Produced by Tom Roch, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS Agents THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY NEW YORK THE CUNNINGHAM, CURTISS & WELCH COMPANY LOS ANGELES THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON AND EDINBURGH THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY SHANGHAI KARL W. HIERSEMANN LEIPZIG CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS BY KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD _President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College_ [Illustration: Publisher's logo] THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS COPYRIGHT 1907 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO All Rights Reserved Published February 1908 Second Impression June 1909 Third Impression May 1911 Fourth Impression February 1913 Fifth Impression October 1916 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. TO MY FATHER IRA HOWARD BUTTERFIELD WHOSE CONSTANT CONCERN FOR RURAL WELFARE AND LIFE-LONG SERVICE TO RURAL INTERESTS HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE CHIEF INCENTIVES TO THE STUDIES LYING BEHIND THIS BOOK PREFACE This book does not offer a complete analysis of the rural problem; but attempts, in general, to present some of the more significant phases of that problem, and, in particular, to describe some of the agencies at work in solving it. Several of the chapters were originally magazine articles, and, though all have been revised and in some cases entirely rewritten, they have the limitations of such articles. Other chapters consist of more formal addresses. Necessarily there will be found some lack of uniformity in style and in method of presentation, and occasional duplication of argument or statement. For permission to use articles, in whole or in part, I have to thank the editors of the _Chautauquan_, _Arena_, _Forum_, _Review of Reviews_, _Popular Science Monthly_, _Michigan Alumnus_, _New England Farmer_, _Cornell Countryman_; also Professor L. R. Taft, superintendent of Farmers' Institutes in Michigan, and the officers of the American Civic Association. Two chapters comprise material heretofore unpublished. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER PAGE I. The Study of Rural Life 3 II. The Problems of Progress 11 THE OUTLOOK III. The Expansion of Farm Life 45 IV. The New Farmer 53 V. Culture from the Corn-Lot 66 AGENCIES OF PROGRESS VI. Education for the Farmer 77 VII. Farmers' Institutes 92 VIII. The Hesperia Movement 104