486 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



time disclose the spots and lines of feeble association. An intel- 

 ligent social planning for the community can be based on the 

 social facts thus discovered. 



HOW TO TAKE THE SOCIAL SURVEY 



Determine the Community Boundary. The first step in mak- 

 ing the survey is to locate your rural community and draw the 

 boundary lines. Begin at the village center and go west into 

 the open country. The first farm home goes to this village for 

 trade, doctor, high school, church, etc. It therefore belongs to 

 this community. So the second home west, the third, fourth, 

 etc. Finally you come to a home that turns the other way to 

 another village for its principal needs. This home does not be- 

 long to your community. Connect with a line all the most dis- 

 tant homes in each direction, that you find turning to the activ- 

 ities in your village center. This line will be the boundary of 

 your community. 



Take a Home Census. The next step is the taking of a cen- 

 sus of every farm home and village home within the boundary 

 line. Use the "Rural Home Census" blanks furnished by the 

 College of Agriculture of the University of Wisconsin. Every 

 home should be visited for this purpose by some careful person. 

 The information will be gladly given by some one in the home. 

 Every fact asked for is practically a matter of public knowledge 

 and a source of some pride. Include every child in the home 

 and every hired man and hired woman and any other person 

 permanently residing in the home. The value of the census will 

 depend upon getting every home, getting the facts accurately, 

 and putting these facts plainly and carefully in their right 

 places on the census sheet. 



Take an Organization Census. The third step is a census 

 of every organization in the community. Use the census sheet 

 furnished by the College of Agriculture of the University of 

 Wisconsin, one sheet for each organization. Include every dis- 

 trict school, every other school, every church, Sunday school, 

 every society in the church which holds separate meetings, such 

 as Brotherhoods, Young People's Societies, Ladies' Aid Socie- 

 ties, Mission Societies; include every fraternal order, lodge, 

 club or association of any sort, such as a band, singing club, 



