creased the expenditure of money per child enrolled by 100% 

 they have increased the school year from seven months to 

 eight; they have increased the annual compulsory period for 

 each child by 100% ; they have added agriculture to the school 

 course as prescribed by law ; they have increased the number 

 of county training schools from three to twenty-seven, and in- 

 creased the course of training 100% in point of time. High 

 schools have awakened and are vying with the county train- 

 ing schools, as are also the state /normals, in the training of 

 country teachers. 



"School board members by thousands in the aggregate 

 have come out every year for the past eight years to school 

 board conventions, and their interest constantly increases. 

 There are more calls for good teachers, more evening programs 

 in which adults take part, more demand for work in the school 

 relating to life on the farm than ever before." 



Other Rural Social Problems 



The Drift to the Cities. Causes: The causes for the 

 drift of the rural population to the cities may be classified un- 

 der two heads: economic and social. 



The economic causes are: (l)The uncertainty of return 

 for land labor and capital invested. Farmers feel, and rightly, 

 that there is more risk in farming than in other lines of work ; 

 (2) The increased use of machinery which has lessened the de- 

 mand for farm labor. (3) The long hours of labor and the ir- 

 regularity of these hours, a fruitful cause of economic discon- 

 tent. (4) The amount of capital needed now to carry on pro- 

 perly the business of farming. (5) The sudden acquisition of 

 large fortunes by city men, bringing unrest to younger men 

 on the farms. 



The chief social influences which have been at work are: 

 (1) The isolation of life on the farm. By this is meant not on- 

 ly the fact that houses are far apart, the physical fact, but al- 

 so the feeling of being cut off from the life of the world, the 

 mental fact. This isolation has apparently given rise to a spir- 

 it of conservatism, a tendency to follow along the old paths 

 rather than to strike out new ones on the part of country peo- 



37 



