Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-04-12
RACK TO THE FARMS.

If is stated by those who claim to have
given the subject careful study that the
long financial depression is resulting in
the drifting back to the farms Of many or
those who in boom times were lured by
the hope of quick fortunes and easy
bertbs 10 the towns and cities. 1t is not
held that this movement is very marked,
but we are told that it is gradual and
healthy.
If the movement has reached any APP
probable proportions, and there Is any
assurance that it will continue, it car
ries in it not a little compensation for
the bursting Of the booms," and the
hard times. We fully appreciate that
life on a farm is not bed Of roses, par
ticularly in the South, and under the
changed conditions Of labor. We can well
understand the attractions city life and
employment in a city present for the
vcune man in the country when viewed
from afar. But when the matter is
brought down to rock-bottom' farming,
taken by and through, is the most inde-
pendent vocation in the world.
The farmers have, of course, suffered
their share of the ills attendant upon
financial depression. but 1t is "A serious
orestion whether they would not nave
suffered less If the young men OF the
country had remained on the farms and
given the same intelligent labor 10 build
ing them up that they have been willing
to devote to filing city positions. The
rush of young men from the country to
| the cities and the towns has resulted IN
| overstocking the city and town markets
| in all departments of employment, and in
causing much land to go uncultivated. 1t
| &c true that the cultivation of this land
might not have yielded big profits, but in
many cases it would have yielded support
for more people than viii the average
clerkship.
No: the trouble is that since the civil
war there has been a disposition on the
part of very many of our country friends
| 10 look upon farming as a vocation to be
| followed until something better should
turn lp. rather than as life vocation,
! 10 he made the best of. AS a consequence,
there has been a growing dissatisfaction
| with farm-life-a development on the
farm of the spirit of discomfort and I'M
| rest.
1t must be recognized that under the
| new regime the farmers have had to face
| several conditions well calculated to bring
| about this state of affairs, and that the
exodus 10 the cities and towns was in
sense a natural one. None the less, we
think experience has proved that the
exodus and the view of farm-life that led
TO it are TO be deplored. We think the
| situation to-day sustains this contention.
SO we say that if the young men who
left the farms TO seek fortunes in tho
| cities are drifting back to the country
with an earnest purpose TO build up the
farms and make farming a Network, the
| bursting of the boom bubble and the
long financial depression will, so far as
| Virginia, at least, is concerned, prove an
III wind that will finally blow the whole
State good The building UP Of the farms
Of Virginia will, aside from the economic
! aspect Of the question, result In the re-
storation in large measure of the old So
cial order in the State that made our
country population among the happiest
and most contented people on earth. The
rehabilitation cannot be accomplished
without toll and sacrifice. but the toll
and the sacrifice necessary to its accom-
plishment will lessen lust in proportion