Y. B. Separate 632. 
 
 THE ORGANIZATION OF A RURAL 
 COMMUNITY. 
 
 BT 
 
 T. N. CARVER, 
 
 Adviser in Agricultural Economics, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
 
 Prepared for the Office of Markets and Kural OrgaBization. 
 
 [From Yearbook of Department of Agriculture for 1914.] 
 
 08901° — 15 1 WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1915 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 General outlines of tlie plan 3 
 
 Organization for definite purposes 4 
 
 Advantages of organization 5 
 
 Why American agricultvire lias not been well organized 6 
 
 Consequences of lack of organization 7 
 
 Organization essential to the iireservation of the small 
 
 farmer ' 10 
 
 Special features of the plan 11 
 
 I. Business interests 11 
 
 1. Committee on production 11 
 
 2. Committee on marketing 16 
 
 3. Committee on securing farm supplies.^ 21 
 
 4. Committee on farm finance and accounting 26 
 
 5. Committee on communication and transportation.. 35 
 II. Social interests 37 
 
 6. Committee on education 41 
 
 7. Committee on sanitation 43 
 
 8. Committee on recreation 44 
 
 9. Committee on beautlficatiou 47 
 
 10. Committee on household economics 49 
 
 Suggested readings for the various committees 53 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Fig. 1. Outline plan for the organization of a rural community- 6 
 2. Comparison of annual timber cut and mineral output, 
 
 with value of natural manure 13 
 
 2 
 
THE ORGANIZATION OF A RURAL COMMUNITY. 
 
 By T. N. Cabveb, 
 Adviser in Agricultural Economics, U. 8. Department of Agriculture. 
 
 [Prepared for the Office of Markets and Rural Organization.] 
 
 GENERAL OUTLINES OF THE PLAN. 
 
 NO single plan of organization will suit all rural com- 
 munities. There must be a clear and definite need 
 for organization before any organization can hope to suc- 
 ceed. Since the needs of diiferent rural communities differ, 
 it must follow that the plans of organization must differ 
 also, at least in some of their details. The plan here pre- 
 sented is intended only as a general guide, to be followed so 
 far as it seems to meet the needs of any community which 
 is studying the problem of organization. They who are 
 on the ground and know the local conditions must deter- 
 mine for themselves how far this plan fits the case. 
 
 It is presented in the form of a general comprehensive 
 organization of the whole community. Such an organiza- 
 tion is desirable wherever possible. However, some parts 
 of this plan ought to be of use to every existing organiza- 
 tion in a rural community, however narrow its scope or 
 purpose. The Boy Scouts ought to find suggestions for 
 useful work in some of the details of this plan, the Camp- 
 fire Girls in others, the various church societies and com- 
 mittees in others, the Grange, the Farmers' Union, and 
 other farmers' organizations in others, and the country 
 school could become an effective agency in every part of 
 this plan. 
 
 It is not a plan for the " uplifting " of the farmer. The 
 farmers are quite capable of taking care of themselves, but 
 they have not yet taken up the work of organised self- 
 help as completely as could be desired. It is hoped that this 
 plan may persuade more of them to study the need for and 
 results of organization, and to act in accordance with the 
 results of their studj', than have ever done so before. It is 
 of the utmost importance that careful study should precede 
 action. Hasty, ill-considered action is likely to lead to mis- 
 takes and failures. A few bad mistakes and conspicuous 
 failures will discredit the whole movement and put it back 
 for a generation. 
 
 3 
 
4 Yearhooh of the Departmerd of Agriculture. 
 
 The plan is similar to that of the chambers of commerce 
 in some of our cities. The whole membership of the organi- 
 zation is to be divided into committees, each member being 
 assigned to one committee. Naturally each one should be 
 assigned to that committee whose work interests him or her 
 most. 
 
 There is to be a central or .executive committee composed 
 of the president of the organization, its secretary, its treas- 
 urer, and the chairmen of the various committees. This cen- 
 tral committee should direct the general policy of the organ- 
 ization, have charge of all property, either owned or rented, 
 raise all funds needed, control them and their expenditure, 
 appoint all paid officers, such as secretaries, inspectors, pack- 
 ers, business managers, etc., if any ' are needed, determine 
 their salaries, and conduct all correspondence with other 
 organizations of a similar character, as well as with business 
 or banking houses, railroad companies, manufacturers, etc. 
 
 ORGANIZATION FOR DEFINITE PUBPOSES. 
 
 Not only must there be a distinct need for organization, 
 but each committee should be constructed to deal with one 
 specific need. The first thing to decide, therefore, is what 
 are the principal needs of the community in question, in 
 order that the proper committee may be constituted. As 
 a result of considerable study of this question the author 
 has reached the conclusion that the 10 principal needs for 
 organization in the average rural community in the United 
 States are as follows: 
 
 The needs of rural communities. 
 
 1. Better farm production. 
 
 2. Better marketing facilities. 
 
 3. Better means of securing farm 
 supplies. 
 
 I. Business needs. .^4. Bettor credit facilities. 
 5. Better means of communica- 
 
 Needs of rural com- tion: 
 munities which A. Roads, 
 
 require organiza- I B. Telephones, 
 
 tion |1. Better educational facilities. 
 
 2. Better sanitation. 
 
 3. ' Better opportunities for recre- 
 
 II. Social needs j ation. 
 
 4. Beautification of the country- 
 side. 
 
 5. Better home economics. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 5 
 
 For any rural community which this statement happens 
 to fit, whose citizens are convinced that these are their 10 
 principal needs, the plan of organization shown later is 
 recommended (fig. 1, p. 6). 
 
 ADVANTAGES OF ORGANIZATION. 
 
 It ought not to be difficult to convince the farmers of any 
 community that they need organization. There is probably 
 not a farming community in the United States which does 
 not need some, at least, of the things named in the above 
 outline. Yet none of these things can be secured by indi- 
 vidual farmers each worldng alone. Some form of "team 
 work" will be found necessary or advantageous in every 
 case. They who can not or will not work together are 
 always in a weak position when brought into competition 
 with those who can and do. Team work counts as much in 
 business competition as in athletic contests; but the team 
 work, in either case, needs to be wisely directed according 
 to a well-considered plan. 
 
 At the very beginning let us acknowledge the excellent 
 woi-k already done by a number of farmers' organizations. 
 They have undertaken a stupendous task, and they have 
 grappled with it courageously. There are now more than 
 6| million farmers in the United States; they are widely 
 scattered; they have a great diversity of interests, many 
 of which are difficult to harmonize, and farmers are tem- 
 peramentally an independent, individualistic class, and 
 therefore difficult to organize. In view of these facts, it is 
 not difficult to understand why the progress in organization 
 has been slow. The recognition of the work of rural organi- 
 zation by the Secretary of Agriculture as a legitimate part 
 of the work of his department should be a great help, and 
 will probably mark an epoch in the history of American 
 agriculture. 
 
 WHY AMERICAN AGEICUX,TDBB HAS NOT BEEN WELL ORGANIZED. 
 
 Since the opening up of the vast territory west of the 
 Appalachians and the first beginnings of the public-land 
 policy of the United States, the farming in this country has 
 been more individualistic and less organized than that of 
 
To Btudy ways of In- 
 oreaelag produotioa 
 ana to promota each 
 •ntei-priBes els,- 
 toys' corn, poultry, 
 pig, cattle, and other 
 alabs ; girls ' canning 
 ana sorflen cluba; 
 con testing assoola- 
 tiODS, etc. 
 To Diako soil surveya, 
 find adaptable crops, 
 and enoouxage field 
 selection of seed. 
 To study oonpoflt heaps 
 and other nethods of 
 oooservlng naaure. 
 To etady ayetamB of 
 rotation and fara or- 
 ganUation eultable 
 to t'no coiniimnity. 
 
 To study ways of mar- 
 keting faro produoa 
 Eoro ooononically; 
 the kinds of produce 
 Remanded by- oonaum- 
 ere; standardizing, 
 branrtlng, and adver- 
 tising products; co- 
 OjigratlTe war eh oases, 
 elevators , crearaor- 
 lea, shipping asso- 
 ciations', etc. 
 To study rwir-:eting 
 through parcels post 
 and express oonponiea, 
 7a study containers, 
 'etc. 
 
 To TTain^sin expert 
 Selling agents end 
 Bellln,^ or^j an last lone, 
 
 To study purchasing, 
 methods; Joint or- 
 ders, oarload lots, 
 wsxehouses, storss, 
 ordering directly from 
 neuufacturers, nain- 
 tirtnlng export purohaa- 
 Ing agents. 
 
 To study possibilities 
 of local handlorafte 
 to mn'/e things Heeded 
 on farMB-, rope, leath- 
 er, harness, furniture, 
 trlxing fertilisers. 
 To study cooperatlTo 
 cold storage plants, 
 ela-oghter houses, 
 curing bacon, 'drying 
 beef, oooparatlTe 
 mchlne shops for re- 
 pairing faxB machinery. 
 
 To study kiads of en- 
 terpriaea which need 
 financing; neans of 
 proTldlng oapitalj 
 farm loans, long and 
 short tloe; ainortlta- 
 tlon soheres; build- 
 ing and loan asscci- 
 ations; oooperative 
 oredlt aesocistlons : 
 syatema of account- 
 ing; rates of deter- 
 ioration of Tsrioue 
 forn tools. 
 
 To study how to organ- 
 ise and conduct mutual 
 insuxanoe.- fire, ao- 
 oident, life, aninel . 
 
 6. coitiii??EE oi: con- 
 
 im'ICATIOil A13 TRAJIS- 
 POHTATIOII. 
 
 Eoada and telephones. 
 To promote study of 
 cheap cmd tTficlent 
 nethods of road naklrg 
 end construction, es- 
 pecially m fiohoolB. 
 Each school to care 
 for pleoe of road, 
 Rivalry between schools 
 in road maintenanoe. 
 To organise farra neigh- 
 borhoods far road 1e- 
 provenent and not to 
 as'ic for goTernnent funds. 
 To encourage having a 
 telephone in every 
 echoolhouse end tiutual 
 telephone lines in 
 every neighborhood. 
 
 T 
 
 Vocational, tioral, 
 religious. 
 To promote sohools, 
 study clubs, leoturea, 
 etereoptloon ajid mov- 
 ing cloture outfits, 
 libraries, magaslne 
 el&bs, sahool gardens. 
 To make use of atate 
 libraries, bulletins 
 of Department of Agrl- 
 oulture, eolleges and 
 oiperlnent stations. 
 To promote boys' and 
 girls' natural history 
 olBbe, girls' aawlng 
 elubB, millinery, home 
 eoonomioe olabs. 
 T0 Seours export lifapee* 
 tlon of country achools 
 by Btete and county 
 'supervisors. 
 
 To pronote study of 
 eouToes of ccnnon dis- 
 eases: water supply, 
 nilk. files, noEquitoee. 
 household pests, 
 privies. 
 
 To promote eohool in- 
 spection of teeth, eyes, 
 throats, nasal passages. 
 
 To study clunblng. sew- 
 age, drainage, ventila- 
 tion. 
 
 To promote instruction 
 as to first aid to tl.e 
 injured, nursing, care 
 of Infants. 
 
 To promote rural district 
 nurBlng. 
 
 To ceo^e for every 
 oounty a full time 
 health officer, B.i a 
 well equipped hospital 
 end cllnlo. 
 
 To promote wholesome 
 sporte adapted to ru- 
 ral oormunitles,- such 
 as,- swlcnJag, horse 
 back rising, "hiking," 
 ganee for old and 
 young,, neighborhood 
 fairs. 
 
 TO' pronote rural fes- 
 tlvltlcB. combining 
 threshing, husking, 
 cotton picking, and 
 other seasonal ifork 
 with Bocial recreation. 
 To promote neighborhood 
 ohoral clubs, annual 
 tmalcal events by town- 
 ships, counties, and 
 states. 
 
 To proaoto playgrounds, 
 parks and neighbcofhood 
 centers. 
 
 To promote improvenent- 
 of lawns, floror gar- 
 dens, shade trees. 
 To enoourago proper use 
 of paint on farm build- 
 ings, artistic con- 
 strnotloh of bridges, 
 roadside fences, oto. 
 To promote improvement 
 Of chnrch and oohool 
 grounds, cemeteries. 
 
 To develop taste for 
 the means at hand for 
 aesthetic enjoj'nent, 
 e.g. , sunset vs.. olec- 
 ?rTo signs,- the sounds 
 of field and forest 
 vs. the noises of the 
 cTty, etc.. etc. 
 
 To study plana for 
 water supply in farm 
 houses, better heat- 
 ing and plumbing sys- 
 tems, usa of gaa and. 
 eleotrloity, coopera- 
 tive iBundxloB, bei- 
 erleS, Ice hoases, and. 
 cold storage planta. 
 To study foods, 'oalanc- 
 ed rations, and satis- 
 factory euimier drinks. 
 To plan kitchens for 
 saving steps, lighten- 
 ing work, etc. 
 To promote the stand- 
 ardisation of dress 
 and millinery. 
 To doveiop a feeling.- 
 of pride in being 
 farm women. 
 
 Pig. 1. — Outline plan for the organization of a rural community. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 7 
 
 any other civilized coiintiy. Our metliods of disposing of 
 the public lands, under the preemption and homestead acts, 
 encouraged this system. Each settler was treated as an iso- 
 lated individual and his farm as an isolated economic unit. 
 Settlers found themselves thrown together as neighbors 
 without previous acquaintance. 
 
 So long as there was an abundance of fertile soil to be 
 had for the trouble of living on it, agriculture could flourish 
 under this system, and the statistics of agricultural produc- 
 tion and expoi'tation could continue to swell. The individual 
 farmer frequently remained poor, or profited, if at all, 
 through the rise in the value of his land rather than through 
 the sale of his products. This condition of the individual 
 farmer did not always attract the attention of statesmen and 
 publicists. They were interested rather in the expanding 
 figures of total national production and exportation, to 
 which they could always point with pride. 
 
 Only the best and most easily tilled lands were suitable 
 for this kind of farming. The result has been, as ascer- 
 tained by a recent inquiry of the Secretary of Agriculture, 
 that only a fraction of the tillable land even of the humid 
 portion of the country has been reduced to cultivation. The 
 tendency has been to pass by the second and third grade 
 lands, or the lands whose initial expense of cultivation was 
 high, and select the best and most easily cultivated lands. 
 The time has now arrived when the continuation of that 
 policy is carrying our pioneer farmers beyond the bound- 
 aries of the United States into Canada and Mexico. Mean- 
 while vast areas of tillable land at home remain neglected. 
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF LACK OF ORGANIZATION. 
 
 If it were invariably true that superior lands beyond our 
 own boundaries were being taken up to the neglect of in- 
 ferior lands at home, there would be much to be said in favor 
 of this policy. At any rate, it would be hard to find a con- 
 vincing argument, aside from the appeal to patriotism, to 
 show a farmer why he should remain on inferior land within 
 our own borders Avhen he might find superior land just over 
 the boundary. But there are reasons for believing that this 
 is not always nor even usually the case. In the first place. 
 
8 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 the lands being sought are virgin soil, capable of profitable 
 exploitation for a few years. They can be made to grow 
 heavy yields of a single money crop, and that, too, a crop 
 like wheat, for which there is a highly efficient and very 
 aclive market. The farmer's marketing problem is solved 
 for him, and he can continue his highly individualistic farm- 
 ing. , The lands which he is passing by are frequently highly 
 productive, but are suitable for various kinds of agricul- 
 tural specialties. 
 
