The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1877-04-05
Disadvantages of Farm Life.

"a practical farmer, by the way-has
a paper in Scribner for April, advocat.
ing a better way of country living,
namely, the grouping of farm-houses
into villages-as is often done in Eu-
rope. He speaks as follows of the
loneliness of American farm-life:
It may seem strange doctrine to
be advanced by somewhat enthusiast.
tic farmer, but it is doctrine that has
been slowly accepted after many years
ObServatiOn,-a conviction that has
taken possession of an unwilling mind,
that the young man who takes his
young wife to an isolated farmhouse
dooms her and himself and their chill
dren to an unwholesome, unsatisfac-
tory and vacant existence,-an exist
ence marked by the absence of those
more satisfying and more cultivated
influences which the best development
of character and intelligence demands.
It is a common experience Of farmers
wives to pass week after week without
exchanging word or look with
single person outside of their own fam
lily circles.
The young couple start out bravely,
and with a determination to strug-
gle against the habit of iso-
lation 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 go regularly to
church, to the lecture, and to the So
cial 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 firmest determi-
nation 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 all thls-and I speak from
experience, for have led the dismal
life myself-it is hardly necessary to
disclaim the least want of appreciation
OF the sterling qualities which have
been developed in the American farm
!, household. But it may safely be in.
sisted that these qualities have been
developed, not because of the Ameri-
can mode of farm life, but in spite of
it; and as think over the long list OF
admirable men and women whose &C.
quaintance l have formed on distant
and solitary farms,I am more and more
impressed with certain short comings
which would have been avoided under
better social conditions. If any OF
these is disposed to question the justice
of this conclusion, I am satisfied to
leave the final decision with his own
Judgment, formed after fair consider.
alton Of what is herein suggested.
If American agriculture has an I'm.
satisfied need, it is surely the need fol-
more intelligence and more enterpris.
ing 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 its best
blood-or, in other words, its best
brains and its best energy-is leaving
it to seek other fields OF labor. The
influence which leads the best of the
farmers sons to other occupations i!
not so much the desire to make more
money, or to find a less laboTious oc
cupation, as it is the desire to lead ;
more satisfactory life,-a life wher,
that part of us which has been devel
, oped by the better education and bette
!. civilization for which in this centur,
we have worked so hard and so well
; may find responsive companionshi]
and encouraging intercourse will
others.