The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1877-03-29
Disadvantages or Farm Life.

Col. George E. Waring, of New
port-a practical farmer, by the way
has a paper in ScribRer for April,
adyoesting better way Of country
llVlng-namely, the grouping of farm
houses into yillages-as is often done
IN Europe. He speaks as follows OF
the loneliness Of American farm life I:
It may seem a strange doctrine to
be advanced by q somewhat enthusi-
astic farmer, bat it is a doctrine that
has been slowly accepted after many
years ObservatiOn,-ac conviction that
has taken possession OF an unwilling
mlnd1-that the young man who
taxes his young wife t. an isolated
farm house dooms her and himself
ana their children to an unwhole-
some, unsatisfactory and vacant eX-
'stenees-an existence marked by the
absence OF those more satisfying and
more eultivating influences which
the best development Of character
and intelligence demand. 1t is a
common experience of farmers wives
to pass week after week without ex-
changing q word or q look with q
single person outside of their own
family circles.
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 situa-
| ton and the necessities OF their own
situation bring them sooner or later
within its bonds. During the first
| few years they adhere to their resOIu-
ton and 20 regularly to church, to
/ lecture, and to the social gatherings
of their friends but home duties in
crease with time, and the eagerness
| 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 humdrum, uninter.
esting ana uninterested performance
of daily tasks.
In saying all this-and I speak
from experience, for 1 have led the
dismal life myself-it is hardly neees-
sary to disclaim the least want of ap.
| probation OF the sterling qualities
which have been developed in the
American farm household. But II
4 FnRAe
qualities have been developed, not
because OF the American mode oil
farm life, but in spite of it and "a
think over the long list Of admirable
men and women whose scquaintance
have formed on distant and solitary
farms, l an more and more impress
ed with certain SHORTCOMINGS which
would have been avoided under bet.
ter social conditions. II any Of These
is disposed to question the justice Of
this conclusion, am satisfied to leave
the final decision with his cwn judg
ment, formed after q fair considers.
ton Of what Is herein suggested.
II American agriculture has an un-
satisfied need, it Is surely the neeC
for more intelligence and more enter,
prising interest on the part OF its
working men and women. From
one end of the land to the other, 1t,
crying defect-recOgniZed by all-is
that its best bloOd-or, In othel
words, its best brains and its best en-
eTgy-is leaving it 70 seek other fields
of labor. The influences which leaC
these best Of the farmers sons to 9th.
er occupations Is not so much the de
sire to maze more money, OF to finC
8 less laborious occupation, as ii il
the desire to lead q more satisfactory
life,-a life where that part OF u
which has been developed by the bet
ter education and better civilization
for which in this century we havl
worked so hard and so well, mAy FIND
responsive companionship and en-
cOuraging intercourse with others.