 Now, the characteristic of an agricultural specialty is that 
 there is no organized market for it and it does not regularly 
 sell at a quotable price. If it did, it would not be a specialty. 
 The isolated small farmer could scarcely make a living by 
 growing this kind of a crop unless he were near a large city, 
 and even there he would probably have to give as much time 
 and thought to the marketing of his crop as to the growing 
 of it. If he were not thus favorably located he could scarcely 
 market his specialty at all unless he were either growing it 
 on a very large scale, so that he could maintain a selling 
 agency of his own, or were cooperating with a group of other 
 farmers for the same purpose. If they were thus organized 
 they could make more off some of this land which is now 
 being neglected than they could possibly make off the vir- 
 gin lands of the far Northwest. But as isolated, unor- 
 ganized farmers they can doubtless make more off those 
 new lands growing a staple crop which almost markets itself. 
 Until we succeed in developing an organized rural life — ^until 
 our farmers are willing to work together instead of working 
 as isolated, unorganized units — they will continue to neglect 
 such lands as require organization for their successful culti- 
 vation and migrate to new lands which are capable of being 
 farmed by the old methods. 
 
 A similar problem is met with in the promotion, of 
 irrigation farming. There are only a few places where an 
 individual farmer can reclaim land and bring it under irri- 
 gation. Until some organization could be formed to handle 
 the problem or until the State or Federal Government took 
 up the matter, individual farmers ignored very productive 
 irrigable land in favor of inferior land which had the advan- 
 tage of being capable of individual reclamation. Again, 
 there are vast areas which require drainage. In only a few 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 9 
 
 cases can this drainage be done by individual small f armei's. 
 Consequently these lands have generally been neglected in 
 favor of lands which, though ultimately less productive, have 
 the one advantage of being suitable for immediate cultiva- 
 tion by unorganized, individual farmers. Even Government 
 enterprise, in the case of irrigation and drainage projects, 
 unless supplemented by organized work on the part of the 
 settlers, will prove insufficient. Such Government projects 
 v>ill eventually fail to attract settlers unless the Govern- 
 ment sells the land to them below the cost of reclamation, 
 which would be bad economy, or organizes them to Avork 
 out their marketing and financial problems so as to enable 
 them to make enough off the land to pay the cost of recla- 
 mation. 
 
 The issues which depend upon an organization which will 
 bring about the utilization of lands now neglected are more 
 far-reaching than most of us are prepared to believe. Pass- 
 ing by these lands in search of new land which is capable 
 of successful cultivation without organization means a rapid 
 expansion of our people over new territories, together with 
 a very thin settlement of older territories. So long as we 
 have plenty of new land Avithin our own boundaries this will 
 lead to no international complications. When this rapidly 
 spreading farm population begins to cross our boundaries 
 in large numbers such complications are inevitable. When 
 they find governmental and social conditions satisfactory, 
 trouble may be avoided. When they find them unsatisfac- 
 tory to themselves — as they did in Texas and Hawaii, as 
 the English did in South Africa, and as we are certain to do 
 in countries whose civilization is dilferent from our own — 
 then trouble can not by any possibility be avoided. There- 
 fore even the problem of international peace bears a close 
 relation to our ability to find productive opportunities for 
 our expanding rural population at home, and this in turn 
 depends upon a rural organization which will make possible 
 the successful farming of lands now being neglected. 
 
 Of more immediate importance in this connection than 
 the problem of international peace is that of the preserva- 
 tion of the prosperity of the small farmer who does most of 
 his own work on his own farm. His salvation depends upon 
 his ability to compete Avith the large farmer or the farming 
 
 08001° — 3 5 — —2 
 
10 Yearbooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 corporation. Two things threaten to place him under a 
 handicap and to give the large farmer an advantage over 
 him in competition. If these two things are allowed to 
 operate, the big farmer will beat him in competition and 
 force him down to a lower standard of living and possibly 
 to extinction. 
 
 One thing which would tend in that direction is a large 
 supply of cheap labor. The small farmer now has an ad- 
 vantage because of the difficulty which the big farmer has in 
 getting help. So great is this difficulty that many of .the 
 bonanza farmers are giving up the fight and selling out to 
 small farmers. That is, the big farms, the farms that can 
 only be cultivated by gangs of hired laborers, are being di- 
 vided up. Give the owners of these farms an abundant sup- 
 ply of cheap labor, make it easy for them to solve the prob- 
 lem of efficient helf), and they will begin again to compete 
 successfully with the small farmer who, because he does his 
 own work, has no labor problem. If conditions remain such 
 that the capitalistic farmer has great difficulty in getting 
 help, the small farmer will continue to beat him in competi- 
 tion, and the bonanza farm will continue to give Avay to the 
 one-family farm. 
 
 OHGANIZATION ESSENTIAL TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE SMALL 
 
 FARMER. 
 
 Another thing which threatens the prosperity and even 
 the existence of the small farmer is the handicap under 
 which he finds himself in buying and selling. The big 
 farmer who can buy and sell in large quantities, and also 
 employ expert talent in buying and selling, and in securing 
 credit, has an advantage over the small farmer who must 
 buy and sell in small quantities and give his time and atten- 
 tion mainly to the growing of crops rather than to selling 
 them. Much of the supposed economy of large-scale pro- 
 duction, even in merchandising and manufacturing, is found, 
 upon examination, to consist wholly in an advantage in bar- 
 gaining; that is, in buying and selling. When it comes to 
 the work of growing farm crops, as distinct from selling 
 them and buying raw materials, the one-family farm is the 
 most efficient unit that has yet been found. But the big 
 farmer can beat the individual small farmer in buying and 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 11 
 
 selling. It woxild seem desirable, from the standpoint of 
 national efficiency, to preserve the small farm as the produc- 
 tive unit, but to organize a number of small farms into larger 
 units for buying and selling. Thus we should have the most 
 efficient units both in producing and in buying and selling. 
 
 If this is not done, the only farmers who can enter suc- 
 cessfully into the production of agricultural specialties, 
 where the problem of marketing is greater than the problem 
 of producing, will be the big, capitalistic farmers. The small 
 farmer may hold his own in the growing of staple crops, 
 in which field the problem of efficient production is per- 
 haps greater than that of successful marketing. The reason 
 for this is that there is a well-organized market for staple 
 crops and the problem of marketing is therefore somewhat 
 less difficult than in the case of agricultural specialties. But 
 even in the growing of staple crops the small farmer will 
 have a hard time of it if he is forced to compete with the 
 big farm when it is cultivated by gangs of cheap laborers. 
 The two worst enemies of the small farmer are the opponents 
 of cooperative buying and selling on the one hand and the 
 advocates of enlarged immigration to the rural districts on 
 the other. The latter would help the big farmer in the' buy- 
 ing of labor for his farm, and reduce the price of the small 
 farmer's own labor when he undertook to sell it in the form 
 of produce. 
 
 SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PLAN. 
 
 I. BUSINESS INTERESTS. 
 
 1. Committee on Production. 
 
 Our plan for the organization of a rural community 
 begins with the committee on production. The greater part 
 of the actual work of production can probably be carried on 
 most economically on individual farms of a size which can 
 be cultivated mainly by the labor of one family. This calls 
 for very little cooperation or organization. But the study 
 of the problems of production can undoubtedly be carried on 
 most effectively in cooperation. If a hundred men in a com- 
 munity are all studying the problem of growing the crops 
 of that community, but each man studies alone and does not 
 exchange ideas with his neighbors, each man profits only by 
 
12 Yearbooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 his own study ; but if they meet frequently to discuss their 
 common problems and to exchange ideas, each man profits 
 not only by his own study but by that of all his neighbors. 
 Again, much of the AA'ork of organized marketing must 
 begin before there is anything to sell. It must begin with 
 production. Successful marketing consists, first, in finding 
 out just what the consumers want and how they want it 
 packed and delivered. To get the whole community to grow 
 a uniform product such as the consumers demand requires 
 organization of the community to standardize its production. 
 Again, to stimulate rivalry in imjDroving the products of a 
 community, both as to quality and quantity, requires an 
 organization to recognize and show some appreciation of 
 merit. 
 
 It will, of course, occur to anyone that the problem of 
 marketing farm produce is the one which, more than any 
 other in the list, is now attracting public attention and call- 
 ing for organization. The problem of economic and efficient 
 marketing— that is, of securing for the producer the largest 
 possible proportion of the price paid by the consumer— is 
 largely a problem of selling by grade rather than by inspec- 
 tion.' So long as the farmer lived within hauling distance 
 of the consumer, so long as he could haul his produce to town 
 and show it to the consumer and allow him to examine it and 
 " paAv it over," this method of selling on inspection was sat- 
 isfactory. When the producer lives at a great distance from 
 the consumer this method becomes expensive, because, first, 
 the process of inspection has to be repeated by several mid- 
 dlemen; second, it is physically impossible to handle goods 
 on so large a scale where they are sold on inspection as 
 where they are sold on grade. Wherever there is a highly 
 efficient system of selling anything it will be found that 
 there has been developed a system of grading and standard- 
 ization; that is, the goods ai-e inspected only once and are 
 graded. Thereafter they are bought and sold by grade with 
 no further inspection. The farmers are under the same 
 inexorable economic laws as other people, and they will 
 never be able to market their products with the maximum 
 economy until they grade and standardize their own products 
 so that they can move through the channels of trade toward 
 the consumers without repeated inspections. But this can 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 13 
 
 not be done without organization. This ought to be a suffi- 
 cient reason for having a committee cn production in any 
 well-organized rural community. Cooperation is not a magi- 
 cal scheme by which poor products or products which con- 
 sumers do not want can be sold at a good price. The prod- 
 ucts must, to begin with, be such as to please the consumer, 
 and they must be so uniform in quality as to give the con- 
 sumer confidence. The products of a multitude of small 
 farmers can be made uniform as to grading and packing by 
 an organization and by no other means whatsoever. It is a 
 waste of time and breath even to talk about it on any other 
 basis. 
 
 Much excellent work is already being done by the boys' 
 and girls' clubs toward the improvement of production. ' An 
 
 Af/NUAL Tvr-fBcrK cur , M/f^e'/f^t. oc/rpi/r /a// A/ArvftAL f<wvu/?£ 
 
 Fig. 2. — Comparison o£ annual timber cut and mineral output, with value of 
 natural manure. (Figures for annual timl)er cut from Forest Service; for 
 annual mineral output from Bureau of Mines ; for value of natural manure 
 from Farmers' Bulletin 102, p. 5, U. S. Department of Agriculture.) 
 
 organization such as is here outlined should through its 
 committee on farm production promote all such work and 
 cause it to spread and increase in efficiency. This committee 
 should also study to discover new methods of increasing the 
 productivity of the community, new crops, new and im- 
 proved methods of soil treatment, the field selection of seed, 
 'scientific breeding of live stock, and even the conservation 
 of manure. How important this last-named topic is may be 
 shown by the figures in the accompanying diagram (fig. 2). 
 
 From this chart it will be seen that the value of natural 
 manure alone is considerably greater than the combined 
 value of the entire mineral output and timber cut of the 
 United States. These items are considered important enough 
 
f4 Yearhoak of the Department of AffHeulture. 
 
 to become political issues and to call for a national organi- 
 zation for their conservation. It is not here proposed that 
 the conservation of our manure shall become an issue in 
 national polities, but it is reasonable to suggest that it is 
 important enough to occupy the attention of any organiza- 
 tion whose purpose is to promote the prosperity of Ameri- 
 can agriculture. It is impossible to state just how much of 
 this enormous value is wasted by neglect or improper hand- 
 ling. It it variously estimated as from one-fourth to one- 
 half of the total. Assuming that one-third of it is wasted, 
 we get the enormous sum of $741,900,000. This is certainly 
 important enough to justify a considerable amount of study 
 by a large number of local organizations. 
 
 Too much emphasis can hardly be laid on the impoi-tance 
 of organized promotion of breeding enterprises. So long as 
 this is left wholly to individual breeders, each one working 
 ailone, no great headway can be made by small farmers v/ith 
 little capital. Only those men who are in a position to invest 
 heavily and advertise widely can do much in this direction. 
 American farmers have accomplished something in the way 
 of establishing new breeds of swine and poultry. These 
 forms of live stock multiply more rapidly than any other 
 of our common domesticated animals, and therefore it does 
 not take so long to establish a breed. Outside of these two 
 branches of animal husbandry our achievements are very 
 limited. At this present moment it is doubtful if it can 
 honestly be said that we have established a single new breed 
 of cattle, sheep, or horses. We have depended wholly iipon 
 importation from abroad, and, in spite of the millions of 
 dollars which have been expended for imported breeding 
 stock, there is probably no European country which has so 
 much poor stock as the United States, and there are not many 
 where the average is so low. 
 
 One reason for our indifferent success in animal breeding 
 has been the lack of neighborhood organization. Where a' 
 whole community is interested in the same breed of live 
 stock, where practically every farm is a breeding station, 
 there is, first, a wider basis of selection than where only one 
 farm is given over to that breed. A wider basis of selection 
 makes possible more scientific mating than is possible where 
 there are only a few breeding animals from which to select. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 15 
 
 In the second place, a neighborhood enterprise of this kind 
 gives greater permanency and continuity than is possible 
 where only a few individual farmers are interested. It has 
 happened so often in this country that it may almost be said 
 to be the rule that by the time a successful breeder has built 
 up a superior herd, stud, or flock his life is drawing to a 
 close, his sons have moved to town, and his animals are scat- 
 tered. These animals may, after they are scattered, do some- 
 thing toward improving the general average of the animals 
 of the community, but this is by no means certain. There 
 are many chances that they will be crossed with other breeds, 
 and the general tendency of haphazard cross-breeding is to 
 produce mongrels. If, on the other hand, the whole com- 
 munity in which such a breeder lived were engaged in devel- 
 oping the same breed instead of a large number of different 
 breeds, his animals would probably remain in the same 
 neighborhood and be crossed with others of the same breed. 
 When this happens the work of the individual breeder is not 
 lost, but is enabled to count in the improvement of the stock 
 of the country. Under our present highly individualistic 
 methods, the farmer who enters upon a breeding enterprise 
 frequently, if not generally, makes the initial mistake of 
 selecting some breed which is new to his community in order 
 that he may haTO something different from anything pos- 
 sessed by his neighbors. It is safe to say that a neighborhood 
 whose farmers behave in this absurd manner will never 
 become distinguished for the excellence of its live stock or 
 of its field crops. 
 
 A third reason for our lack of success in animal breeding 
 has already been suggested, i. e., the lack of stability of the 
 average American farm family. Where the same farm stays 
 in the same family for several generations, if it happens to 
 be a breeding farm, there is time to build up a superior herd, 
 stud, or flock. In the United States this does not often 
 happen. The sons of a successful breeder have, in the past, 
 frequently gone to a city to enter upon an urban business or 
 profession. But even this instability of the farm family, 
 which prevents the continuation of breeding enterprises over 
 long periods of time is, in large measure, due to a lack of 
 rural organization. This will be discussed more fully under 
 the organization of the social interests of farm communities ; 
 
16 Yearhook of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 but it may be permitted at this point in our discussion to 
 call attention to the fact that well-to-do people leave the 
 farms because the country does not furnish them the means 
 of social and intellectual enjoyment which they crave. These 
 things can be had only where there is an organized effort to 
 build up the neighborhood on its social and educational side. 
 
