dependent upon efforts within the home itself than the life of the
city resident. The business of farming by which the family living
is secured is carried on at home, and, as a rule, all the members
of the family have some part in it. It is a cooperative family
enterprise to a much greater extent than any other modern
business.

In cities, in the great majority of cases, the work by which the
family living is earned is done away from home, and very often no
member of the family except the father has any direct part in it.
There are numerous cases, however, where the mother and even the
children go out to work, and in such cases the home life may be
seriously interfered with.

It would be hard to find a rural home in the United States to-day
that is not near enough to a schoolhouse to enable the children to
attend it, at least for an elementary education. Unfortunately,
high schools are not yet easily accessible in all rural
communities (see Chapter XIX). But whether the education afforded
by the rural school is of the best or not, the boy or girl on the
farm gets in addition a kind of education through the varied
occupations of the farm life that the city boy or girl does not
get, and for which the city schools have tried in vain to find an
adequate substitute. It is remarkable how many of the successful
men and women of our country were raised on farms; and they almost
always bear witness to the value of the training received there.

So in matters of health, of social life and recreation, of
pleasant and beautiful surroundings, the rural home must depend
very largely upon itself. The strength and happiness of the