THE PROBLEMS OF PROGRESS 19 



attempts to raise new crops or to utilize untried 

 machines. 



Other effects of rural isolation are seen in a 

 class provincialism that is hard to eradicate, 

 and in the development of minds less alert to 

 seize business advantages and less far-sighted 

 than are developed by the intense industrial 

 life of the town. There is time to brood over 

 wrongs, real and imaginary. Personal preju- 

 dices often grow to be rank and coarse-fibered. 

 Neighborhood feuds are not uncommon and are 

 often virulent. Leadership is made difficult 

 and sometimes impossible. It is easy to fall into 

 personal habits that may mark off the farmer 

 from other classes of similar intelligence, and 

 that bar him from his rightful social place. 



It would, however, be distinctly unfair to the 

 farm community if we did not emphasize some 

 of the ad^ntages that grow out of the rural 

 mode of life. Farmers have time to think, and 

 the typical American farmer is a man who has 

 thought much and often deeply. A spirit of 

 sturdy independence is generated, and freedom 

 of will and of action is encouraged. Family / 

 life is nowhere so educative as in the country. I 

 The whole family co-operates for common ends, 

 and in its individual members are bred the 



