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Show WHY BOYS LEAVE THE FARM. Many people in city and country lament long and loud because boys are somewhat inclined to leave the farm where they were raised. They think this disposition to forsake rural for urban life is certain evidence of depravity. They believe, or affect to believe, that boys forsake the farm and flee to the city in order to escape toil and lead an easy life. They see virtue behind and vice in the future. They think the boys who go to a great city are sure to plunge into dissipation, recklessness and folly. They have convinced themselves that people make money and obtain position in a city by fraud, cheating, and sharp practices, but that they better their condition in the country only by acquiring habits of industry, frugality, and honesty. Now, human nature is about the same in the brick-walled streets of a great city or in the green fields by the winding lanes in the country. Virtue and vice, honesty and dishonesty, industry and idleness are to be found everywhere that man exits. It is all a mistake that a great majority of the people in a large city do not have to work hard for a living. More people work themselves into the hospital or the grave in a large city than anywhere else. A much larger number of men broken down by hard work in middle life can be found in cities than in the country. The people in the middle or lower walks of life in a great city are obliged to subject themselves to a rigid course of self-denial all the time. There is always something to see, hear or taste that they can not have. A boy who goes from the city to the country is ordinarily obliged to work hard to gain a living, and to conduct himself with great propriety in order to acquire a reputation and gain advancement. It is wise and well to encourage the disposition of boys to remain in the country and to live on farms, provided they have the taste for agricultural pursuits and the proper physical and mental requirements for such occupations. The pleasures of country life have been sung by all the ports from David to Longfellow. Novelists have never tired of describing the fine characters they have found in the country. The city painter betakes himself to the tree covered hills, the grassy fields, the singing brooks, and the bird haunted ??? when he wishes to portray what is beautiful. Statistics show that vastly more people live in their own houses in the country than in the city. In an agricultural community nearly every man is engaged in independent occupation, while the reverse is true in any of our large cities. Besides, failures among farmers are very rare, and hardly ever occur unless they are the results of speculations. People in the country are measurably free from the horrors of contagious diseases and from great calamities resulting from fires, floods, and the general stagnation of business which is often attended by strikes and riots. Life and property are more secure in country than in city. No matter whether stocks are rising or falling, whether rents are high or low, whether currency is scarce or plenty, the man who owns the farm he tends will generally raise enough to supply the wants of his family and to meet the demands of the tax gatherer. In time of calamity people in cities envy the lot of those in the country. When the "heated term" comes on, the owners of fine houses in the city are glad to forsake them for the pleasure afforded by a modest cottage in the country. Nearly every man who toils to get rich in a city looks forward to the day when he can own a home in the country. It does not follow, however, that all boys who are raised on farms should remain there. Many boys were never "cut out" for farmers, and no amount of work in the make-up will ever make good farmers out of them. They are better at figuring than at fencing; better at guiding a steamboat than a plow; better at selling than producing; better at handling dry goods than stowing away hay. They may be awkward at any kind of farm work, but they may be very handy at many occupations in a shop or factory. Many boys fail on a farm and afterward succeed in a city. They have ability, but it is not of the kind required to build a fence, plow a furrow, shape a hay-stack, break colts, or sow clover-seed. They are out of place on a farm and do not earn enough to support them. It would be better to give them a trial somewhere else. The boy who fails in raising grain may make a fortune in handling it. The country is quite too well supplied with farmers who are not adapted to the business in which they are engaged. They set bad examples, and injure the land they should improve. They introduce no improvements, but follow the worst kinds of practices. They raise poor crops, keep poor stock, and support poor fences. Everything they keep runs down on their hands. Quite likely they were encouraged "to stick to the farm" in early life, when it would have been to the advantage of all concerned had they been encouraged to follow the beat of their own desire, to plow the waves instead of the fields, to feed a locomotive instead of pigs, or to cut shoe-leather instead of grass. Perhaps some fond parents toiled to gain them farms, when they would have done better had they provided them with kits of tools, or given them the means to become surveyors or coal miners. It may be pleasant for a farmer to settle his sons around him, but if they fail in the business, he will be mortified and pained at the result. Many boys leave farms because there is little for them to do on them. The introduction of labor-saving machinery has greatly reduced the amount of hand work required on farms and produced in some sections a surplus of laborers. The owners of many quite small farms have several boys who must engage in some paying occupation. Some of these boys would be glad to obtain farms of their own, but they have not the means to purchase them. Farms can no longer be obtained for the taking without going a long distance to obtain them. It costs more to start in the business of farming than it did a short time ago. Materials for buildings and fences cost more, and a larger amount of machinery is required. The price of stock increases every year, and the like is true of all farm supplies. The sons of farmers find it difficult to earn sufficient money by working for other farmers to purchase and to cultivate on their own account. Most farmers have help only through the busy season. If a boy wishes to earn money to buy a farm, he will be more likely to secure it by working at some occupation where he will have constant employment. A boy's prospects of success in farming will [is] not be likely to be impaired by his being engaged in some other occupation for a few years. The chances are that the education he receives in some other kind of business will greatly benefit him in his subsequent life of a farmer. Observation shows that a large number of persons who were raised on farms and who engage in some pursuit in the city [go] right back to farm again after they have acquired a competence. Many boys leave farms on account of delicate physical organizations which do not allow them to labor out of doors. Many others prefer to work in cities because the opportunities for mental improvement are better and the payment for work is at stated times. ---Chicago Times. |