 Another very definite advantage in neighborhood organi- 
 zation for the breeding of farm animals has been realized 
 already in many communities. This is the opportunity 
 which such an organization affords for the purchase and 
 maintenance of expensive breeding animals. This may take 
 the form (1) of purchasing a more expensive animal than 
 would be economical for a single small farmer who could 
 not use him to his full capacity, or (2) purchasing jointly a 
 number of pure-bred males. Each animal thus purchased 
 is kept on a single farm for two years. Then they are all 
 changed around so that each animal serves on another farm 
 for another two-year period, and so on as long as they are 
 lit for service. In this way each animal can be used during 
 his whole effective lifetime and his full value can be realized. 
 Where an individual farmer purchases an animal of this 
 kind, without the opportunity for a fair exchange, he must 
 either sell the animal at a loss or run the risk of injuring 
 his herd by undesirable inbreeding. Another advantage, not 
 to be ignored, is the opportunity which the plan gives for 
 more scientific mating. There being a larger number of 
 pure-bred males in the neighborhood from which to select, 
 arrangement can easily be made by which certain selected 
 females can be mated with those males which have shown 
 special prepotency. 
 
 In short, if the farmers of a given community will all 
 adopt the same breeds of farm animals, and if the same 
 breeding farm will remain in the same family generation 
 after generation, and if the farmers will practice coopera- 
 tive purchasing and maintaining of breeding animals on a 
 large scale, we can soon hope to rival any European country 
 in the excellence of our breeding stock. 
 
 2. Committee on Mabketing. 
 
 The marketing of farm products must begin, as already 
 stated, with the production of things that are marketable. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 17 
 
 Four accomplishments must precede the actual selling of a 
 product if the best results are to be secured, and each of these 
 accomplishments calls for organization. They are: 
 
 (1) The improvement of the product. This ought to be 
 one of the first results of cooperation. A group of farmers, 
 all interested in growing the same product, by meeting fre: 
 quently and discussing the problems connected with the 
 growing of that product, will normally educate one an- 
 other and thus improve their methods of production. 
 
 (2) The standardization of the product through organ- 
 ized production and marketing. Standardization follows 
 naturally and easily if the cooperators are wise enough to 
 see its importance. Not only must the product be a good 
 product, but it must be graded according to the tastes or 
 desires of the consumers or ultimate purchasers. If the 
 producers insist upon throwing an unstandardized, nonde- 
 scr'ipt piroduct upon the market, the consumers, each one of 
 whom wants a small and simple parcel and wants that to be 
 of a certain kind and quality, will never buy of the pro- 
 ducers. Some one, then, must intervene to do the grading 
 and standardizing. 
 
 Individual growers, except where they produce on a com- 
 mercial scale, are usually unable to gi-ade their own products 
 sufficiently to satisfy the trade. Their products should be 
 pooled and the work of grading should be under the control 
 of an organization whose employees have no personal in- 
 terest in the goods. Such an arrangement makes it easier 
 to secure an absolutely honest and uniform pack. In this 
 way, too, producers will be able either to sell directly to the 
 consumer or so to reduce the toll charged by the middleman 
 as to enlarge their own profits. 
 
 (3) Branding. An excellent product, graded and stand- 
 ardized, must then be so branded or trade-marked as to en- 
 able the consumer to identify it or recognize it when he 
 sees it. That is really all there is to the stamp on a coin. It 
 adds nothing to the intrinsic value of the metal, but it makes 
 it cii-culate. Without such a stamp each individual would 
 have to weigh and test a piece of metal which was olfered 
 liim and the circulation or salability of the metal would be 
 greatly restricted, but a stamp upon it which the average 
 receiver recognizes at once and in which he has confidence 
 
 0R001°— 15 3 
 
18 Yearhooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 makes him instantly willing to accept it. This may be an 
 extreme case, but it does not differ in principle from the 
 stamping of any other salable piece of material. A private 
 stamp is quite as good as a Government stamp if people 
 have as much confidence in it as they have in a Government 
 stamp and if it is as reliable and as uniform. Private coins 
 have circulated many times in the past. However, without 
 taking such an extreme case as the coinage of metal, except 
 by way of illustration, it will not take much argument to 
 convince the average person that if a box of apples bearing 
 a certain stamp or trade-mark gets to be known as reliable 
 and good all the way through, the producer or the producing 
 association whose stamp has thus gained confidence will be 
 able to sell where unstamped products equally good will fail 
 altogether. 
 
 (4) Education of tne consumer. The consumer must be 
 educated as to the meaning of a stamp or trade-mark on 
 goods which are excellent in themselves and uniform in 
 quality. This may call for some form of advertising which 
 can be financed effectively only by an organization. 
 
 Let these four things be done and the problem of market- 
 ing will become fairly simple. But it must be remembered 
 that these four things can be done only by organization. 
 
 After these iowv things are done, and not before, the organ- 
 ization should put an expert salesman, or selling agency, 
 in the field to search for the best markets, to make favorable 
 contracts "with consumers and dealers, to secure satisfactory 
 storage and transportation facilities, and to look after a mul- 
 titude of details which require more technical knowledge 
 than the average farmer, with his varied duties, has time to 
 acquire. 
 
 There is probably no form of human effort where the old 
 adage that " knowledge is power " is capable of greater 
 emphasis than in the three commercial branches of the 
 farmer's business, viz, the disposing of farm products, the 
 procuring of farm supplies, and the securing of farm credit. 
 More important, perhaps, than even the cooperative market- 
 ing of farm products is the knowledge oi\ the part of the 
 farmers that they can market cooperatively, and, in detail, 
 just how it can be done. So long as they do not possess this 
 knowledge, so long will the mercantile agencies who possess 
 
The Or{f animation of a Rural Community. 19 
 
 a monopoly of the knowledge of all the marketing processes, 
 the channels of trade, methods of doing business, methods of 
 payment, collection, etc., have the farmers at a disadvantage. 
 Of all forms of monopoly, a monopoly of knowledge is the 
 most powerful. When dealer's no longer possess this mo- 
 nopoly, when farmers are thoroughly informed on all these 
 matters, then dealers will be comi^elled to do business at a 
 reasonable profit ; otherwise, the farmers will do it for them- 
 selves. 
 
 It is extremely improbable that cooperative marketing will 
 ever entirely displace the system of marketing through 
 private dealers. The latter can, if they will, handle the 
 farmers' products, in many cases at least, as cheaply as the 
 farmers themselves can. When the farmers are thoroughly 
 organized and thoroughly informed on commercial methods, 
 they can take their choice as between cooperative marketing 
 and selling through private dealers. They will be prepared 
 to adopt whichever method is more economical. Then the 
 private dealers will be compelled to be as efficient and eco- 
 nomical as a cooperative society or else get out of business 
 altogether. There is no reason why they should not continue 
 to do a large share of the business of handling farm products. 
 Every economy which a farmers' cooperative society can 
 practice will be open to the private dealers as well. It is 
 only where farmers are unwilling to work together, or are 
 miinformed as to commercial methods, that the private 
 dealers are able to take advantage of them and charge an 
 excessive toll on the products which pass through their 
 hands. 
 
 It should be the business of the committee on marketing 
 of farm products of a local organization to keep itself and 
 the members of the organization thoroughly inform-ed as to 
 ail the commercial practices involved in getting products 
 from the farm to the consumer. This knowledge should in- 
 clude not only the regular channels through which the prod- 
 ucts move, but also all other possible channels, such as the 
 parcels post and the express companies' service. Knowing 
 how to use these channels may prove to be a very important 
 advantage, without actually using them to any great extent. 
 This knowledge may reduce the toll which can be charged 
 upon goods passing through other channels. 
 
20 Yearliook of the Department of Agi'iculture. 
 
 One of the most vexatious questions connected with mar- 
 keting is that of raih-oad transportation. The difficulty is 
 not so much the freight cost in itself as the difficulty which 
 the small farmer has of getting efficient service. Railroad 
 companies, like all practical business houses, prefer a large 
 business to a small business. The large shipper can com- 
 mand their attention when the small shipper can not. This 
 is of particular importance to the shipper of perishable 
 produce. A small shipper, who occasionally ships a car- 
 load, is subject to vexatious delays in getting cars, and, like- 
 wise, to frequent losses through failure of his loaded cars 
 to arrive pi'omptly at their destination. In the mass of 
 traffic during a busy season they are more likely to be over- 
 looked than those of a large shipper who sends many cars. 
 
 The remedy for this is the organization of a large number 
 of producers in order to ship together. Such an organi- 
 zation can get the attention of the railroad manage- 
 ment when a small shipper would be ignored. It is like- 
 wise possible for a large organization of this kind to keep 
 in telegraphic communication wuth its agents at various 
 places in order to be informed promptly upon the ai'rival 
 or failure to arrive of its cars. Another tremendous ad- 
 vantage Avhich such an organization possesses is that of 
 being able to distribute its loaded cars to the various markets 
 in proportion to their capacity to consume the products. 
 A very high degree of efficiency is reached when the cars 
 can be distributed after having been started on their way. 
 It is this that has made possible the shipment of perishable 
 products over very long distances. 
 
 It should be the work of the committee on marketing and 
 transportation to act for the whole community in all cases 
 where products are shipped out. Preferably, as stated 
 above, producers should combine their shipments. But if 
 there should not be a large number of producers of a given 
 commodity, and if, therefore, each producer should be com- 
 pelled to ship in small quantities, he should at least have 
 the support and backing of an organized community. En- 
 tirely aside from this is the simple matter of keeping in- 
 formed as to methods of procedure in dealing with railroad 
 companies. This is the very least which our committee on 
 marketing and transportation ought to undertake. It 
 
The OTganization of a Rural Gommxmity. 21 
 
 should negotiate for accommodations, and it should keep 
 itself and the Avhole neighborhood informed as to rates, ac- 
 commodations, and the relative economy and efficiency of 
 different methods of shipment. 
 
 3. Committee on Securing Faem Supplies. 
 
 The importance of knowledge of commercial processes ap- 
 plies as well to the procuring of farm supplies as to the dis- 
 posing of farm products. When the farmers are sufficiently 
 well organized and sufficiently well informed to be able to 
 dispense with the services of the various dealers Avho are 
 supplying them, it may not be necessary actually to dispense 
 with those services. The services will, however, have to be 
 rendered at a cost to the farmer no higher than that of co- 
 operative purchasing or manufacturing. 
 
 While farmers are perfecting their organization and ac- 
 quiring knowledge and experience in commercial methods, 
 they are hereby advised to proceed slowly and carefully. 
 Until they have learned by experience it will be easy to 
 underestimate the cost of running a store or other com- 
 mercial agency and to overestimate the savings which they 
 can effect. To make that mistake is to invite failure. This 
 mistake is encouraged by a false theory and by a misin- 
 terpretation of certain experiences. The false theory is to 
 the effect that, since a cooperative society can eliminate 
 profits, it therefore must be able to do business cheaper than 
 a private profit-making agency. While a cooperative so- 
 ciety does eliminate that which goes under the name of 
 profit, it does not in any way eliminate the necessity for a 
 business manager. Unless the manager will donate his 
 services charitably, he must be paid a salary. To get a good 
 man requires a good salary. The private storekeeper in a 
 country town usually does his own managing. Thus he 
 saves the salary of a manager. More accurately, he receives 
 his compensation in the form of a profit rather than in the 
 form of a salary; whereas the manager of a cooperative 
 society receives his compensation, if he receives any, in the 
 form of a salary rather than in the form of profit. It may 
 be that the storekeeper's profit is larger than necessary, or 
 larger than would be necessary to pay the salary of a man- 
 ager, but that is not always the case. It is never to be 
 
22 Tearhooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 assumed without study that something can be saved by a 
 cooperative society merely because it eliminates " profit.'' 
 
 The misinterpretation of experience is found occasionally 
 in the claim to large savings made by a group of people v^ho 
 order a large bill of goods at wholesale rates, go to the sta- 
 tion after them, and do their own delivering and storing. 
 It will readily be seen that though they save something on 
 the price of goods thus ordered, they are not getting the 
 same service as is given them by the local store. In the first 
 place, they do their own delivering, which is an expensive 
 part of the work of the local store. In the second place, 
 they do not have to hire a salesman or clei'k to do up their 
 packages for them in convenient size, to show them goods 
 from which to select, etc. In the third place, they do not 
 maintain a storehouse for the goods, but each one stores in 
 his own house, thus saving rent. In the fourth place, they 
 do not have to keep a stock of goods on hand for customers ; 
 therefore they have no interest charge to carry. If these 
 same people who save a considerable sum on a joint order 
 were to try to run a store jointly they would have a rent 
 charge, an interest charge, a clerk's salary, and a delivery 
 charge to bear. These combined charges would reduce the 
 savings by a considerable percentage, and would sometimes, 
 but not always, wipe out the savings altogether. 
 
 There are three methods of purchasing farm supplies co- 
 operatively. The simplest method is that of a joint order, 
 where a group of farmers combine their orders so as to get 
 a given article in lai-ge quantities — say, in carload lots. 
 By offering cash or satisfactory security to a manufacturer 
 they can frequently buy directly, thus saving middlemen's 
 and agents' commissions, besides getting exactly what they 
 want, instead of being compelled to take whatever the local 
 dealer happens to have. Wherever possible these orders 
 should be sent through the local dealer; that is, this should 
 be done whenever the dealer is reliable and genuinely willing 
 to act as the agent of the farmers rather than of the whole- 
 saler or manufacturer. As the agent of the farmers he is in 
 honor and in law bound to act in their interest, but when he 
 is the agent of the wholesaler he is equally bound to act in 
 his interest. 
 
 One method of procedure long familiar to business men 
 and recently adopted by a number of farmers' organi- 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 23 
 
 zations is known as the order-form bill of lading. A de- 
 tailed description of this plan will be furnished on applica- 
 tion to the Office of Markets and Eural Organization. The 
 essential features of the plan are: (1) conabining the orders 
 of a large number of farmers; (2) requiring each farmer to 
 have on his order a banker's certificate that the money to pay 
 the bill is on depo,sit, that the bank will pay the bill when a 
 draft for the sum is attached to the bill of lading and the 
 farmer certifies that the goods as ordered are at the depot. 
 This method protects everybody concerned — the farmer, the 
 wholesaler, the local organization, the bank, and the rail- 
 roads. The farmer pays for what he gets and can inspect 
 the goods before they are paid for. The wholesaler is safe, 
 because the local bank guarantees payment. The local or- 
 ganization receives no money and incurs no obligation and 
 the bank need not certify the order of anyone who does not 
 actually have money on deposit. 
 
 The second method is like the one just described, with the 
 addition of a warehouse. This warehouse is owned or rented 
 cooperatively. Goods are ordered as in the first method, but 
 when they arrive they may be unloaded and kept in the ware- 
 house instead of being immediately hauled to the homes of 
 the various farmers who have ordered them. Thus the coop- 
 erative group performs two of the functions ordinarily per- 
 formed by the local store. It orders goods in advance and 
 it stores them until they are needed by the individual farm- 
 ers. It does not perform the other functions, such as dis- 
 playing goods, serving customers, and delivering purchases. 
 Sometimes manufacturers may be induced to place goods on 
 exhibition in this kind of a warehouse in order to enable 
 members to order from samples. 
 
