only 3,253, or 54 per cent, of the churches, but
they have 1,693, or 82 per cent, of the ministers; while the open country,
with 2,807, or 46 per cent, of the churches, has only 360, or 18 per cent,
of the resident ministers. More than 87 per cent of the open country
churches, or 2,447 of them, are without a resident minister.

In addition to the ministers here included, there are about 350 who do not
live near any one of their churches, but for the most part in the cities
and towns. This number includes many student preachers.

On Map 26, page 117, the distribution of the villages is represented
graphically.

[Illustration: MAP 26 VILLAGES AND CITIES]

TABLE V

RESIDENT MINISTERS IN STRICTLY RURAL TOWNSHIPS, IN THE OPEN COUNTRY, AND
IN VILLAGES

Key:
1 _Villages of 51-2500 persons_
2 _Per cent_
3 _Villages of 51-200 persons_
4 _Per cent_
5 _Villages of 201-500 persons_
6 _Per cent_
7 _Villages of 501-2500 persons_
8 _Per cent_
9 _Villages of 201-2500 persons_
10 _Per cent_
11 _Open country_
12 _Per cent_

1 2 3 4 5 6
No. of villages 1,476.5 100 673 46 487 33
No. of villages
with ministers 901 61 233.5 35 360 74
No. of ministers 1,693 (31) 270 16 527 31
No. of villages
without ministers 575.5 39 439.5 65 127 26
No. of churches 3,253 54 984 16 1,062 18

7 8 9 10 11 12
No. of villages 316.5 21 803.5 54
No. of villages
with ministers 307.5 97 667.5 83
No. of ministers 896 53 1,423 (69) 360 8
No. of villages
without ministers 9 3 136 9
No. of churches 1,207 20 2,269 37 2,807 46

It has not been possible to collect full data as to the length of the
rural minister's service. But the Conference Records give these data for
the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal churches. The terms of service of
these ministers are not more brief than those in most of the other
denominations.

In the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ohio there were, at the time of the
Annual Conference in the autumn of 1917, 664 pastors of country churches
(see Table VI); 490, or 74 per cent of them, were about to begin their
first or second year's service i