THE SOCIAL SIDE OF FARM LIFE 389 



Reorganization. The country life movement is now at the 

 stage of reorganization. Old institutions are being subjected 

 to close inspection with a view to adapting them more perfectly 

 to present conditions. New institutions are being proposed 

 to give a better channel of life to the farming group. Methods 

 of rural organization everywhere occupy the center of attention. 

 Some urban institutions, likewise, are in process of adjustment 

 to newly recognized rural relations. Economic problems of the 

 farm in some cases wait upon the reorganization of the institu- 

 tional life of farm and town. A survey of the problems of 

 organization will disclose to a close observer the profound 

 character of the attempt thoroughly to organize the human side 

 of farm life. 



The farm household. Family life in the farm household at 

 once engages the thought of those who would modernize living 

 conditions in the country. A general opinion obtains that the 

 American farm family is restless, no sooner getting settled 

 upon a piece of land in a community than it opens the doors to 

 floating suggestions of a better farm, a more favorable com- 

 munity, a more congenial climate, elsewhere. Not that out- 

 and-out endeavors to shift from farm to farm are started ; but 

 that the American farm family always views shifting as within 

 easy range of the possible. So owners of farms in America are 

 not viewed as rooted and grounded in any particular community 

 to be transplanted with the same difficulty as a massive oak. 

 Farm tenants, moreover, are proverbially mobile, shifting, cut- 

 ting and trying from farm to farm, and from community to 

 community. 



To this instability of the American farm household has been 

 ascribed the undeveloped character of rural institutions. If 

 all farm families, even the leading ones, are shifting, then per- 

 manence, long-time policy, lavish attention, are impossible in 

 behalf of the institutions and organizations surrounding the 

 household. How to stabilize the farm home, therefore, without 

 rendering it immobile, is a problem of the first class, possibly 

 incapable of solution until tenancy shall have received prolonged 

 cooperative study and shall have been taken up more elaborately 



