272 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



kitchens, dining halls, and all phases of domestic and distributive 

 economic business should be cooperative. 



These plans of and proposals for farm villages possess both 

 interest and value, nevertheless they are confronted by several 

 obstacles and objections. First, the great majority of American 

 farmers have much capital invested in houses, barns, other build- 

 ings, orchards, and other home equipment on their separate allot- 

 ments of land. To make a change to such a completely different 

 system of living as the farm village represents would involve the 

 destruction of much of the capital so invested and the incurring a 

 large removal expense. The economic loss involved in the pro- 

 posal is so heavy that we cannot expect seriously to see it 

 executed. 



Second, to the average farmer it would seem a costly incon- 

 venience to drive daily several miles to carry on his farm work. 

 Where farms are small, as most of them are in Europe and to a 

 less extent in the irrigable sections of the United States, the dis- 

 tances to the outlying land are not great. But the average size 

 of farms in the United States is 138 acres. Were the farm vil- 

 lage large enough to be of any great social advantage it should 

 contain probably 100 families. This being so, in a district com- 

 posed of average sized farms, the more remote farms would be 

 about four or five miles removed from a centrally located village. 

 This would mean a daily drive of eight or ten miles, which is 

 practically prohibitive because of the economic loss involved. 



Third, a small village of the usual type possesses questionable 

 advantages, socially, when compared with open country com- 

 munities. Without the fuller social life, intellectual interests, 

 ideals, and resources of the larger urban aggregations, the petty 

 gossip, jealousies, and bickerings are not conducive to increased 

 satisfaction or a higher existence. The paucity of recreational 

 and amusement facilities, the almost entire absence of those of a 

 wholesome kind, especially for boys from ten to sixteen years of 

 age, engenders idleness and the resorting to vicious gangs and 

 forms of sport which are demoralizing. The average small vil- 

 lage in the United States represents one of the most deadening 

 and disheartening forms of community, and, as a problem, chal- 

 lenges the serious attention of the American nation. 



The suggestion of a cooperative form of farm village is worthy 



