The Challenge of the Country Part 29

Wells, G. F., "The Rural Church," pp. 131-9 in March, 1912, "Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science."

Wells, G. F., "The Country Church and Social Service," in Nov. 1910 issue of "The Gospel of the Kingdom."

Roads, Charles, "Rural Christendom."

Ashenhurst, J. O., "The Day of the Country Church."

Beard, A. F., "The Story of John Frederick Oberlin."

Tipple, E. S., "Some Famous Country Parishes."

Roberts, A. E. and Israel, Henry, "The Rural Work of the Y. M. C. A.," pp.

140-8 in March, 1912, "Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science."

VIII. COUNTRY LIFE LEADERs.h.i.+P

_The Challenge to College Men and Women_

b.u.t.terfield, K. L., "The Call of the Country Parish," chapter 5 in "The Country Church and the Rural Problem."

Foght, H. W., "The Rural School Teacher," pp. 69-115 in "The American Rural School."

Educational Review, October issue 1910, on "Ways in Which the Higher Inst.i.tutions May Serve Rural Communities."

Roberts, A. E., "Leaders.h.i.+p," pp. 133-143 in "The Country Church and Rural Welfare."

Bailey, L. H., "Woman's Contribution to the Country Life Movement," pp.

85-96 in "The Country Life Movement."

b.u.t.terfield, K. L., "Opportunities for Farm Women," chapter 11 in "Chapters in Rural Progress."

Woolley, M. E., "The College Woman as a Home Maker," article in "The Ladies' Home Journal," Oct. 1, 1910.

Bailey, b.u.t.terfield, et al., "Report of the Country Life Commission."

Israel, Henry, "The Basis of Appeal for County Work," in "Rural Manhood"

for January, 1912.

Fiske, G. W., "Religious Teaching in the Country," in "Rural Manhood" for March, 1911.

Pontius, J. W., "College Men and Rural Evangelism," in "Rural Manhood" for February, 1912.

Footnotes:

[1] This loss however was in the early half of the decade, as the state census shows.

[2] For the year ending March 31, 1910, 103,798 immigrants from the United States settled in western Canada, while only 59,790 came from Great Britain and Ireland. The wealth of the immigrants settling in western Canada during the five years previous to that date was estimated as follows. British, cash, $37,546,000; effects, $18,773,000. From United States, cash, $157,260,000; effects, $110,982,000.--_The Toronto Globe_, July 27, 1912.

[3] "The Country Town," p. 76.

[4] Principles of Sociology, Giddings, p. 348.

[5] "The Church in the Open Country," p. 9.

[6] _The Survey_, March 2, 1912. "The Nams; the Feeble-minded as Country Dwellers." Charles B. Davenport. Ph.D.

[7]

New England Towns Losing Population 1890 1910 Total towns (in 1910) Maine 348 291 523 New Hamps.h.i.+re 152 163 224 Vermont 187 156 229 Ma.s.sachusetts 154 123 321 Rhode Island 12 8 32 Connecticut 79 48 152 --- --- ---- 932 789 1481

[8] The writer wishes to make it quite clear that he is thinking, in this discussion, merely of the boys and girls who _ought_ to stay on the farm.

Unquestionably many of them must and should go to the city. This book pleads merely for a _fair share_ of the farm boys and girls to stay in the country,--those best fitted to maintain country life and rural inst.i.tutions. Country life must be made so attractive and so worth-while that it will be to the advantage of more of the finest young people to invest their lives there. Every effort should be made to prevent a boy's going from the farm to the city, provided he is likely to make only a meager success in the city or possibly a failure.

[9] Yet in a cla.s.s of 115 college men at the Lake Geneva Student conference in June, 1912, a surprising number stated that they had suffered a similar experience as boys at home, though usually at times when the farm work was particularly pressing. One claimed that he had driven a riding cultivator by moonlight at 2 A. M.

[10] Quoted by M. Jules Meline (Premier of France) in "The Return to the Land."

[11] "The Rural Life Problem of the United States," p. 47.

[12] By Edwin Osgood Grover, the son of a country minister.

[13] Some allowance should be made for the possibility of students enrolling from a small city who actually live on a suburban farm.

[14] "The Country Town," p. 185.

[15] "Rural Christendom." Roads. p. 84.

[16] H. W. Quaintance. in Cyc. of Am. Agric. IV; p. 109.

[17] Publication of the Amer. Econ. a.s.sn. V; pp. 817-821.

[18] The financial results of these improvements in farm machinery will not at all surprise us. It follows as a matter of course that machinery has greatly reduced the cost of production. A leading agricultural engineer at Was.h.i.+ngton is authority for this comparison. In 1830 a bushel of wheat represented over three hours of labor; while in 1896 only ten minutes; making a saving in the labor cost of producing wheat equal to the difference between 17 3-4 and 33 1-2 cents. In 1850 it required 4 1-2 hours labor to produce a bushel of corn; while in 1894 it was reduced to 41 minutes. Likewise the labor represented in a ton of baled hay has been reduced from 35 1-2 hours in 1860 to 11 1-2 in 1894; reducing the labor cost of a ton of hay from $3 to $1.29.

It has been estimated that the use of agricultural machinery saved in human labor in this country alone, in the year 1899, the vast sum of about seven hundred million dollars, with doubtless a great increase the past decade. No wonder American farmers are spending a hundred million dollars a year for their implements, and for this very reason have outstripped the farmers of the world, not only in the vast amount of production, but also in the increased comforts and satisfactions of farm life.

[19] George Manikowske, Mooreton, N. D.

[20] See Genesis 3:17-19.

[21] Report of the U. S. Sec. of Agric. for 1910. p. 11.

[22] "Brains that Make Billions." W. M. Hays, in _Sat.u.r.day Evening Post_, Aug. 29, 1908.

[23] However, let us not jump to the conclusion that general farming to-day is highly profitable. Inflation of farm values in many sections has resulted in serious over-capitalization. The general farmers making big dividends bought their farms some years ago, or inherited them.