The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1884-08-20
short Ta1ks w1in the Rors.

{ WIN the BOYS.
An Ohio farmer wrote the other day,
asking: why don't you write some
| thing for country boys What has
/ been written has applied to all bows in
/ a general way. but IN this article will
| hit the country boys IN particular.
To be farmer S son is. too often, to
| be drudge. The farmer himself is
| one, and he cannot spare his SON. In
| some cases this must necessarily be so,
| but there are many exceptions. To be
farmer means to be out of bed at
/ daylight and hard work until sundown-
| 1t means, in the majority of cases,
| plain clothes, plain fare and few privi-
leges. The farmer himself may not
care for the concert and circus and ex-
cursion, and in his selfshness he re-
fuses his boys such privileges. After
his back-breaking work of the day he
may not care to sit down with a news
paper or book, but that is no reason
why he shouldn't have those things in
the house for his boys and girls. l
know plenty of farmers with cash in
bank who are too stingy to take any,
thing beyond a local weekly newspaper.
They make an old buggy do. They
AdfC AO pIAOC dDOua LuGlI uOISGS anu
harnesses. They buy slop clothes
for their boys, pinch 'em down to the
last cent, and then wonder that they
don't want to attend some fashionable
town church on Sunday.
The old-fashioned farmer came about
as near being two-legged hog as is
possible to get. Because he liked fat
pork the year round his family must
eat it. Because he could get along
with 81 suit of clothes every one else
must come to it. Because the almanac
furnished him plenty of reading his
family had no business to want news
papers and magazines. He wanted
his sons to feel as big as "them ere
Barker boys" and yet he refused them
everything which has made the Barker
boys their superiors.
Ii you will consult the criminal rec
ords of cities and villages you will find
that farmers sons are pretty disorderly
characters. They bring to town with
them a spirit of recklessness shat calls
for row. Why? can tell you, be-
cause l have asked at least fifty of
them. Bring a boy up without any
privileges and you make him hate half
the world. When he becomes young
man and feels his lack of education
and polish he will hate the other half
He comes to town feeling that he has
no show and is a nobody, and this
breeds a spirit of defiance. He has
Just as much right in the world as the
lawyers son. He has Just as much
brains, and in his young days was the
best looking. The lawyers son has
been schooled and his mind expanded,
while thebfarmer's son has been toiling
and drudging. Cultivation, education
and associations have made the law
yer's son q fine-looking young man.
Snow, wind, rain, hard work and Bit
terness of spirit have so changed the
looks of the farmers son that he is
ashamed OF himself.
am not going to advise farmers in
the case, but I'll tell you what I'd do
if was a farmer and had a boy about |
Is years of age whom | wanted to fol- /
low the same pursuit. I'd have kept |
him in school up to this time, and he'd |
be fairly posted in geography, gram
mar, mathematics, orthography and |
chirography. l should have sent him
to school in town in order that he |
might have the rough corners sand
papered down by contact with society. |
If he had any musical talent I'd en-
courage it. I'd allow him so much |
money per week, and advise with him |
until he could spend it intelligently. |
I'd get him good clothes and encourage
him to be neat and tasteful in dress.
could not have done this had been |
pin-poor, but eight out of ten of our
farmers could do even better, When |
my boy came home he would find at
least one good daily paper in the house,
backed by literary weekly, an agri- |
cultural journal, magazine and a
scientific publication. The farm
should be mapped, every field NUM-
bered, and we'd open q book account |
to show how many dollars and days |
work were expended for certain re-
turns. My boy should be my business
partner. We'd read together, discuss
and plan together, and while endeav- |
ored to make him feel his responsible.
ity, | should do nothing to make him /
lose his independence.
''Such ideas read well. but you d run
your farm into the hands of the sheriff /
within three years.
See here, my farmer friend, let me /
give you few facts. The average
farmer shortens the services OF his 1unl-
Der wagon one year by leaving it. out
in the sun and the dew. His plow
would last one year longer if kept /
painted and sheltered. For tho want
of n little attention his harness wears
out only half its days. His barns and I
sheds 90 to rack for the want Of paint
Where the hoof-rot could be stopped in
the first sheep if he were posted, he
stops it in the thirtieth. The farmer
who gets his agricultural hints from
the almanac loses his hogs by the chol-
era, his fowls by the pip, and his horses
slobber from his gate to the village
store and back. Let man run your
farm on business principles and the
fence corners would not take up four
acres out of every forty; there would /
be no old box-drains about the house to
bring typhoid fever and doctors bills.
Those leaks in the roof of the barn
would not spoil three or four tons OF
hay next year; the want of an cave
trough on the house woIed not cave in
the cellar walls; the first sign OF dis
ease among the live stock would be
promptly treated; tools and imple-
ments of every sort should be carefully
housed, and
Well, am goins to shock you. I'd i
have the harness oiled and buggies and
wagons washed once week. I'd have
q lawn about the house, and make q
display of flowers and shrubs; I'd give
q party now and then, and I'd encour-
age meetings of farmers once or twice
:, "a A. Sal- Ok n
freights or jaw politics, but to post
each other on farm work and the best
way to manage it.
But about the boyf Intelligence and
energy rightly applied to farm labor
would give every farmers boy holi-
day in every week of the year. Let
him 90 fishing or hunting, or SWIM
ming or riding. Let him 60 to town
and consult buyers and sellers and i
post up. Let him have books and pa
pers and tools. Give him chance to
earn something and to own something, &
Surprise him some day BY the state-
me11t that he is not slave whose only
return for his hard work are slop
clothes. cheap fare and poor lodgings.
Surprise him still more BY asking his
opinion now and then, and By giving
him 4 chance to prove his theories.
Our best and brightest public men
were the sons of farmers, but in too
many cases they either ran away or
were driven nom home. Had they re-
nnained they would have never been
known outside the county u Qxad
The Orange Tree.