The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1890-08-28

OF 1851. IneSo ngureS were TecelVeu
from Hon. Mark Sternberger, Super
visor of the census for this district, and
while they are not absolutely correct
they do not differ materially from the
official result. A very startling fact and
one not calculated to give breath to our
smile il the discovery that in ten years
the population of Highland county has
fallen off 1922. Only three townships
show any increase, one Of the three,
jackson, showing a asin of only IA,
while Madison township has gained 81,
and Liberty 2O5. The two townships in
which there has been any considerable
gain are those in which the villages OF
Greenfield and Hillsboro are situated.
From figures that have been given out
before it may be presumed that Hills
boro has gained about 900 and Green.
field 500. If Greenfield has gained 500
it would indicate a loss OF of 400 in Madi-
son township outside of the town. If
Hillsboro has gained 900 it would indi-
cate loss OF 395 in Liberty township
outside the town. Supposing the
smaller villsges to have neither gained
nor lost, the total loss outside the towns
would be not 1922 but 2l26 In other
words this figure would show the actual
ivss Of population in the rural districts
ui lie county 1t is not improbable,
however, that some OF the villages have
made slight gains, 80 that decrease OF
In, agricultural population of consider
lu'licdted. This lendcnc.. in ,ln'c''nrtr
o.,jricts 10 leave the farm a,, -"iher
Into the towns has been observed in dill.
ferent neighborhoods, though its extent
was hardly suspected. In one part OF
the county it is said that as many as fifty
persons could be named who had within
short period moved from the farm
into towns. A very large number of
young men with their families have re-
moved from this county to Springfield,
O., within the last five years, and a large
part of the increase OF Hillsboro and
Greenfield has been from the rural dis
tricts of the county.
Some of the causes of this movement
are not far to seek. The invention of
labor saving machinery has supplied the
demand for farm labor, while the conse.
quent increase OF manufacturing in the
towns has created a demand for it there.
An army OF men is no longer needed to
harvest and thrash field of wheat. 1t
now common spectacle to see one man
driving three or four horses to plow or
binder, whereas, within the memory Of
one not very old there would be seen a
man for each horse. 1t is not long since
the planting of row of corn required
man and horse with furrow plow, boy
and horse with log, boy or man to
drop and a strong man and horse with
a jumping or covering plow to bring up
the rear. This picturesque procession is
now replaced by single man with a
team who works faster and to better
purpose. What then has become of the
other two men, the other horse and the
boy? They have gone to Springfield or
Canton to work in the shops. The truth
illustrated in this example will apply to
almost every other phase OF agricultural
work.
The labor which before was expended
directly upon the wheat and corn under
the summer sun is now applied to the
construction OF the machinery which is
to perform that same labor in shorter
way. Is not that man doing farm work
after all, who hammers out a acontrivance
during the winter months ich shall
harvest the wheat or cultivate the corn
on the farm next summer. Perhaps
if the total amount of energy requir.
ed to produce the machine and to op.
crate it were weighed against the labor
expended in the old,fashioned way the
sums would be equal. If this should be
true it would only verify the great law
of the correlation OF forces and not sur
prise us.
The fact then of great decrease in
our farming population, though it may
be significant, is not dismaying. 1t may
cause regret-not that they have left
the country, but that they have left the
county. Those people who have left
the country for the town or city have
more regular and systematic employ
ment than they wonld have 's laborers
on the farm. Their wants are in all
cases greater, SO that the consumption
of products is increased and greater
market created. Much OF the lament
that is seen in agricultural journals over
the decadence of the farming population
is mere sentiment. The farm laborer
who has no ow iershlp in the growth of
the land will lead simpler life and
have fewer wants from the fact that he
..,,x f.1,, annkonk x,,;tl