultiva- tion to keep pace with rising values. This marks the beginning of scientific thoroughness and efficiency in our tilling of the soil. Its Development by Government Patronage Just then something very timely happened. The modern period of American agriculture really dates from 1887, when Congress, by the Hatch Act, estab- lished the first national system of agricultural experi- ment stations in the world. Previous to this date there had been a few private and state enterprises ; but this Act of Congress established at public ex- pense an experiment station in every state and terri- tory. The vast usefulness of this movement in de- veloping a real science of agriculture is evident from this paragraph from the law: " Sec. 2. That it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to conduct original researches TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 97 or verify experiments on the physiology of plants and animals ; the diseases to which they are severally sub- ject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping, as pursued under the varying' series of crops ; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclima- tion; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with ex- periments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants ; the composition and di- gestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions in- volved in the production of butter and cheese, et cetera." As a result of this and later laws, over three mil- lions of dollars are now spent annually, by the na- tional and state governments, to support experiment station work. Over a thousand men are employed in the investigations and their publications cover prac- tically the whole range of the science and art of agriculture. About five hundred separate bulletins are issued each year, which may be obtained free on application. This great chain of experiment stations is working wonders. In cooperation with the agricultural col- leges and the U. S. Department of Agriculture, they are raising agriculture to scientific levels. They are, by their laboratory work, doing the farmer's experimenting for him and doing it better and with greater certainty. Thus they 98 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY are eliminating much of the uncertainty and " luck " from farming which has been its curse and discouragement. And thus they are equipping the farmer to cope more effectively with the difficulties of nature and to put a more confident fight with stub- born climate and fickle weather, because he knows the scientific points of the game. II. Some Special Aspects of Scientific Agriculture. Intensive Farming and Conservation of Fertility The opening of the rich prairie lands to cultivation, with the marvels of extensive agriculture, is a wonder- ful story. Our last chapter suggested it in outline. But intensive farming has its own triumphs, though they may be less spectacular. There is something that wins our respect in the careful, thorough meth- ods of European agriculture, by which whole na- tions are able to make a living on tiny farms by in- tensive farming. Tilling every little scrap of ground, even roadside and dooryard, and guarding the soil fer- tility as the precious business capital of the family, it is wonderful how few square rods can be made to sustain a large family. Frugality is not attractive to Americans, especially the European type which often means peasant farm- ing, and a low scale of living. We are discover- ing, however, the vast possibilities of farm economy and intensive cultivation. Professor Carver says, " Where land is cheap and labor dear, wasteful and extensive farming is natural, and it is useless to preach against it. . . . We always tend to waste TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 99 that which is cheap and economize that which is dear. The condition of this country in all the preceding periods dictated the wasteful use of land and the economic use of labor, as shown by the unprecedented development of agricultural machinery. But as land becomes dearer, relatively to labor, as it inevitably will, the tendency will be equally inevitable toward more intensive agriculture, that is, toward a system which produces more per acre. This will follow through the normal working of economic laws, as surely as water will flow down hill." It is wonderful what can be accomplished by in- tensive cultivation. If the old New England orchards were given as thorough care and treatment as the scientifically tended and doctored apple trees of Ore- gon, the results would surprise the oldest citizen! Conserving moisture and keeping the soil clean from weeds is worth all the painstaking care it requires. The renovation of the soil by regular fertilizing is a lesson the wasteful West is slowly learning, coupled with scientific schemes of crop rotation to conserve the soil's quality. Farmers are astonishingly slow to adopt these methods, however, thinking that they know best the needs of their own soil. The North Dakota experiment station is inducing farmers to adopt their advice as to seed selection and crop rota- tion with the promise to set aside five acres for ex- perimentation in accordance with the advice given. This is extremely wise policy. Doubtless, if direc- tions are faithfully followed, the contrast with the rest of the farm will be highly favorable to the five- acre lot and agricultural progress will win out. lOO THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY 'Achievements in Scientific Breeding In the earlier pages of this chapter we have already alluded to this fascinating subject as an illustration of modern efficiency in country life. Four years ago Assistant Secretary Hays of the Department of Agri- culture asserted that scientific breeding of better stock and plant life was netting this country a billion dollars a year, of the total agricultural production of seven and a half billions in 1907.^ In 1910 the total reached about nine billions and it is probable that scientific agriculture was the main cause of the great increase rather than additional acreage. One of the wonders of modern science is this story of the development of new plant species and improve- ment in the best of the old, by the skillful processes of plant breeding. Notable also has been the im- provement in American horses, cattle, swine and poultry, developed by the same scientific principles. Projected efficiency, or breeding power to beget valu- able progeny, is the central idea. Simple selection is the method. Out of a large number of animals the phenomenal individual is selected for his notable ca- pacity for reproducing in his offspring his own de- sirable characteristics. Thus the best blood is multi- plied and the less desirable is discarded. Sometimes by close inbreeding the eugenic process has been has- tened. In this way scientific stock raisers have been able practically to make to order animals with any de- sired quality. For instance, the great demand for bacon in England has been met by a masterly bit of ' " Brains that Make Billions." W. M. Hays, in Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 