342 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



the results of scientific study and experiment. He is the man 

 who will profit most, therefore, and who will in the end be able 

 to buy out his. ignorant neighbor and send him off to town to 

 work under a boss. Such an improvement in our rural pop- 

 ulation augurs well for the future of the republic. 



An agreeable social life. Quite as important as the question of 

 an adequate income is that of an agreeable social life as a means 

 of attracting a superior type of men and women to the farms. 

 Few people realize how much more dependent the farmer is than 

 any one else upon his social surroundings. A business man in the 

 city can choose his neighbors without changing his place of busi- 

 ness, for the reason that his residence and his place of business 

 are entirely disconnected. If he does not like one neighborhood 

 as a place of residence and a place in which to bring up his 

 family, he can move to another without disturbing his business 

 relations. The farmer must live on his farm and must bring up 

 his children there. Whatever the social surroundings of the 

 neighborhood are, he must accept them or else sell out and 

 move, thus upsetting all his business relations and hazarding 

 his business prosperity on the chance of improving his social 

 relations. Again, the man in the city is usually within easy reach 

 of a great variety of schools, churches, and other social agencies. 

 If one does not suit him, he can make use of another without 

 great inconvenience. In the country, where all such things are 

 farther apart, it would ordinarily be a great inconvenience to 

 send his children to any other school than the one belonging 

 to his own district, or to take his family to another church than 

 one of those of the neighborhood. Again, even though the city 

 man does not choose his place of residence wisely, he is not 

 dependent upon his neighbors for his social life. Where the 

 neighborhood idea does not prevail, as it usually does not in the 

 city, one may ignore his own neighbors and still have an agree- 

 able social life among the members of his class, trade, occupation, 





