the benefits would be almost, if not quite as great, for the city as for the country.  This sort of thing serves to set off city and country against each other instead of binding them together to their mutual advantage.  The case of Christian County, Kentucky, described in Chapter iii, is an excellent illustration of teamwork between city and country in the interest of the entire county, and of the results achieved by it.

SMALL COMMUNITIES UNITE IN LARGE ONES

In this chapter there are three maps of Dane County, Wisconsin, which show how small communities, both rural and urban, are united into a large community, the county.  Map I shows the school districts and the townships which comprise the county.  The city of Madison occupies the center, and small towns and villages are scattered here and there.  The country school is the chief center of interest in each school district.  Here and there through the county are high schools.  Each of these is a center of a larger irregular area, including a number of school districts and parts of several townships as shown in map 2.  Map 3 shows trade areas.  Trade and education are two of the chief interests that bind people into communities.  But where these interests exist, there are likely to be other interests; the high school is likely to be a meeting place for social and recreational purposes.

The area and boundaries of a “farming” or “rural neighborhood” community are usually rather indefinite and changeable, depending upon surface features and upon transportation conditions, or the length of the “day’s haul.”  With improved roads and better means of transportation, larger areas and more people are included.  A “neighborhood” or “trade area” with automobiles is much larger than one where horses or ox carts are used exclusively.  The consolidated school with transportation provided for pupils expands the rural neighborhood community.

COMMON INTERESTS OF THE LARGER COMMUNITY

Each of the small dots on map 3 represents a farm home.  If we select one of these dots and imagine ourselves members of the family that lives there, we shall see that we are members of a certain school district, of a certain township, of a community that has grown up around a trade center and a high school, and of course of the county as a whole.  No matter in what school district we live, we have an interest in some matters in common with the people of all other school districts in the county.  For example, there is a state university at Madison, and connected with it is a training school for teachers.  The work done here influences the teaching in all the schools of the county, and indeed of the whole state.  There is also an agricultural college at the state university which serves the farmers throughout the entire county and state.  If we look closely at map 3, we shall see how highways and railroads center at Madison, which is the county seat of Dane County and the capital of the state of Wisconsin.