Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-02-19
FOR THE BOYS.

rive, nc IepIleu, anu dn gong
to make a farmer of every one of 'em."
Glow do you know you are?'
why, they're my boys, amt they,
and I reckon they'll do as I say about
| itr'
''Do they like farming?"
mo matter whether they do or not,
| they we got to work at it. "
The man was what you might call a
representative farmer. He was fairly
educated, more than fairly well off, and
was looked up to in his township. If
anybody had called him stingy or mean
| his friends would have been shocked,
and yet he coolly planned to sacrifice
the future of his five boys from purely
| selfish motives The chances are that
not all of the five would select agricul-
ture as an occupation, or make a sue
cess of it if they did, but this father
wanted their services until they were
each 21 years old, and he had no care
how they turned out after that.
Too many farmers take the same
view of the case. Under the law IA
ther is entitled to the services of his son
until the latter reaches his majority.
Half a century ago no boy began a
trade until he was twenty-One. Now
the majority of them begin at Is or II,
calculating to have their trade finished
at q. If the farmers boy who is de-
termined to learn some trade or pro-
fession must stick to the pillow until he
becomes of age his prospects are great
| ly damaged. He is no longer boy,
and cannot accept a BOYS wages.
| A blacksmith or mason or carpenter
with five sons would not have answer
ed that he was determined to make ev-
cry one of the boys learn his trade.
Had any one suggested such thing he
would have laughed in derision, fully
realizing that he had no moral right to
sit in judgment that way.
During the last six months / have
been hunting for statistics of farmers
and their sons. In that time [ have
talked with at least sixty farmers. only
ten or twelve of whom had any love or
enthusiasm in agriculture. The others
replied to the question with:
Il wanted to learn trade, but father
opposed it, and SO [ had to stay on the
farm"
| Out of the forty-seven men who an
swered me in that way, not one was
rich. All complained more or less
about hard luck and poor crops, and it
was easy to see that they had no heart
in the business. These were the sons
whose selfish fathers had compelled
them to become farmers. Of the 9th
ers all were we'll off, CHEEKY and con-
tented and full of pluck. These were
the men who had taken up agriculture
from choice. Of the fifty or sixty farm
er's boys whom [ interviewed not more
| than ten intended to stick to the farm
| The others wanted to learn trades or
| professions.
There is one particular point in
which the average farmer is contempt
IDLY mean with his boy He sets him
self up as a standard. If he didn' t
want so and so why should his boy? If
! he had to turn out of bed at a. M and
work until dark why should his boy be
spared? He didn't have decent suit
or fine boots or any spending money,
and why should his offspring 90 into
such extravaganza? The farmer who
reasons that way has a selfish motive
under it. He knows as well as other
| people that the boys of to-day cannot
| be and are not treated like the bows of
fifty wears ago. He will admit that his
father wore a hickory shirt without a
collar to meeting, while he must have a
white one well starched and adorned
with collar and necktie, but he won't
admit that his son has any right to i'm
| prove on him.
If boy feels enthusiastic to learn to
| be printer, harness-maker or wood
engraver no father with any sense in
| his head will command the boy to learn
the trade of a stone-mason. Why. then,
| should a farmer decide that his son,
! who has exhibited a taste for mechan-
les, spoil his whole life by ordering him
| to stick to the farm? If a boy who
wanted to learn the carpenters trade
is made to learn the harness-mahcr's
and thereby becomes botch workman,
why shouldn't a farmers son who
| ought to have been an architect, make
a poor farmer? He certainly will, fig
ure it as you may.
[ have a letter from resident of AL
ALBANIA who says he hated farm work
| and ran away to escape it. His father
wanted him to be farmer and he
wanted to be something else. The boy
| ran away. anu Is HOW comparatively
rich and doing well. He reasons that
farmers sons should run away to get
along in the world. The idea is per-
nicious and altogether wrong. The
chances for a runaway boy are not one
in hundred. The bare fact of his
having run away is enough to condemn
him in the eyes of all honest men. Out
of fifty who run away not more than
one or two will stand any show of sue
cess.
Let the farmers son seek to discover
what his taste runs to. If to agricul-
ture, he should be given fair show.
He should have the best of agricultural
papers and every chance to improve on
the system his father has worked under.
Some of the land and the live stock
should be his. and he should be to a