6 BULLETIN 984, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



recognition of the natural character of migration and an open han- 

 dling of the whole question, in all likelihood, will make plain the 

 special circumstances and emergencies under which overmigration 

 takes place and the very fact of publicity may tend to correct the evil. 



THE FARM THE MAKING PLACE OF CITIZENS. 



A farm is a territorial unit of considerable stability. It keeps its 

 line fences and boundaries with something of the same persistency 

 that school districts, townships, counties, and cities keep their bound- 

 ary lines. The land of the farm is not simply a solid surface to step 

 on, to drive over; nor is the soil of the farm merely a laboratory for 

 the play of chemical, physical, and biological forces, capable of being 

 transformed into living plants and animals — wonderful as this may 

 be — but it is the breeding ground of human beings, the making place 

 of citizens. It furnishes the physical and psychical setting for the in- 

 terpretation of the world of experience to these human beings. The 

 farm quite obviously has a place of a manifold character in national 

 life. 



THE DANGER ARISING FROM MIGRATION IS IN DESTRUCTION OF ORIGINS. 



The danger of migration is similar to the danger attending the up- 

 keep of a fine herd. By excessive sale the original herd or flock may 

 be depleted in number and in quality to such a point that it can not 

 maintain its own vigorous character. When the selling of young 

 stock endangers the original herd, it is known that ignorance exists 

 as to the ordinary conditions of herd maintenance. So it is with the 

 country family and community. If the farm family, and the com- 

 munity of families, are persistent and virile, migration is not an evil, 

 but a part of a healthy normal process. 



THE SELECTION OF A FARM COMMUNITY FOR STUDY. 



The community which is the present subject of study was selected 

 principally for the reason that it possessed in its academy (high-school 

 grade) an institution having records relating to the families of the 

 community running back nearly 100 years. It would be very diffi- 

 cult, if not practically impossible, to study migration in a community 

 over a considerable period without such records. 



Furthermore, the selection was made because the community shows 

 few, if any, signs of depletion through migration. Community life is 

 still strong. Family strains on the farms run far back and are still 

 potent. Migration, such as there has been and wide as it is, seems 

 to have been fairly normal. 



The land is good limestone land, but not exceptional, either for New 

 York State or for the United States. 



That the community selected is representative enough in point of 

 and, type of agriculture, and composition of population, fairly to set 



