368 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



sport in this country should be of a character which does not 

 lend itself readily to extreme specialization ; otherwise it will 

 tend to drift into the hands of specialists, who do the playing 

 while the public looks on. This produces a spectacle rather 

 than a sport. It is also important that there should be consid- 

 erable variety in the forms of sport, in order that as many as 

 possible should be able to participate. Of particular importance, 

 however, is the requirement that these sports should fit into the 

 seasonal character of rural work. City work is so uniform that the 

 time for recreation can be evenly distributed throughout the year. 

 Short hours with regular weekly, biweekly, or monthly half holi- 

 days give the city worker ample time for wholesome recreation. 

 But since in every farming country there are rush seasons, when 

 short hours and half holidays would mean a loss of crops, it is 

 obvious that recreation time cannot be so evenly diffused. To 

 make up for this, it is desirable that during the seasons when 

 work is slack there should be regular periods of recreation, and 

 games which need not be crowded into a single afternoon. 



This suggests the need also of regular annual festival occa- 

 sions, suited to each section of the country and its type of agricul- 

 ture, when there can be a general relaxation from the strenuous 

 toil of the rush seasons. In anticipation of such a period of 

 jollity, the grinding fatigue of the busy season is borne with 

 more patience, particularly by the young people, and the work 

 is done more vigorously because more cheerfully. Again, there 

 is the possibility of uniting social pleasure with rural work to a 

 somewhat greater degree than is now done. If the spirit which 

 showed itself among our ancestors in the barn raisings, logroll- 

 ings, and similar occasions could be restored, it is possible that 

 the present generation could get a great deal of social pleasure 

 out of the threshing season and other occasions of a similar 

 character. This would seem to be the natural time for the har- 

 vest home celebration, which has been so important an event in 



