itutions, the church, the grange, and the recently
organized Farm Bureaus, are all organizations which have an interest for
the whole family or for most of its members. With an increasing sense of
social needs and responsibilities on the part of rural people, new
organizations will be formed and various community activities must be
undertaken, but if country people will remain true to their traditions
and, with clear view of changing conditions, will seek to organize their
community life as an association of farm and village _families_, they
will create the most satisfying and enduring type of society. The
community buildings now becoming so popular in rural communities are a
good example of a family institution organized to furnish better
recreation and social facilities for the whole family.

Inasmuch as the home is its primary social institution, the rural
community must give its first consideration to its relations to the home
and how the home life may be strengthened, if the rural family is to
withstand the influence of the disintegrating home life of the city. For
the farm home is in a process of readjustment to modern conditions and
the recognition of ideals and objectives of home-life by the community
will be a powerful factor in their maintenance.

The mother has ever occupied the central position in the home. Under
modern conditions, as a result of her education and broader knowledge of
life, through her more frequent contacts with town and city and through
her wider reading, many a farm mother is coming to feel that her
position is an anomalous one. In some cases she may be able to solve her
own problems, but only a general change in public opinion concerning
their position will bring a more acceptable status to farm women as a
class.

Some of the farm woman's problems arise from the increasing division of
labor between her husband and herself and from the marketing of the farm
products; these are the problems of her economic status. The peasant
woman of medieval Europe or the wife of the American pioneer never
worried that she did not receive a monthly allowance or a certain share
of the farm income. She worked with her husband and family in raising
the farm products and she shared in their consumption, for but
relatively little was sold off the place. To-day, the wife of the farm
owner does little work on the farm; its products are sold and much of
the food and practically all of the clothing is purchased