150 THE LUKE OF THE LAND 



The church and the school-house are also becoming 

 places of social enjoyment. In one or two places clubs 

 have been formed and houses erected where the farmers 

 can gather as they do in a city club, and these are 

 equipped with a library, a gymnasium, billiard-tables, 

 and a swimming-pool. One of the curses of country 

 life is muddy and impassable roads. Good roads are 

 now being built throughout the country, and these will 

 do much toward making country life attractive, because 

 they mean ease of access and more intimate association, 

 as well as economic advantages. 



The electric trolley is carrying the city into the coun- 

 try, and making it possible for those who have business 

 in the city to live in the country and have a little farm 

 or. garden of their own. The wise managers of great 

 factories are now going into the country and building 

 their factories in the midst of estates. One of the 

 largest factories in Massachusetts has grown up where 

 every employee has an acre or more of land on which 

 vegetables and other foods are grown. They have an 

 agricultural fair every year which rivals the county 

 fair in the wealth of its exhibits, all of which are grown 

 by the employees. This is indeed bringing the city 

 into the country. Another Massachusetts corporation 

 with many thousand employees makes the following 

 statement in its recent circular: 



Instead of setting the factory in the midst of a thickly pop- 

 ulated community, the Company chose a spot near the seashore, 

 in a beautiful rolling country, where in a tract of three hun- 

 dred acres there would be ample opportunity for the devel^p- 

 ment of advanced ideas. Among other things the officials felt 

 that as far as possible the employees should own their homes 

 and from the beginning they have stood ready to facilitate 

 this object so far as they were able without going into the real 

 estate business, or making heads of families feel that the re- 



