144 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



its own bills, managed its own affairs. Notice the use 

 of the pronoun " it " not " they." For this town was a 

 real unit, a sort of social person; it was not a mere col- 

 lection of people, who happened to live near one an- 

 other. Even to-day in the old-fashioned town meeting, 

 the moderator the presiding officer announces 

 that the town votes so and so or the town evidently 

 wishes to do this or to do that. He does not say " the 

 people of the town," rarely " the voters of the town," 

 but " the town." 



The Township as a Community. The western town- 

 ship is an arbitrary affair, purely a matter of a survey, 

 and has no relation whatever to natural groupings of 

 farmers. In many cases the township has a substantial 

 village near the center which if on a railroad forms the 

 market and trade point for the people of the town. 

 This village often becomes the real center of the town- 

 ship and makes it possible to have something approach- 

 ing a community. In many townships there is no such 

 center and the people find that their church life, the 

 schooling of their children, their business interests, go 

 in diverse directions. In such a case the township is 

 not at all a community and it is difficult to make it one. 



The Team Haul. It has been rather wisely sug- 

 gested that the team haul might determine the area of a 

 rural community, for the reason that the teams haul 

 products to whatever center the farmers actually find 

 most convenient; consequently, this center becomes a 

 natural gathering place around which cluster at least 

 the business interests of a group of farmers. The so- 

 cial and educational and recreational interests of a 

 group of farmers, however, often lie out in the country, 

 while their trading interests lie in some neighboring vil- 

 lage or " town." 



