92 FARM DEVELOPMENT 



desirable that the neighbors with whom one must asso- 

 ciate, exchange views and confidences, and with whom 

 the children of the family must associate in school, in 

 church, and in social functions, should be somewhat sim- 

 ilar in tastes and habits and withal honorable and agree- 

 able. Many a farmer has become backward and even 

 morose because of a lack of social life. 



Children in rural homes learn how to do with things 

 better than they learn how to think about things. They 

 need to go to school and be taught to think about things 

 around them, but, quite as important, they need to learn 

 how to think about people and to do with people. Rural 

 youths can nearly as well afford to fail to learn books as 

 to be deprived of contact with their playfellows at school 

 and with the people they meet at church or at other 

 gatherings, as in the farm home or in the village. Prox- 

 imity to good schools and churches, and nearness to town 

 centers, are all of large value in making up a decision as 

 to where to select a farm. 



Care in judging the value of soils. In inspecting the 

 soil itself, it is easy to determine whether a soil is clayey, 

 sandy, gravelly; or, if a mixed soil, whether it is the 

 happy medium, or golden mean, made up of nearly equal 

 parts of sand and clay. The texture of the surface soil 

 when wet, and also when dry, should be observed. The 

 heaviness or ease of tillage operations should be taken 

 into consideration. Other factors to be taken into ac- 

 count are whether the land is level or hilly, whether 

 there are many stones to be removed ; and often the 

 number, size and kind of stumps, must be considered. 



The butter dealer will inspect every jar of butter with 

 his butter trier, or, at least, a sample of every lot, but the 

 farmer too often looks only at the surface soil. With the 

 aid of a common spade or with a post-hole digger, the 

 subsoil to the depth of three or more feet may easily be ob- 

 served ; and since one can in this way make the best anal- 