29, 1908. TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE lOI agricultural statesmanship, for which Mr. John Dry- den, chief of the Canadian Agricultural Department, is responsible. After careful study and experiment, the Yorkshire and Tamworth breeds of hogs were crossed and a special breed developed especially valu- able for bacon with exceptionally long sides of uni- form thickness and with alternating layers of fat and lean. Selected bacon made to order! New breeds of sheep have been developed which have combined phenomenal wool-producing power with su- perior meat production; similarly short-horn cattle with great milk-giving capacity and beef production; and more remarkable still have been the results in horse breeding. In spite of all the motor-cycles and automobiles, the horse is becoming more and more useful, because more highly civilized and specialized. The breeders know how to build up horse-flesh to suit your special needs for draft horse, family horse, trotter or pacer, with any desired form, proportions or talent, almost as accurately as a druggist com- pounds prescriptions! The wonderful possibilities involved challenge our imagination. Among the re- sults of this stock-raising strategy we ought to expect not only happier and richer farmers, but better and cheaper food and clothing for all classes of people. The very fact that the business is now on a scientific basis has appealed to students and is attracting men of large abilities who see the opportunity to better rap- idly, year by year, the live-stock quality of the whole country. I02 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY Marvels in Plant Production In the field of plant breeding these marvelous re- sults are more rapid and startling because of the wider rang of selection. Hybridization, the crossing of dif- ferent species, has accomplished much more than sim- ple selection. Dr. William Saunders of Canada suc- ceeded in crossing the Ladoga and Fife varieties of wheat and secured a wheat which was earlier than Fife and yielded better than Ladoga. Likewise, Luther Burbank was able to produce a hybrid walnut by crossing the English and Black walnuts ; and Web- ber and Swingle developed the new fruits called tan- gerines and citranges by crossing sweet oranges with carefully selected specimens of the wild fruit. Ex- • periments last year in blueberry culture developed luscious berries a half inch in diameter. Possibilities in berry development are almost unlimited, especially by crossing with hardy wild varieties. Peach raisers have two great obstacles to sure suc- cess: drought in the Southwest and frost toward the North. Science is helping them to compete success- fully with the severities of nature. A hardy wild peach has been found in Northern China and grafting on this stock has produced (this last year) the hardiest peach in Iowa ; while another strain bids fair to meet the drought-resisting needs of the Southwest fruit grower. Our agricultural explorers are searching the world for new varieties which can be used in hybridizing to perfect the American species. For instance, a wild wheat has been found in Palestine which requires TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE IO3 very little water. So a specialist in acclimatization was sent directly to the slopes of Mount Hermon to discover its possibilities for American dry farming. If the plant doctors succeed in developing wheat which can be raised in our arid wilderness, it would repay a thousand fold the expense of a round-the- world trip. The possible profits in skillful plant breeding are almost unlimited. Burbank is quoted as asserting : " The right man under favorable conditions can make one dollar yield a million dollars in plant breeding." In 1908 the Minnesota Experiment Sta- tion had spent $40,000 in breeding the cereal grains. The agricultural department is authority for the opin- ion that " the increased production is estimated at a thousand fold, or $40,000,000." ^ The justly famous navel oranges of California can all be traced to two scions sent from the U. S. De- partment of Agriculture some years ago. The Wealthy apple, which thrives in the cold north better than any other good variety, goes back to the early struggles of Peter Gideon at Lake Minnetonka, who faced the Minnesota winter almost penniless, coatless and with a family dependent upon him ; but had faith enough to invest his hard-earned dollars in selected apple-seed from his far off home in Maine. The largest single contributor to the wealth produced by scientific breeding is said to be the Burbank potato. The van-guard of American experimenters are rang- * However, let us not jump to the conclusion that general farm- ing to-day is highly profitable. Inflation of farm values in many sec- tions has resulted in serious over-capitalization. . The general farmers making big dividends bought their farms some years ago, or inherited them. I04 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY ing the world and bringing home large-fruited jujubes (as good as dates) from the dry fields of central Asia; seedless Chinese persimmons which have just been successfully fruited in North Carolina; a Japanese salad plant and a vegetable called udo which is similar to asparagus; edible roots called aroids which thrive in swampy land where the potato rots; hardy alfalfa from central Asia successfully crossed with our own varieties for our cold northwest; drought-resisting cherries, apricots with sweet kernels, Caucasian peaches, olives hardy in zero temperatures, mangoes from Porto Rico, the Paradise apple which grows wild in the Caucasus, the Slew Abrikose, an apricot as smooth as the nectarine, and wild strawberries fruit- ing in February on the dry cliffs of western Asia which, through cross-breeding may help to carry our native strawberry many miles still farther to the north. The story is endless ; but these items suggest to us the thoroughly statesmanlike way in which our agri- cultural leaders are increasing year by year the pos- sibilities of our soil in spite of all drawbacks of con- dition and climate. No wonder they are already proph- esying that our annual agricultural production will before long reach twenty billions. When it comes, a large part of the credit must be given to the skillful agricultural scientists who are furnishing all progress- ive farmers these newer species of plants and animals which are superseding the inferior varieties. Irrigation and the Problem of the Desert When it is the problem of sterility, it is hopeless. But usually it is merely the problem of aridity ; which is only a challenge to enterprise. Much of our " Great TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE IO5 American Desert," as the old geography used to de- scribe it, is in reality the most fertile of all soils ; no wonder it; can easily be made to " blossom as the rose." Dr. W. E. Smythe in his fascinating book "The Conquest of Arid America " calls attention to the fact that the real dividing line between the east and the west is the 97th meridian which divides in twain