VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 77 



TOWN CITIZENSHIP AND ITS RELATION TO RURAL 



IMPROVEMENT. 



By John Gould, Aurora Station, O. 



The proper presentation of this subject necessitates the 

 consideration of it from many sides, but if we take up one 

 phase of the question and discuss it from the standpoint 

 alone of the farmer's obligations to his town we shall have 

 best performed our task, so I shall simply confine my remarks 

 to the ground of the farmer's obligations, and what he may 

 do to benefit the town and, in doing- this, benefit not only 

 himself but his family as well. Perhaps a better way to put 

 it would be, what can the farmer do to first build himself up, 

 raise himself in the scale of improvement, and, as an out- 

 growth of this self betterment, assist in the work of town 

 improvement? 



The farmer owes the same to society and the realm, nor 

 are his obligations less than that of any other man or class. 

 He is a member of society ; he is a citizen and a creator of 

 public sentiment the same as any other man, and his sense of 

 law, order, decency and all around morality should be no 

 greater and no less than that of the community in general 

 about him. In the country towns the farmer outnumbers all 

 other classes ; many dwellers in our towns and villages, in- 

 deed, might well be classed as farmers, for they are directly 

 associated, for weal or woe, with the farm and the farmer. I 

 assume, therefore, that what I may say, well or ill, has an 

 interest to every dweller in the rural portions of the state ; 

 any improvement in the farming element of a township has 

 its almost direct influence upon every person in that town- 

 ship; so what the farmer may decide upon as an improvement 

 for himself should be accepted by the others as an improve- 

 ment in which they are to share and, as sharers, they should 

 give it their support and influence, and should in turn contrib- 

 ute suggestions for the good of the community. 



In the short space allotted to me it is possible to take up 

 a few only of the primary principles that underlie our farm- 

 ing republic; I cannot attempt to trace its history and devel- 

 opment, but must begin with the problem as we find it today, 

 and by confessing that we are far short of perfection. The 

 discussion of farm and rural improvement everywhere proves 

 this, and the asking everywhere of the question, ' k What can 

 farmers do to have better society in home and township ? " is 



