The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-01-25
Why the Boys Leave the Farm.

1t is question that often puzzles the
minds of parents in the country to know
why their boys are not content on the farm
where they have been born and raised,
but as soon as they are free to do for them
selves, they wish to leave the farm for the
city.
There are doubtless various reasons for
this, some of which are evidently beyond
the control of any parent, while others are
evidently within the reach of a remedy.
1t is with some hope that when the diff
Guilty is pointed out, the remedy will be
applied at once. There is no doubt but
that the general desire for the rapid ac-
emulation of wealth is at the foundation
of this desire to try some other calling in
life. Farming is not a business in which
a man can hope to gain great fortune in
a short time. There is strong desire for
the rapid accumulation of wealth, and
consequently the slow but sure gains of
the farm are given up for the very plausi-
bic but deceptive promise of sudden
fortune in some other calling. But this
does not account for all this restless dis
content on the farm. Much of this grows
out Of circumstances that are under the
control of parents. One reason is the
constant drudgery that is connected with
farm life. Very few people do hard
work Just from the love of it: and it is
hardly reasonable to expect our boys to
do so. The boys are too often made to
feel that they are valued like the mule
only in proportion to their skill and en-
durance in hard work. A rest or holiday,
is too often begrudgcd to them, as if it
was time actually lost. 1t is not strange
that boy thus driven as though he were
a machine for making money should not
only grow tired of farm life, but should
also associate it in his mind with all that
is hard, disagreeable and drudging. Un-
der such circumstances the boy mind very
naturally turns to some other pursuit in
life, and he is ready to run away from the
farm at the first opportunity. No one
will deny that farming has some hard
disagreeable toll connected with it, and
SO has any and every honorable pursuit
in life.
But false impressions are often made ON
the minds of children by the comparisons
unfavorable to farming, that parents often
make between this and other branches Of
business. Merchants and professional
men are often spoken of in the hearing of
the boys, as too lazy to work, leading lives
of ease and leisure. Now this charge is
both unjust and untrue; but it fastens on
the mind Of the boy, and he is
led to contrast such life of ease, as he
supposes it to be, with his present life of
toll. Again, the style of domestic life
found too frequently on the farm is not
the kind to bind the hearts of the children
to the old homestead. Some parents
seem to have an idea that everything that
goes to adorn and beautify, or in any way
to add to the attractions and pleasure OF
home, is not only money thrown away,
but is sign of effeminacy and weakness.
Pictures and music, and flowers and pleas
ant company are excluded with such care
that home becomes to the young man the
most forlorn and dismal place he ever
finds. Is it strange that he should look
to more inviting fields for the scenes Of
his future life!
Nearly everybody has an aspiration fol-
knowledge, and especially is this the case
with the brightest and most energetic OF
farmers bOys-thOse who would be an
ornament to the business, or lift it into q
higher plane. But there are thousands OF
farm-hOuses where books and papers,
especially such as are calculated to give
information on, and high appreciation
of, the farmers calling, are almost entire
strangers. The young man Graves intel.
lectual food and activity, but under the
regime of home there is no stimulus
to any mental activity. His inte..
lectual aspirations are all crushed by
the conviction that farming means man
ual toll and drudgery and nothing more
And though surrounded on all sides by
the great books of nature, filled to reple
ton with the most Interesting wonders
yet for want of q teacher, or books t.
guide him, he turns away from this rich
Intellectual feast to seek in less promising
fields that which can be found nowhere
else in such abundance, and of such easy
access as ON the farm. The conclusion
therefore, is that if the boys are to b
kept on the farm, they must be made t.
feel it is to their interest to stay there.
Home must be made attractive, and thu
boy must be made to feel that he has hert
field for mental activity. where his in
tellectual powers may find ample scopt
for their exercise AMI development, ane
where he may hope to rise above the con
slant routine of toll and drudgery. tn,
parents who would keep the boys on tn,
farm must remember that they are hu
man beings with tastes and feelings tina
must be, in q reasonable degree, consulted
and gratified. They have aspirations tina
| should be encouraged and assisted. Civ,
| the boys chance at home to become mel