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 cooeperation 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 i