268 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



According to this table, four of the divisions have thirty-four 

 or more persons or practically seven or more families per square 

 mile, the Middle Atlantic having fifty-six persons and almost 

 thirteen families per such area. Where there are eight families 

 to the square mile they might be so located in that space that the 

 homes need be only about one-fourth of a mile apart. What 

 really occurs is that the homes are placed along adjacent lines 

 of travel and lie comparatively near each other. In the case of 

 three divisions, containing over three-tenths of the total rural 

 population of the nation, there are from three to four families 

 to the square mile, requiring a separation of homes of perhaps 

 one-half mile or more. The Mountain and Pacific divisions con- 

 tain about one-twelfth of the rural population and in these divi- 

 sions the families must be on the average from a mile to over two 

 miles removed from one another. 



In the typical rural community are to be found church and 

 school generally, although there are many neighborhoods without 

 churches. Farmers' clubs are developing rapidly but are not yet 

 sufficiently numerous and universal to be considered typical of 

 farm communities. But perhaps Grange, Society of Equity, the 

 Union, or some such organization might well be included. This 

 list which is liberal practically exhausts the list of institutions 

 which rural neighborhoods commonly possess and enjoy. In the 

 town-country communities (villages with the closely associated 

 surrounding agricultural region) no doubt should also be in- 

 cluded the lodge. The typical city community supports school, 

 church, saloon (save in prohibition territory), lodge, play houses, 

 dance halls, movies, pool halls, and kindred places. Besides these 

 the shops, stores, factories, and streets bring individuals into fre- 

 quent contact. Certainly institutional facilities for social inter- 

 change in the typical urban neighborhood are far more abundant 

 than in the typical farm community. 



Relative to their quality for purposes of social interchange the 

 institutions of the city communities are likely to be superior. 

 The average rural church is an anachronistic, semi-decadent 

 affair. It typically comprises a one-room building where all 

 activities must be accommodated. It practices what aptly has 

 been called "ministerial vivisection," the distribution of a 

 minister's services between two or more churches, with the prob- 



