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Show Common Sense and the Farm. Not long ago, when we discovered dis-covered that as a nation we must produce more or eat less, the cry, "Back to the farm!" went up from Florida to Ore-j gon. If, since then, the cry' has lost something of its power! to rouse, it is because we Have become more discriminating. SN-.. City and county alike are now agreed that in most cases it is better for the carpenter and the mason and the plumber to continue con-tinue to follow their trades in ' the city, unless the price of living liv-ing is to be still further increased. increas-ed. At the same time, it has become to be recognized that -' there are some people who can go back to the farm and succeed. suc-ceed. We have learned that the city boy can go to the agricultural school or college, work hard at 1 his studies during nine months, ' get a job milking cows and pitching hay during three months, and at length become . a real farmer, clear-headed and ; hard-handed, wit a every chance ' in his favor of making a good' v living out of the land. We have' come to realize, too, that there ' are some older persons who can ! go back to the farm by the way ' of the suburban chicken yard I and the summer garden. But ln general, we have come to the conclusion that it is better to "stay on the farm," than go back to it. For half a century and more, clear-sighted persons jhave been repeating that advice, ad-vice, until now it is " in a fair way to be heeded. Accurately interpreted, "Stay on the farm" means that those boys and girls who belong on the farm should stay there. It means that they should be taught what farming really is, and also that, economically and socially, farming should be made what it ought to be. It means that the government, whether of the township, the state or of the United States, should so modify its school system sys-tem that the young people of the country will be trained not away from the farm, but to ward it. On the other hand, "Stay on s the farm" does not mean that the boys and girls who do not f belong on the farm shall be 3 forced to stay there. If, when a country life has been made into i something like it should be, and - the young people have had a - chance to see what it . is, they shall still decide that they are l better fitted for urban life then I by all means let them have a chance to try it. Some will find that they have made a mis-, mis-, take, but others will find that i it would have been a mistake : ' for them to stay on the farm. , Drifting to the city is one thing but going to the city because there is some good reason for ( going there is a very different ' matter. |