the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. East of this line is the region of fairly assured rain- fall. To the westward stretches the vast area of arid land with a rainfall insufficient to sustain agriculture; and with only three or four people to the square mile, though with resources enough to support a hundred million people. With a climate matchless for health and a varied and beautiful scenery, coupled with un- told mineral deposits and a soil fertility that is remark- able, this great section is slowly coming to its own, through the method of irrigation, from the mountains and the streams. With characteristic western spirit the above author remarks, " Even in humid regions nothing is so un- certain as the time and amount of the rainfall. In the whole range of modern industry nothing is so crude, uncalculating and unscientific as the childlike dependence on the mood of the clouds for the moisture essential to the production of the staple necessities of life." The superiority of irrigation as a certain means of water supply which can be regulated at will is a thesis easy to maintain. The results make a marvel- ous story. " The canal is an insurance policy against loss of crops by drought, while aridity is a substantial guarantee against injury by flood. The rich soils of I06 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY the arid region produce from four to ten times as largely with irrigation, as the soil of the humid region without it. Twenty acres in the irrigated West should equal loo acres elsewhere. Certainty, abundance, va- riety — all this upon an area so small as to be within the control of a single family through its own area, are the elements which compose industrial independ- ence under irrigation." The small farm unit, usually from five to twenty-five acres, brings neighbors close together, abolishing lone- liness and most of the social ills of farm life in the East. Beautiful irrigated villages are springing up which rival in comfort and privilege most places on earth, and combine both city and country privileges, where rural and urban meet. The spirit of coopera- tion is strong in irrigated communities, enforced by the common dependence upon the common enterprise and water supply. This is well illustrated by the Mormon commonwealth, the pioneer irrigators of the West. The enthusiastic irrigating farmer asserts that ir- rigation is "the foundation of truly scientific agri- culture." "The western farmer who has learned to irrigate thinks it would be quite as illogical for him to leave the watering of his potato patch to the caprice of the clouds as for the housewife to defer her wash- day until she could catch rainwater in her tubs." Ir- rigation certainly furnishes the ideal method for rais- ing a varied crop, giving each crop individual treat- ment, serving each of thirty varieties of plants and trees with just the amount of daily moisture they in- dividually need, so as to produce maximum products. TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE I07 No wonder three crops in a year sometimes result, and sometimes five crops of alfalfa in the Southwest. Here we come to the highest development of intensive farming where the utmost value of agricultural science has free play and rivals the results of research and skill in any other line of human effort. Dry Farming Possibilities Wonderful as these irrigation projects are, we must not fail to notice that this method of reclaiming arid lands can only be used where there are mountains, riv- ers or water courses which can be tapped. Ulti- mately an area as large as New England and New York State will probably be blessed by irrigation. But this is only a small fraction of the arid West. How shall the rest be reclaimed from the desert? Obviously by some method of dry farming, depending on and con- serving the meager rain-fall. A few simple principles have been discovered, and some specialized machinery developed, by which suc- cessful dry farming is now conducted on an exten- sive scale along the arid plains between the Missouri river basin and the Sierra Nevada mountains. In brief these principles are: deep plowing, sub-soil packing, intensive cultivation, maintaining a fine dust mulch on the surface, the use of drought-resisting grains, especially certain varieties of wheat, allowing the land to lie fallow every other year to store mois- ture, and keeping a good per cent, of humus (vegetable matter) in the soil to resist evaporation. In every possible way the dry farmer conserves moisture. The dry mulch is particularly effective. Only a few years I08 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY ago it was discovered that by capillary attraction much of the water absorbed by the spongy soil during a rain is lost by rapid evaporation, coming to the sur- face, just as oil runs up a wick. But by stirring the surface the " capillary ducts " are broken up and the moisture tends to stay down in the sub soil; for the two inches of dust mulch on the surface acts like a blanket, protecting the precious moisture from the dry winds. III. Some Results of Scientific Farming. Agriculture Now a Profession In such a brief treatment it is not to be expected that the writer could do justice to the subject of mod- em agriculture. In fact there has been little reference to the topic of general farming in this chapter. In its main outline it is a familiar topic and requires little attention here. The descriptions of certain varieties of specialized agriculture have been given as illustrations of the more remarkable phases of the application of scientific methods to country life. We hope two re- sults have thus been attained, that the dignity and effi- ciency and scientific possibilities of modern agriculture as a profession have been brought to the attention both of our readers in the city and of the discontented farm boys in the country. Both need a higher appreciation of country life. It should be evident to all that agri- 1. culture to-day is thoroughly scientific when rightly ' practiced, which is simply saying that the practice of the new agriculture is a ^Z£iiiS£si0),. It is among the most difficult and highly technical of all professions. TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE IO9 No profession, with the possible exception of medi- cine, has a broader scientific basis or is at present deriving a greater benefit from vast inductive work in world-wide experimentation at both public and pri- vate expense. This profession has made wonderful gains in recent years in both extensive and intensive efficiency, and has written among its triumphs many of the most romantic stories of modern mechanical skill, inventive genius, economic profit and scientific achievement. This honorable profession is not only worthy of the finest and ablest of our American young manhood, but its opportunity and present need is a distinct chal- lenge to their attention. Mr. James J. Hill recently stated as his opinion that not more than one per cent, of American farmers in the middle West were keeping in touch with the agricultural institutions; which is the