Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-12-25
Boys on the Farm.

ALTHOUGH this is an old subject, yet |
think we may always learn something
from experience and from those who
have had experience, and that is about
all we farmers-uneducate farmers
expect to do. l have had two expe-
riences: first, myself as a boy on the
farm and second, with my boys on the
farm
AS my father was small farmer and
had three boys, when we became large
enough to work it was necessary for US
to earn something more than we could
from working his small farm l, being
the oldest, at about the age of fourteen
years went off TO the factory. Labor in
factories brings better wages than farm
work, partly because in the factory we
have work the year round. followed
this work for about twenty years, yet all
this time | never lost my relish for the
farm. If | had spare day or week, it
was always a great pleasure to go and
work with my father on the old place
Work twenty-five or thirty years ago was
different from what it is now, with all the
machinery we have. The question comes
in here. what was there pleasant about
it? Take haying for instance, when we
used to NOW and rake by hand. | know
there is work about tit would blister
my hands, yet, when work is made pleas
ant, it is not so very disagreeable, and
that is what my father used to do. He
would not set a boy to moving with a
scythe that would not cut well, but would
see that his boys scythe was as good as
his own, and he was always pleasant to
us if we did not do our work to suit him.
Instead of scolding us he would try and
teach US, and here, / think, is one i'm
poTtant point If farmers want to keep
their boys on the farm they should be
pleasant and not scold because they
cannot always do work as well as
their fathers, remembering that they
have not had the experience of older
persons. Let us rather hope that, when
they shall have had the experience that
we have, they will beat us, as they will
If we wait and give them time. l think
we want to get too much from our boys
| have seen fathers that wanted their
boys to 90 to school and learn, but at the
same time would have them up early in
the morning and work until the last
minute, and as soon as home at night
they were required to go to work, Now,
when your boys go to school, do not
think of getting much work from them.
lHCy must udNC suiLt llllt lot IQeH-
selves, as the saying is: "All work and
no play makes Jack dull boy" Never
take boyo of school to work. Ihave
seen fathers, when their work got be-
hind, who would take the boys out of
school. We had better hire extra help,
or work little harder ourselves then,
when they are through their school days,
they will know enough, so that if we
send them with a load of wood to mar
ket they can measure and reckon it up
correctly themselves Give them
chance to do something; do not think
that they will be contented to always
plod along in the same old ruts that we
did, Let them have some things to their
liking; at the same time we must keep a
watch on them and not encourage them
to run headlong into business. think
we had better keep the reins partly in
our hands, 80 that If they get to going
too fast we can rein them up little and
not let them run away with us.-J. d.,
en- NeU England Farmer. n 4a1-