The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-04-11
How to Keep the Boys on the Farm.

The April number or Scr161eT con-
tains paper by Colonel Geo. B. War
ing on the interesting subject Of ''Farm-
Villages"
The paper considers the way in which
land may be divided 80 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 busi-
ness of the farmer. Two cases are con-
sidered: l. When it is question of the
settlementof new lands. 2. Where farm-
houses are already scattered over the
country, each on its own farm. In both
cases it is attempted to show how the de-
tails of the plan may be regulated SO. rs
to cause the least annoyance and loss Of
time to the men, to compass the great
est convenience and comfort of the wo-
men, and to provide the best advantages
for the younger members of the commu-
nifty. These two schemes are illustrated
by sufficient diagrams, which indicate
the way in which the farming land and
the village tract should be divided.
Suggestions are also given as to the
laying out Of the village green, the care
of roads, paths, grass ground, and other
open spaces, 30 far as such suggestions
are appropriate in this connection.
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 dem
onstrated-while it is admitted that in
immediate money making there may be
some slight disadvantage-that 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 indicate the
line of argument:
cit may seem strange doctrine to be
advanced by a somewhat enthusiastic
farmer, but it is 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
an isolated farmhouse dooms her and
himself and their children to an un-
wholesome, unsatisfactory and vacant
existence-an existence marked by the
absence of those more satisfying and
more cultivating influences which the
best development Of character and intel.
ligence demand 1t is common expert
ence of farmers wives to pass week after
week without exchanging word or
look with single person outside of their
own family circles. . ..s
%The young couple start bravely, aud
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.
necessities Of their own situation bring
them sooner or later within it's. bonds.
During the first few years they adhere
to their resolution and 60 regularly to.
church, to the lecture, and to the social
gatherings of their friends but home
duties increase with time, and the eager
ness for society grows dull with neglect,
and those who have started out with the
frmest determination to avoid the rock
on which their fathers have split, give
up the struggle at last and settle down to
a humdrum, uninteresting and uninter-
ested performance of daily tasks. ~
In saying MI this-and I speak from
experience, for have led the dismal life
myself-it is hardly necessary to dis
claim the least want of appreciation of
the sterling qualities which have been
developed in the American farm house
hold X = =
eff American agriculture has an un-
satisfied need, it is surely the need for
more intelligence and more enterprising
interest on tie part of its workingmen
and women. From one end Of the land
to the other, its crying defect-recog-
nized by alI-is that its best blood-=or,
in other words, its best brains and it's
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
desire to make more money, or to find a
less lnborious occuption, ns it is the de-
sire to lead more satisfactory life-a
life where that part of us 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 moth
ing of the companionships 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 for as a more salts
factory social relation with ones fellow
men gives cheerfulness and the richness
of a wider human interest, in that pro-
portion would the village life have a
wholesome, mellcwing effect that is not
to be found in the remote farmhouse,
nor even in the sort of neighborhood we
sometimes find in the country, where
several farmhouses ure within quarter
of mile of each other. The habit of
running in for a moments chat with q
neighbor is good one, and it gets but
scant development among American
farmers.
The better development of the church,
and especially of the school, is discussed
ut some length, and the paper closes
thus @.
"I should hope, further, as an out
growth from the community OF living,
for q modest villa ge library, and reading
room. Indeed, if I could have my own
way, should not contine the attraction
and entertainment of the village to
strictly moral appliances. It would
probably be wiser to recognize the fact
that young men find an attraction in
amusements which our sterner ancestors
regarded as dangerous, and I would not
eschew billiards, nor even, by rigorous
enactment, the mlder vice of social to-
bacco Better have little harmless
wickedness near home and under the eye
of parents than encounter the risk that
boys, after certain age, would seek a
pretext for more uncontrolled indul-
gences in the neighboring town.
"One might go on through the long