A FURTHER STUDY OF THE FARM. 83 



of any farm as a home. The social advantages, the schools 

 and the churches, will be no better and of no higher order 

 than the people who compose the community. We are influ- 

 enced more 6T less by the peoj^le with whom we come in con- 

 tact. The children of a home are influenced for better or 

 worse by their playmates. Then in selecting a home an 

 important consideration should be the character of the people 

 who will be our neighbors. 



The churches and schools are important civilizing and 

 educational agencies. A live church in a community adds to 

 the desirability of that community as a home. It tends to 

 create a better moral atmosphere; it raises the general stand- 

 ard of the people; and, whether we wuU or not, its effect is to 

 increase the value of any district as a location for a home. 

 The importance of the country schoolhouse is general!}^ recog- 

 nized, and its importance is increasing each year as better 

 methods of instruction are adopted and more attention is paid 

 to education. All classes, educated and uneducated, recog- 

 nize in the school an agency the influence of which is second 

 only, if not equal, to that of the church. The desirability 

 of the home is increased then as it is located within easy reach 

 of the schoolhouse, so that the children of the family can 

 receive the benefits of the instruction there imparted. 



It is not only important that the land be fertile on the farm 

 to be purchased, but also that the neighboring farms be fertile. 

 The character, disposition, and temperament of people are very 

 largely influenced by the amount of labor necessary for them 

 to secure a living. If the surrounding land is poor, and of such 

 a nature that it requires the maximum expenditure of labor 

 for a minimum of results, then the opportunity of people who 

 live upon such land for intellectual development is limited, 

 their interest in public improvements is likely to be small, 

 teachers hired for the public school are usually the cheapest 

 that can be procured, and thus, in many ways, is the value 

 of a farm as a home enlianced or diminished according to the 

 .nature of the surrounding lands. 



Distance from the market town is, to a large extent, deter- 

 mined by the quality of the roads. With the advent of good 



