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



CONCLUSIONS. 



SAFEGUARDING THE FARM HOME FROM OVERMIGRATION. 



Migration from the farms of the Belleville community has been 

 steady for the past hundred years. Yet during this time the strong 

 families have persisted on the farms and in the community. Com- 

 munity life itself has been positive, virile, and progressive. No signs 

 of community disintegration or folk depletion have appeared. The 

 question at once arises : "What is the secret of the healthy community 

 and family life in this particular community V The further question 

 comes up whether the reason for a healthy state of migration in the 

 Belleville community will apply to other communities also. 



WHEN THE FINER GOODS OF LIFE COME FROM THE WORLD RIGHT UP TO THE 

 GATEWAY OF THE FARM COMMUNITY. 



One can not fail to note in the analysis of the Belleville community 

 life that the gateway of the community has always stood open and 

 let the goods of life in from the Nation and the world. 



Without question, moreover, the farmers' academy has been and 

 still is the gateway to the community from the world of thought. 

 When the father and mother on the farm come to the point of 

 deciding the matter of education, higher than the common school, 

 for their children, the academy in their own community is and always 

 has been present to satisfy this desire. Parents did not need to 

 stimulate the migratory process by sending their sons and daughters 

 away from home and vicinity for a period of years during adoles- 

 cence in order to give them the cultural ideals of American life. 



The academy also became, as it continues to be, an intellectual, 

 esthetic, and social center for the adults on the farms, satisfying the 

 desire for contact with the higher things of the mind. The teaching 

 faculty of the academy, furthermore, brought into the community, 

 for the stimulation of the adults as well as of the youth, the intel- 

 lectual ideals of the time from the college and university centers of 

 America. The American platform lecturers of the day went to the 

 Belleville farm community just as they were accustomed to go to 

 the cities and towns. The courses of music and fine arts in the 

 academy, maintained from the very beginning of the school, satisfied 

 one of the strong desires of farm mothers and fathers on behalf of 

 their daughters. 



The reason which the best farmers have always given for leaving 

 the farm after obtaining a fair competence is that they wish the 

 family to have the benefits of education and refinement. The people 

 of the Belleville community have never been obliged to leave their 

 community for these things. The world has brought its goods to 

 their door. It appears to be a fair principle to apply to all farm 



