Excerpt: Present interest in rural sociological research and education is an outgrowth of the report of the Commission on Country Life, made early in 1909. In appointing the Commission, President Roosevelt made a significant statement that holds good today. He said: "It is at least as important that the farmer should get the largest possible return in money, comfort, and social advantages from the crops he grows, as that he should get the largest possible return in crops from the land he farms. Agriculture is not the whole of country life. The great rural interests are human interests, and good crops are of little value to the farmer unless, they open the door to a good kind of life on the farm." To discover and evaluate the essentials of human advancement, and to join forces with other constructive minds in the task of helping rural people to attain and enjoy them, is the challenge with which the rural sociologists of the United States are confronted; this challenge must be met in a spirit of fidelity to scientific processes of reasoning and of devotion to the cause of rural human achievement. That it will be met in this spirit, the evidence gathered in connection with the preparation of this paper is assuring.