178 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



the usual farmer. To them the problem is labor-saving ma- 

 chinery, efficient management, labor cost, marketing facilities, 

 and competition. They are not especially influenced by the fact 

 that they happen to handle land products rather than manu- 

 factured articles. 



Much has been made of the farmer's hand-to-hand grapple 

 with a capricious and at times frustrating Nature. This em- 

 phasis is deserved, for the farmer is out upon the frontier of 

 human control of natural forces. Even modern science, great 

 as is its service, cannot protect him from the unexpected and the 

 disappointing. Insects and weather sport with his purposes and 

 give his efforts the atmosphere of chance. It is not at all strange, 

 therefore, that the farmer feels drawn to fatalistic interpretations 

 of experience which he carries over to lines of thought other than 

 those connected with his business. 



A second important influence that has helped to make the 

 mind of the farmer has been isolation. In times past, without 

 doubt, this has been powerful in its effect upon the mind of the 

 farmer. It is less so now because, as every one knows, the farmer 

 is protected from isolation by modern inventions. It is necessary 

 to recall, however, that isolation is in relation to one's needs and 

 that we too often neglect the fact that the very relief that has 

 removed from country people the mare apparent isolation of 

 physical distance has often intensified the craving for closer and 

 more frequent contact with persons than the countrj r usually 

 permits. "Whether isolation as a psychic experience has de- 

 creased for many in the country is a matter of doubt. Certainly 

 most minds need the stimulus of human association for both 

 happiness and healthiness, and even yet the minds of farmers 

 disclose the narrowness, suspiciousness, and discontent of place 

 that isolation brings. It makes a difference in social attitude 

 whether the telephone, automobile, and parcel post draw the 

 people nearer together in a common community life or whether 

 they bring the people under the magic of the city's quantitative 

 life and in this way cause rural discontent. 



The isolation from the great business centers which has kept 

 farmers from having a personally wide experience with modern 

 business explains in part the suspicious attitude rural people 

 often take into their commercial relations. This has been ex- 



