EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXX. March, 1914. No. 4. 



The remarkable and world-wide increase" of general interest in 

 rural life within recent years has led to some very suggestive efforts 

 on the part of educators and others to demonstrate ways and means 

 by which it can be made more attractive. Many of the more pre- 

 tentious of these attempts have been carried out in Europe in con- 

 nection with various expositions, but some of them, although designed 

 with special reference to European conditions, contain much that is 

 of significance and interest elsewhere. 



Particularly may this be said of the so-called " Village Moderne," 

 which constituted an unusual feature of the International Exposition 

 at Ghent, Belgium, in 1913, and was so successful that it deserves, to 

 be called to the attention of all who are interested in these questions. 

 This village was a practical representation of what was regarded as 

 a model rural community. It was designed to bring before the gen- 

 eral public, in a comprehensive way, the organization of country life 

 and its possibilities, and to serve as an object lesson of how the farm 

 and village could be made more convenient, more sanitary, and more 

 attractive. 



The original conception of the " Village Moderne " is attributed 

 to M. Paul de Vuyst, Director General of the Belgian Ministry of 

 Agriculture and Public Works, and one of the presidents of the gen- 

 eral committee to whom the planning and execution of the project 

 was entrusted by tlie exposition officials. It was in a sense an out- 

 growth of some of the agricultural exhibits at earlier European ex- 

 positions. Thus, in 1905, a group of Belgian agriculturists, acting 

 under the initiative of M. de Vuyst, organized a cooperative society 

 and constructed a set of model farm buildings at the Liege Exposi- 

 tion, in which emphasis was placed on such features as sanitation, the 

 lessening of the danger from fires, modern conveniences, and proper 

 lighting and ventilation, as well as on economy in construction. Five 

 years later the idea was further developed along somewhat different 

 lines at the Versailles Exposition, where a large building was con- 

 structed dealing especially with the interests of the farmer's wife, 

 and grounds were laid out as vegetable and flower gardens, lawns, etc. 



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