THE TRAINING OF FARMERS 



although, of course, the whole rural con- 

 dition rests on the agricultural condition. 

 All citizenship must rest ultimately on oc- 

 cupation, for all good citizens must be 

 I workers of one kind or another, and there 

 must be no parasitic class. The question 

 directly concerns all persons who live in 

 rural communities, whatever their occupa- 

 tion, and it concerns them in all their rela- 

 tions, in relations to church, school, co- 

 operation, organization, to politics and all 

 public improvement, and in the general 

 outlook on life and the attitude toward all 

 matters that affect the general welfare. 



It is not a problem merely of the thinly 

 settled farming regions, but of the entire 

 country outside distinctly urban influences, 

 comprising hamlets, villages, and even 

 small cities that sit in an agricultural 

 region and are controlled by agricultural 

 sentiment. To designate this extra-urban 

 realm I have used, for several years, the 

 term "the open country," and this has 

 now become current in this semi-technical 

 or special signification. 



Considered as a whole, the people 

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