"neighborhood" or "trade area" with automobiles is much larger
than one where horses or ox carts are used exclusively. The
consolidated school with transportation provided for pupils
expands the rural neighborhood community.

COMMON INTERESTS OF THE LARGER COMMUNITY

Each of the small dots on map 3 represents a farm home. If we
select one of these dots and imagine ourselves members of the
family that lives there, we shall see that we are members of a
certain school district, of a certain township, of a community
that has grown up around a trade center and a high school, and of
course of the county as a whole. No matter in what school district
we live, we have an interest in some matters in common with the
people of all other school districts in the county. For example,
there is a state university at Madison, and connected with it is a
training school for teachers. The work done here influences the
teaching in all the schools of the county, and indeed of the whole
state. There is also an agricultural college at the state
university which serves the farmers throughout the entire county
and state. If we look closely at map 3, we shall see how highways
and railroads center at Madison, which is the county seat of Dane
County and the capital of the state of Wisconsin.

Just as the many small communities that make up a county are
dependent upon one another, requiring organized cooperation for
the county welfare, so all the counties of a state, and all the
people who live in all the counties, are interdependent in many
ways. The people of the city of Madison, for example, depend for
their food supply upon the farmers not only of Dane County but of