The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1877-03-30
Miscellaneous
How to Keep the Boys on the Farm.


thor, Colonel George B. Waring of New
port, on the interesting subject of EARN.
Villages" The writer has been actively ur-
ging the adoption of Improvements in Ame'
rican farming for many years, and has had
good opportunities for studying the needs OF
American agriculture. Familiarity with the
lite and work of European farmers, where
it Is usual for those who cultivate the soil
to live in villages, suggested sshim the idea
that the condition OF our own agricultural
population could be much ameli0rated by a
similar concentration into communities
where the material and moral benefits of bet
ter social relations could be secured,
The paper considers the way in which
land may be divided so as to secure the end
in view with the least inconvenience to the
nen who have to till the fields, and with the
least drawback TO the business Of the farm.
er Two cases are considered: /. When
it is a question Of the settlement of new
lands. 9. Where farm.hOuscs are already
scattered over the country, each on its own
farm. In both cases it is attempted to show
how details of the plan may be regulated so
as to cause the least annoyance and loss OF
time TO the men. to compass the greatest
convenience and comfort of the women, and
to provide the best advantages for the young
er members Of the community. These two
schemes are illustrated by sufficient diagrams
which indicate the way in which the farm
ing land and the village tract should be di-
vided.
Suggestions are also given as to the laying
out of the village green, the care of roads,
paths, grass-ground, and other open spaces,
so far as such suggestions are appropriate in
this connection.
The way in which the proposed change
would affect the work of the farmer, his ie
his hired men and his teams, is fully consid-
cred, and it seems to be demonstrated -
while it is admitted that in immediate mon.
ey-making there may be some slight disad
vantage-that on the whole and in the long
run the general prosperity of our agricul.
ture would be advanced by the change
Considerable space is given to the COM
parative effect of the life of the isolated
farmhouse and of the more sociabe life of
the village on the character of the farmer
and his family, aud, therefore, on the future
ing quotations indicate the line of argu-
ment:
ut may seem strange doctrine to be ad-
vanced by a somewhat enthusiastic farmer,
bnt it is a doctrine that has been slowly ac-
cepted after many years observation-a con-
victioD has taken possession of an unwilling
mind-that the young man who takes his
wife to an isolated farm house dooms her
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 cultvatiug inhu-
ences which the best development of char
acter and intelligence demand. 1t is COM
mon experience of farmers wives to pass
week after week without exchanging word
or look with single person outside of
their own family circles.
The young couple start bravely, and with
determination to struggle against the hab.
it 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 its bonds. During the first few years
they adhere to their resolution and go regu-
larry to church, TO the lecture, and to the
social gatherings of their trends but home
duties increase with time, and the eagerness
for society grows dull with neglect, and
those who have started out with the firmest
determination to avoid the rock on which
their fathers have split, give up the struggle
at last and settle down to humdrum, unin-
teresting and unintcrested performance of
daily tasks.
"ln saying all this-and speak from ex-
perience, for have led the dismal life, my.
self-it is hardly necessary to disclam the
least want Of appreciation OF the sterling
qualities which have been developed in the
American farm household y
"If American agriculture has an unsatis-
fed need, it is surely the need for more in
telligence 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 its
best blood--or, in other words, its best
brains and ils best energy--is leaving it to
seek other fields of labor. The influences
which lead the best of the farmers sons to
other occupations is not so much the desire
to make more money, or to find less labo-
rious occupation, as it is the desire to lead
a more satisfactory life,-a life where that
part of US has been developed by the better
education and better civilization for which
in this century we have wort ed so hard and
so well, may find responsive companionship
and encouraging intercourse with Others.
"The social benefits aud the facilities for
frequent, neighborly, and informal inter
course ae obvious. To say nothing of the
and intimacies among the
young people, their fathers and mothers
would be kept from growing old and plum
by the constant friction of their kind and
in so far as more satisfactory social relation
with ones fellow men gives cheerfulnes.
and the richness of wider human interest
in.that proportion would the village life have
a wholesome, mellowing effect that is not IN
be found in the remote farmhouse, nor even
in the sort of neighborhood We sometimes
find in the country, where several farm
houses are within aquarter OF mile of each
other. The habit Of running in for mo
ment's chat with a neighbor is good one
and ii gets but scant development amonl
American farmers"
The better development of the church
and especially Of the school is discussed a
some length, aud the paper closts thus.
81 should hope, further, as an outgrowt
from the community of living, for modes
village library and reading.room. Indeed
if could have my own way, should nc
conhne the attraction and entertainment c