THE FARM AS A HOME 109 



The conditions of family life on the farm 

 make for stability. In the city the unmarried 

 man or woman is under no disadvantage in a 

 business sense because unmarried. But on the 

 farm the household works together and the unit 

 in the business is neither the man nor the 

 woman, but the whole family. The farmer must 

 have a wife, and the woman cannot live alone. 

 This community of interest, this need for each 

 other, is the surest bond to hold the family to- 

 gether. It makes for earlier marriage and it 

 makes for more care in the selection of part- 

 ners. In the city, the man may wish simply a 

 pretty face at the other end of the table, or a 

 showy partner to exhibit at the opera or the 

 exclusive ball, but in the country the man must 

 have a worthy mate. The mother of his chil- 

 dren must be of the best available type. 



"No pure form of social or domestic life, no 

 high type of morality, has ever been developed 

 among any people except where it was organ- 

 ized around some kind of productive work. The 

 ideal of production for a common family pur- 

 pose ... of building a family and perpetuat- 



