CHAPTER XVII 



THE SURVEY 



THE SURVEY IDEA IN COUNTRY LIFE WORK 



L. H. BAILEY 



THE scientific method is first to determine the exact facts, and 

 then to found the line of action on these facts. That is the way 

 in which all problems must be attacked if real and permanent 

 solutions are to be found. The scientific method in engineering 

 and mechanics and biology and the rest has been responsible for 

 the high development of civilization within the past century. 

 Similar methods must be applied to rural work. We must finally 

 found all our progress in rural life on a close study of the facts 

 and the real elements in the situation, in order that we may 

 know exactly what we are talking about. The prevailing politi- 

 cal methods have been the antithesis of this; they have too often 

 been the methods of opportunism. 



Surveys may be of many kinds and for many purposes. Some 

 of them may be for temporary uses only, in the nature of ex- 

 plorations or to set forth a particular line of ideas. The real 

 rural survey should be an agency of record; and it is this type 

 of effort that I am now discussing. 



We must distinguish sharply between such a survey, made 

 slowly and studiously, and an inspection, a canvass, or a cam- 

 paign. These lighter efforts may be very necessary, but they 

 usually do not constitute an investigation, and they belong to 

 a different order of inquiry. 



The general or gross reconnaisance, to bring together quickly 

 for comparison the outstanding features and conditions of many 

 communities, may have much value ; but it should be undertaken 

 only by persons of experience in detailed survey-work and of 



i Adapted from "York State Rural Problems," Vol. 1:238-261. J. B. 

 Lyon & Co., Albany. 



478 