 The third method is to run a cooperative store, which per- 
 forms for the members of the organization all the services 
 ordinarily performed by a privately owned store. A group 
 of farmere who have not had commercial experience will 
 generally find it wise to begin with the first and simplest of 
 these methods rather than with the second or third. If they 
 can operate the simplest plan successfully and with profit to 
 themselves, they may then, if they can figure a further profit, 
 undertake the second. The thii'd is only to be undertaken 
 after the most careful consideration on the basis of actual 
 experience. 
 
24 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 Experience has shown that where a cooperative store is 
 undertaken it sliould not attempt to cut prices, but should 
 sell at the regular, current prices, such as are charged at the 
 other local stores. If there is a profit at the end of the year, 
 a dividend should be declared on the basis of the amount 
 purchased by each member; that is, if there is a profit of 
 7 per cent on all the business done, each member should 
 receive a check at the end of the year for 7 per cent of the 
 total amount purchased by him during the year. 
 
 One very successful store, however — and. there are prob- 
 ably others — runs on the opposite principle of selling at a 
 fixed percentage above cost ; that is, it adds 3 per cent to the 
 cost of each article and pays the running expenses of the 
 store out of this small margin. It began, however, by 
 charging an advance of 10 per cent, but has since, by careful 
 management, been able to reduce this to 3 per cent. This is 
 very unusual. Though it is located in a town, it absolutely 
 refuses to sell to any but members, who must be farmers. It 
 discounts all its bills and does its business in a prompt and 
 efficient way. 
 
 elust here is the difference between a cooperative society 
 and an ordinary, profit-making, joint-stock company. In 
 the latter profits are divided in proportion to the shares 
 owned instead of in proportion to the amount of business 
 done by the different members. Thus in a store run by a 
 joint-stock company, if A owned 10 shares and B only 1 — 
 that is, if A had invested ten times as much as B at the be- 
 ginning — A would receive ten times as much profit as B, 
 even though the latter had purchased ten times as much 
 during the year. But in the cooperative store, if B had 
 purchased ten times as much as A, his dividend at the end 
 of the year would be ten times as great as A's, even though 
 A had invested ten times as much. Ordinarily, however, 
 each share of capital will receive a fixed rate of interest. 
 
 In order to safeguard this point it is necessary, wherever 
 the laws of the State will permit, to restrict the voting pow- 
 ers of shareholders. A method commonly advocated by stu- 
 dents of cooperation is that each member shall have one vote, 
 regardless of the number of shares owned by him, instead 
 of having a vote for every share. The objection to the com- 
 mon method of voting by shares is that the management 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 25 
 
 of the organization is likely to be run in the interest of 
 those who own the shares instead of those Avho do the most 
 business with the society. If, for example, a certain individ- 
 ual should own a large number of shares, but have very little 
 business Avith the association, he would naturally be more 
 interested in getting dividends on his shares than in getting 
 goods at a low price. If a majority of the shares were 
 owned by a few men in this situation, they could outvote the 
 others and control the organization in their own interest. 
 The " one-man-one-vote " method prevents this, though 
 there may be other methods which can be used in those States 
 which liave not yet passed satisfactory laws relating to co- 
 operative organizations. One such method is to limit the 
 number of shares which can be owned by one individual. 
 In all cases, however, before a cooperative society is formed, 
 the advice of a reliable lawyer, familiar with the laws of the 
 State, should be secured. 
 
 But the problem of securing farm supplies is not limited 
 to the subject of purchasing. Of equal importance is the 
 subject of producing things on the farm or in the neighbor- 
 hood for the supply of the needs of the farmers. Our com- 
 mittee on securing farm supplies should therefore give cai'e- 
 ful attention to possibilities of this kind, especially in those 
 sections of the country where farmers are in the habit of 
 selling everything they grow and buying everything they 
 use. Where this system prevails the farmer invariably sells 
 at wholesale and buys at retail, thus reversing the ordinary 
 commercial method. Except where the farmers produce 
 high-priced specialties, such as oranges or garden truck, this 
 method will keep them on the verge of bankruptcy. Their 
 only way out of the difficulty is to produce more of the things 
 they use, even though it should to some slight degree reduce 
 the amount they have to sell. The advantage of this is that 
 what thf farmer produces for himself he produces for the 
 best possible market, and he should credit this part of his 
 business with the retail prices which he would have to pay 
 if he purchased the articles in question. 
 
 These remarks are not to be interpreted, however, as mean- 
 ing that the farmer should attempt to produce everything he 
 uses. That would be obviously uneconomical. It is only 
 where he finds that he can actually save money by so doing 
 esnoi-— 15 4 
 
26 YearhooJc of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 that this is advisable. This will be found to be the case more 
 often than is commonly supposed. Many articles in common 
 use are sold at retail at prices which have no perceptible 
 relation to the cost of production as distinct from the cost 
 of selling. It is not uncommon to find a great selling organi- 
 zation whose purpose is to control the sale over a large ter- 
 ritory. Manufacturing is carried on merely to supply this 
 great selling organization with the stuff it sells. The cost of 
 manufacturing is frequently only an insigiiificant fraction 
 of the retail price. One case, perhaps somewhat extreme, is 
 that of a certain class of dyes which can be produced by 
 anyone who knows how at about 1 per cent of the price which 
 he would be compelled to pay at the local store. Without 
 a great selling organization he could not sell his product at 
 all, except perhaps to a few of his neighbors. The company 
 which produces and sells the article bends all its energies 
 to the control of the sales, manufacturing being a mere in- 
 cident. While a farmers' club could not compete with this 
 company in selling the product on the market without in- 
 vesting large sums in a selling organization, it could easily 
 supply its own members at a small fraction of the price 
 which they now have to pay. There are multitudes of other 
 cases similar to this, though many of them are less extreme. 
 
 Here, as in the case of marketing and purchasing, " knowl- 
 edge is power." If the farmers do not Imow how they can 
 supply themselves, others can charge them exorbitant prices, 
 especially those companies which make a specialty of selling 
 lather than of producing. While the individual farmer can 
 not be expected to know all these things, a special committee of 
 a farmers' organization should make it its business to study 
 ways of beating the game of the exploiter. One way is to 
 study ways of producing at home articles whose retail prices 
 are so far above the cost of production as to make home pro- 
 duction economical. 
 
 4. Committee on Farm Finance and Accounting. 
 
 Probably no subject connected with agriculture, unless it 
 be that of marketing, has recently attracted so much atten- 
 tion as that of farm credit. Undoubtedly credit conditions 
 are bad in some parts of the country. In spite of the fact 
 that Americans are better supplied with banks than any 
 other country and more in the habit of using them, our 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 27 
 
 banking system has only partly met the needs of farmers. 
 The main reason is, undoubtedly, that farmers need credit, 
 if at all, for longer periods than do business men in the 
 cities, whereas a commercial bank, doing a regular check 
 and deposit business, can not let a large share of its funds 
 out for long periods. The nature of its business requires 
 that it shall keep its funds as liquid as possible ; that is, that 
 they shall always be available within a short period. In 
 order to meet more fully the needs of farmers it seems 
 necessary to provide a special class of institutions. 
 
 The committee of our local organization which handles 
 this subject should also handle the question of farm account- 
 ing and insurance. It should handle the former especially, 
 because the first thing to determine in the problem of farm 
 credit is what farm enterprises are worth financing ; that is, 
 what could the farmers do if they could borrow more money 
 which would surely be profitable to themselves. Without 
 this knowledge, the more they borrow the worse off they 
 will be, no matter how low the rate of interest. What enter- 
 prises will be sure money-makers for the farmers is not to 
 be determined by guesswork ; it is to be determined by care- 
 ful accountancy and by no other method whatsoever. 
 
 The promotion of farm accounting and the study of farm 
 accounts in order to find out what farm enterprises can 
 safely be financed is the first duty of this committee. The 
 next is to find out how these enterprises can be financed on 
 the most favorable terms. The latter is often the easier 
 problem of the two. If our committee can say with cer- 
 tainty to the local banker, " If these farmers can get the 
 money to buy brood sows or dairy cows or fertilizer, it will 
 be very profitable to them, and they will certainly have the 
 money to meet the loan when it is due," the banker, if he is 
 alive to his own interests and those of his community, will 
 certainly consider the matter favorably. If there is nothing 
 definite "of this kind which can be said to the banker — that is, 
 if he is merely asked on general principles to lend money to 
 farmers — ^he can not be blamed for a lack of enthusiasm. 
 He is no friend of the farmer who makes him think that he 
 ought to have abundant credit merely because his land is 
 good security. To extend him credit on that ground alone 
 is a very good way of encouraging him to lose his land. 
 
28 Yearhooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 If, however, there is no local banker sufficiently alive to 
 his opportunities or willing to justify his existence by financ- 
 ing genuinely productive enterprises at a reasonable rate of 
 interest Avhen they are pointed out to him, the committee 
 should consider other ways of securing capital. 
 
 This problem is somewhat simpler in a community which 
 is able to finance itself — that is, Avhere there is a sufficient 
 accumulation of capital to supply those who need it — from 
 what it is in a community which has to bring capital in 
 from the outside. In the former case it is only necessary 
 to develop a local institution which can receive the loans or 
 deposits of those who have a surplus and lend them out to 
 those who want to borrow. One of the simplest plans for 
 accomplishing this is the credit union or cooperative credit 
 association. Institutions of this kind have had a remark- 
 able develoiDment in European countries, and several States 
 have passed laws permitting their organization in this 
 country. Without going into detail, the essential features 
 of this plan are very simple. A group of farmers organize 
 themselves to receive deposits and make loans, assuming, 
 of course, full responsibility for all deposits intrusted to 
 their care. In Europe each member usually assumes un- 
 limited liability for the obligations of the association.' No 
 one receives any pay except the secretary of the association, 
 who keeps the books. It is not necessary to have either an 
 office or a safe, though desk room in some one's office is usu- 
 ally necessary. The "bank," as it is commonly called, is 
 open once a week — say, Saturday afternoon — for receiving 
 deposits and making loans. No safe is necessary, for the 
 reason that the deposits are usually all loaned out and no 
 funds are kept on hand. In case there should be money on 
 hand, the association can deposit it in the nearest commer- 
 cial bank, just as an individual would do. By this method 
 expenses can be kept down to a minimum. Having such low 
 expenses, the association can pay almost as much on de- 
 posits as it charges on loans. For example, if it lends at 
 6 per cent it can pay 5 per cent, or if it lends at 5 per cent 
 it can pay 4 per cent, and meet its running expenses out of 
 the 1 per cent difference. If borrowers want more at 5 per 
 cent than depositors are willing to deposit at 4 per cent, 
 both rates can be raised to 6 per cent and 5 per cent, 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 29 
 
 respectively. If at the latter rates the depositors deposit 
 more than borrowers will take, both rates can be lowered, 
 always keeping the difference between the two rates un- 
 changed. Some associations have found it possible to pay 
 expenses on a difference of less than 1 per cent. 
 
 Another method similar to the last, but somewhat more 
 highly developed, is the mutual savings bank. Institutions 
 of this kind have become numerous in recent years in the 
 northeastern sections of the United States, but here they are 
 essentially savings institutions rather than credit associa- 
 tions. The reason for this is that there is a large wage and 
 salary-receiving population who need opportunities to save. 
 They do not need opportunities to borrow, for the reason that 
 they have no productive purposes to which they could devote 
 borrowed capital. These institutions can, however, be made 
 to serve the needs of borrowers where there is a population 
 who need to borrow for productive purposes. As such they 
 would be mere enlargements of the credit-union idea. 
 
 Such an institution would differ from the credit union 
 mainly in the following particulars: (1) It would do a 
 larger business; (2) it would be open regularly as do other 
 banks — every weekday; (3) it would have a regular place 
 of business, with safes and other fixtures and parapherna- 
 lia pertaining to the banking business; (4) having heavier 
 expenses than the credit unions, it would usually have 
 to charge a higher interest on loans over and above that 
 which is paid on deposits; (5) instead of unlimited liability, 
 the members would assume the same liability as the share- 
 holders of other banks, which, in this country, is usually 
 double the par value of their shares. The mutual savings 
 banks of the northeast, which, as stated above, are savings 
 institutions for townspeople rather than credit institutions 
 for farmers, do not have shares, and there is no financial 
 liability. They are run as quasi-philanthropic institutions 
 by men'of large business experience. 
 
 In many of our States there is no legislative provision for 
 a strictly mutual savings bank, but in many of them it will 
 be possible to embody the essential principles of mutuality 
 in the regular joint-stock form of organization. A reliable 
 lawyer or banker, or some one who is familiar with the bank- 
 ing laws of the State, should in each case be consulted. 
 
30 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 The essential principles of mutuality in a credit associa- 
 tion are (1) that it should be an association of borrowers 
 rather than of lenders; (2) it should be run in the interests 
 of borrowers primarily; (3) the association as such should 
 make no profit, aiming rather to increase the profits of its 
 members in their regular business — that is, to enable bor- 
 rowers to borrow at lower rates for productive purposes in 
 order that their profits in these productive enterprises may 
 be larger. A joint-stock savings bank may do all these 
 things if its stock is owned by farmers and others whose 
 chief interest is the promotion of agriculture rather than the 
 securing of high dividends on their stock. The number of 
 shares owned by any one person should be limited if the laws 
 of the State will permit. 
 
 For supplying long-time or mortgage credit at low rates, 
 one of the simplest and most familiar methods is that of the 
 building and loan association or savings and loan associa- 
 tion. These organizations were formed originally to enable 
 townspeople to build homes and pay for them on easy terms; 
 but they are easily adaptable to the purpose of enabling 
 farmers to make permanent improvements. In fact, they 
 have already gone extensively into this field, particularly in 
 the State of Ohio. They lend to farmers who can furnish 
 good mortgage security for making improvements on their 
 farms, permitting them to pay back the loans on the amorti- 
 zation plan — that is, in semiannual or annual installments. 
 They secure capital for making these loans by selling bonds 
 to savers and investors. These bonds draw interest lower 
 than that charged on loans, in order that there may be a 
 margin to pay the running expenses of the business. These 
 bonds are sold either for cash or on the installment plan. 
 In the latter case they meet the needs of small investors who 
 can save only small sums at a time. 
 
 Like all financial institutions, including even the regular 
 commercial banks, these savings and loan associations should 
 be closely supervised, inspected, and audited by public offi- 
 cials, either State or National. No such organization ought 
 to be allowed to exist and handle other people's money 
 without such inspection, and farmers ought to be warned 
 against intrusting their affairs to any financial institution 
 unless such inspection is provided for. The history of the 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 31 
 
 commercial banking business in this country, especially be- 
 fore the Civil War, abundantly proves the necessity of such 
 inspection. 
 
