the fact that the
community is relatively permanent, and the appreciation that only
through community effort may rural people realize their natural desire
to enjoy some of the advantages of cities, force the conviction that the
community must be the primary unit for the organization of rural
progress. It is from this point of view that we shall discuss the
community aspects of the various human interests of the farmer and the
consequent relations of "The Farmer and His Community."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Galpin, C. J., "The Social Anatomy of an Agricultural Community."
Research Bulletin 54, Agricultural Experiment Station of the University
of Wisconsin, May, 1915; and also in his "Rural Life," Century Co., New
York, 1920.

[2] The following four pages are revised from the author's bulletin,
"Locating the Rural Community," Cornell Reading Course for the Farm,
Lesson 158.

[3] See Reports of the Town and Country Department, Committee on Social
and Religious Surveys, 111 Fifth Ave., New York, or Geo. H. Doran, New
York.

[4] "Rural Life Problem in the United States," p. 129. Italics mine.

CHAPTER II

THE FARM HOME AND THE COMMUNITY

The American farmer thinks first of his own home; only recently has he
commenced to appreciate that his and other homes form a community. In
the "age of homespun" the pioneer subdued his new lands and built his
home; the farm and the home were his and for them he lived. He bought
but little and had but little to sell. Farms were largely
self-supporting. Neighbors helped each other in numerous ways and as the
country became more thickly settled neighborhood life grew apace. But
there was little sense of relation to the larger community. Roads were
bad and people were too widely scattered to come together except on
special occasions. The family was the fundamental social unit and social
life revolved around the family, or in the immediate neighborhood.

But "times have changed." The farm is no longer largely self-supporting.
It is now but a primary unit in a world-wide economic system, conducted
with money as the basis of exchange and dominated by the interests of
capital. Farm products are sold for cash and their value is determined
by distant or world markets with which the farmer has no personal
contact and of which he often has but little knowledge. Most of the
goods consumed on the farm must be purchased. The marketing of his
products and the purchasing of goods have given the