same as saying they are not keeping up to date. This suggests the need of more intelligent modern farmers tilling the soil as a profession and thus point- ing the way to progress for all their neighbors. Conservation: A New Appeal to Patriotism This word conservation has but recently won its place of honor in our popular speech ; but it is a word of mighty import. The battle for conservation of our national resources is on, and it challenges the at- tention of our young collegians. It is encouraging to see results already. By a happy combination of progressiveness with true conservatism, we are conserving our national assets from Niagara to the mighty forests of Washington and California no THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY and from the arid lands of the mighty empire of Mon- tana to the swamps of Florida. The nation is re- penting of its prodigal wastefulness and is now guard- ing jealously its forest reserves, its vast water-power privileges, its coal and mineral deposits and its soil fertility, for upon these stores of fundamental wealth depends the prosperity of endless generations. Many alluring chances will come to men now in college to share in this great task of the nation, this fascinat- ing enterprise of conservation. Permanency of Rural Christendom Now Possible Any reader must be quite lacking in vision who has been able to read this chapter on the remarkable prog- ress of modern agricultural science without discerning the deep religious significance of it all. Civilization unquestionably is based on economics. Rural pros- perity is a primary condition of rural permanence. Farming must be profitable enough to maintain a self- respecting rural folk; or the open country would be speedily abandoned to a race of peasants and rural heathenism would be imminent. Progress in agriculture, developing rural prosperity, means the survival of the best rural homes and the finest rural ideals, — otherwise these would go to the city. Retaining in the country a genuine Christian constituency and rural leadership means the survival of the country church. The Christian forces in the country have a vast stake in rural prosperity. You cannot hope to build a prosperous country church on poor soil or maintain it on bad farming. This is not a mere matter of scarcity of contributions. It is a re- TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE III suit of the poverty of personality among people who are poor Christians because they are poor farmers. Christian leaders should therefore rejoice in the ad- vance of modern agriculture not only because it all signifies a richer and broader rural prosperity, but also because it makes possible the permanence of rural Christendoin and the survival of successful country churches. _The more profitable modern farming is made, the richer becomes the opportunity of country life, the larger proportion of the brightest sons and daughters of the farm will resist the lure of the city. Nothing is so vital to the country church, humanly speaking, as to keep in the country parishes a fair share of the country boys and girls of the finest type. With them it lives and serves its community. With- out them it will die and its community will become decadent. It is no selfish Christian spirit that rejoices in the broadening opportunities of country life. The,^yj£h is but a means to an end. The great objective is the commg of the Kingdom of God for which Jesus prayed. As fast as the very soil of a country is rec- ognized as " holy land," and preserving its fertility is felt to be a patriotic duty ; as fast as better live stock, better plant species and a better breed of men are sought as a working ideal ; as fast as the conservation of all natural resources becomes a national life pur- pose; so rapidly and inevitably the Kingdom of Heaven will come. The Country Life Moyement j,s fundamentally religious. 112 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY Test Questions on Chapter IV I. — Mention a few evidences of modern industrial efficiency. 2. — What can you say of the efficiency of modern agriculture ? 3. — In what ways have you noticed country people to be especially conservative? 4. — Compare the wasteful farm methods of a half century ago with the careful intensive cultiva- tion of to-day. 5. — How has the government helped progressive ag- riculture ? 6. — ^What are the experiment stations accomplishing? 7. — ^What do you think of the evil of soil-piracy? 8. — Mention some of the remarkable achievements of scientific breeding of farm animals. 9. — What should be the results of all this improve- ment in our live stock? What stands in the way? ID. — What has especially interested you among the marvels of plant production by cross-cultiva- tion? II. — ^Why are representatives of our Agricultural De- partment searching the world for new species of plants. 12. — Locate the desert sections of America where the rainfall is insufficient to sustain agriculture. 13. — What do you think of the advantages and possi- bilities of irrigation? 14. — Explain the methods of dry farming, especially the principle involved in the " dust mulch." TRIUMPHS OF SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE II3 15. — To what extent is it true that scientific agricul- ture has now become a profession ? 16. — Explain the real patriotism in the modern policy of conservation of natural resources. 17. — To what extent do you think the government ought to own or control the great forests, the water power and the coal deposits? Why? 18. — How does this whole subject of progressive agri- culture affect the religious life of the country? 19. — Upon what economic basis does the permanence of religious institutions in the country quite largely depend? 20. — What do you think is the great religious objec- tive in all rural progress ? CHAPTER V RURAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION CHAPTER V Rural Opportunities for Social Reconstruction A. Country Life Deficiencies I. Social Diagnosis Rural individualism. The weakness in rural institutions. The difficulty of organizing farmers. II. Failures in Rural Cooperation Lack of political effectiveness. Lack of cooperation in business. Lack of religious cooperation. III. Rural Morals and the Recreation Problem Lack of wholesome social life for young people. Lack of recreation and organized play. Morality and the play spirit. B. The New Cooperation in Country Communities I, Social Cooperation The problem of community socialization. Who shall take the initiative? A community plan for socialization. The gospel of organized play. The school a social center. The social influence of the Grange. 