The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-04-22
STICK TO THE FARM.

Mr.. EDIToR:-Stick to the farm,
young man, now when land is cheap:
es, when land and it's products, the
true wealth of the nation, are within
your control. When corn, wheat,
hay and all of the products of the
farm are always in demand at very
good price, while the wages of the
farm laborer are always the last to be
affected by fluctuations of business
or political affairs, have advanced
comparatively little if any. Now while
the farmer is rapidly gaining the re-
spect and wealth and influence due to
his position as "lord of the land"
Be- not induced to leave your honorable
and independent place by the whis-
perings of ambition urging you to
seek for wealth or ease in city life.
Young man you are tempted to put
off the hard work of the farm to be-
come a clerk in city shop; to put off
your heavy boots and homespun
shirts and be gentleman behind the
counter. You by birth and education
intended to be a manly and upright
citizen, to be your own boss and to
call no man master. You would first
become an errand boy of shop, to
pitch and carry like a Spaniard; then
as salesman to fill place which at
best a girl would fill much better, to
bow and smile and cringe and fatter
to attend upon the wishes of every
painted and powdered form of hu-
manity, to bow and humbly suggest
to rakes and harlots as we'll as to
starched and ruf1ed respectability.
What color and fabric becomes the
form and complexion of each, and
finally to become a trader, a ward
iper of Mammon; as Carlisle says a
kind of human beaver that has learnd
the art of ciphering, compelled to look
anxiously at the price current of cot
ton and coffee in order to learn each
morning whether you are bankrupt
or not, and in the end to fail and
compromise with your creditors and
you conscience and sigh for your ma.
tive home and grieve for pleasures
you once enjoyed on the farm.
Boys, before you take this step let
me ask you to compare a city life
with that of your neighbors. His
farm, however small, his cellar is al
ways filed with such vegetables as
he wishes for his consumption, his
smokehouse full of barrels of beef
and pork of his own slaughtering, his
grainery is full of corn, wheat and
oats, his COWS yield him all the milk
and butter he wishes to use, and so /
might go on down the list, but now
we will look at our city friend who
has everything to buy he consumes.
He buys one peck of potatoes for
thirty cents, beef at ten or twelve,
butter at twenty five, eggs at fifteen,
chickens, not larger than a robin, at
twelve or fifteen cents, and so on to
the end of the chapter, but this is
enough. You see there is no life more
full of luxury and pleasure than farm
life.
Sometimes l think the fathers of
these unfortunate boys are to blame
for the mistakes their boys have
made in leaving the farm and going
to town.
1t is the duty of every farmer to
get his boy interested in his own
business on the farm, learn him indus
trial pursuits, economical habits and
all the methods of improvement, and
then give him the advantage of a
liberal education, educate him so that
he may be able to make his living
by work and not that he may be able
to make it without work. Learn
your boys to love the farm from the
cradle.
The following lines give truthful
picture of farm life:
Come see the farmer at his harvest nome,
When garden, field and till
COnspre with flowing stores to fill
His barn and granery.
His heaIthful children gaiy sport
Amid the new mown hay,
Or proudly aid with vigorous arm.
His tasks as best they may.
The harvest giver is his friend,
The maker of the soil.
And ca tn, the mother, gives, them health,
And cheers their patient toll.
Come ioin them around their hearth,
The heartfelt pleasures see;
And you can better judge how Olest
The farmers life may be-.
JOHN KENERLY.