father of the country life movement seems to have been George
Washington. He and Benjamin Franklin were among the founders of the first
farmers' organization in America, the Philadelphia Society for Promoting
Agriculture, established in 1785. There were about a dozen such societies
by 1800, patterned after similar organizations in England. President
Washington had an extensive correspondence with prominent men in England
on this subject and made it the subject of his last message to Congress.
He called attention to the fundamental importance of agriculture,
advocated agricultural fairs, a national agricultural society and
government support for institutions making for rural progress.

Since these early days there have been many organized expressions of rural
ambition, most of them only temporary but contributing more or less to the
movement for the betterment of country life. There were over 900
agricultural societies in 1858 and these had increased to 1,350 by 1868 in
spite of the setback of the civil war. Most of these were county
organizations whose chief activity was an annual fair. Agricultural
conventions were occasionally held, sometimes national in scope, which
discussed frankly the great questions vital to farmers; and more permanent
organizations soon developed which had a great influence in bringing the
farmers of the country into cooperation with each other industrially and
politically. Foremost among these were the Grange (1867), the Farmers'
Alliance (1875), the Farmers' Union (1885), Farmers' Mutual Benefit
Organization (1883), and the Patrons of Industry (1887). The Farmers'
National Congress has met annually since 1880, and has exerted great
influence upon legislation during this period, in the interest of the
rural communities.

_Its Modern Sponsors: The Agricultural Colleges_

Important as these efforts at organized cooperation among farmers have
been, nothing has equalled the influence of the agricultural colleges,
which are now found in every state and are generously supported by the
states in addition to revenue from the "land-grant funds" which all the
colleges possess. These great institutions have done noble service in
providing the intelligent leadership not only in farm interests but also
in all the affairs of country life. At first planned to teach agriculture
almost exclusively, many of them are now giving most thorough courses in
liberal culture interpreted in terms of country life. The