 In order to attract capital into the community from out- 
 side sources, it is necessary that the community should have 
 a good financial reputation ; that is, it must be a community 
 that has the reputation of paying its debts promptly. Here 
 it is necessary to call attention to a popular error, namely, 
 that farm land is the best security in the vForld, and farm- 
 ers therefore should be able to borrow on better terms than 
 anyone else. Thei^e are two difficulties with this argument. 
 In the first place, farm land sometimes has a selling value 
 far in excess of its present productive value. Land which 
 is not now yielding its owner interest, say at 6 per cent, on 
 a valuation of more than $50 an acre, sometimes sells for 
 $100 an acre. The reason is that buyers are speculating on 
 the future. They know that at the present time they can 
 not sell the products at such rates as will yield them in- 
 terest, after all expenses are paid, on $100 an acre, yet they 
 expect to be able to do so at some time in the future. They 
 are offering a price which is based not upon its present 
 proved productivity, but upon its future expected produc- 
 tivity. People living at a distance do not always have the 
 same confidence in the future value of the land as do those 
 who are buying on this basis. Therefore they can not be 
 blamed for being shy about sending their capital to such 
 a community for investment at these high prices or about 
 lending to others to invest on this kind of security. Thus 
 the supply of loanable capital in such a community is' 
 limited. 
 
 From the standpoint of demand, however, these very con- 
 ditions greatly increase the immediate demand for loanable 
 funds. When everyone feels that land is certain to increase 
 in value, everyone who can possibly do so wants to buy a 
 piece of land. If he can borrow the money with which to 
 purchase it, he feels sure that he can eventually sell out for 
 enough to repay the loan and leave him a balance besides. 
 Parenthetically we may say that this is a speculative rather 
 than a productive purpose. It does not promote good farm- 
 ing; it merely promotes a rapid transfer of land titles. At 
 any rate, the increased demand for loans and the limited 
 
32 Yearhooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 supply of loanable funds combine to make high interest rates. 
 One advantage which old and thickly settled countries, such 
 as most of the countries of Europe, have is that they have 
 long ago passed out of this stage. There is comparatively 
 little speculation in farm lands; farm values have settled 
 down to a basis of proved productivity; their values are rela- 
 tively stable and offer excellent security to the lender. 
 
 Again, even though land values are stable, a community 
 may easily get a bad financial reputation which will serve 
 ■to keep outside capital from coming in. A local community 
 Avhere the average borrower will take advantage of legal 
 technicalities, where he will force the lender to resort to 
 legal proceedings, where he will appeal to the sympathy 
 which people instinctively feel for the " poor debtor " and 
 make things generalty uncomfortable for the lender, will 
 always suffer from a scarcity of loanable funds, accompanied 
 by high interest rates, no matter how good the land may be. 
 One of the most important duties of our committee on farm 
 finance and accounting, therefore, will be to study to give 
 the neighborhood a good financial reputation. 
 
 In order to get capital from the outside on as favorable 
 terms as possible it may be practicable to use both the credit 
 union and the savings and loan association, the one for short- 
 time credit and the other for long-time or mortgage credit. 
 If there are not enough local deposits in the former to sat- 
 isfy the productive needs of borrowers, the membership of 
 the union may, on its joint note, negotiate a loan from a 
 .distance. The joint liability of all the members of the as- 
 sociation increases the responsibility of each and correspond- 
 ingly increases the security of the lender. With a fund of 
 outside capital to begin with, supplemented by the savings 
 of local depositors, the credit union should be able to meet 
 the needs of its borrowers. 
 
 This matter of a joint note or other form of unlimited 
 liability will prove a stumblingblock to some of our farmers. 
 They should remember, however, that where one man in- 
 dorses another's note, as many banks now require, the in- 
 dorser assumes unlimited liability for the amount of the 
 debt. Where a number of men go into a scheme which in- 
 volves unlimited liability they virtually indorse one 
 another's notes, or they in some cases sign a joint note. 
 
The OTganization of a Rural Community. 33 
 
 Here it must be pointed out that cooperative credit is not 
 for everybody. It is only for those who are Icnown to be 
 trustworthy. No one will indorse the note of a man who is 
 not known to be financially responsible. Neither should a 
 group of men admit to a credit association anyone whose 
 note they would not be willing to indorse. Herr Raiffeisen, 
 the founder of the most successful system of cooperative 
 credit in Germany, laid down as one of the fundamental 
 I'ules for his credit associations that no one should be ad- 
 mitted who was not known to be trustworthy and that any 
 member who was found to be untrustworthy should be ex- 
 pelled. Any other policy would lead directly to failure and 
 ruin. 
 
 It is not inconsistent with the highest ideals of democracy 
 that character should be of advantage even in business. If 
 they who possess sound moral character, which includes 
 financial trustworthiness, have some economic advantage 
 over those who do not, in the long run the former will pros- 
 per and the latter will fail. The former will more and more 
 buy out the latter, because land Avill be worth more to the 
 former than to the latter. By this principle of selection the 
 quality of the population will gradually improve and the 
 community gain in every way. Without some such method 
 of capitalizing character, this principle of selection will not 
 always operate. 
 
 Again, from the standpoint of the lender who lives at a 
 distance and who must be induced to intrust his money to 
 the community which is trying to finance itself, the fact that 
 a number of men in that community have confidence enough 
 in one another to indorse one another's notes, to sign a joint 
 note, or to go into any credit scheme which involves un- 
 limited liability, will make a favorable impression upon him. 
 On the other hand, if 10 or more men who know one another 
 can not be found who are willing to trust one another to this 
 extent, it may be difficult to convince him (the distant lender 
 who does not knoAv any of them) that he should trust them 
 with his funds. 
 
 The savings and loan association, while it must always 
 limit itself to making loans to the local community, where 
 all its members may be known to one another, where land 
 values are Avell known to its officers and Avhere the laws 
 
34 Tearhooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 under which it operates permit, may sell its bonds to distant 
 investors if they can be persuaded to buy. 
 
 There are a number of private agencies operating in this 
 field already. These are sometimes classed imder the name 
 of debenture companies. Starting with a fund of capital, 
 such a company invests in farm mortgages, buying of some 
 local bank or mortgage broker. When it has a certain sum 
 in the form of farm mortgages, let us say $100,000, it de- 
 posits them with some large financial institution, say a trust 
 company, for safe-keeping. The trust company certifies that 
 these mortgages are on deposit. Against these mortgages 
 and this certificate as security the debenture company then 
 issues bonds to an equal amount, i. e., $100,000, paying a 
 lower rate of interest than that received on the mortgages. 
 If the investing public has confidence, it buys these bonds 
 and thus provides funds for the purchase of another hundred 
 thousand dollars worth of mortgages. This operation may 
 be repeated several times. Thus the original fund of capital 
 owned by the debenture company is made the basis of the 
 investment of several times its amount in mortgages. 
 
 From the standpoint of the investor, these are the follow- 
 ing elements making up the security of his investment: 
 (1) The value of the mortgages themselves; (2) the credit 
 of the local bank or mortgage broker, who is required to 
 guarantee the mortgages; (3) the certificate of the trust 
 company, which does nothing more than to state that the 
 mortgages are on deposit; (4) the credit of the debenture 
 company, which hazards at least its original investment 
 and its general credit besides. Lately certain banks have 
 gone into this kind of business and have added the amorti- 
 zation feature. 
 
 Many of the good features of all these institutions may be 
 combined in a special class of farm-land banks which have 
 been proposed for this country. They are modeled in part 
 after the Landschaften which have played such an important 
 part in the agricultural development of Germany. They 
 may be either cooperative or joint-stock associations, accord- 
 ing to the character of the legislation under which they are 
 authorized and the preference of those who promote them. 
 In case a cooperative organization is permitted by law and 
 preferred by its members, the essential features of its work 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 35 
 
 should be to secure funds by the sale of bonds, pledging the 
 combined security of the original members for their payment 
 and to lend these funds on the most favorable terms possible 
 to farmers, for productive purposes only, taking mortgages 
 as security. These mortgages may in turn be used as a basis 
 for new issues of bonds, and the new funds thus secured used 
 for making new loans, etc. The interest received on mort- 
 gage loans should, of course, be enough higher than that paid 
 on the bonds to enable the association to pay its running ex- 
 penses out of the difference. The loans to farmers should be 
 paid on the amortization plan. 
 
 Probably no form of cooperation has been so successful 
 for so long a time in this country as that which is Imown as 
 mutual insurance. Farmers' mutual insurance companies 
 are spread over the entire country; but they are especially 
 numerous in the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Michi- 
 gan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. They 
 are so familiar as to call for no description here. They fur- 
 nish insurance at cost, they are cooperative, and they serve 
 as examples of what farmers may gain by working together 
 for their mutual interests. 
 
 5. Committee on Communication and Teanspobtation. 
 
 Intercommunication is one of the primary factors of 
 civilization. Every substantial increase in the efficiency of 
 means of communication marks a new epoch of civilization. 
 The railroads, the telegraph, and the telephone have often 
 been cited as examples. It is not necessary, however, that 
 we should confine our attention to these means of increasing 
 long-distance communication. Important as this is, it is 
 probably of less absolute importance than the communica- 
 tion of neighbor with neighbor by means of the spoken word 
 and the commoner modes of locomotion. Yet it is just at 
 this point that the people who live in the country are at a 
 disadvantage as compared with those who live in the city. 
 So far as long-distance communication is concerned, there is 
 no great difference ; but in the matter of short-distance com- 
 munication the townsmen have a great advantage. The fact 
 that country people live so far apart is what creates the 
 difference. There is special need, therefore, that country 
 people should have the best possible means of overcoming 
 
36 Year'book of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 distances which separate them from one another — distances 
 which are measured in miles rather than in hundreds of 
 miles. 
 
 As the cliaracteristic evils of urban life grow out of con- 
 gestion, so do the characteristic evils of rural life grow out 
 of isolation. Except for a few rare souls, isolation means 
 stagnation. The average person needs the stimulating in- 
 fluence of association Avith his fellows to keep his faculties 
 up to their maximum activity. This aspect of the question 
 is of greater importance even than the question of economi- 
 cal transportation of products, important as that is. Here 
 again, the dweller in the country is at a disadvantage as com- 
 pared Avith his urban felloAv-citizen. In long-distance trans- 
 portation the one is served approximately as Avell as the 
 other. But it costs the average American farmer more to 
 haul his produce from his farm to the nearest shipping point 
 than it does to ship it by rail over a distance of 200 miles. 
 
 It is fairly clear, therefore, that any farmers' organization 
 which aims to iniproA'e the economic and social Avell-being of 
 its comnumity must give a good deal of attention to the sub- 
 ject of local communication and transportation, especially 
 to roads and telephones. Fcav subjects lend themselves bet- 
 ter to the purposes of a country school than that of country 
 roads. Each school should study its own roads and should 
 at least consider the expediency of having complete charge 
 of a small piece of roadAvay. The pupils should study road 
 management and maintenance as a part of their school work. 
 Such an organization as Ave are noAv contemplating ought to 
 consider the question of offering a prize to that country 
 school which keeps its piece of road in the best condition. 
 
 In this as in all other rural-organization Avork the keynote 
 should be organized self-help. If as much energy AA-ere put 
 forth in local self-help as is put forth in trying to get Gov- 
 ernment help for various social schemes, there Avould be 
 much less need for Government help. Road improvement is 
 a case in point. 
 
 Probably nothing has done more for country life than the 
 rural telephone. Wherever it has come into general use it 
 has overcome the isolation of farm life xis nothing else could 
 have done. But Avhile some sections of the country are well 
 served by this agency, there being a telephone in practically 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 37 
 
 every farmhouse, there ai-e, unfortunately, other sections 
 which have scarcely begun to realize its advantages. The 
 trouble is not so much ignorance of methods of construction, 
 maintenance, and operation — though there is a good deal of 
 ignorance on these points — as inertia and unwillingness to 
 work togetlier, though sometimes the difficulty is increased 
 by a lack of means. Obviously a telephone is of no use to 
 anyone who does not wish to communicate Avith his neigh- 
 bors, and imless there is neighborly feeling there will be 
 little desire to communicate. One purpose of this committee 
 must, therefore, be the development of this neighborly 
 feeling. This feeling, however, groAvs by what it feeds on. 
 Give the neighborhood easy means of neighborly communi- 
 cation and the neighborly spirit will in turn be developed 
 among all normal and right-minded ])eople. 
 
 ir. SOCIAL INTERESTS. 
 
 Up to this point we have been discussing the organization 
 of the business interests of I'ural communities. All rural 
 improvement must undoubtedly begin on this foundation. 
 J3ut it must be remembered that no building is complete when 
 the foundation is laid. In fact, the foimdatioii is of no use 
 unless something is to be built upon it. We have noAv to 
 consider what is to be done with the prosperity which will 
 come to a farming community when its business interests 
 are well organized. It is of doubtful utility to grow excel- 
 lent grain to feed to scrub stock ; it is of more than doubtful 
 utility to grow excellent grain, meat, fruits, and vegetables 
 to feed to scrub people. By scrub people are meant they who, 
 whatever their financial condition, have few ambitions or 
 interests beyond the elementary wants of hunger, thirst, sex, 
 and amusement. There will be very little profit in making a 
 community prosperous unless the prospei'ity is to be used 
 to support life on a somewhat higher plane than this low- 
 level of animal existence. 
 
 Most of us used to believe that the one thing needful for 
 the improvement of country life was to increase the farmers' 
 income. We are now beginning to discover that this is only 
 half of the problem and by no means the most difficult half. 
 We find, for example, that the wealthy farmer is even more 
 inclined to move to town than is the unprosperous farmer. 
 
38 Yearbook of the Departmsnt of Agricultwe. 
 
 In fact, he frequently moves to town because he has pros- 
 pered in the country, has accumulated a competence, and is 
 now able to retire to the city. It does not seem to have oc- 
 curred to many of us to ask why he does not retire in the 
 country. Whatever the reason, the undoubted fact is that he 
 has not generally done so, but has retired to the city instead. 
 Those sections of the country where agriculture has been 
 most prosperous, whei'e land is highest and farmers have 
 grown rich in the largest numbers, are the very sections from 
 which farmers have retired to town in the largest numbers, 
 where there is the largest percentage of tenancy. In some 
 of these sections we already find the schools, churches, and 
 other civilizing agencies as badly run down as in the poor- 
 est sections, and we may confidently expect that they will all 
 tend in that direction. There is no scourge or plague known 
 to agricultural science which will more certainly destroy 
 rural civilization and enterprise than absentee landlordism. 
 
 The only thing, apparently, which will cure this situation 
 is to make the country so attractive that even the prosperous 
 farmer, no matter how rich he may become, will prefer to 
 remain in the country rather than to move to town. He is 
 not likely to remain in the country if the town provides and 
 the country lacks everything he wants and feels that he can 
 afford. 
 
 There aie five principal reasons and probably several 
 minor reasons why the farmer who can atTord to do so would 
 like to move to town. First, town schools are generally 
 better, or at least thought to be better, than country schools. 
 It frequently turns out that the pupils of the coimtry schools 
 show more real training than those of the town schools. It 
 is a question, however, whether they get their training in 
 the country school or in the country home. Still, so long as 
 people think the city school is better, farmers who have 
 children will find in this a reason for moving to town if 
 they are financially able to do so. Until country schools are 
 so improved as to give to every country child as good an 
 educational opportunity as is open to any city child we must 
 expect that the people who appreciate education and who 
 can afford city life will continue to move cityward. In the 
 end this would leave in the country only those who cared 
 little for education and those who, however much they 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 39 
 
 appreciated education, were not able to afford it; that is, 
 those who were not able to live in town. 
 
