52 BULLETIN 984, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE 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 1" 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 
