New Ideals in Rural Schools | Page 4

employed; if

he is cutting his hay or harvesting his grain, hundreds of other mowing
machines and harvesters are at work on surrounding farms.
This fund of common interest and experience tends to social as well as
industrial homogeneity. Good-fellowship, social responsiveness and
neighborliness rest on a basis of common labor, common problems, and
common welfare. Like-mindedness and the spirit of coöperation are
after all more a matter of similar occupational interests than of
nationality.
Another factor tending to make the rural community socially more
homogeneous than the city community is its relatively stable
population, and the fact that the stream of immigration is slow in
reaching the farm. It is true that the European nations are well
represented among our agricultural population; but for the most part
they are not foreigners of the first generation. They have assimilated
the American spirit, and become familiar with American institutions.
The great flood of raw immigrants fresh from widely diverse nations
stops in the large centers of population, and does not reach the farm.
The prevailing spirit of democracy is still another influence favoring
homogeneity in the rural community. Much less of social stratification
exists in the country than in the city. Social planes are not so clearly
defined nor so rigidly maintained. Financial prosperity is more likely to
take the direction of larger barns and more acres than of social
ostentation and exclusiveness.
America has no servile and ignorant peasantry. The agricultural class
constituting our rural population represents a high grade of natural
intelligence and integrity. Great political and moral reforms find more
favorable soil in the rural regions than in the cities. The demagogue and
the "boss" find farmers impossible to control to their selfish ends.
Vagabonds and idlers are out of place among them. They are a
hard-headed, capable, and industrious class. As a rule, American
farmers are well-to-do, not only earning a good living for their families,
but constantly extending their holdings. Their farms are increasingly
well improved, stocked, and supplied with labor-saving and efficient
machinery. Their land is constantly growing in value, and at the same

time yielding larger returns for the money and labor invested in it.
The standard of living is distinctly lower in farm homes than in town
and city homes of the same financial status. The house is generally
comfortable, but small. It is behind the times in many easily accessible
modern conveniences possessed by the great majority of city dwellers.
The bath, modern plumbing and heating, the refrigerator, and other
kindred appliances can be had in the country home as well as the city.
Their lack is a matter of standards rather than of necessity. They will be
introduced into thousands of rural homes as soon as their need is
realized.
The possibilities for making the rural home beautiful and attractive are
unequaled in the city for any except the very rich. It is not necessary
that the farmhouse shall be crowded for space; its outlook and
surroundings can be arranged to give it an æsthetic quality wholly
impossible in the ordinary city home. That this is true is proved by
many inexpensive farmhouses that are a delight to the eye. On the other
hand, it must be admitted that a large proportion of farmhouses are
lacking in both architectural attractiveness and environmental effect.
Not infrequently the barns and sheds are so placed as to crowd the
house into the background, and the yards for stock allowed to infringe
upon the domain of the garden and the lawn. All this can be easily
remedied and will be when the æsthetic taste of the dwellers on the
farm comes to be offended by the incongruous and ugly.
No stinting in the abundance of food is known on the farm. The farmer
supplies the tables of the world, and can himself live off the fat of the
land. Grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, butter, milk, and fruits are his
stock in trade. If there is any lack in the farmer's table, it is due to
carelessness in providing or preparing the food, and not to forced
economy.
While the farming population in general live well, yet many tables are
lacking in variety, especially in fruit and vegetables. Time and interest
are so taken up with the larger affairs of crops and stock, that the
garden goes by default in many instances. There is no market readily at
hand offering fruit and vegetables for sale as in the city, and hence the

farm table loses in attractiveness to the appetite and in hygienic
excellence. It is probable that the prosperous city workman sits down to
a better table than does the farmer, in spite of the great advantage
possessed by the latter.
The population of rural communities is necessarily scattering. The
nature of farming renders it impossible for people