Missouri Country Life Conference. 243 



to good seed, good farm implements, good live stock and the 

 betterment of home life on the farm." An offspring of the 

 north side agricultural class has been organized at Goss, Mo. 

 Mr. C. H. Davis was the leader in the latter movement. 



Mr. C. M. Robinson, who was for ten years with the Bar- 

 num & Bailey Circus and who now lives several miles west of 

 Paris near Welch, has organized a club in his community. This 

 club meets every Friday night at his home. Every year he holds 

 a country fair and sees to it himself that the prizes are provided. 

 I am told that aside from Mr. Robinson and his son there is not 

 another member of this club that ever saw the University. I 

 say this because I believe that the solution of a better country 

 life will in general be worked out by country people themselves 

 in co-operation with the people of our towns and cities. 



Over in Lewis county the Reverend Roy Piper has per- 

 fected a farmers' organization at his church at Ben Bow. These 

 are some of the things that they have accomplished and some of 

 the things that they hope to do in the future. Through Mr. 

 Piper's leadership a new lighting system has been put in the 

 church. New furniture has been installed and a concrete walk 

 put in, the money being collected from voluntary subscriptions. 

 Last fall at this church the people of the community held a 

 country life institute. Representatives of the Missouri State 

 Board of Agriculture, extension men of the Presbyterian Church, 

 the farm adviser of Marion county and local people appeared on 

 the program. They expect to make the church the center of all 

 good things, fostering community pride, conserving local tra- 

 ditions and rendering the greatest possible service toward the 

 realization of a better country life. 



It was my pleasure last spring to accompany Rev. Clair S. 

 Adams, Rev. Horeman, Rev. Alonzo Pearson, all of the Presby- 

 terian Church, and Mr. A. W. Orr, representing the Missouri 

 State Board of Agriculture, to four churches in Pike county, 

 Missouri. These churches were under the pastorship of Rev. 

 Pearson. We held a series of agricultural meetings at each of 

 these churches. As to the result of these meetings I wish to 

 quote Rev. Pearson. In a letter to me recently he says: "I 

 wish to say to you what I have said both publicly and privately 

 wherever I have had an opportunity. The meetings held in 

 the country churches in which you and Mr. Orr took such an 

 active part in presenting matters that every farmer is or should 

 be interested in were very beneficial in many ways. First, they 



