The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-03-24
W,m5ht Earm
How to Keep the Boys on the Farm.

paper bS lhe Ntli-kIc"H aSiiCuitui"i
author, Colonel George b. Warning of
Newport, on the interesting subject of
Farm Villages" The writer has been
active in urging the adoption of improve
ments in American farming Tor many years,
and has had good opportunities for study
ing the needs of American agriculture.
Familiarity with the life and work OF
European farmers, where it is usual for
these who cultivate the soil to live in vii
lagos, suggested to him the idea that the
condition of our own agricultural popu-
lation could be much ameliorated by a
similar concentration into communities
where the material and moral benefits OF
better social relations could be secured.
We take the following quotations from his
article.
Considerable space is given to the COM
parative effect of the life of the isolated
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 indicate the line
of argument:
cit may seem strange doctrine to be
advanced by a somewhat enthusiastic
farmer, but it is a doctrine that has been
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
60 SnopS bor and
himself and their children to an unwhole-
some, unsatisfactory and vacant existence,
an existence marked by the absence OF those
more satisfying and more cultivating in
tiuences which the best development OF
character and intelligence demand. 1t is
common experience of farmers wives to
pass week after week without exchanging
word or a look with a single person outside
of their own family circles.
1.-The young couple start bravely, and
with a 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-
stiles of their own situation bring them
sooner or later within its bonds. During
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 eagerness for society
grows dull with neglect, and those who
have started out with the firm determine
ton to avoid the rock on which their
fathers have split, give up the struggle at
last and settle down to humdrum, unln-
teresting and uninterested performance of
daily tasks.
sin saying all this-and | speak from
experience, for l have led the dismal life
myself-it is hrdely necessary to disclaim
the least want of appreciation of the sterl-
ing qualities which have been developed in
the American farm house hold.
''If American agriculture has an unsat-
isfied 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 to the other, its
crying defect-recognized by all-is that
it's best blood-or, in other words, its
DeSC DralnS anu us DeSJ tuctSy-l lcaNibS
it to seek other fields of labor. The in
fuences which lead these best of the farm
ers' sons to other occupations is not so
much the desire to make more money, or
to find less laborious occupation, as it is
desire to lead a more satisfactory life,-a
life where that part of us which has been
developed by the better education and better
civilization for which in this century we
have worked so hard and so well, may tind
responsive companionship and encouraging
intercourse with others.
.sThe social benefits and the facilities for
frequent, neighborly, and informal inter
course are obvious To say nothing Of the
companionshps and intimacies among the
young people, their fathers and mothers
would be kept from growing old and glum
by the constant friction of their kind; and
in so far as more satisfactory social re-
laton with ones fellow men gives cheer
fulness and the richness of wider human
interest, in that proportion would the
village life have wholesome, mellowing
effect that is not to be found in the remote
farm house, nor even in the sort of neigh
borhood we sometimes find in the country,
where several farm houses are within
quarter of mile OF each other. The
habit of running in for moments chat
with neighbor is good one, and it gets
but scant development among American
farmers
rf ha
and especially Of the school, is discussed at
some length, and the paper closes thus:
81 should hope, further, as an outgrowth
from the community of living, for modest
village library and reading room. Indeed,
if could have my own way, should not
confine the attraction and entertainment of
the village to strictly moral appliances.
1t would probably be wiser to recognize
the fact that young men find an attraction
in amusement which our sterner ancestors
regarded as dangerous, and | would not
eschew billiards, nor even, by rigorous
enactment the milder vice of social to-
bacco Better have a little harmless
wickedness near home and under the eye
Oh parents IIliu GuCOuutCT GHc TlSk IUdl
boys, after certain age, would seek
pretext for more uncontrolled indulgences
in the neighboring town.
"One might go on through the long
range of incidental arguments-such as
lighted streets, well kept sidewalks,
Winter snow plows, and good drainage,
and a wholesome pride in tidy, cozy
village, until even the most close listed of
all until he would recognize the fact that
the attractions of such home as the vii
lage would make possible would be likely
to insure bis being succeeded in his whole
some trade by the brightest and best of his
sons-a result that would surely be worth
more than all it would cost.
"But my purpose has been only to sug-
gest scheme which seems to me entirely,
FOL,