132 LESSOXS IX AGRICULTURE 



ucts a just share of what the consumer pays, there are 

 brighter days ahead, and with better legislation, closer 

 organization, and more education for the farmer, the 

 country boys and girls are going to have as good a 

 chance to enjoy the best things of life as their city 

 cousins have. 



Conveniences in the country. Country life conven- 

 iences are already coming, and from the kitchen to the 

 church the work and life of the country is becoming 

 more interesting and attractive. There is no reason 

 why the country home can not have its hot and cold 

 water supply with sanitary plumbing. It would cost 

 no more than a good team of horses or an automobile. 

 Progressive farmers are lighting their homes with elec- 

 tricity or gasolene. They are equipping their kitchens 

 as well as their barns and fields with conveniences to 

 save labor. Into every community there has come the 

 rural free mail delivery and the telephone, and we can 

 safely prophesy that the parcels post, the postal savings 

 bank, the interurban car service, good public roads, con- 

 solidated schools, and live country churches are soon 

 to enrich and enlarge the life in the open country. 



Great forces for rural progress. Many strong in- 

 stitutions, and men of mind and money are devoting 

 themselves to the interests of country life. State de- 

 partments of education are providing supervisors of 

 rural schools and encouraging the teaching of agricul- 

 ture and domestic science in these schools. Agricultural 

 colleges are sending extension schools, farmers' insti- 

 tutes, and instruction trains into every corner of their 



