CORRECTIONAL AGRICULTURE 299 



holds a large proportion of our native citizens, rather than on 

 the degenerate "hill people" who are comparatively few in num- 

 bers. But such families were not avoided when they came within 

 the range of our study, and several instances will be found 

 described. 



A step was also taken in the other direction into villages 

 where there is a background of agricultural prosperity in the 

 surrounding farming district, and into villages feeling the stimu- 

 lus of industrial development and either growing into towns or 

 showing the social effects that come from contact with such towns. 

 Sometimes being in the neighborhood of the large town empha- 

 sizes the "deadness" of the little town. The young people get 

 away more easily to cheap amusements the moving pictures, the 

 cheap theaters, the garish saloons, the evening promenade along 

 the brightly lighted town thoroughfare and find their own vil- 

 lage the duller by contrast. And they are more rapidly drained 

 away permanently by the industrial opportunities nearer at hand. 



Industrial activity may strike the village itself. Small fac- 

 tories start up, and a factory population is established. Foreign- 

 e^rs begin to come in, and the original social homogeneity of the 

 American country village is lost. It is interesting to note, how- 

 ever, that foreigners appear to have been little involved in the 

 delinquency found. 



Still another type is the country village which has felt the 

 stimulus of industry by becoming the summer or suburban resi- 

 dence of people who have achieved prosperity in the industrial 

 centers. Here a very distinct social stratification is set up, in 

 which "the natives" is a term in common use almost as patroniz- 

 ing as "the foreigners," used in the cities. Such activity better 

 schools, better churches, organized play for the building up of 

 the social ideal. The danger here is that the improvements may 

 not really take root in the community on which they are super- 

 imposed. 



Next to take into account is the economic background. In gen- 

 eral, in the communities studied it is that of the farm and of 

 agriculture. The usual complaint in the average country district 

 is that "farming does not pay." This means that the old- 

 fashioned farms and farming of our early years are being dis- 

 placed by the opening of more fertile districts, the introduction 



