6 BULLETIN 984, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
recognition of the natural character of migration and an open han- 
dling of the whole question, in all likelihood, will make plain the 
special circumstances and emergencies under which overmigration 
takes place and the very fact of publicity may tend to correct the evil. 
THE FARM THE MAETNG PLACE OF CITIZENS. 
A farm is a territorial unit of considerable stability. It keeps its 
line fences and boundaries with something of the same persistency 
that school districts, townships, counties, and cities keep their bound- 
ary lines. The land of the farm is not simply a solid surface to step 
on, to drive over; nor is the soil of the farm merely a laboratory for 
the play of chemical, physical, and biological forces, capable of being 
transformed into living plants and animals — wonderful as this may 
be — but it is the breeding ground of human beings, the making place 
of citizens. It furnishes the physical and psychical setting for the in- 
terpretation of the world of experience to these human beings. The 
farm quite obviouslv has a place of a manifold character in national 
life. 
THE DANGER ARISING FROM MIGRATION IS LN DESTRUCTION OF ORIGINS. 
The danger of migration is similar to the danger attending the up- 
keep of a fine herd. By excessive sale the original herd or flock may 
be depleted in number and in quality to such a point that it can not 
maintain its own vigorous character. When the selling of young 
stock endangers the original herd, it is known that ignorance exists 
as to the ordinary conditions of herd maintenance. So it is with the 
country family and community. If the farm family, and the com- 
munity of families, are persistent and virile, migration is not an evil, 
but a part of a healthy normal process. 
THE SELECTION OF A FARM COMMUNITY FOR STUDY. 
The community which is the present subject of study was selected 
principally for the reason that it possessed in its academy (high-school 
grade) an institution having records relating to the families of the 
community nmning back nearly 100 years. It would be very diffi- 
cult, if not practically impossible, to study migration in a community 
over a considerable period without such records. 
Furthermore, the selection was made because the community shows 
few. if any, signs of depletion through migration. Community life is 
still strong. Family strains on the farms run far back and are still 
potent. Migration, such as there has been and wide as it is, seems 
to have been fairly normal. 
The land is good limestone land, but not exceptional, either for New 
York State or for the United States. 
That the community selected is representative enough in point of 
and, type of agriculture, and composition of population, fairly to set 