 A second reason is found, or will be soon, in the better 
 sanitary conditions found in the more progressive cities and 
 towns. The country is still somewhat more healthful than 
 the city, though there are some perverted statistics which 
 aim to show the contrary. But the undoubted fact is that 
 the cities are improving very rapidly in sanitation, and the 
 time is not far distant, unless the country districts arouse 
 themselves, when the cities will be more healthful than the 
 coimtry. Then there will be an additional reason why en- 
 lightened people should desire to move from the country to 
 the city. This would be especially regrettable because it is 
 so unnecessary. With all its natural advantages the country 
 ought always to be more healthful than the city. If it is 
 not, it merely proves that country people are negligent and 
 have not taken hold of the problem with the same vigor as 
 city people. 
 
 A third reason is found in the better opportunities for 
 recreation which the city affords. Here, as in nearly every 
 other respect, the country has a natural advantage. Recre- 
 ation, however, is almost unthinkable without some kind of 
 group action, and this is the very thing which country 
 people lack and which city people possess. However, it is 
 necessary to admit that certain kinds of recreation, so called, 
 will be hard to supply in the country. The noise, glare, and 
 excitement of city streets at night, which are so attractive 
 to certain types of mind, can not well be supplied in the 
 counti-y. They who prefer this form of recreation, together 
 with the products of the popular drama, where neurosis is 
 so commonly mistaken for mentality, will jarobably continue 
 to love the city, and they will be no loss to the country. 
 But the op23ortunities for genuine re-creation through out- 
 door play and sport are so much better in the country than 
 in the city that there is no excuse for any rural community 
 which loses sound people because of a lack of such oppor- 
 tunities. However, most cities are trying to overcome their 
 natural disadvantages by the establishment of parks, play- 
 grounds, swimming pools, gymnasiums, etc. Unless the 
 rural communities become more active than they have been, 
 young men and women may be driven away by a lack of 
 
40 Yearlooh of the Defartment of Agriculture. 
 
 recreational opportunities, or attracted to the cities by the 
 superior advantages which they offer. 
 
 The desire for beauty, or the things which please the mind 
 through the eye, is one of the first symptoms of a desire to 
 rise above that plane of existence Avhere interests are con- 
 fined to the primary wants of hunger, thirst, and sex. If 
 there is any one particular in which any rural community 
 ought to excel any city it is in the superior opportunities it 
 should offer for the gratification of this desire. But many 
 cities are making heroic efforts to overcome their natural 
 ugliness, whereas it seems that many rural communities are 
 making almost equal efforts to destroy their natural beauty. 
 Where this is the case there is a fourth reason, and a very 
 strong one, why desirable people should leave the country 
 and go to the city. 
 
 A fifth reason, and it is sometimes the strongest of all, is 
 found in the lack of household conveniences in the country. 
 The city home may have gas and electricity, must of neces- 
 sity have hydrant water and sewage coimection, usually has 
 both hot and cold water, a bathtub, and a convenient heat- 
 ing system, besides a number of other conveniences to lighten 
 the burdens of housekeeijing. All these things are possible 
 in the country as well as in the city, but they are actually 
 less common. The chief reason is a lack of community 
 action, which is the one advantage, here as elsewhere, of 
 the city over the rural community. This, however, is a 
 matter which lies within the power of any rural community 
 to correct. It is simply a matter of working together. 
 
 If these things are not done — that is, if the city should 
 for a long period of time have the advantage over the coun- 
 try in these five particulars — viz, in education, sanitation, 
 recreation, beautification, and household conveniences — 
 nothing can keep enlightened people from going to the cities, 
 leaving the country to people Avho either do not care for 
 these things or who are so inefficient as farmers that they can 
 never accumulate enough to enable them to move to town. 
 That is, instead of our present progressive, enlightened, self- 
 respecting agricultural population, we shall drain off all the 
 better elements, leaving only a " peasant " population, igno- 
 rant, stolid, unprogressive, and inefficient. Even the grow- 
 ing of crops must decline under such a system. For all these 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 41 
 
 reasons, it is quite as important that our local organization 
 shall give attention to the social as to the business interests 
 of rural people. There should be committees on education, 
 sanitation, recreation, beaiitification, and household eco- 
 nomics, and these committees should be regarded as quite 
 as important as those dealing with business questions. 
 
 C. CoMJirrTEio on Education. 
 
 The key to most of the educational problems of the coun- 
 try is the country school. There is scarcely a single phase 
 of country life in which the country school may not become 
 a vitalizing factor. The boys' and girls' clubs should begin 
 there. The study of farm production, of marketing, of 
 sources of supply, of farm accounts, and of road and tele- 
 phone construction should be a part of the work of the coun- 
 try school. But this Avork should be extended over the social 
 interests of the community also. The knowledge of one's 
 environment should include one's economic and social as 
 well as one's physical environment. The first attention of 
 the committee on education should obviously be directed 
 toward the country schools. 
 
 There should be a distinct and persistent movement to 
 make the country schools at least as efficient as the city 
 schools. To accomplish this the entire school system of the 
 State must eventually be supported and administered as a 
 unit, as the school system of a city is now. Because one 
 section of a city is less Avealthy than another is not con- 
 sidered as a valid reason why the children of the poorer sec- 
 tion should have poorer schools than those of the richer sec- 
 tion. This policy should be made to apply to the entire 
 State. Because there is less wealth in the country than in 
 the city ought not to be considered as a valid reason why 
 the country children should have poorer schools than the 
 city children. They shoidd all have equal support out of 
 the tax fund of the entire State, and they should all be 
 administered as a unit. If each ward of a city were re- 
 stricted to the taxes of that ward for school purposes, it 
 would often happen that the most populous wards, where 
 there were the most children needing schools, would have the 
 least money to support their schools, because of the scarcity 
 of taxable property, while the least populous wards, where 
 
42 Yearhooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 children were scarcest, would have the most money for 
 schools, because of the large amounts of taxable property. 
 This would be so obviously wasteful and inefficient that no 
 enlightened city would tolerate it. Yet that is precisely what 
 happens in all of our States. Schools are supported, not in 
 proportion to the need for them, which is the only correct 
 principle, but mainly in proportion to the amount which 
 each community can raise. 
 
 In order that the State school system can be adminis- 
 tered as a unit there must be at the head of the State system 
 a highly trained expert, not elected, but appointed as is 
 the superintendent of a city school system. He should have 
 ample power and an adequate staif of assistants and inspec- 
 tors to enable him actually to inspect the schools of every 
 county in the State. 
 
 Again, in each county there should be an educator, not 
 elected as are county superintendents now, but appointed 
 as are city superintendents, with ample power and a staff 
 of assistants which will enable him to inspect and control 
 every school in the county. 
 
 Until these things can be brought about through State 
 legislation each community can do a great deal toward the 
 improvement of its own schools through concerted action. 
 The study of the broader questions of national economy may 
 well be turned over to the higher institutions of learning, 
 where students are more mature than they who attend the 
 district school. But the questions of local or neighborhood 
 economy, with which the study of economics ought always 
 to begin, may be studied to advantage in every country 
 school. In many States it is already possible to consolidate 
 rural schools wherever the local communities are willing. 
 
 But the country school can not possibly do everything in 
 the way of education that is needed. At any rate, there are 
 some things which one can learn better outside of school 
 than inside. The committee should study to utilize other 
 educational resources, such as study clubs, natural-history 
 clubs, circulating libraries, not of cheap fiction, but of solid 
 reading which will be of use to the community. Use should 
 also be made of such educational agencies as the stereopticon 
 and motion-picture outfits, and lecturers from the State 
 colleges. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 
 
 43 
 
 T. Committee on Sanitation. 
 
 No committee of our organization has a greater oppor- 
 tunity for usefulness than the committee on sanitation. 
 There is mucla to be learned by scientific research regarding 
 sanitation, but scientific research should not be the work of 
 this committee. Enough is already known to scientists to 
 vastly improve the health of any rural community which 
 AA'ill apply that knowledge. It should be the work of this 
 committee to inform itself and the neighborhood as to what 
 has alreadj' been discovered and demonstrated regarding the 
 cause and prevention of the common diseases, such as 
 malaria, typhoid fever, hookworm, tuberculosis, dysentery, 
 etc., and to persuade the community to apply this knowledge. 
 The application of this knowledge may sometimes require 
 hard and persistent work; but when people realize clearly 
 that babies can be killed with fly-infected food as well as 
 with an ax, they ought to be willing to work as hard to ex- 
 terminate the fly as they would to exterminate a gang of 
 murderers who went aboxit killing babies with axes. The 
 reason they do not act promptly in the case of the fly and 
 the mosquito is that they do not fully realize the danger 
 from them. Our early pioneers acted vigorously to ex- 
 terminate the wolf and the bear. Organized wolf hunts 
 have been carried on in most of our States west of the AUe- 
 ghenies within the memory of men now living. Even the 
 rabbit has been the object of well-organized campaigns on 
 the Pacific coast. The reason was that these pests were 
 large enough to be seen, and the damage they did was visible 
 to the eye. Therefore it was easy to realize the danger from 
 them. When we realize with equal clearness the danger 
 from insect and microscopic pests we shall probably act with 
 equal vigor. It is not too much to hope that the time will 
 come Avhen the fly, the mosquito, and the hookworm, together 
 with the germs of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, etc., will be 
 as nearly extinct as wolves, bears, and panthers now are in 
 the older States. 
 
 It is to be hoped that there will be soon, in every county, 
 a full-time health officer, chosen because of his special knowl- 
 edge of sanitary science, provided with ample power to 
 compel obedience to the fundamental laws of sanitation, and 
 
44 Yearhooh of the De-partment of Agriculture. 
 
 assisted by a corps of trained nurses and assistants who 
 shall inspect every school, church, and public building, ex- 
 amine all school children, require all drains, privies, and 
 wells to be constructed on scientific principles, and all dairy 
 barns to be clean and wholesome, and do anything else which 
 will improve the health and reduce the death rate of the 
 country. Meanwhile each local organization should be 
 active in all these directions without waiting for new legis- 
 lation. A trained nurse may be supported in every county 
 to do both school and district nursing in tlie open country. 
 She could also give a limited amount of instruction to 
 mothers' clubs and school children on the questions con- 
 nected with the health of the people. 
 
 8. COMMITTKH ON ReCKKATION. 
 
 The young of all animals play as naturally as they eat 
 and drink. The surest way to make one of them vicious 
 is to suppress the instinct for play or allow it no oppor- 
 tunity to express itself. In human societies, which are con- 
 trolled by the grown-ups who have forgotten something of 
 their earlier interests, the play of the young is sometimes 
 reiJressed, and seldom provided with adequate opportunities. 
 This danger is even greater in the country than in the city, 
 for the reason that the children of the farmer usually, and 
 rightly, help Avith the farm work. But the farmer, who 
 does not himself feel the need of very much play, and sees 
 the pressing need of farm work, is in danger of allowing 
 himself to exploit his children for his own profit and their 
 injuiy. The same man who would not overwork a colt, 
 realizing the ditference between a colt and a mature horse, 
 will sometimes overwork his own boys and girls. In the case 
 of these young working animals, for as such they are some- 
 times regarded, it is not so much the strenuosity of their 
 work which is likely to do them injury as the dull monotony 
 of continued toil unrelieved by play or recreation. 
 
 Every hard-working iiersou will easily understand liow essential a 
 reasonable amoinit of recreation is to tlie maintenance of a high 
 state of mental and physical efficiency. lie will then appreciate the 
 .statement that a rational standard of living must include a reasonable 
 expenditure of time or money on recreation. Just what is a reason- 
 able expenditure for this imrpose may not be easy to determine, 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 
 
 45 
 
 thoiipli there need be no disagreement as to the general principle that 
 too little recreation, which produces dullness of hody and mind, is 
 as bad as too much, which is mere dissipation or waste of time, 
 energy, or money. Nor need there be any disagreement as to the 
 principle that the recreation should he made such as to appeal to all 
 members of the community. While economists generally approve a 
 division of labor in industry, there are few who will approve that kind 
 of division of labor in which most of the men work all the time and 
 never play, while a few loafers amuse themselves all the time and 
 never work. 
 
 Rural sports are a natural adjunct of rural festivals as a 
 means of maintaining a wholesome and agreeable social life in the 
 country. Owing to a natural excitability and tendency to excess, 
 Americans have found it difficult to develop distinciive I'ural sports 
 as a i)ermanent and dignified institution of rural life except in a few 
 favored localities. Fox hunting and horse racing tend. In this 
 country, to be spoiled as rural Bi)orts by their affectation by urban 
 magnates in the one case_ and livery-stable toughs in the other. 
 Nothing is finer and more dignified than for a group of neighboring, 
 well-to-do farmers to unite for a day's hunting when the purpose is 
 to rid the country of vermin ; but when a group of townsmen, who 
 have learned to ride under a roof in a professional riding school, 
 proceed to the country and advertise their solvency by chasing a timid 
 fox across the farmers' fields, the sight is not calculated to inspire 
 admiration. Nor is there an.y sport more fitting than for a group of 
 horse-breeding farmers to meet for the purpose of testing their colts 
 in a fair and open competition. It is only by such open competition 
 that successful horse breeding is made possible. But when horse 
 racing degenerates into a mere vaudeville " stunt," or, as is more 
 frequently the case, into a mere opportunity for a group of pro-- 
 fessional gamblers from the jnirlieus of the livery stables, who have 
 been initiated into the mysteries of race-track management, to enrich 
 themselves at the expense of the uninitiated, it is not too nuich to say 
 that it has lost its virtue as the inspiz'er of a wholesome and agreeable 
 social life in the country. 
 
 In view of the well-known excitability of the American tempera- 
 ment and Its tendency to excess, it is important that rural sport in 
 this country should be of a character which does not lend itself readily 
 to extreme specialization ; otherwise it will tend to drift Into the 
 hands of specialists who do the jilaying while the public looks on. 
 This produces a spectacle rather than a sport. It is also important 
 that there should be considerable variety in the forms of sport in 
 order that as many as ])ossible should be able to participate. Of par- 
 ticular importance, however, is the requirement that these sports 
 should fit into the seasonal character of rural work. City work is so 
 uniform that the time foi- recreation can be evenly distributed 
 throughout the year. Short hours with regular weekly, biweekly, or 
 monthly half holidays give the city worker ample time for wholesome 
 recreation. But since in every farming country there are rush sea- 
 
46 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 sons, when short hours and. half holidays would mean a loss of crops, 
 it Is obvious that recreation time cau not be so evenly diffused. To 
 make up for this it is desirable that during the seasons when work 
 is slack there should be regular periods of recreation and games, 
 which need not be crowded into a single afternoon. 
 
