EUGENICS AND THE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY.* 



OTTO C. GLASER. 



I am not an agriculturist, much less an investigator in this field. How- 

 ever, I have a full share of the layman's interest and sympathy, for it 

 requires no further demonstration to convince me that the stability of 

 the nation depends directly and indirectly on the agricultural community. 



Not only is this community the source of our food, it is also in a large 

 measure, the source of our men. As has been truly said, "The country 

 produces men, the city consumes them." Hence the eugenic problem. 



The type of man who goes to the city is apt to be ambitious, enter- 

 prising and alert. Yet the improvements in agricultural communities, the 

 increase of possibilities in country life now demand more than ever the 

 very characteristics which liitherto have found their natural market in 

 the city. The time seems past when agriculture can make use of the 

 less alert, the less ambitious, and the drain which has taken place and 

 which is still continuing, though with some abatement, is full of danger. 

 It leads ultimately to the concentration in agricultural communities of 

 the unprogressive traits. Conditions similar to those on islands have 

 already come about in numerous places and have resulted in too much 

 intermarriage among a small group of families. In fact there are towns 

 where nearly everyone is related to everyone else and one hears only 

 two or three family names. 



From the eugenic standpoint, such towns are as truly islands as though 

 surrounded by water. The barrier in these cases, however, is a group of 

 restrictions social and economic in nature and differential in effect. 

 Modern arts are breaking these down, but unfortunately the returning 

 tide of men is not yet sufficiently strong to offset the harm that has 

 been done. 



For this reason it seems desirable to the student of heredity to foster 

 the eugenic ideal within the agricultural community. By their very 

 contacts with nature such communities are easily capable of understand- 

 ing the principles involved. The value of good stock is to them no 

 novelty. The methods by which its value can be retained or even 

 enhanced are in constant practice. Tliere are good grounds then for 

 exjiectuig success here in the propagation of eugenical measures. 



19th Midi. Af.ifl. Sci. Kept., iui7. 

 ' Al)strnct. 



