expense. As soon as farmers become aware of what the
feeble-minded are costing the community, how they endanger its moral and
physical health, and that when unrestricted they continue to reproduce
incapables and thus perpetuate the burden, they will demand that some
practicable and reasonable measures be taken for their control. The
difficulty is that at present in most states there is no method whereby
the feeble-minded can be committed to state institutions or be otherwise
segregated unless they are paupers or unless they go voluntarily, nor is
there any means of preventing their marriage and reproduction. Dairy
farmers have learned that it pays to weed out the "boarder" cows from
their herds and that if they breed from a scrub sire they will have
scrub stock; but if the boarder cow was also inclined to become vicious
and to corrupt the habits of the rest of the herd and the farmer knew
this trait to be hereditary, he would invariably send such a cow to the
butcher. I believe that as soon as farmers appreciate the biological
significance of feeble-mindedness they will insist upon reasonable
legislation for its control.

_Delinquency._--The third class of abnormal citizens are the
delinquents, both adult and juvenile. Almost every rural community has a
certain number of adults and children who, although not definitely
criminal, are constantly committing various misdemeanors, are vicious,
or incorrigible, and there are occasional rural communities and
neighborhoods which are as true slums as are found in the cities.[72]
Drunkenness was formerly the greatest cause of delinquency, and the
tavern and saloon were responsible for the prohibition movement whose
staunchest supporters were rural people. The bootlegger and the illicit
still continue the illegal traffic in liquor, but where prohibition has
been in force for some time liquor has ceased to be an important factor
in delinquency.

We have but few definite studies of delinquency in rural communities
upon which to base any generalizations. One of the best of these is a
study of the juvenile delinquents in 21 average rural communities in New
York state, made under the auspices of the U. S. Children's Bureau in
1917.[73] In these 21 communities 185 delinquent children were found, 41
of whom were classed as "incorrigible," 68 were involved in sex
offenses, and 75 had stolen, or were guilty of fraud. The number of boys
guilty of incorrigibility and theft exceeded that of