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been the depression of the social hfe of the rural people, per- 

 haps less marked in Maine than in some other states partly 

 because of the dominant influence of the grange. But that this 

 depression is a fact to be reckoned with in at least portions of 

 New England no student of rural life doubts. The rural church, 

 while feeling the effect of the departure of ecclesiastical author- 

 ity and of a marked change in religious thought, in the decline 

 of its vigor and influence may be taken as an expression of a 

 general change. We cannot deny the fact that a half-century 

 ago, before the days of rapid communication, the isolation of 

 the small but widely distributed centers of rural population was 

 favorable to the maintenance of home enterprises and of such 

 social activities as were adapted to country life. The attention 

 of the people was concentrated upon home institutions into which 

 flowed the industrial and social energies of the surrounding 

 community. Now rural life is more or less drained of its social 

 energy, for both commercially and in matters of human interest 

 its attention is fixed upon those centers of population to which 

 it has come to sustain a more or less suburban relation. We 

 now need a redirected rural life that socially centers upon itself. 

 I am one of those who hold that the degree of success attained 

 in the development and maintenance of an elevated and attrac- 

 tive human environment for the farm home will more fully 

 determine the future of American agriculture than will the 

 spread of vocational knowledge. 



When we come to consider Maine alone, it cannot be said that 

 she has escaped the influences of the changes I have outlined. 

 Nevertheless her present status is most encouraging. First of 

 all, notwithstanding its age, Maine is still an agricultural state, 

 and in this respect compares very favorably even with those 

 great farming states of the middle west which New England 

 helped to settle. In 1900, 63.8 per cent of her population was 

 classified as rural while the figures for other states were, Ohio, 

 55.2 per cent, Illinois 49 per cent, Iowa 79.5 per cent, Michigan 

 62.8 per cent and Wisconsin 65.5 per cent. These figures mean 

 that, like certain great agricultural states, the majority of your 

 population is dependent upon the soil for a livelihood. 



In one most important particular Maine stands pre-eminent 

 among all her sister states. The census of 1900 showed that 

 93.8 per cent of her farms were tilled by their owners, and that 

 the same percentage of farmers owned farms, figures equalled 