11. Business Cooperation Modern rural cooperative movements. Cooperation among fruit growers. Some elements of success and failure. Our debt to immigrants. Cooperative success in Denmark. [Cooperation of religious forces will be treated in Chap. VIT.] CHAPTER V RURAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION A. COUNTRY LIFE DEFICIENCIES I. Social Diagnosis: Rural Individualism. The preceding chapters have emphasized the riches of country life sufficiently to save the author from the charge of pessimism. Let us hold fast to our rural optimism. We shall need it all. But let it not blind us to the unfortunate facts in rural life, for diagnosis is the first step toward recovery. We are to notice now some of the fundamental social deficiencies which are almost universal in our American rural society. Dr. Butterfield calls the American farmer " a ram- pant individualist ! " Independence has been his na- tional boast and his personal glory. Pioneer life de- veloping heroic virtues in his personality has made him as a class perhaps the most self-reliant in history. The ownership of land always gives a man the feeling of independence. Let the world spin, — his broad acres will support him and his family. If one crop fail, another will succeed, though the weather act its worst. American farms average perhaps the largest in the world, nearly one-fourth of a square mile. Hence the distance between farm homes, and the habit of social independence which is bred by isolation. 117 Il8 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY " Every man for himself ; look out for number one " is the natural philosophy of life under such condi- tions. Self-protection and aggrandizement, jealousy of personal rights, slowness to accept advice, prone- ness to law suits over property, thrifty frugality to a fault, indifference to public opinion, disregard of even the opinions of experts, — all are very characteristic of people of such independence! of life. They seldom yield to argument. They do not easily respond to leadership. They are likely to view strangers with suspicion. Self-reliance overdeveloped leads them to distrust any initiative but their own. Hence they do not readily work with other people. They refuse to recognize superiority in others of their own class. All of which results in a most serious social weakness ; failure in cooperation, a fatal failure in any society. Positively, this explains the jealousies and feuds so common in rural neighborhoods. Negatively, it ac- counts for the lack of effective social organization. Where a progressive rural community has read- justed itself to the social ideals of the new century, these weaknesses are quietly disappearing. Elsewhere you still find them. The Weakness in Rural Institutions This unsocial streak of distrust and poor social cooperation runs through every sort of institution in rural life. Schools are usually run on the old school- district plan with over-thrifty supervisors, no continu- ous policy, and with each pupil buying his own text books; roads are repaired by township districts, with individuals " working out their taxes ; " churches are SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION II9 maintained on the retail plan, the minister being hired by the year or even by the week ; the churches them- selves are numerous and small, because of the selfish insistence upon individual views; even cooperative agreements in business have been repudiated by farm- ers under stress of temptation to personal gain ; while rural distrust of banks and organized business is pro- verbial. All of these unsocial tendencies are probably less due to selfishness than to lack of practice in cooperation. City people however have had constant practice in cooperation; hence they work together readily and successfully. They are organized for every con- ceivable purpose good or bad. In fact they are so in- toxicated with the joy of social effort, they are apt to carry all sorts of social life to an extreme. The social fabric is as complex and confusing in the city as it is simple and bare in the country. The problem for the country is to develop a wholesome social life and an ef- ficient institutional life which shall avoid the extremes of the city and yet shall get country people to working together harmoniously and happily. Only thus can life in the open country maintain itself in a social age for successful business, church, home, school or so- cial life. Only thus can country character develop its capacity for those social satisfactions which are the crowning joys of a complete and harmonious civiliza- tion. But those who have faith in the fundamental vitality and adaptability of rural life believe that even this serious weakness in cooperation can be gradually overcome and country life be made as effective for its own purposes as life in the city. This faith is justi- 120 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY fied by large success already thus attained in pro- gressive rural sections with the modem spirit. The DiMculty of Organising Farmers Five reasons are mentioned by President Butterfield to account for this difficulty: Ingrained habits of individual initiative; Financial considerations; Eco- nomic and political delusions which have wrecked pre- vious organizations of farmers; Lack of leadership; and Lack of unity. Under lack of leadership, he says : " The farm has been prolific of reformers, fruitful in developing organizers, but scanty in its supply of ad- ministrators. It has had a leadership that could agi- tate a reform, project a remedial scheme, but not much of that leadership that could hold together diverse elements, administer large enterprises, steer to great ends petty ambitions." ^ Yet country-bred leaders have been wonderfully successful in the city under dif- ferent social conditions. Failures in leadership are often due to failure to get support for the project in hand. This in turn is due to lack of common purposes and ideals. A success- ful leader personifies the ideals of his following. Un- less there is unity in ideals the following disintegrates. Here again the rural unsocial streak shows plainly. Individual notions, ideas and remedies for social ills have been so various, it has taken the stress of some great common cause, the impulse of some powerful sentiment, or the heat of some mighty moral conflict to fuse together the independent fragments. This was done when Lincoln sounded the appeal to patriotism iCyc. of Am. Agri., Vol. IV. SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION 121 in '6i ; when Bryan's stirring eloquence aroused par- ticularly the debtor farmer class in '96 ; and when the projectors of the Farmers' Alliance, the Grange and the Populist Party succeeded in their appeals to class consciousness and convinced the farmers of their need of union. Rural movements however have usually been short-lived. II. Failures in Rural Cooperation. Lack of Political Effectiveness Farmers usually do their duty serving on juries and in minor civil ofifices. They are usually fairly well represented in state legislatures. But few farmers go to Congress or gain real leadership in politics. In proportion to their numbers, the rural people have marvelously little influence in the affairs of govern- ment. We have in this country no Agrarian party. The farmers are divided among the different political camps and seldom do they exert any great influence as a class in the making of the laws. There are about seventy times as many agriculturists as lawyers in the United States, — yet the lawyers exert