The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-03-30
"FARM VILLAGES.0
A Proposition tn Introduce European
Fashion Into Our Agricultural Life-How
20 Keep the BOYS at Home.

Fashion Into Our Agricultural Life-How
20 Keep the Boys at Home.
The April number of ,Scri6ner con-
tains paper by the well-known agricutl-
ural author, Col. George b. Warning, of
Newport, on EARN Villages" Famil-
iarity with the life and work of European
farmers, where it is usual for those who
cultivate the soil to live in villages, sug-
gested to him the idea that the condition
of our own agricultural population could
be much ameilorated by similar con-
centration into communities, where the
material and moral benefits of better So
cial relations could be secured.
The paper considers the way in which
land may be divided 30 as to secure the
end in view with the least inconvenience
to the men who have to till the fields,
and with the least drawback to the bust
ness of the farmer. Two cases are con-
sidered First, when it is question Of
the settlement of new lands second,
where farm houses are already scattered
over the country, each on it's own farm.
In both cases it is attempted to show how
the details of the plan may be regulated
so as to cause the least annoyance and
loss of time to the men, to compass the
greatest comfort and convenience of the
women, and to provide the best advan-
tages for the younger members of the
community. These two schemes are IL
Illustrated by sufficient diagrams, which
indicate the way in which the farming
land and the village tract should be di-
vided.
The way in which the proposed change
would affect the work OF the farmer, his
wife, his hired men, and his teams is
fully considered, and it seems to be de-
monstrated- it is admitted that in
immediate money making there may be
some slight disadvantage-tha on the
whole, and in the long run, the general
prosperity of our agriculture would be
advanced by the change.
Considerable space is given to the
comparative effect of the life of the iso-
lated farmhouse and of the more sociable
life of the village on the character of the
farmer and his family, and, therefore,
on the future farming people OF the
country. The following quotations in
dictate the line of arguments
1t may seem strange doctrine to be
advanced by a somewhat enthusiastic
q
slowly accepted after many years obser-
vation-a conviction that has taken pos
session of an unwilling mind-that the
young man who takes his young wife to
an isolated farmhouse dooms her and
himself and their children to an unwhole-
some, unsatisfactory, and vacant exist
ence-an existence marked by the alb
sence of those more satisfying and more
cultivating influences which the best de-
velopment of character and intelligence
demand. 1t is a common experience of
farmers wives to pass weed after week
without exchanging work or look with
a single person outside of their own
family circle.
"The young couple start bravely, and
with determination to struggle against
the habit of isolation which marks their
class but this habit has grown from the
necessity of the situation and the neces-
sites of their own situation bring them
sooner or later within its bonds. Dur
ing the first few years they adhere to
their resolution and go regularly to
church, to the lecture, and to the social
gatherings of their friends but home
duties increase with time, and the eager
and those who have started out with the
tirmest determination to avoid the rock
on which their fathers have split give
up the struggle at last and settle down
to a hrmdrum, uninteresting and unin-
terested performance of daily tasks.
In saying all this-and L speak
from experience, for | have led the dis
NAL life myself is hardly necessary TO
disclaim the least want OF appreciation
of the sterling qualities which have been
developed in the American farm house
hold.
IF American agriculture has an nm
satisfied need, it is surely the need for
more intelligence and more enterprising
interest on the part of its working men
and women. From one end OF the land
tothe other, its crying defect-recognized
by all-is that its best blood or. in
in other words, its best brains and its
best energy-is leaving it TO seek other
fields of labor The influences which
lead these best of the farmers sons to
other occupations is not SO much the de-
sire to make more money, or to find
less laborious occupation, as it is the de-
sire to lead more satisfactory life-a life
where that part OF us which has been de-
veloped by the better education and bet
ter civilization for which in this century
we have worked SO hard and so well, may
find responsive companionship and en-
couraging intercourse with others.
"The social benefits and the facilities
for frequent, neighborly, and informal
intercourse are obvious. To say nothing
of the companionships and intimacies
among the young people, their fathers
and mothers would be kept from grow
ing old and glum by the constant friction
OF their kind; and in so far as a more
satisfactory social relation with ones fell
low-men gives cheerfulness and the rich
ness of wider human interest, in that
proportion would the village life have a
wholesome, mellowing effect that is not
to he found in the remote farmhouse,
nor even III the sost of neighborhood we
sometimes find in the country, where
several farm-houses are within a quarter
of mile of each other. The habit of
running in for moments chat with a
neighbor is good one, and 1t gets but
scant development among American
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