PROBLEMS OF RURAL SOCIAL LIFE 341 



which may have accrued, the ridiculously pious care with which 

 even the most remote rights of distant relatives are guarded by 

 the courts, make the process of transferring a piece of land a 

 formidable task. 



Where, however, rural depopulation results in the sheer 

 abandonment of the land and allowing it to go to waste, the 

 problem is somewhat different. Even though the land is so poor 

 as to attract only a poor grade of farmers, it may be better to 

 have it occupied by a low-grade population than not to have it 

 occupied at all, though even that is open to question. It is a mis- 

 take to assume that all unoccupied land is going to waste. In 

 New England it speedily grows up to timber, and in some cases 

 that is the most productive use to which land can be put. The 

 essential thing to remember is that a dense agricultural popula- 

 tion, if that density means a small income per family, invariably 

 means, under modern conditions, a low-grade population, because 

 men and women of spirit and capacity will not stay. They will 

 leave the country districts in the possession of people who can do 

 no better anywhere else, and who are therefore content to remain 

 and accept a low standard of living. But a relatively sparse pop- 

 ulation, if it means a large income per family, will generally mean 

 a high-grade population, because such conditions will help to at- 

 tract and hold men and women of spirit and capacity. If we once 

 understand this, we shall not be alarmed over a decline in the 

 rural population until we know the reasons and the results. 



Still more important as a means of securing adequate incomes 

 for intelligent farmers is the existence and accessibility of exact 

 scientific knowledge to those who have the capacity to acquire 

 and apply it. Our agricultural colleges, the experiment stations, 

 and the agricultural literature which they are publishing and 

 distributing, all combine to give to the farmer of intelligence 

 a higher differential advantage over the ignoramus. Only the 

 man of intelligence is capable of understanding and applying 