vastly greater civic influence and greatly outnumber farmers in most law-making bodies. Yet there are about fifty million rural people in the country, largely in farm households. The average farmer in 1910 paid taxes on 138 acres besides other property. Why should he not have more political in- fluence? Why has he not demanded and secured a dominating influence in the state? There is probably 122 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY no reason except lack of cooperation, and adequate leadership to accomplish it. Lack of Cooperation in Business Successful farming is essentially cooperative. The most successful classes of farmers in the country, ac- cording to Professor Carver, are the Pennsylvania Dutch, the Mormons and the Quakers. All of these cooperate in their farming operations to a high de- gree, as well as in their social and church life. They occupy their farms permanently as family homes. Their land is not for sale, in spite of the rising values. To a large extent they buy and sell, and work their farms together, to their great mutual advantage. The old-fashioned farm management however, which still generally persists, is competitive, and there- fore wasteful and unsocial. With rapid transporta- tion and the lengthening distance between producer and consumer, the function of the middleman has grown and his power vastly increased. Consequently on many products the rise in selling price is due to the series of middlemen through whose hands the article has passed on the way to market. Investiga- tions at Decatur, 111., revealed the fact that head-let- tuce sold there was raised within five miles of Chicago, shipped into the city, repacked and shipped by freight to Decatur, a five-hour trip; then stored in the latter city over night; and finally displayed, wilted in the sun, in a store window, and sold to a housewife who buys it for fresh goods ! If raised in a suburb of Decatur, it might have been sold at half the price, and been really fresh enough to eat. The same story of SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION I23 flagrant waste through poor ipanagement might be told of butter, cream, and practically all farm prod- ucts which are not sold in a public market near the producer's home. Not only are both the farmer and his ultimate cus- tomer suffering a considerable loss from this competi- tive system of marketing, the process itself is bad so- cially, for this reason. It cuts off the farmer from his normal market, the nearest village, and isolates him and his family so that they have virtually no in- terests there. If the farmer should sell his product in the village stores or through a public market, or a cooperative commission house, he would have more at stake in that town. He would probably trade and go to church there, his wife would do her buying there, they would be persons of importance to the towns- people and would form friendships and social relation- ships there. As it is, a wall of mutual suspicion and disregard separates this family from the people of the town. It is doubtful whether farming can be sufficiently profitable to-day, or the life of the open country be really satisfying, without some degree of cooperation in business. More and more men are realizing this ; are overcoming their natural weakness for indepen- dence and are discovering numerous modern ways to cooperate with other farmers ; to their great mutual advantage both financially and socially, as will be in- dicated later. Lack of Religious Cooperation The old self-sufficing and competitive methods of 124 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY farming have been closely paralleled by the selfish ideals in religion; the great aim being to save one's own soul and enjoy the religious privileges of one's favorite type of church, whatever happened mean- while to the community. In most country places re- ligion is still strongly individualistic. Rural folk have seen little of the social vision or felt the power of the social gospel of Jesus, which aims not only to convert the individual, but to redeem his environment and reorganize the community life by Christian standards. Consequently rural churches are depending too ex- clusively on preaching and periodic revivals rather than on organized brotherliness, systematic religious education and broad unselfish service. All of these are essential. This lack of cooperation is very widely in evidence in the division of country communities into petty little churches, so small and ineffective as to be objects of pity instead of respect and enthusiastic loyalty. In the older sections of the country, rural communities often have twice as many churches as are needed ; but in the middle West and the still newer sections further westward the problem of divided Christian forces is even more serious. Many a small township has five churches where one or two would be quite sufficient, and all are struggling for existence. The problem is less serious in the South, where denominations are fewer and where union services are exceedingly com- mon. In a sparsely settled section in Center County, Penn- sylvania, there are 24 churches within a radius of four miles. This fact was vouched for in 191 1 by the SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION 125 Presbyterian Department of the Church and Country Life. The same authority suggests the following: In Marshall County, Indiana, with a total popula- tion of but 24,175, there are twenty-nine; varieties of churches, separating Christian people. The situa- tion is typical and the names are so suggestive as to be worth recording: Amish Mennonite, Baptist, Primitive Baptist, Brethren, Catholic, Christian, Church of Christ Scientist, Church of God (Advent- ists), Church of God (Saints), Come-Outers, Con- gregational, Disciple, Episcopalian, Evangelical As- sociation, German Evangelical, Holiness, Lutheran (Synod of Chicago), Lutheran (Synod of Missouri), Swedish Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant, Pentecostal Holiness, Presbyterian, Pro- gressive Brethren, Reformed, Seventh Day Adventist, United Brethren, United Brethren (Old Constitution), and Wesleyan Methodist. The village of Lapaz in this county has only 252 inhabitants, but there are three churches. They have 20 members all told! There are 68 persons in the village who claim to be church members, but 48 belong to churches of 12 denominations elsewhere. There are 93 people affiliated with no church whatever; and no boy or young man in the village belongs to any church. No wonder ! III. Rural Morals and the Recreation Problem. Lack of Wholesome Social Life for Young People In three adjoining townships in Indiana there are 21 country churches, all but four of which are dead or 126 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY dying. The average membership is 52. One of the local leaders significantly said, " We don't believe in any social life in our church. Socialism never saved anybody." Exactly. Such churches ought to die and certainly will. The perfectly natural craving in all healthy young people for social life is a fact the rural