 This suggests the need also of regular annual festival occasions 
 suited to each section of the country and its type of agriculture, when 
 there can be a general relaxation from the strenuous toil of the rush 
 seasons. In anticipation of such a period of jollity, the grinding 
 fatigue of the busy season is borne with more patience, particularly 
 by the young people, and the work is done more vigorously because 
 more cheerfully. Again, there is the possibility of uniting social 
 pleasures with rural work to a somewhat greater degree than is now 
 done. If the spirit which showed itself among our ancestors in the 
 bam i'aising.s, log rollings, and similar occasions could be restored, it 
 is possible that the present generation could get a great deal of social 
 pleasure out of the thrashing season and other occasions of a similar 
 character. This would seem to be the natural time for the harvest- 
 home celebration, which lias been so important an event in old rural 
 civilizations. In former days, however, as the writer can testify, 
 thrashing was such prodigiously hard work, and a great deal of it 
 was so dusty and disagreeable, as to stifle any spirit of jollification 
 which might otherwise have arisen. But with the more powerful 
 engines and more highly improved machinery of the present, the hard- 
 est and most disagreeable p.'irt of the work of thrashing has been 
 eliminated. Under such conditions it is at least a theoretical possi- 
 bility that the thrashing season in any neighborhood might be made 
 a festival occasion, to be iiarticiiiated in by women jus well as by 
 men — by priest, parson, siud schoolma'am as well as by the farmers 
 themselves. This, however, is only by way of suggestion.^ 
 
 The highest form of social amusement is choral singing. 
 This is peculiarly adapted to the needs of rural communi- 
 ties. In the first place, the equipment costs nothing. The 
 human voice is not only the finest musical instrument known, 
 but it is supplied free of charge to every human being. 
 Training and practice under a competent instructor will, 
 liowever, cost something. The money cost is usually less 
 than the cost in time and practice. Again, as a matter of 
 actual observation, it is found that group singing is a com- 
 mon practice in every country or community which has a 
 wholesome rural life. Germany, Wales, and Denmark may 
 be cited as conspicuous examples. Especially in the last- 
 named country, which has so much to teach the rest of the 
 world in the way of rural organization, group singing is one 
 
 1 Quoted from tlie antlior's Principlos of Rural Economics. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 47 
 
 of the prominent features of the national life. Not only is 
 every class in every school, from the primary school to the 
 university, opened with a hymn, but practically every busi- 
 jiess meeting of every farmers' organization as well. When 
 one hears a group of hard-headed, wide-awake Danish 
 farmers, avIio have met together -as directors of a coopera- 
 tive bacon factory, join in a hymn at the opening of their 
 meeting, one begins to understand why cooperation is so suc- 
 cessful in Denmark. Back of business cooperation there is 
 the cooperative spirit. This spirit is the result of years of 
 education along cooperative lines. 
 
 In the city, where land is scarce, there may be some excuse 
 for a lack of playgrounds. But in view of the fact that land 
 is the one form of property which is abundant in the coun- 
 try, it would seem that a suitable playground could always 
 be possible. It should, however, always be under the control 
 of the civil authorities or a local organization, in order that 
 it may not be monopolized by a few to the exclusion of the 
 many, and in order that unsuitable language and conduct 
 may be eliminated. 
 
 Aside from the recreational feature of rural sports, they 
 have great value as socializing agencies. After people have 
 learned to play together it is easier to learn to work together. 
 Consistent working together will do more to increase the 
 prosperity of the average rural community than any other 
 single factor. 
 
 9. Committee on Beatjtification. 
 
 The committee on the beautification of the countryside 
 will probably have the hardest work of any. Many farmers 
 so pride themselves on their hardheadedness that their heads 
 are in danger of becoming not only hard but impenetrable, 
 and their hearts as well. A house tends to become for them 
 merely a thing to furnish shelter and protection, not to 
 please the eye; paint becomes a means of preserving wood, 
 fences become means of restraining live stock, land a means 
 of growing salable crops, church and school lots exist for 
 the purpose of supporting buildings, and flowers are merely 
 incidents to the production of fruits and seeds. Few, how- 
 ever, are so far gone as to regard a cemetery merely as a 
 place to bury corpses. This most serious reminder of the 
 
48 Yearhooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 realities of our earthly existence stirs in even the hardest 
 natures the rudiments at least of a somber idealism and leads 
 them to expend some effort at beautification. Nor are there 
 many who are so far gone as not to prefer a handsome, 
 well-groomed team even when an ugly, ungroomed team 
 might do as much work. Every good workman prefers tools 
 with a fine finish, even though they do not do any more 
 work than those Avithout finish or polish. In short, j^art of 
 the joy of living consists in the satisfaction which we get 
 directly out of our tools — the things with which we work — 
 as well as that which we get out of the products of our work. 
 One can well afford to sacrifice a dollar of money income 
 if by so doing one can add two dollars' worth of satisfaction 
 to one's work. 
 
 These remarks apply as avcII to fences, bridges, and out- 
 buildings as to the dwelling house, and they apply particu- 
 larly to the general appearance of the farm itself. The man 
 in the city does not usually live v.dth his business — that is, 
 he does not live in or near his factory, his store, or his shop. 
 If he has any surplus income he will generally spend some 
 of it in the adornment of his home surroundings, but he too 
 frequently allows his place of business to remain imattrac- 
 tive and even repulsive, unless he finds that it attracts cus- 
 tomers better by being made attractive. If he were com- 
 pelled to live with his business, that is, in or adjacent to his 
 factory, store, shop, or mine, he would find it impossible to 
 get the maximum satisfaction out of life if these places of 
 business were allowed, as they usually are, to remain ugly. 
 
 Just here is one of the largest differences between city and 
 country life. Whereas in the city business and life are 
 divorced, the place of business and the home are separated, 
 and the source of income is considered apart from the place 
 where the income is spent, quite the opposite is true in the 
 country. There the farm is both place of business and 
 home, both source of income and the place where it is spent. 
 It would therefore be ridiculous to adorn the inside of the 
 home and leave its surroundings ugly and repulsive. It 
 would be an interesting digression to speculate as to what 
 .would happen in our cities if all city business men were com- 
 pelled to live with their business. It would certainly make 
 slums impossible and lead to a vast improvement of the 
 
TTie Organization of a Rural Community. 49 
 
 factory districts — the elimination of smoke, noise, and other 
 nuisances. However, that is a city and not a covmtry problem. 
 
 In advocating a campaign for the beautification of the 
 countryside it is not necessary to go so far as to sacrifice in 
 any degree the productive efficiency of the farms. It is not 
 proposed that farms shall be turned into parks. When tools 
 are given a fine finish or polish they are not turned into toys ; 
 their working efficiency is not, or should not be, reduced in 
 the slightest degree. Similarly, when the farm and its 
 buildings, fences, hedges, etc., are made pleasing to the eye 
 its productivity need not be at all diminished. Nor is it 
 necessary that large sums of money should be spent on the 
 beautification of the neighborhood or the individual farm. 
 Our committee on beautification will have enough work to 
 do in the average community if it merely develops in all the 
 people an intelligent interest in the improvement of the gen- 
 eral appearance of the neighborhood; first, through the im- 
 provement of school and church grounds, cemeteries, road- 
 sides, bridges, and other public property ; second, through 
 the improvement of farm buildings by a better regard for 
 proportion and a more intelligent use of paint, the artistic 
 selection and location of trees and shrubs, and the care of 
 lawns and gardens on individual farms. 
 
 10. Committee on Holtsehold Economics. 
 
 As previously suggested, one of the most powerful forces 
 driving people from the country to the city is the lack of 
 household conveniences in the country homes. The committee 
 Avhich can find ways of securing most of these conveniences 
 will do a great deal toward maJdng country life attractive 
 and checking the movement from country to city. Every 
 farmer learns to be handy with tools. With very little in- 
 struction he can put into his house many of the little things 
 Avhich reduce the drudgery of housework in city homes. 
 Our committee should aim to furnish as much of this in- 
 struction as possible. Even if nothing more is done, it would 
 be of value to collect drawings, illustrations, plans and 
 specifications, price lists, and catalogues of all sorts of house- 
 hold improvements. Another possibility of usefulness for 
 such a committee is the promotion of cooperative laundries, 
 bakeries, ice houses, or ice factories. 
 
50 
 
 Tearhoolc of the Defartment of Agriculture. 
 
 But it must be remembered that these labor-saving im- 
 provements seldom reduce the amount of work. They merely 
 enable people to accomplish more with the same effort. 
 Many labor-saving processes have been introduced into the 
 farm home since the days of our grandmothers, and many 
 kinds of work which our grandmothers did have been re- 
 moved from the farmhouse to the factory. Yet it is doubt- 
 ful if the ambitious farm woman of to-day works any less 
 hard than did her grandmother ; she merely does more things 
 and supplies her family with comforts and luxuries which 
 her grandmother never dreamed of having. And it may be 
 confidently predicted that even if a hundred new labor- 
 saving devices are introduced into the farm homes during 
 the present generation, unless something else is done tlie 
 women of the next generation will work just as hard as those 
 of the present. They will merely accomplish more. 
 
 This increase in the results accomplished by work is alto- 
 gether desirable as long as the results are desirable in them- 
 selves. But this is not always the case. Many of the things 
 which we biiy with our money, or get with our work, are not 
 desirable for their own sakes; they are desired merely be- 
 cause others have them and we want to keep up with our 
 neighbors. We are suffering infinitely more from competi- 
 tive consumption than from competitive production. 
 
 One of the most destructive forms of competitive consimip- 
 tion is the effort which country people make to act and dress 
 like city people. This desire to imitate city people indicates 
 a feeling of inferiority on the part of country people. It will 
 never be cured until country people organize themselves and 
 develop a feeling of solidarity and a pride in being country 
 people. When a class of people feel themselves to be the 
 equals or superiors of another class they never try to imitate 
 that other class. 
 
 Then there is the rivalry among members of the same class 
 or community to outshine one another in matters of consump- 
 tion, display, or ostentation. " Conspicuous waste " becomes 
 a recognized method of advertising respectability. Where 
 this spirit prevails, no matter how much money we have, we 
 can never have enough to live in mental comfort, but will 
 strive with might and main for more. Similarly, no matter 
 how many labor-saving devices there may be in the farm 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 51 
 
 home, the women can never do as much as they would like to 
 do, but will continue to wear themselves out trying to do 
 more. 
 
 One of the largest results, therefore, which should come 
 from an effective rural organization should be such a stand- 
 ardization of consumption as to stop this form of strenuous 
 competition. When country people stop trying to imitate 
 city people, when they have the strength to set their own 
 standards of consumption, and when they agree to do the 
 things they really want to do and have tlie things they really 
 want, then the introduction of labor-saving devices will 
 really lighten work. 
 
 Eai'lier in this discussion attention has been directed to 
 the work which the coimtry school may do in the organiza- 
 tion of a rural community. Attention should also be 
 directed to the opportunities of the country church. To 
 those who object that the chui'ch should not concern itself 
 with temporal matters it is only necessary to reply that it 
 must do so or perish. It is not for us to state what the 
 church ought to do. That is for its own leaders to deter- 
 mine. As a mere question of cause and effect, setting aside 
 for the moment all questions of moral obligation, the fol- 
 lowing^ considerations are presented to those leaders: 
 
 It is a law of rural economics that the best hind of any 
 community tends, in tlie long run, to pass into tlie hands of 
 the best farmers. The reason is that they can afford to pay 
 more for the land, either in the form of a purchase price or 
 in the form of rent, than poorer farmers. The farmer who 
 can make 100 bushels of corn grow where others can make 
 only 50 can pay more for the land. In the long run he and 
 others like him will outbid the poorer farmers and gradually 
 possess the land. Now, if religious people turn out to be 
 better fai-mers than irreligious people, then religious people 
 will eventually come into 2>ossession of the land. But if, 
 on the other hand, irreligious people should turn out to be 
 the better farmers, then irreligious people will eventually 
 possess the hmd and the coimtry churches will die a natural 
 death. 
 
 Again, it is the experience of organizers of rural interests 
 in every country that the great obstacle is the lack of a 
 
52 Yearbooh of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 neighborhood spirit and mutual good will. Wherever this- 
 spirit exists oi'ganization is easy. Wherever it is lacking 
 and mutual suspicion and antipathy exist in its stead, there 
 organization is difficult. In this connection one may bo 
 justified in asking: If tlie church does not promote neigh- 
 borly feeling and mutual good ^Yill, what does it exist for ? 
 
 One of the impressive things about the rural organiza- 
 tions of such countries as Ireland, Belgium, Holland; Italy, 
 Germany, and Denmark is the active part which the local 
 pi-iest or parson has played. It is quite the common thing 
 to find that the priest or parson is the president of the co- 
 operative society, while the schoolmaster is its secretary and 
 business manager. This, however, is partly due to the fact 
 that these tv/o men are freqiiently the only educated men 
 and generally the best educated men in the community. 
 Such is seldom the case in this country. In any prosperous 
 farming community it will frequently, if not generally, be 
 foimd that there are farmers who are better educated than 
 the priest, i^arson, or school-teacher, besides having much 
 more practical business experience. Where this is true it is 
 better, of coui'se, to leave the practical administration of 
 affairs to these farmers. Nevertheless, the inspirational 
 work of the church might well be directed toward the crea- 
 tion of such a neighborly spirit and mutual good will as 
 would enable the whole community to work together easily 
 and amicabl3^ And in those communities where the country 
 preacher is the best educated man and where he has or can 
 obtain information as to methods of organization, there can 
 be no objection to his assuming leadership in the organiza- 
 tion of the community. 
 
 In closing it can not be emphasized too much that patriot- 
 ism, like charity, begins at home — that is, in the neighbor- 
 hood. Neighborhood loyalty, willingness to sacrifice if need 
 be, for the good of the neighborhood, is just as important as 
 national loj^alty and willingness to sacrifice in the interest 
 of the nation. No nation can be strong, prosperous, or 
 progressive which does not command the loyalty and sup- 
 port of its citizens. Neither can a neighborhood. It is as 
 true of a neighborhood as of a nation that " a house divided 
 against itself shall not stand." 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 53 
 
 SUGGESTED READINGS FOR THE VARIOUS COMMITTEES. 
 
 Each committee is strongly advised to correspond with its 
 own State college and with the United States Department 
 of Agriculture, asking for specific information and for sug- 
 gestions for further reading. The readings here suggested 
 are by no means exhaustive. They are intended merely to 
 start the committees in the right direction. There are doubt- 
 less many publications other than those enumerated which 
 would be of equal value. 
 
 1. Committee on rRomjcTioN. 
 
 I^oNSTKEL, J. A. The use of soil surveys. Yearbook, Dept. of A,!;ricul- 
 ture, 1906. pp. 181-188. 
 . Carvek, Thomas Nixon, rriiiciples of rural economies. Boston, Giiui 
 & Co., 1911. 
 
 Habwood, W. S. The new earth. New Yorlc City, The JIncmillan 
 Co., 3900. 
 
 QuAiHTANCE, 11. W. The influence of farm machinery on production 
 and labor. 1904. Address American Economic Association, A. A. 
 Young, secretary, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 Spillman, W. J. Cropping systems for stock farms. Yearbook, Dept. 
 of Agricult\u-e, 1907. pp. 3S5-398. 
 
 Spileman, W. J. Opportunities in agriculture. General farming. 
 Yearbook, i:iept. of Agriculture, 1904. pp. 181-190. 
 
 Spillman, W. J. Systems of farm management in the United States. 
 Yearbook, Dept. of Agriculture, 1902. pp. 343-304. 
 
 Tayeor, Henry C. An introduction to the study of agricultural eco- 
 nomics. New York City, The Macmillan Co., 1905. 
 
 2. Committee on Marketing. 
 
 *Amekican Academy oi' Political and Social Science. Annals, vol. 
 50, whole No. 139. lieducing the cost of food distribution. Phila- 
 delphia, American Academy of Political and Social Science, 19113. 
 
 ♦Andrews, Frank. Freight costs and market values. Yearbook, 
 Dept. of Agriculture, 190C. pp. 371-386. 
 
