Necessarily there will be found some
lack of uniformity in style and in method of presentation, and
occasional duplication of argument or statement.

For permission to use articles, in whole or in part, I have to thank the
editors of the _Chautauquan_, _Arena_, _Forum_, _Review of Reviews_,
_Popular Science Monthly_, _Michigan Alumnus_, _New England Farmer_,
_Cornell Countryman_; also Professor L. R. Taft, superintendent of
Farmers' Institutes in Michigan, and the officers of the American Civic
Association. Two chapters comprise material heretofore unpublished.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Study of Rural Life 3

II. The Problems of Progress 11

THE OUTLOOK

III. The Expansion of Farm Life 45

IV. The New Farmer 53

V. Culture from the Corn-Lot 66

AGENCIES OF PROGRESS

VI. Education for the Farmer 77

VII. Farmers' Institutes 92

VIII. The Hesperia Movement 104

IX. The Rural School and the Community 121

X. The Grange 136

XI. Opportunities for Farm Women 162

XII. The Country Church and Progress 170

XIII. A Summary of Recent Progress 183

FORWARD STEPS

XIV. The Social Side of the Farm Question 199

XV. The Needs of New England Agriculture 204

XVI. An Untilled Field in American Education 216

XVII. Federation for Rural Progress 233

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

THE STUDY OF RURAL LIFE

The American farm problem, particularly its sociological aspect, has not
as yet had the attention that it deserves from students. Much less have
the questions that concern rural social advancement found the popular
mind; in truth, the general city public has not been deeply interested
in the farmer.

But there seem to be recent indications that the sentiment is changing.
The heated discussions in New England about Mr. Hartt's interesting
clinic over a decadent hill-town, the suggestive fast-day proclamation
of Governor Rollins of New Hampshire a few years ago, the marvelous
development of agricultural education, the renewed study of the rural
school, the widespread and growing delight in c