districts fail to appreciate. By years of drudgery the farmers and their wives may starve to death this social craving in themselves. The work-slave forgets how to play and outlives his social hungers. But his children are not born that way. They have natural human instincts and appetites and these imperiously demand opportu- nity for expression. The religion that imagines that these things are born of Satan and must be repressed, is a religion of death not life. It is worse than useless for the church to discourage the social life among its young people. If it tries to starve their social hungers and furnishes no chance in the church for young people to meet freely in friendly intercourse, those young people will meet elsewhere, as surely as the moon shines. To put the ban of the church on dancing and all other popular amusements, and then offer no substitute whatever, is not only unreasoning cruelty, it is pure foolishness. You cannot hope to dam a stream and make no other outlet. Undoubtedly the country dance is usually a bad social enterprise ; but the only way to fight it successfully is with social competition, not opposition. The loyalty of young people to the church often begins when they discover the church people really under- stand their social cravings and are doing something sen- SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION 127 sible to meet them. Happy the village where the young people have all their best times under Christian leadership. But unfortunately rural life is seriously lacking, both in and out of the church, in social opportunities ; and the condition is far worse than in generations past. To begin with, farmers' families are perhaps only two- thirds as large as they used to be.^ There are fewer children in the home and in the school. Farm ma- chinery has displaced three-fourths of the hired men. Fewer older boys are really needed on the father's farm; so they are free to go to the city where the social life strongly attracts them. The same is all too true of the farm daughters. The incoming of urban standards has helped to dis- place the old-fashioned rural recreations which were natural to country life, and the taste for vaudeville, the public dance, amusement parks and picture shows has developed instead. The husking-bees and the ap- ple-cuttings and the sugaring-offs, the quilting bees and the singing schools and spelling matches, wholesome, home-made neighborhood pastimes, which meant en- joyment from within instead of mere amusement from without, have silently disappeared. Little remains in many rural places but unmitigated toil, relieved by an occasional social spasm in the nearest village. In short, recreation has become commercialized. Instead of the normal expression of the social instinct in co- operative and wholesome pleasures which were natural to country life, social stimulus is bought for a nickel ' Doubtless this single fact would account for the loss in population in many townships. There are just as many families as ever but a lower birthrate. 128 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY or a quarter; and an electric age furnishes forthwith the desired nerve excitement. Lack of Recreation and Organized Play This modern sort of recreation is not as good as the old for two reasons. It is really a sort of intoxi- cation instead of a mild stimulant; and it is often solitary instead of social. Solitary pleasure is subtle selfishness. Even the rural sports are apt to be soli- tary, such as hunting and fishing. If the country is ever to be socialized and a spirit of cooperation de- veloped which will make possible strong team-work in business, politics and religion, then we must begin with the laboratory practice of organized play. As a successful country minister says, " The reason why farmers cannot seem to cooperate when they are grown up is in the fact that they did not learn team-play when they were hoys." Faithfulness to the daily work is a great character builder, but Dr. Luther H. Gulick rightly insists that play, because of its highly volun- tary character, trains men in a better morality than work does. Especially is this true of wage-earners, students in school, and all those who work for others. As Dr. Wilson in his fine chapter on Rural Morality and Rec- reation, so well says, " What we do for hire, or under the orders of other people, or in the routine of life is done because we have to. We do not choose the minor acts of study in school, of work in the fac- tory, of labor in the house, of composition in writing a book. All these little acts are part of a routine which is imposed upon us and we call them work. SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION I29 But play is entirely voluntary. Every action is chosen, and expresses will and preference. Therefore play is highly moral. It is the bursting up of our own indi- viduality and it expresses especially in the lesser things, the preferences of life. The great school for training men in the little things that make up the bulk of char- acter is team-work and cooperation in play. Here is the school of obedience to others, of self-sacrifice for a company and for a common end, of honor and truth- fulness, of the subordination of one to another, of courage, of persistent devotion to a purpose, and of cooperation." ' Morality and the Play Spirit The undeniable fact that rural morality is so closely dependent upon wholesome recreation makes this sub- ject a most vital one. Life in the country ought to be sweeter, purer and morally stronger than life in the city. The very fact that incognito life is impossible in the country is a great moral restraint. But the moral stamina of country people will surely give way, under stress of constant toil, unless relieved by play and its wholesome reactions. Investigate the sad stories of sexual immorality so common among country young people and you will find one of the ulti- mate causes to be the serious lack of wholesome recre- ation and organized play. The recreation problem is fundamental in this matter of rural morality and the sooner we face the facts the sooner we shall see a cleaner village life. It is not enough to encourage occasional socials and •"The Church of the Open Country," p. 79. 