 *Daggett, Stuakt. Kiiilroad reorganization. Boston, Houghton, 
 Mifflin & Co., 1908. 
 
 *Ei,liott, Howard. Business etliciency in farming and railroading, 
 St. Paul, Northern Pacific Railway, 1911. 
 
 *The Mayor's Market Commission of New York City-. Report. 
 1913. Address the Chairman, Mayor's Market Commission, New 
 York City. 
 
 *PowELL, G. Harold. Cooperation in agriculture. (Rural science 
 series.) New York City, The Macmillan Co., 1913. 
 
 *RiPLEY, William Z. Railroads, rates .and regulation. London. I^ong- 
 mans, Green & Co., 1913. 
 
 *Ilocoinmoii(]oci by Cbarlcs J. Br.md, Cliici, Office ot Markets and Rural 
 Organization, TJ. S. Department of Agriciiltnro. 
 
54 Yearhook of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 *gEiBELS, William T. Produce markets aud marketing. Cbicago, 
 
 Produce Markets and Marketing Co., c. 1011. 
 *SuLLivAF, J. W. Markets for the people; the consumer's part. New 
 
 Tork City, Tbe Macmillau Co., 1913. 
 *U. S. Depabtment of Aghicultube. Office of the Secretary. Re]X)rt 
 ]Vo. 98 : Systems of marketing farm products and the demand for 
 such products at trade centers. Address Superintendent of Docu- 
 ments, Washington, D. C. 
 *U. S. Dbpaetment op Agriculture. Address Division of Publications, 
 Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Bulletin 178. Cooperative organization business methods, liy 
 
 W. H. Kerr and G. A. Nahstall. 1915. 
 Bulletin 191. Demurrage information for farmers, by G. C. 
 White. 1915. 
 
 *Vrooman, Gael S. American railway problems. Ijondon, Henry 
 Froude, 1910. 
 
 3. Committee on Secueing Farm Supplies. 
 
 Buck, Solon' Justus. The Granger movement. (Harvard Historical 
 
 Studies No. xix) , Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Pre.ss, 1913. 
 Coulter, John Lee. Cooi>eration- among farmers, the keystone of 
 
 rural prosperity. New York City, Sturgis & Walton, 1911. 
 Fat, O. R. Cooperation at home and abroad. New York City, The 
 
 Macmillan Co., 190S. 
 Pratt, Edwin A. The organization of agriculture. London, John 
 
 Murray, 1904. 
 
 WoLEF, Henry W. Cooperation in agriculture. Ijondon, F. S. King 
 & Son, 1912. 
 
 4. Committee on Farm Finance and Accounting. 
 
 tHAM, Arthur H., and Robinson, Leonard G. A credit union primer. 
 Russell Sage Foundation, 1-30 East Twenty-second Street, New 
 York City, 1914. 
 
 tHoLMEs, George K. The source of rural credit and extent of rural 
 Indebtedness. In the Monthly Bulletin of the Bureau of Economic 
 and Social Intelligence, vol. 2S, pp. 116-132; vol. 29, pp. 65-92. 
 Rome, Italy, International Institute of Agriculture, 1913. 
 tMASSAOHUSETTS BANK COMMISSIONER. Credit unidus. 1911. Ad- 
 dress Bank Commissiouei", Boston, Mass. 
 tU. S., 63d Congress, 1st Session. Address Superintendent of Docu- 
 ments, Washington. D. C. 
 
 Senate document 17. Agricultural credit and cooperation in 
 
 Germany, by J. R. Cahill. 1913. 
 Senate document 214. Agricultural cooperation and rural 
 credit in Europe. 1013. 
 
 ♦Recommenaed by Charles ,T. Brand. Cbief, OflSce of Markets and Rural 
 Organization, TJ. S. Department of As'riculture. 
 
 tRecommendc-d by C. W. Tliompson, SpeclalLst in Rural Organization Work, 
 Office of Markets and Rural Organization, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 55 
 
 *U. S. Depaetment of Agbioulttjre. Address Division of Publications, 
 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Farmers' Bulletin 511. Farm bookkeeping, by Edward H. 
 
 Tliomsou. 1012. 
 Farmers' Bulletin 572. A system of farm cost accounting, by 
 
 C. I']. Ladd. 1914. 
 Farmers' Bulletin 593. How to use farm credit, by T. N. Car- 
 ver. 1914. 
 
 5. Committee on Transportation. 
 
 tBAKER, IBA OsBoBN. A treatise on roads and pavements. New York 
 City, Wiley & Sons, 1013. 
 
 tBYRNE, Austin T. A treatise on higbway construction. New York 
 City, Wiley & Sons, 1907. 
 
 tFROST, Harwood. The art of road making. New York City, Engi- 
 neering News Publishing Co.. 1910. 
 
 tGiLLETTE, Halbeet POWERS. Economics of road construction. New 
 York City. Engineering News Publishing Co., 1906. 
 
 tGiLLBTTE, Halbert POWERS. Rock excavation, methods and cost. 
 New York City, Myron G. Clark, 1904. 
 
 tGooD Roads Year Book. Address American Highway Association, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 tHAEGEE, Wilson G., and Bonnet, Edmund A. Handbook for high- 
 way engineers. New York City, McGraw-Hill Co., 1912. 
 
 tHuBBARD, Prevost. Dust preventives and road binders. New Yorlv 
 City, Wiley & Sons, 1910. 
 
 Page, Logan Waller. Roads, paths, and bridges. New York City, 
 Sturgls & Walton Co., 1912. 
 
 tTJ. S. Department of Agriculture. Address Division of Publications, 
 Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Bulletin 136. Highway bonds, by D. I. Hewes and James A. 
 Glover. 1915. 
 
 Farmers' Bulletin 311. Sand-clay and burnt-clay roads, by 
 
 William L. Spoon. 1907. 
 Farmers' Bulletin 338. Macadam roads, by Austin B. 
 
 Fletcher. 1909. 
 Farmers' Bulletin 461. Use of concrete on the farm. 1911. 
 Farmers' Bulletin 505. Benefits of improved roads. 1912. 
 Farmers' Bulletin 597. The road drag and how to use it. 1914. 
 tU. S. Department of Agbicultuee. Office of Public Roads. Address 
 Division of Publications, Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
 D. C. 
 
 Bulletin 45. Data for use in designing culverts and short- 
 simn bridges, by Charles H. Moorefleld. 1913. 
 
 Bulletin 48. Repair and maintenance of highways, by 
 Laurence I. Hewes. 1913. 
 
 *Recommended by C. W. Thompson, Specialist in Rural Organization Work, 
 Office of Markets and Eural Organization, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
 
 tEecommended by L. W. Page, Director, Office o£ Public Boads, U. S. De- 
 partment of Agriculture. 
 
56 Yearhoolo of the Department of Agriculture. 
 
 *TJ. S. Depaetment of Aqeictjltuke— Continued. 
 
 , ' Circular 95. Special road problems in the Southern States, 
 by D. H. Winslow. 1911. 
 
 6. Committee on Education. 
 
 tANTBiM, Saida Bkumback, and Antrim, Ernest Irving. The county 
 library. Van Wert, Ohio, The Pioneer Press, 1914. 
 
 tBuTTERFiELD, K. ]j. The country church and the rural i)roblem. Chi- 
 cago, University of Chicago Press, 1911. 
 
 tCuBBEELEY, Elewood P. Rural life and education. (Kiverside text- 
 books in education), Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1914. 
 
 fDAVENPoET, Eugene. Education for efficiency. Boston, D. C. Heath 
 & Co., 1909. 
 
 tEcGLESTON, J. D., and Beueee, Robert W. The work of the rural 
 
 school. New York City, Harper Bros., 1013. 
 tFoQHT, Harold Waldstein. The American rural school. New York 
 
 City, The Macmillan Co.,- 1910. 
 tMcIvEEVER, William A. Farm boys and girls. New York City, The 
 
 Macmillan Co., 1912. 
 tPERRY, Clarence Arthur, Wider use of the school plant. New 
 
 York City, Paissell Sage Foundation, 1910. 
 U. S. Department of the Interior. Publications of the Bureau of 
 Education, among which are the following : 
 
 tBulletin No. 28, 1912. Cultivating school grounds in Wake 
 
 County, N. C, by Zebulon Judd. 
 Bulletin No. 8, 1913. The status of rural education in the 
 
 tFnited States, by A. C. Monahan. 
 Bulletin No. 32, 1913. An educational survey of Montgomery 
 Co., Md., by H. N. Jlorse, E. Fred Eastman, and A. 0. 
 lUonahan. 
 
 tBulletin No. 42, 1913. An experimental rural school at Win- 
 throp College, Kock Hill, S. C, by Hetty S. Browne. 
 
 tBulletin No. 58, 1913. The educational system of rural Den- 
 mark, by Harold W. Foght. 
 
 tBulletin No. 5, 1914. The folk high schools of Denmark, by 
 L. L. Friend. 
 
 tBulletin No. 25, 1914. Important features in rural school 
 
 improvement, by W. T. Hodges. 
 Bulletin No. 30, 1914. Consolidation of rural schools, by A. C. 
 
 Monahan. 
 
 7. Committee on Sanitation. • 
 
 tCoRNELL, Dr. Walter S. Health and medical inspection of school 
 children. Philadelphia, Pa., F. A. Davis & Co., 1912. 
 
 •Eecommended by L. W. rage, Director, Office of Public Roads, U. S. Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture. 
 
 tKeeommendea by A. C. Alonahan, Specialist in Eural Education, Bureau of 
 Education, Department of tbe Interior. 
 
 tRecommended by Surgeon General Rupert Blue, Bureau of tbe Public Health 
 Service, U. S. Treasury Department. 
 
The Organization of a Rural Community. 
 
 57 
 
 *Gerhaed, William Paul. The saiiitiitiou, water supply, and sewage 
 disposal of country houses. New York City, D. Van Nostrand 
 & Co., 1900. 
 
 *HoLT, Dr. LuTiiEB Emmett. Care and feeding of children. New 
 
 York City, V>. Appleton & Co., 1014 (7th ed.). 
 U. S. Department of Agriculture. Addres.s Division of Publications, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 Bulletin 57. Water supply, plumbing, and sewage dlsi>osal 
 for country homes, by Robert W. Trull inger. li)14. 
 *IT. S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Animal Industry. 
 
 Circular 114. Sanitary milk production. 1907. 
 *IT. S. Treasury Department. Bureau of the Public tiealth , Service. 
 Address Bureau of the Public Health Service, Washington, D. 0. 
 Hygienic laboratory bulletin No. 56. Milk and its relation 
 
 to public health. 1909. 
 Public Health Bulletin No. 30. Tuberculosis; its nature and 
 
 prevention, by F. C. Smith. 1010. 
 Public Health Bulletin No. 42. Disinfectants; their use and 
 application in the prevention of communicable diseases, 
 by Thomas B. McClintic. 1011. 
 Public Health Bulletin No. 51. The causation and preventi-on 
 
 of typhoid fever, by 1^. D. Lumsden. 1012. 
 Public Health P^eports, Vol. XXVII, No. 49, pp. 2024-2030. 
 Antimalarial measures for farmhouses and plantations, 
 by Henry R. Carter. 1912. 
 Public Health Reports. Supplement No. 10. The care of the 
 baby. 1934. 
 
 Public Health Reports. Supplement No. 14. Diphtheria ; its 
 prevention and control, by J. W. Schereschewsky. 1914. 
 U. S. Department of I.abor. Children's Bureau. Address Children's 
 Bureau, Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Care of children series : No. 1. Prenatal care, by Mrs. Mas 
 West. 1013. 
 
 Care of children series : No. 2. Infant care, by Sirs. Max 
 West. 1915. 
 
 Infant mortality series: No. 2. New Zealand society for the 
 health of women and children. An example of methods 
 of baby-saving work in small towns and rural districts. 
 1914. 
 
 S. Committee on Recreation. 
 
 tBANCROFT, Jessie Hi, Games for playgi-ound, home, school, and 
 gymnasium. New Y'ork City, The Macmillan Co., 1009. 
 
 tJoHNSON, George Ellsworth. Education by plays and games. Bos- 
 ton, Ginn & Co., 1907. 
 
 'Recommended by Sui-geon General Rupert Blue, Bureau of the Public Health 
 Service, TJ. S. Treasury Department. 
 
 tRecommended by Profet^sor Blanche E. Hazard, School of Home Economies, 
 , New York State College of Agriculture. 
 
58 Yearhooh of the Bepartment of Agriculture. 
 
 *New Tork. state College of Agriculture. Extension circular No. 1. 
 A plan for a rural commuuity center, by A. R. Mann. 1913. Ad- 
 dress State College of Agriculture, Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 ''Stern, RENiiE B. Neighborliood entertainments. (Young farmerfs' 
 practical library series. ) New York City, Sturgis & Walton, 1910. 
 
 Publications of the Department op the Interior, Bureau of Edu- 
 cation. (List sent upon application.) Washington, D. C. 
 
 Publications of the Playground and Recreation Association of 
 America. (List sent upon application.) 1 Madison Ave., New- 
 York City. 
 
 9. Committee on Beautification. 
 
 tELY, Helena Rutherford. The practical flower garden. New York 
 
 City, The Macmillan Co., 1911. 
 tGKAYSoN, David. Adventures in contentment. New York City, 
 
 Doubleday, Page & Co., 1913. 
 tKEMP, Edward. Landscape gardening. New York City, Wiley & 
 
 Sons, 1911. 
 
 tOHio State University. Agricultural College. . Extension bulletin. 
 Vol. IX, No. 5. Trees for shade, shelter, and ornament, by Wil- 
 liam R. Lazenby. 1014. 
 tIT. S. Department of Agriculture. Address Division of Publications, 
 Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Farmers' Bulletin 185. Beautifying the home grounds, by 
 
 L. C. Corbett. 1904. 
 Farmers' Bulletin 474. The use of jiaint on the farm, by 
 P. H. Walker. 1911. 
 
 10. Committee on Household Economics. 
 JFarmer, Fannie Merritt. Boston cooking-school cookbook. Boston, 
 
 Little. Brown & Co., 1914. 
 jHiLL, Janet McKenzie. Practical cooking and serving. Garden 
 
 City, N. Y., Doubleday, Page & Co., 1912. 
 jKiNNE, Helen, and Cooley, Anna M. Food and Household manage- 
 ment. New York City, The Macmillan Co., 1914. 
 jKiNNE, Helen, and Cooley, Anna M. Shelter and clothing. New 
 
 York City, The Macmillan Co., 1913. 
 JSheppebd, Juniata L. Laundry work for use in home and schools. 
 
 St. Paul, Minn., Webb Publishing Co., 1909. 
 U. S. Department of Agriculture. Address Division of Publications, 
 Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Farmers' Bulletin 607. The kitchen as a workshop, by Anna 
 
 Barrows. 1914. 
 List of free and available publications of interest to farm 
 women. Oct. 23, 1913. 
 
 *Recommendea by Professor Blanche E. Hazard, School of I-Ioine Economies, 
 New York State College of Agriculture. 
 
 tReeommended by M. C. Betts, Assistant Architect, Office of Farm Manage- 
 ment, Department of Agriculture. 
 
 $From IL^it recommended by the Department of Home EJconomlcs, Colorado 
 Agricultural College. 
 
 o