THE SURVEY 491 



the one the other must be taken into account? May there 

 not be an important social anatomy here, which needs care- 

 ful tracing as a factor in any rural social reform? Have we 

 assumed hitherto that the interrelations of farm and village 

 or small agricultural city are all on the surface and easily 

 read? Would it not be well, before imposing a redirected 

 civilization upon the country man, to examine more minutely 

 the larger movements of his ordinary life? 



A recent investigation and study of the rural population in a 

 single county of the Middle West, Walworth County, Wiscon- 

 sin, a study covering a period of two years, was prompted by 

 the desire to answer satisfactorily the foregoing, series of in- 

 sistent questions. 



THE METHOD 



. Large Working Maps of the County. A recent atlas of Wal- 

 worth County was taken to pieces, the township maps on a 

 scale of two inches to the mile were assembled in order, thumb- 

 tacked on a large board, and reproduced on tracing cloth. From 

 this, blue prints were made on cloth, freely used and cut into 

 field maps as required for surveys. The county is twenty-four 

 miles square. 



Assistants Resident in Each Village. A visit was made to 

 each of the twelve villages and cities of the county, and an 

 assistant selected to aid in taking the survey. Teachers, high- 

 school principals, clergymen, bankers, and librarians finally 

 composed the staff of helpers. 



Getting a Land Basis Map. Each village or city was to be 

 the center of information and the problem in general was 

 how far out among the farm homes the village served any 

 social purpose. From the point of view of the village, the 

 problem was one of getting at the land area of village influence ; 

 from the point of view of the countryman, it was learning what 

 farms were connected with the same village. 



A visit by the survey-maker to the leading dry goods mer- 

 chant with a print of the county map spread before him, 

 got an answer to this question: "Which are the farm homes, 

 north, south, east, and west, 1h;it come farthest to trade in 

 your village?" The result would be a tentative rough trade 



