h it adopted to govern
its action mark a forward step of real importance. (See page 235.)

The chief burden of making the church maps has rested upon the Commission
on Church and Country Life. Its paid executive and office force have done
the main part of the work, but valuable assistance has been rendered by
the Ohio Rural Life Association. Much of the work was done in its name.

Incidentally, the cooperative work of these bodies has by no means been
confined to the making of surveys. Country Life Institutes have been held,
and an educational propaganda in the interest of the rural church has been
continuously carried on, with the result that in Ohio more than in any
other State has the country church gained ground in its command of public
interest. As a subject for addresses and discussion the country church has
a place in a large number of farmers' institutes, and in nearly all Sunday
school conventions, while during Farmers' Week at the State Agricultural
College, conferences on no other subject have attracted more people or
provoked more animated discussion.

Inasmuch as the collecting of the data extended over a period of more than
three years, the maps do not all represent the exact situation at the same
moment. While they were being made some of the churches were being
redistributed in different circuits, and membership rolls were increasing
or decreasing. Since the map for their county was completed some churches
have federated, or their members have all united in a denominational
union church. But while the maps do not constitute a snap shot of the
entire State, the changes which have taken place are too few in any way to
invalidate the conclusions drawn. The total situation is indicated with
sufficient correctness.

These maps should supply the indispensable basis for the readjustment that
is obviously required. We hope that the publishing of them will not only
register a stage of progress in the State of Ohio, but that in other
States also similar work will be undertaken, and that the forward movement
in rural church life will be strengthened and accelerated throughout the
nation.

CHAPTER III

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Ohio contains in its area of 41,060 square miles, some 1,388 townships. If
we exclude the townships in which the population is urban, those in which
there are villages of more than 2,500 inhabitants (the number set by the
United States Census as separating the country from the town),