ss is constantly increasing. The established
telephone companies are pushing their work into the country districts,
small local exchanges are being formed, and soon the farmers, in the
North at least, will be almost as well served by the telephone as are
people of the smaller cities.

Interurban electric railways are being built very rapidly and their
advantage to the farmer is obvious. It is doubtful if their effect has
been quite so far-reaching as some have suggested. At present they very
largely parallel existing steam railways, and while they give better
freight and passenger service and assist materially in diminishing rural
isolation in the areas which they traverse, their influence does not
extend very far from the line itself, and they reach relatively small
areas of the country. However, their value to the farmer is very large,
and, as they increase in number and in efficiency of service, they will
become a powerful factor in rural progress.

The good-roads movement is beginning to take on large proportions. It
is, however, a complicated question. To make first-class roads is a
costly business, and while a few such roads are of great value in a
general social way, they do not quite make general country conditions
ideal. To accomplish this, every road in the country should be a good
road the year through, and this is an ideal very difficult of
realization. However, in general, the roads are improving and as rapidly
as the wealth of the country will permit the road system of the United
States will be developed. Of course, good roads are a prime requisite
for rural betterment.

In general, it may be said that during the past decade the improvement
of means of communication in rural districts has gone forward at a
marvelously rapid pace. Nor is it exaggerating to say that the movements
named are re-creating farm life.

During this same period, there has been an almost equally wonderful
advance in the means of agricultural education. Just twenty years ago
the experiment-station system of this country was established. It took
ten years for the stations to organize their work and to gain the
confidence of the farmers. At present however, they are looked upon with
great favor by the farming class and are doing a magnificent work. Their
function is that of research chiefly, although they attempt some control
service, such as inspection of fertilizers, stock foods, etc. In
research they aim both to study the more in