120 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



it should have been well-nigh universal, and yet despite 

 occasional bluffs at it, I know of no serious effort to 

 adopt it elsewhere, unless the midwinter meeting at 

 Shelby, hi one of these two counties, can be considered 

 a spread of the idea. This child of the Hesperia move- 

 ment, in one of the two counties, and only twenty miles 

 away, had this year many more in attendance than have 

 ever been at Hesperia. 



This work of uniting more closely the interests, 

 sympathies, and intelligence of the teachers and 

 patrons of the rural school has had a test in 

 Michigan of sufficient length to prove that it is 

 a practicable scheme. No one questions the de- 

 sirability of the ends it is prepared to compass, 

 and experience in Michigan shows not only that 

 where the educators have sufficient enterprise, 

 tact, enthusiasm, and persistence the necessary 

 organizations can be perfected, but that sub- 

 stantial results follow. For the sake of better 

 rural schools, then, it is sincerely to be hoped 

 that the "Hesperia movement" may find expres- 

 sion in numerous teachers and patrons' associ- 

 ations in at least the great agricultural states. 



