Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-05-16
Bows Leaving the Farm.

Correspondents of agricultural papers
in various parts of the country report
that an unusually large number Of boys
have left their farm homes during the
past winter and present spring to seek
employment in towns, or to engage
in the business of transportation or
mining Many speak of this discon-
tent of farmers sons as alarming.
Some refer to it as calamity. A Yer
mont paper declares that the most of
the farms in that state are worked by
French Canadians the present season.
1t states that not one boy in ten who
were raised on farms intend to remain
on them. They form their plans to
leave before they have put on long
pants. A Maine paper presents a
worse condition of affairs. 1t states
that hundreds of good farms within a
few miles of manufacturing towns are
offered for sale at about the cost OF the
buildings on them. They find no pur-.
no inclination on the part of young men
to engage in farming.
In the West there is certainly a
strong desire on the part of both young
and old men to obtain farming land for
nothing. They are willing to comply
with the letter if not with the spirit of
the homestead prescriptions or timber
culture act in order to acquire title to
a tract of farming land. How many of
them will remain on the land to which
they acquire title remains to be seen.
That many of them never have any
thing more than nominal residence
on the land to which they set up
claim seems certain. It is also certain
that men of means show little DISPOSE
ton to engage in farming as a bust
ness. They are convinced that it does
not pay like other pursuits to which
Many state that money invested in
farm mortgages pays much better than
that invested in farms. A very large
number of wealthy farmers In all parts
Of the country have come to the con-
clusion that it is to their advantage to
lease their places and live on the rent
obtained from tenants. They find it
pleasanter as we'll as easier to live In
town.
That boys under these circumstances
should think it is to their advantage to
find some more promising occupation
than farming is not surprising. They
are only following the example set by
their forefathers. All the conversation
they hear is discouraging. In many
cases they see the best farmers in the
UOWu lGdNIIlS UuS1I pIdCcS dHel SOlHS W q
village to live. Their farms are occu-
pied by tenants, who are generally
foreigners. They do not find them to
be companionable, and they desire
pleasant and intelligent associates. The
desire for pleasure, as we'll as the hope
of lettering their financial condition
causes them to look for some other oc-
cupation than farming. Boys are not
likely to be very enthusiastic about en-
gaging III a business that is spoken
lightly of by those who have been bred
in it, Farmers boys are not likely to
know that there are discouragements in
other pursuits. They look at the dark
side Of farming and the bright side of
everything else. They see the country
at its worst and the city at its best
They are unacquainted with the con-
finement and misery of the latter.
Other things have exerted an infu-
ence in causing boys to desire to leave
farms. The demand for laborers has
been reduced by the introduction of
machinery. The raising of field crops
has, in many sections, given place to
dairying and meat productions, which
REQUIRES a smaller number of men.
Persons who own large farms study
how to dispense with human labor as
far as possible. AS far as they can they
substitute horses and machines for