PREFACE 



The rapid introduction during the past ten years of courses in 

 rural sociology in universities, colleges, normal schools and other 

 institutions engaged in the preparation of young men and women 

 for the rural field has prepared the way for a book of readings 

 in this subject that may be used as a text for an introductory 

 course. 



Much of the material included in this book has been used with 

 college classes in this institution and with classes of teachers 

 in normal schools and in university summer courses. In the 

 selection of the material it has seemed best to draw upon the 

 writings of men and women whose long experience or professional 

 standing entitles them to speak with some degree of authority. 



I have assumed that an introductory course in rural sociology 

 should endeavor: first, to develop a broad, sympathetic under- 

 standing of the real needs and actual conditions of farm and com- 

 munity life in the United States ; second, to lead students to ap- 

 preciate the relationship between life and labor, wealth and wel- 

 fare on the farm, since farming is not only an occupation but also 

 a mode of life ; third, to show as concretely as possible the unity 

 of interest of rural and urban groups based on the fact that the 

 farm supplies the city not only with food but also with a large 

 proportion of its population, thus making necessary a sound 

 rural life as the condition for the development of a permanent 

 industrial democracy; fourth, to interest students in taking an 

 active part in the work of those agencies that make for better 

 conditions on American farms and in American rural communi- 

 tion; fifth, to endeavor to prevent students from making that 

 most common of all errors the undervaluation of the farmer's 

 own judgment of what is best for himself. 



Grateful acknowledgment is here made to the authors and 

 publishers for their generous contributions and unfailing cour- 

 tesy. Their names appear from page to page. My thanks are 



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