Social Surveys of Three Rural Townships in Iowa

asures. It would, however, be hard to say whether general health conditions were better or worse in these townships than in the average rural community. Despite the lack of desirable sanitary precautions, none of these communities had suffered recently from epidemics, and the death rate was not at all abnormal ; for L it was 14 per thousand in 1913, for C only 4.2, while for the rural parts of registration states it was 12.7.J EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS AND INFLUENCES Among the educational factors considered were the schools in the townships; higher education among the residents; books, magazines, and papers in the homes; and attendance upon, meetings of a more or less educational character. 1. Schools in the Townships. The aggregate number of schools in the three townships was twenty-three, there being nine in C, six in L, and eight in M. In C they were very symmetrically located; three in a row within a mile of each township boundary and one in the center. School number 7, in the southwestern corner, was not in operation, however, and had not been open for several years. In M the distribution was fairly regular, except that along the northern border, where the population is more sparse, there were only two schools. In the northeast corner was a wide-stretching district largely occupied by a great cattle-grazing estate; in it were only nine persons between five and twenty-one years, and some of these could not reach the distant and inconveniently located school. The ...