130 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY picnics, track athletics and baseball games under church auspices, as a sort of social bait, to attract and attach people to the church. The Y. M. C. A. has taught us that these social and physical things are essential in and of themselves. They cannot be neg- lected safely. In a sense they are moral safety- valves, for releasing animal spirits which might be dangerous to the community under pressure. Cer- tainly some measure of play is needed to keep the bal- ance of sanity and efSciency in all human lives. Rural life, made solitary and mechanical by modern farm machinery, is seriously lacking in the play spirit and team-play practice. Here is its most serious failure in cooperative living. Here its socialization must be- gin. B. THE NEW COOPERATION IN COUNTRY COMMUNITIES I. Social Cooperation. The Problem of Community Socialization The seriousness of the problem as described in the previous pages has not been overstated, though dwell- ers in progressive and comfortable country communi- ties may think so. Let them be duly thankful if their social environment is better than the average here described. Speaking , from broad experience of the tragic results of rural individualism, Mr. John R. Boardman says, " There is a great social impulse in the country but its force is centrifugal. It tends to split up the community into jealous, suspicious SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION I3I groups, and we therefore find sects and parties dis- integrating and multiplying often by division. This is nothing short of a social crime. Strong measures must be taken not only to prevent further social strati- fication of a prejudicial character, but to compel a prac- tical organic federation which will unite the personal forces, combine available resources and focus on mutual interests." Country folks must learn to cooperate ; to live har- moniously together in rural neighborhoods, to find real recreation in organized play, to work effectively at mutual tasks and to utilize more successfully all social organizations and means for community welfare. In- terdependence must be made to take the place of boasted independence. Selfish individualism must yield to social cooperation. Only thus can life in the open country be made to survive. Otherwise tenant farming will continue to increase and a rural peasantry finally develop on the land, with absentee landlords living in comfort in the more normal social conditions of the villages and towns. Already 37% of farm owners do not live on their farms ; and the farm renter is cursing the soil. This acute social problem is a great challenge to true lovers of the country. We believe rural life will sur- vive the test. In most respects it has made great progress in recent years, and in many quarters it is rapidly learning the practical value of cooperation. Given adequate, intelligent leadership, country life will surely grow in social efficiency and happiness, and thus be better able to hold its best people loyal to the open country. 132 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY The problem, then, of socializing the community so that it will cooperate successfully, is to unite all the personal and social resources, federate all worth-while institutions for concerted action for mutual welfare; then " focus on mutual interests " and work together on the common tasks. Fellowship in work or play is a great uniter of hearts. It irresistibly develops a community spirit. Who Shall Take the Initiative? Woe to the man who starts anything in the country ! He must have a good cause and an obvious reason. The success of any rural enterprise usually depends overwhelmingly upon its leader. In a " Get Together Campaign " for community betterment, the strongest local personality or institution would better issue the call. If there is a strong Farmers' Club, or Coopera- tive Association, or Community Library Board, or a Village Board of Trade with community ideals, they may well assume the right to take the first step toward an ultimate union of all the community interests. If there is only a single church' in the place and it com- mands the respect and loyalty of the people, it may well be the federating agency. Or the strongest church can invite in the others and together they can make this movement a community welfare proposition with a definitely religious stamp; working through com- mittees of a church federation in the interests of all the people. Often this is best done by the Rural Young Men's Christian Association, working in be- half of all the churches. In short, whatever institution controls the greatest SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION I33 local influence, and is most representative of the peo- ple, has the best right to take the lead in socializing the community. Perhaps it may not be a religious body at all. It may be a social club, or a village improve- ment society, or a civic league, or a Rural Progress As- sociation embodying modern rural ideals. If it has the backing of the people, it is responsible for using its social influence in the most effective way. For instance, in the prosperous little rural community of Evergreen, Iowa, the popular and effective socializing agency is " The Evergreen Sporting Association " ! It unites all the young people in the neighborhood, both married and unmarried, and for some fifteen years has had a fine record for social efficiency. By its elaborate and varied annual program of popular interests it has made life in Evergreen wholesome, happy and worth while. The young people as a rule are loyal to the place and stay on their prosperous farms instead of losing themselves in the city. A Community Plan for Socialisation Rural social life is simple and should be kept so. Elaborate organization is never necessary. What we need is that " touch of human nature which makes the whole world kin." We do not need another institu- tion, but possibly a social center and a working plan which can express and develop the common human- hood. The place may be an up to date " Neighbor- hood House " with rest room and reading room with its chimney corner; a place for tired mothers and babies, and a meeting place for men of business ; or it may be just a room at the church or the school house 134 THE CHALLENGE OF THE COUNTRY or the public library, easily accessible to all. Or the social spirit can be developed wholly without any spe- cial equipment. The main point is the growth of com- munity ideals and a willingness to work together to attain them. The plan should be the result of careful study of community needs by the social survey method, and a more or less definite program of constructive propo- sitions to work out as conditions allow. It may be a thorough-going plan from the start, or a gradual growth as the vision enlarges; in any case it should embody and stimulate the community desire for prog- ress. The first result of such a community effort will be a natural reaction on the local institutions, tend- ing to encourage them and help them to function nor- mally; bringing a finer spirit of cooperation into the church, new efficiency into the school and a revival of responsibility in many homes. The beautifying of public and private grounds, the establishing of play grounds and possibly a lecture or entertainment course, the stimulating of the local social life in an infinite variety of ways, will be suggested in detail by the local needs. The Gospel of Organised Play " A new gospel of the recreative life needs to be pro- claimed in the country," says J. R. Boardman. " Rural America must be compelled to play. It has, to a degree, toiled itself into deformity, disease, de- pravity and depression. Its long hours of drudgery, its jealousy of every moment of daylight, its scorn of leisure and of pleasure, must give way to shorter hours ttJ c b£ m o V Si 2 5i o ^J G > «J ^ 1 *' '^ > V ^ rt >j1'' 2I '■S ■ ' -'^ _o M^^ ^ E E^|m ^ in ^^1 M-.