FACTORS IN EUGENICS IN RURAL STATE 187 



many men and women of the highest quality remained. Judging from 

 material evidences such as taxes and the ownership of the comforts and 

 luxuries of life, the average Vermont farmer today is in no wise inferior to 

 his ancestors in the ability to make a living from the soil. A study of those 

 factors and conditions that have held high grade people is as important as a 

 study of the causes of migration. 



No better eugenical program for any section of the country occurs to me 

 than this: The improvement of living conditions, the encouragement of 

 social and intellectual opportunities that will enrich the lives of the people, 

 making them aware of the trends of this modern age, including the trend of 

 Eugenics, and affording a richer environment in which to rear their children. 

 A fine old pioneer stock deserves an environment commensurate with its 

 quality and only in such an environment can the innate qualities of the people 

 come to any worthy fruition. If their home surroundings are poor and life 

 nothing better than a perpetual fight for the merest necessities, their native 

 ambition may be so dampened as to make them indifferent to their future 

 and that of their children. Or, if the ambition is not entirely quelled it can 

 have no suitable outlet in these poor surroundings. No wonder then that 

 many of the young men and women from the poor back hill farms refuse to 

 subject themselves to the hardships, privations and rigors of the ancestral 

 homestead. 



A comparison of the occupations chosen by those who have migrated from 

 the three towns with the occupations of those who remained behind shows 

 very clearly how much wider a range of opportunities are opened up in the 

 larger towns and cities than are afforded in the country. While it takes 

 ability of a very high order to make a success of farming under even the 

 most favorable conditions, a different kind of ability, even though it may 

 rate higher than that of the successful farmer, may be quite inadequate to 

 cope with the agricultural problems. In this day of specialization as for 

 generations past the successful statesman, scientist or industrial leader who 

 was born in a little country village might have made no success at all as a 

 farmer. He has a certain right to those opportunities, wherever he can find 

 them, that will give him a chance to develop his talents and his natural bent. 

 We have, then, come to the conclusion that in rural Vermont migration is a 

 sign not of decadence but of adjustment. The depletion of some of the 

 smaller towns should be regarded as a healthy sign. Abandoned farms and 

 unused overgrown hill roads are not gravestones but signboards pointing to 

 a better adjustment to changing conditions of living. 



This brings me to a word about land utilization. Reforestation, either 

 natural or artificial, is one of the best uses to which the less fertile farms 



