398 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



like ten-pins. The problem is not to knock down one pin and 

 see the others tumble. Rather, country life is a fabric, all 

 elements interwoven, the whole hanging together. It is a long, 

 arduous task to remake the fabric. It is no easy matter to 

 bring social pleasures within the pale of country living, and cause 

 the whole of life thereby to be quickened. But the problem 

 of social institutions, however difficult, must be faced, sooner 

 or later, in order that the more genial side of life may have its 

 rightful chance in country living. 



Larger schools, providing age-groups of children who possess 

 similar experiences, ambitions, and joys will start institutions 

 for recreation. Farmers' clubs, junior clubs, young folks' 

 clubs, are good agencies to give the initial impulse toward 

 permanent forms of recreation. Home-made entertainment 

 will always prevail in the country, and a modicum of organiza- 

 tion of the younger persons will result in social enterprises. 



The present wide-spread impulse to build neighborhood and 

 community houses will, it is hoped, materially accelerate the 

 coming of the lighter and brighter things of country life. It is 

 to be hoped that in our larger towns the Y. M. C. A. and 

 Y. W. C. A. buildings, especially their gymnasiums, may be 

 open for the use of near-by country youth, and that the plan 

 of interchange of hospitality between groups of young people 

 in town and country may be widely adopted. High school 

 pupils and teachers in a town high school have the opportunity 

 of setting the fashion in the larger community of exchanging 

 hospitalities with country schools. Municipal club-houses 

 and theaters have already been successfully managed for town 

 and farm people. Community fairs, too, have taken high rank 

 as rural social institutions. 



The real problem of rural social institutions, after all, is to 

 discover natural population groups, and then find out how to 

 create the mechanism for democratic recreation within a whole 

 group. 



Religious institutions. The modern view of rural progress 

 had some of its first apostles among those interested in the 

 country church. The threatened decadence of church life, 



