The citizen farmer who lives in the same community with the miner ... must invest in land and buildings, tools and livestock.  He must pay taxes and insurance and repairs and veterinary fees.  He must work often sixteen hours, seldom less than ten, and he must be on duty day and night, ready always to care for his independent plant—­all this, and yet in order to receive a labor income equal to that of the soft coal miner ... the farmer must not only work himself as no professional laborer ever works, but he must also work his children without pay.

[Footnote:  E. Davenport, Dean of the College of Agriculture, University of Illinois, in “Proceedings of the First National Country Life Conference,” Baltimore, 1919. p. 183.]

IMPROVED CONDITIONS ON THE FARM

Although this only too faithfully describes living conditions on the farm as they have been in the past and still are in many cases, much improvement has taken place.  Improvement of agricultural machinery and methods has brought a greater measure of leisure to the farmer, while better means of transportation and communication have both saved him time and made easier for him and his family association with other people and the enjoyment of entertainment in the neighboring village or city.  The farm woman has benefited by the introduction of labor-saving devices and better management in the household, and by the development of community cooperation in such matters as dairying and laundry work (see pp. 106, 107).  In fact, better team work in every phase of the business of agriculture means greater opportunity for the enjoyment of living, and the efforts of the national and state governments to encourage such team work and to improve the methods of agriculture have for their purpose not merely the increase of the agricultural product, but also the greater happiness of the rural citizen.

FACILITIES FOR DISSIPATION

When leisure may be found for recreation, the facilities for it are often inadequate.  The city, and even the village, affords facilities for amusement and social enjoyment that good roads, automobiles, and trolley lines have made more accessible than formerly to the country round about.  While the urban community naturally affords greater opportunity than the rural community for social recreation, its opportunities for dissipation are equally great.  “Going to the movies” may be a real recreation, or it may become a dissipation when indulged in to excess without discrimination as to the merit of the performance.  Almost every village has its well-known “loafing places,” and the saloon used to be a favorite meeting place for certain classes of people.  Amusements that are especially harmful are more or less regulated by law.  Even moving pictures are “censored.”  Saloons have now been totally abolished.

FACILITIES FOR RECREATION