ress in the contest for American territory meant a great deal for the cause of free, representative government.

Independence of Early American Rural Communities. The typical American rural community has been much more like the New England town than the French village. It spread out so that it is often composed entirely of isolated homes with their collections of farm buildings. Because farms have been larger than in Europe, the American farmer has remained near his work instead of dwelling in a farmers' village as is a common practice in most of the world.

The world has never seen anything like country life in America. Vigorous immigrants from the older colonies and states and from Europe poured into the Mississippi valley, the richest of agricultural regions. They subdued the wilderness and made themselves homes where Jefferson thought only a few roving savages or traders could ever live. The farmer who tilled his own land and produced most of the necessities of life at home was independent. He associated himself with a few remote but reliable like-minded neighbors in conducting churches and schools, and kept an interest in state and national politics. He has been at once one of the finest products of American development and a safe guarantee of democracy with the smallest amount of class distinction. Little government was needed, and outside interference with local customs was likely to be resented. The rural community seemed sufficient unto itself.

Problems of the Modern Rural Community. But the rural community no longer lives to itself. Every city and village problem affects life in the open country, and the country has grave problems of its own. Some of these are related to making a living and owning property. Others, quite as important, have to do with how to live so as to share reasonably

in the comforts, enjoyments, and amusements which civilization has made possible in so large a degree for all.

1. Ownership of Farms. "Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm." So ran the words of an old song. So long as this was true, the per cent of farm owners might be very high, but for many years, the supply of valuable free land has been practically exhausted. Crop failures, poor man

agement, and personal misfortune lead to mortgages or sale of farms which thus pass into the ownership of those who do not live on them. Increased costs of land and necessary implements make it increasingly difficult for one without capital to save enough to purchase a farm. The per cent of farm owners who live in the country shows a steady though not rapid decrease. Tenant farmers are often less careful of land, in some parts of the country working only for the greatest possible yield during the one or two seasons before they move to another farm, to exploit it in the same way.

The social life of any community needs the influence of those who have the permanent interest of home owners.

2. Scientific Farming. The soil which the first farmers found had been developing for centuries and for a greater or less number of years it produced bountiful crops. When fertility was exhausted, the pioneer farmer might take up another claim, thus "exploiting" the original productiveness of

many acres. Since there is little more land to exploit in this way and the same tracts must be kept in cultivation, scientific rotation of crops is now practiced in all intelligent rural communities. By this means fields in Europe which perhaps have missed few crops in a thousand years are producing as well as in the beginning. Such scientific problems as rotation of crops, combating of insect pests and adaptation of varieties of products to climate and soil, have been made the subject of experiments by agricultural colleges which thus give back

to the farmer in expert services many times the amount of money he contributes in their support.

3. Marketing. Instead of attempting to produce as nearly as possible all of the things he needs, improved machinery and large farms cause the modern farmer to be a specialist. An entire community may be so well adapted to production of a single crop, that its output is almost as highly specialized as that of a factory. Marketing becomes a vital concern to a farmer or a community whose livelihood depends upon a single crop. Fruit and grain growers associations are examples of co-operative effort to find advantageous markets. Such organizations bring about reliable standards of quality which interest the buyer, and secure for their members a satisfactory price. Eggs marketed by a similar association often sell at nearly double the ordinary market price.

The "turn over" of most farm products is very slow and opportunity to borrow money at a low rate of interest is essential to profitable marketing. Change in freight rates may be sufficient to take away most of the profit from the heavier farm crops. The farmer now sells on a world market all staple crops, and his interests are no longer confined to a local community.

4. Good Roads. Roads are now recognized as a major rural problem. Especially is this true where soils are richest, rainfall abundant, crops the heaviest, and natural dirt roads the worst. The "mud tax" may in such cases be the highest tax paid. In spite of the auto the isolated farm home may be "a shut-in" for weeks at a time. The road problem calls. for co-operation not only of the rural community but of state and nation. The farmer is most concerned, but all use

public roads.

5. The Rural School. The small rural school of an earlier

day, the "little red school house" of the story book has not kept up with the changes of modern life. In many communities it has not been liberally supported. No neighborhood likes to be accused of lacking interest in education but poor dilapidated old school houses and employment of the cheapest teacher on the market proclaim unmistakably that some who insist that they are interested in education, are not. Those who effectively believe in education regard it as an investment and not as a tax to be avoided, or kept low as possible.

But even honest, liberal tax-payers genuinely devoted to the welfare of their school need to study the rural problem. A lavishly equipped school enrolling a mere handful of pupils is a poor educational investment wherever consolidation is practicable. It is hard for the independent spirit of the local community with its pride in the home school to give up the old way of doing things even though it is possible in co-operation with other districts to maintain a school which can have better equipment, more life, and perhaps, offer a high-school course. In thousands of consolidated districts today, the best of educational opportunity is being offered, and no one would think of going back to the little school even though it were a few miles nearer. It is evident that the road problem and this school problem are closely connected.

6. The Lure of the City. All the real advantages which cities possess may be traced to the fact that many are served instead of a small number, as in the country. Fine churches, great theatres, the largest stores, art galleries, libraries, the most convenient water and lighting systems, sidewalks, and paved streets cost so much that they must be where many can use them and help pay for them. Opportunities to enjoy these advantages will always attract people from farms and villages.

Another class of seeming advantages are much less real.