Miscellaneous. 5 



I. Effective co-operation among farm- 

 ers to put them on a level with the 

 organized interests with which they do 

 business. 



II. A new kind of schools in the 

 country ivhich shall teach the children 

 as much outdoors as indoors and per- 

 haps more, so that they will py epare for 

 country life and not, as at present, 

 mainly for life in town. 



III. Better tueans of communication, 

 including good roads and a parcels post. 



In addition to these he suggests a 

 fourth, viz :— 



Better sanitation, Inasmuch as many 

 easily preventable diseases hold millions 

 of country people in the slavery of con- 

 tinuous ill-health. 



In conclusion, President Roosevelt 

 warns our countrymen that the great 

 recent progress in city life is not a full 

 measure of our civilization, for our civili- 

 zation rests at bottom on the whole- 

 someness, the attractiveness, and the 

 completeness, as well as the prosperity 

 of life in the country. The men and 

 women in the farm stand for what is 

 fundamentally best and- most needed 

 in our American life, 



Some time ago President Roosevelt 

 appointed Prof. L. H. Bailey, Director of 

 the Agricultural College and Experi- 

 ment Station for Cornell University, 

 Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Chief of the United 

 States Forestry Service, Washington 

 D.C., Mr. Walter H. Page, Editor of 

 "Country Life in America," President 

 Kenyon L, Butterfield, of the Massa- 

 chusetts Agricultural College, and Mr. 

 Henry Wallace, editor of the " Wallace 

 Farmer," in Iowa, ciS £t Commission to 

 investigate the conditions of life on the 

 farms of the country, and to make recom- 

 mendations as to the best ways and 

 means by which farm life can be made 

 more remunerative and attractive. 



The Commissoners held thirty public 

 hearings among the people from forty 

 different States and Territories, and 

 have 120,000 answers to printed ques- 

 tions- The members of the Commission 

 have received nothing for their work on 

 the Commission, and their service is an 

 expression of public spirit which is a 

 credit, and, perhaps, one of the best 

 resources any nation could have. 



President Roosevelt's Message. 



On February 9, last, President Roose- 

 velt submitted the report of the Commis- 

 sion to Congress. The President's mes- 

 sage commenting on tlie work of the 

 Commission is as follows i— 



[December, 1909. 



I transmit herewith the report of the 

 Commission on Country Life. At the out- 

 set I desire to point out that not a dollar 

 of the public money has been paid to 

 any Commissioner for his work on the 

 Commission. 



The report shows the general condi- 

 tion of farming life in the open country, 

 and points out its larger problems. It 

 indicates ways in which the Government, 

 National aud State, may show the 

 people how to solve some of these prob- 

 lems, and it suggests continuance of the 

 work which the Commission began. 



Methods op the Commission. 

 Judging by thirty public hearings, to 

 which farmers and farmers' wives from 

 forty States and Territories came, 

 and from 120,000 answers to printed 

 questions sent out by the Department 

 of Agriculture, the Commission finds 

 that the general level of country life is 

 high compared with any preceding time 

 or with any other land, If it has in 

 recent years slipped down in some 

 places, it has risen in more places. Its 

 progress has been general if not uni- 

 form. 



Yet farming does not yield either the 

 profit or the satisfaction that it ought 

 to yield aud may be made to yield. 

 There is discontent in the country and 

 in places discouragement. Fanners as 

 a class do not magnify their calling, and 

 the movement to the towns though, I 

 am happy to say, less than formerly, is 

 still strong. 



How Farmers can help Themselves. 



Under our system it is helpful to pro- 

 mote discussion of ways in which the 

 people can help themselves. There are 

 three main directions in which the 

 farmers can help themselves, namely; 

 I, Better farming ; II, better business ; 

 III, better living on the farms. 



The National Department of Agricul- 

 ture, which has rendered services equall- 

 ed by no other similar department in any 

 other time or place ; the State Depart- 

 ments of Agriculture, the State Colleges 

 of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, 

 especially through their extension work; 

 the State Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tions, the Farmers' Union, the Grange, 

 the Agricultural Press and other similar 

 agencies have all combined to place with- 

 in the reach of the American farmer an 

 amount and quality of agricultural 

 information which, if applied, would en- 

 able him over large areas to double the 

 production of the farm, 



The Object. — The object of the Commis- 

 sion on Country Life, therefore, is not 

 to help the farmer raise better crops, but 



