686 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 540. 



this is perhaps the most apparent remedy. 

 Cooperation in distribution has made a be- 

 ginning, but cooperation in production is 

 still almost unknown. Are Kropotkin's 

 ideals attainable ? 



The problem of the supply of capital in 

 agriculture has never been solved in this 

 country other than in the most expensive 

 way. Capital must return to the land. 

 Two factors enter into the problem: (1) 

 to demonstrate that capital can be made 

 remunerative in farmed land, (2) to insure 

 that land will not bear an unjust burden 

 of taxation. 



Closely associated with the economic side 

 is the sociological phase. In the days when 

 all were interested in agriculture, both 

 school and church flovirished, but in these 

 later days both have lost their molding in- 

 fluence in the country, though the former 

 shows signs of renewed activity vital to the 

 community. 



The specific economic and social ques- 

 tions that even now press for study are so 

 numerous that they can not be catalogued 

 in an address of this character. Is there 

 still an active exodus from the country? 

 If so, is the movement caused by purely 

 economic conditions, or is it in part the at- 

 tractiveness of the city? In other words, 

 does the education of the farmer fit him for 

 the appreciation of the esthetical and philo- 

 sophical value of his environment? In 

 what relations do the labor-saving devices 

 stand to the rural exodus? Can it in any 

 way be due to super-population of the rural 

 communities? Are the rewards of labor 

 greater in the city than in the country? 

 Is the arrested development of country 

 church and school in any way responsible ? 



."What are the tendencies as to size of 

 farms? Is the American, starting with 

 small individual ownership, tending to- 

 wards consolidation into larger units? Is 

 the European, starting with large land- 

 lorded ownership, tending towards small 



individual units? Are the small farms 

 decreasing in number? In what way does 

 the development of the railroads and elec- 

 tric roads affect the size of farm proper- 

 ties? In what way do the labor-saving 

 devices influence the size of farms ? Could 

 cooperation of farmers remedy any tend- 

 ency towards large farms? Or, are larger 

 farm units to be desired? 



What can cooperation do for the farmer f 

 Must it be economic, social, political, or to 

 increase production? What are the moral 

 and psychological effects of cooperation? 

 What relation can cooperation have to the 

 isolation of the farmer? To his hygienic 

 conditions? Is it possible by means of co- 

 operation to save small individual owner- 

 ship of farms? 



Is it true that the country promotes 

 health better than the city ? What are the 

 diseases of the country ? Are there mental 

 diseases of isolation? Are most of the 

 farmer's diseases due to his work, environ- 

 ment or poor intellectual preparation to 

 meet the requirements of his condition? 

 What could the state do for the farmer 

 from a hygienic standpoint? AVhat are 

 the relations of farm water supplies to the 

 prevalence of typhoid fever, and other dis- 

 eases ? 



How is isolation to be overcome? By a 

 hamlet system? Or by a distributive sys- 

 tem of communication— as by better roads, 

 trolley lines, auto-vehicles, rural mail de- 

 livery, telephones, traveling libraries, coop- 

 erative reading courses? Is the social life 

 of the small village as vital and wholesome 

 as that of the separated farm home? 



These are only the merest suggestions of 

 a very few apparent present problems. 

 They are not to be solved by any a priori 

 reasoning, nor by using the stock statistics 

 and opinions of economists and sociologists. 

 The field must be newly studied. New 

 data must be collected. New means of 

 attack must be developed. With much 



