166 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



it, such as crops, implements, and live stock. But they who coax 

 their living out of other men must of necessity become expert 

 in the knowledge of men and the things which please them, such 

 as fair speech, manners and dress. It is as much a part of their 

 business to become expert in these things as it is of the farmer 

 to become expert in his work of subjugating nature and directing 

 its forces. The dominant element in a city is always one which 

 makes its living by talking (or writing and picture making, 

 which amount to the same thing). This is the element which 

 makes the sentiment of the city, coins its slang and determines its 

 tastes. 



Since such element has so little in common with those whose 

 work consists in manipulating things rather than men, who are 

 therefore less adroit in the amenities of social life, and less expert 

 in the complexities of drawing room etiquette, it finds itself 

 unable to appreciate them. That is the reason why urban people 

 have always found occasion to reproach rural people with their 

 lack of urbanity. 



But to the discriminating mind there are abundant grounds for 

 an appreciation of those who make their living by tilling the 

 soil. In consequence of the antiquity and universality of the 

 agricultural industry there has developed a body of rural lore 

 and rural technique the like of which is found nowhere else. Our 

 attention is sometimes attracted by the peculiar wisdom of the 

 sailor people; but that of the farmer people is vastly greater 

 though less peculiar and therefore considered less interesting. 

 But because so much of it is learned outside of the schools by the 

 actual process of doing rural work father and son working 

 together generation after generation it does not commonly go 

 under the name of learning. The marvelous technique of rural 

 work is acquired in such a commonplace way that we usually re- 

 gard it as a matter of course and do not realize that it is a real 

 technique. But there are probably no tools or implements 

 known to any craft or profession which are more perfect in their 

 adaptation, with more fine points known only to the initiated, 

 upon which excellence in form and structure depends, than some 

 of the common implements of modern husbandry. The common 

 plow is an example. The shaping of the mold board in such 

 a way to give the maximum efficiency with the minimum of re- 



