THE SOCIAL SIDE OF FARM LIFE 397 



control of education in the county school system, then perma- 

 nence of organization will give chance for a democratic develop- 

 ment of the principles and methods of farming. 



Even though it is difficult for the farmer to have a primary 

 interest in the educational side of farm bureau work, only a 

 slight shift of emphasis need be made among the objectives of 

 the farm bureau to put the educational and social features into 

 a position of favor. For example, the farmer will always have 

 to sell his product. His interest in marketing, therefore, is per- 

 manent and continuous. Suppose the farm bureau commission 

 of the county, elected or appointed, make selling of the county 

 farm products a primary objective; creating the necessary 

 voluntary shipping associations ; relating the products of every 

 community to these associations; then every farmer in the 

 county would become interested in the farm bureau. It would 

 be an easy step, then, from selling to the formulas of agricultural 

 production. Standardization of quality and the methods of 

 high yields would then be logically related to the farmer's 

 prime interest. Social projects, clubs, roads, fairs, fetes, would 

 follow these other interests. It remains for some organizing 

 genius to work out first the business mechanism of the farm 

 bureau idea so as to relate it to the electorate of a county; 

 secondly, to make marketing a primary object; and thirdly, 

 to correlate government extension service, both educational 

 and social, with each community. 



Social institutions. The bright things of life which produce 

 the happier moods, the pleasant emotions of contrast, variety, 

 and the like, have often been mentioned as lacking in country 

 living. The tail of work is always attached to the farm kite of 

 play. Writers have become accustomed to load the odium of 

 many other defects upon this outstanding trait in rural char- 

 acter. " Bring about recreation, amusement, the wide and 

 frequent contact of personalities in country life, and," it is 

 said, " farm life will be rehabilitated." 



We have by this time found out that country life, and labor, 

 are by no means without their own manner of complexities; 

 and that these complexities are by no means set in sequence 



