no conveniences to lighten labor or to
awaken pride. The overworked wife and mother has no social life, except
perhaps attendance at the services at the country church to which the
family rides in a springless wagon. Such families see their neighbors
prosper without attempting to discover the secret for themselves. Blank
fatalism possesses them. They do not realize that they could prosper.
New methods of cultivation, they think, are not for them since they have
no capital to purchase machinery.

On the other hand, one sees more Ford cars than teams at many country
churches, and many larger automobiles as well. Some Southern States are
spending millions for better roads, and the farmer or his son or
daughter can easily run into town in the afternoon carrying a little
produce which more than pays for any purchases. Tractors are seen at
work here and there, and agricultural machinery is under the sheds. Many
houses have private water systems and a few farmers have harnessed the
brooks for electric lights. The gas engine which pumps the water runs
the corn sheller or the wood saw. The rural telephone spreads like a web
over the countryside. Into these houses the carrier brings the daily or
semi-weekly paper from the neighboring town, agricultural journals, and
some magazines of national circulation; a piano stands in the parlor;
and perhaps a college pennant or two hang somewhere, for many farm boys
and girls go to college. In spite of the short terms of the public
schools, many manage to get some sort of preparation for college, and in
the South more college students come from farm homes than from town or
city. This encouraging picture is true, no less than the other, and the
number of such progressive farm homes is fortunately growing larger.

A greater range of products is being cultivated throughout the South,
though more cotton and tobacco are being produced than ever before. The
output of corn, wheat, hay, and pork has increased in recent years, though
the section is not yet self-sufficient. The growing of early vegetables and
fruits for Northern markets is a flourishing industry in some sections
where land supposedly almost worthless has been found to be admirably
adapted for this purpose. An increasing acreage in various legumes not
only furnishes forage but enriches the soil. Silos are to be seen here and
there, and there are some excellent herds of dairy cattle, though the
scarcity of reliable labor makes this for