The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-03-22
EDITORIAL
ELP1N FORWARD YOUR NE1GHBoRHooD.

GNCfyJnlnS IndG makes LOT SOOu 1drulluS. DuG
(unlike some other farm papers) our interest
does not stop here. We believe that it is a great
err thing to make a life than to make a living, and
thai the farm paper should be as much interested
in promoting rural comfort and intelligence and
beauty as in promoting the mere material pros
perity of the country. The city has grown at the
expense of the country heretofore because of the
isolation of the farm and not because the city
offers better opportunities for accommodating
wealth-for there is, in fact, far more want and
squalid poverty in our urban than in our rural
districts. We cannot remake the country by in
creasing the size of the crops or the prices of
crops; it can only be done by making country
life more beautiful and attractive. AS DR.. Liberty
H.. Bailey has said, GA flower plot in the front
yard will do more to keep the boy on the farm
than will an extra bushel of potatoes in the
cellar"
And so The Progressive Farmer keeps hammer
ing away at it's hobbies-good roads, good schools,
rural mail delivery, the rural telephone, school
libraries, more newspapers, farmers clubs, pref
tier houses, more flowers, more pictures, ETC.,
etc. Our old subscribers have heard about these
things very often, but we have received more
than a thousand new subscribers since January
LIST, and this number of The Progressive Farmer
also goes to a goodly list of farmers who are
not now subscribers, but ought to be. We can
not fail therefore to improve the opportunity
of reminding our present audience of these i'm
portant movements for the uplift of country
life.
Any township which has good roads, good
schools, rural mail delivery, school libraries, the
rural telephone, farmers clubs, and a good news
paper in every farmers HONEYWELL, in such a
49, L. 4-.o0 ~ 10-~s - &c
years as he could in a slow, unprogressive COM
munity without these advantages. In a n%eighbor-
hood making these improvements, land will in
crease in price; neighbors will be more n~eighbor-
ly; there will be more contentment-fuller lives;
the neighborhood will win a reputation for intelli-
gence and enterprise that will make its residents
proud of their citizenship; and a new and state
lier type of man will be developed-men broaden
ed by a closer touch with the world of men and
business and letters, but without the hustle and
grind that keep the city man a slave to business
living a superficial life.
And there's no reason, kind reader, why your
ncighborhood should not have most of these adj
vantages, if not all of them.
If your roads are not what they should be
start an agitation for a county road tax or for a
county bond issue. If you make good roads, they
will be of no less benefit to the next generation
than to this, and there's no reason why the next
should not pay part of the expense. In all the
more populous counties of the State it is Ger
tain that the road tax would be less expensive
than the mud tax. And if you cannot get as
good roads as you would like, do not let that
keep you from gettings as good roads as you
can. We are afraid that our good roads advo.
Gates have not laid enough emphasis on the i'm,
prOvement of ordinary earth roads. DR. T TT