Show I THE FARMER AAD HIS CHILDREN Why the Boys Leave tIle Home and the Girls Are Discontented A good deal has been written first and last as to why the boys and girls leave the farm but judging from the condition of things on many farms it I would not appear that the reasons are I very well understood by those who are most nearly concerned the farmers themselves It is a vital matter concerning I cerning ndt simply the family from which the sons and daughters go but society at large as well writes Webb Donnel in the Practical Farmer Wo have felt this matter very deeply in New England from vhoss farms there has been a particularly large outflow of sons and daughters to the cities and to the great weSt I have studied this subject quite carefully and I know some of the causes that induce young men and young women to leave the farm and I am going to recount them for the benefit of those whose sons and daughters have not yet got a distaste for farm work and for the home life of a farm Is it any wonder that daughters daugh-ters grow up and seeing the hard worked tiredfaced lonely mother with her unceasing round of work from morning until night with her few pleasures and the little variety In her iifeIs it any wonder that the daughters daugh-ters heart is steeled against the kind of life whoh produces such results She prefers the wcrk of a store or shop Where she can mix with companions and feel the stir and rush of lifeeven if the new life has as hard work im It as the one she has left and she prefers to many a clerk or some other salaried man in town or city rather than some young farmer whose home may be for her what her mothers home has been The young people have caught the spirit of the times They long for some of the stir and bustle of life and if the farm is not brought a little more in touch with present day life we may expect the young people to seek what they desire elsewhere else-where Dark kitchens stiff bare rooms iew books and papers antiquated anti-quated methods of farm work tlvese I are nQt the surroundings that can hold young people who have caught a glimpse of the homelike cosiness the modest luxuries the spirit of progresSiVeness progres-SiVeness that is to be seen and felt in the world today A motley collection of furniture bare floors unpietured walls and absence of any suggestion of comfort and cosiness may do well enough for the boys or giros chamber but it isnt the kind of thing that makes a boy or girl have much love for their home The trouble at the root of the whole matter seems to me to foe the utter lack of any attempt to gat the children interested in-terested in their home proud of it and ambitious o make it better prettier and the land and stock more produc tive But how can one expect such an attempt to be made when the farmer himself never app < ars enthusiastic over his work nor ambitious to make hits farm and farming firstclass Instead of seeking an eager interest and pride in his business on the part of his father the boy who is growing up on many a farm hears continually the complaining assertion that farming doesnt pay Is it any wonder that the boy is not attracted to the business Again almost al-most as sOQn as he can toddle about the boy on many farms is set to work He drops tine toeans and peas lIe picks up rocks and apples he goes for the cows and perhaps he has to hunt for hours for them In the hushes he Is tent in a hundred different ways during the day on errands on the ground that young legs are Spryer than old ones until the young legs ache so that their owner is kept awake at night with the pain only to have them called grow ing pains II As the boy grows he has steady work with the men tout unlike them She receives no wages If he gets spending money ihe earns it by odd jobs for some neighbor In the rare in l < < > vK a tervals when he has ems hour off at home Why shouJd the boy toe interested in-terested in the farm and in farming under such circumstances The work and the life become irksome to aim and he longs for the time when he can leave it Why has fiis father not sought to Interest the boy by talking over and planning the work with him and by giving him a share in the proceeds pro-ceeds of some crop by letting him have a flock of hens of his own or a small flock of sheep Let the iboy begin to be a farmer on his own account while he is still a boy and the chances are that the interest will last I tell you there are too many joyless boyhoods on the farms of the land to inculcate any great love for agriculture in the youthful generation A boy needs at least occasional recreation recre-ation The village and the city boys have it and they have the innocent fun and frolic that sweeten their whole lives but on many farms it is work wOrk work and nothing else The boy is waked out ci ° a sound sleep in the morning to milk to bring in wood and waiter to churn and to run errands and at night he is fully ready to go to bed without being sent One other matter When the boy is old enough he ought to be paid wages for his work not in a way to make him feel like a hired man but as an inducement in-ducement for him to save up money for his establishment in farming on his own account It will give him a feeling of independence the wish to secure just such a feeling being one of the motives which induces many a young man to leave the farm for the city Yes indeed there are plenty of reasons rea-sons why the young people hasten to leave the farm What are you doing to make your boys interested in the old place |