394 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



It is legitimate to use domestic animals and crops for the 

 primary purpose of improving and advertising the agriculture 

 of a region ; but we must not use children in this way. Animals 

 and crops are agricultural products; children are not agricul- 

 tural products. 



If these positions are granted, we shall agree that this con- 

 test work between children must be put more and more into the 

 hands of those who are trained in education and who carry the 

 responsibility before the public for educational effort. I think 

 that this kind of work should be a part of the public school sys- 

 tem. On their own account, schools must take up this and 

 similar work if they are to secure the best results for themselves 

 and to cover their own fields. The organizing or laboratory work 

 at home under the direction of the teacher is one of the most 

 important means of tying the schools and the homes together 

 and making the school a real part and parcel of the community. 



When this time shall come, the work with crops and domestic 

 animals and home practices will be a regular part of the school 

 day, incorporated inseverably with the program of education. 

 We must hope for the time when there shall be no necessity for 

 the separate organization of such clubs, the school having reached 

 and stimulated the situation on every farm and in every home. 

 It is sometimes said that the agricultural agents organize the con- 

 test work better than the teachers. Perhaps; but the work is 

 essentially school work, nevertheless, and we should now be look- 

 ing for results in the long future. 



Supervisors and superintendents of schools and teachers will 

 need the demonstration-practice and the subject-matter that the 

 agricultural agent can give them ; they will increasingly call on 

 this agent ; and herein will be another effective means of tying all 

 rural work together on a basis of cooperation and coaction. 



THE RURAL BOOK HUNGER l 



M. S DUDGEON 



PROBABLY no enterprise for rural betterment has borne more 

 fruit than the traveling library system, and certainly few have 



i Adapted from Rural Manhood, Vol. 6:303-307, April, 1915. County 

 Work Dept., International Com. Y. M. C. A., N. Y. 



