mes with substantial barns. The farmer was developing into a citizen
with the solid virtues, the virile independence, the strong political
opinions, religious interest, and social instincts which characterised
the English yeoman of the preceding century. The social life which these
communities built up, as soon as their economic position was assured,
was a reflection of the best English traditions--it centred round the
churches and the Sunday-school. There was a growing distribution of
literature as well as organisation for intellectual, educational and
social purposes. Mr. Ross notes the winter excursions to Florida and
California, the adornment of the homes, and many other evidences of a
social progress developing a character of its own. During this period
there was a migration from the country homes to the cities; but it was
only the natural outflow of the surplus members of the rural families
into the professional and business life of the growing centres of
commerce and industry.

In the period through which we are now passing a transformation is
taking place. The rural exodus is no longer that of individuals, but of
whole families. The farms thus vacated are let to tenants, generally on
a three years' lease, at a competition rent. The Country Life Commission
says that this tendency to move to the cities "is not peculiar to any
region. In difficult farming regions, and where the competition with
other farming sections is most severe, the young people may go to town
to better their condition. In the best regions the older people retire
to town because it is socially more attractive, and they see a prospect
of living in comparative ease and comfort on the rental of their lands.
Nearly everywhere there is a townward movement for the purpose of
securing school advantages for the children. All this tends to sterilize
the open country and to lower its social status." The Commission points
out that the new addition of what is likely to be a stationary element,
whose economic interests lie elsewhere, to the citizenship of the town,
may create there a new social problem, while the tenant in the country
will not have that interest in building up rural society which might be
expected in the owners of land. Mr. Ross's studies lead him very
definitely to the same conclusion. Churches and educational
institutions, he tells us, are being starved, and rural society is fast
reverting to the type which was prevalent from thirty to fif