The Farmer and His Community

Dwight Sanderson

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• Publié par: entue
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 37
• Langue: English

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Title: The Farmer and His Community
Author: Dwight Sanderson
Release Date: August 19, 2009 [EBook #29733]
Language: English
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THE FARMER AND HIS
COMMUNITY
BY
DWIGHT SANDERSON
PROFESSOR OF RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
CORNELL UNIVERSITYNEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY, N. J.
[Pg v]
EDITOR'S PREFACE
In the "good old days" of early New England the people acted in
communities. The original New England "towns" were true communities; that is,
relatively small local groups of people, each group having its own institutions,
like the church and the school, and largely managing its own affairs. Down
through the years the town meeting has persisted, and even to-day the New
England town is to a very large degree a small democracy. It does not,
however, manage all its affairs in quite the same fashion that it did two hundred
years ago.
When the Western tide of settlement set in, people frequently went West in
groups and occasionally whole communities moved, but the general rule was
settlement by families on "family size" farms. The unit of our rural civilization,
therefore, became the farm family. There were, of course, neighborhoods, and
much neighborhood life. The local schools were really neighborhood schools.
Churches multiplied in number even beyond the need for them. When farmers
began to associate themselves together as in the Grange, they recognized the
need of a strong local group larger than the neighborhood. A subordinate
Grange for example is a community organization. Experience gradually
demonstrated that if farmers wished to coöperate they must coöperate in local
groups. Strong nation-wide organizations are clearly of great importance, but
they can have little strength unless they are made up of active local bodies.Gradually, the community idea has spread over the country, in some cases
[Pg vi]springing up almost spontaneously, until to-day there is a very widespread
belief among the farmers, as well as among the special students of rural affairs,
that the organization and development of the local rural communities is the
main task in conserving our American agriculture and country life. It is
interesting to note that what is true in America is proving also to be true in other
countries. In fact, the farm village life in Europe and even in such countries as
China is taking on new activities, and it is being recognized that the
improvement of these small units of society is one of the great needs of the age.
Professor Sanderson, in this book, has attempted to indicate just what the
community movement means to the farmers of America. He has brought to this
task rather unusual preparation. In turn, a graduate of an agricultural college, a
scientist of reputation, Director of an agricultural experiment station, Dean of a
college of agriculture, he has had a wide, varied and successful experience in
various states. He finally arrived at the conviction, however, that the most
important field of work for him lay in dealing with the larger phases of country
life, and he gave up administrative work for further preparation in the new field.
In his position as Professor of Rural Organization in the College of Agriculture
at Cornell University, he has been unusually successful, both as investigator
and as teacher. He speaks as one who knows the farmers and not as an
outsider, and also as a thorough student.
This book therefore is sent out with a good deal of confidence. It deals with
one of the most important of the rural topics that can be discussed these days. It
points out fundamental principles and indicates practical steps in applying
principles.
Kenyon L. Butterfield.
[Pg vii]
FOREWORD
In recent years we have heard a great deal about the rural community and
rural community organization. All sorts of organizations dealing with rural life
discuss these topics at their meetings, the agricultural press and the popular
magazines encourage community development, and a number of books have
recently appeared dealing with various phases of rural community life. The
community idea is fairly well established as an essential of rural social
organization.
One might gain the impression that the community is a new discovery or
social invention were he to read only the current discussions. It is, however, a
form of social organization as old as agriculture itself, but which was very
largely neglected in the settlement of the larger part of the United States. This
new emphasis on the community is, therefore, but the revival in a new form of a
very ancient mode of human association. The community becomes essential
because the conditions of rural life have changed and rural people are again
being forced to act together in locality groups to meet the needs of their
common life.
The author has attempted to define the rural community and to describe thenew conditions which are determining its structure and shaping its functions, in
the belief that an understanding of the nature of the rural community should aid
those who are seeking to secure a better social adjustment of the countryside. It
attempts to relate "The Farmer and His Community." The problems and
[Pg viii]methods of community organization have been discussed but incidentally, and
the book is not designed as a handbook for community development. Its chief
aim is to establish a point of view with regard to the rural community as an
essential unit for rural social organization through a sociological analysis of the
past history and present tendencies of the various forms of associations which
seem necessary for a satisfying rural society. It is hoped that such an analysis
presented in an untechnical manner may be of service to rural leaders who are
working for the development of country life by giving them a better
understanding of the nature of the community and therefore a firmer faith in its
future and greater enthusiasm and loyalty in its service.
The present volume is a brief summary of a more extended study of the rural
community, not only in this country but in other lands and in other times, which
is now in preparation for publication.
Dwight Sanderson.
Cornell University.
MAY, 1922.
[Pg ix]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Rural Community 3
II. The Farm Home and the Community 14
III. The Community's People and History 29
Communication the Means of Community
IV. 37
Life
V. The Farm and the Village 46
VI. Community Aspects of the Farm Business 58
VII. How Markets Affect Rural Communities 67
How Coöperation Strengthens the
VIII. 77
Community
IX. The Community's Education 91
X. The Community's Education, Continued;
The Extension Movement 107
XI. The Community's Religious Life 121
XII. The Community's Health 137
XIII. The Community's Play and Recreation 153
XIV. Organizations of the Rural Community 169
XV. The Community's Dependent 181
XVI. The Community's Government 196XVII. Community Organization 209
XVIII. Community Planning 222
XIX. Community Loyalty 234
Appendix A 247
[Pg x]
THE FARMER AND HIS COMMUNITY
[Pg 2]
THE CORE OF THE COMMUNITY IDEA, THEN—AS APPLIED TO RURAL LIFE—IS THAT WE
MUST MAKE THE COMMUNITY, AS A UNIT, AN ENTITY, A THING, THE POINT OF DEPARTURE OF
ALL OUR THINKING ABOUT THE RURAL PROBLEM, AND, IN ITS LOCAL APPLICATION, THE DIRECT
AIM OF ALL ORGANIZED EFFORTS FOR IMPROVEMENT OR REDIRECTION. THE BUILDING OF REAL,
LOCAL FARM COMMUNITIES IS PERHAPS THE MAIN TASK IN ERECTING AN ADEQUATE RURAL
CIVILIZATION. HERE IS THE REAL GOAL OF ALL RURAL EFFORT, THE INNER KERNEL OF A SANE
COUNTRY-LIFE MOVEMENT, THE MOVING SLOGAN OF THE NEW CAMPAIGN FOR RURAL
PROGRESS THAT MUST BE WAGED BY THE PRESENT GENERATION. "—KENYON L.
Butterfield, in "The Farmer and the New Day."
[Pg 3]
CHAPTER I
THE RURAL COMMUNITY
No phase of the social progress of the Twentieth Century is more significant
or promises a more far-reaching influence than the rediscovery of the
community as a fundamental social unit, and the beginnings of community
consciousness throughout the United States. I say the "rediscovery" of the
community, for ever since men forsook hunting and grazing as the chief means
of subsistence and settled down to a permanent agriculture they have lived in
communities.
In ancient and medieval Europe, in China and India, and among primitive
agricultural peoples throughout the world, the village community is recognizedas the primary loc