The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-11-06
FARMING AS AN OCCUPATION FOR YOUNG MEN,

While a young man may have sc
strong an inclination to some one
trade or business that he really would
be unwise not to make that the OC-
cupation of his life, there are many
who have no such strong tendencies
to guide them in their choice. They
take up with that which offers itself
to them, feeling that they can leave
it does not suit them. The days of
long apprenticeship r over in
this country, and it is not unusual
now to find a young man of 25 who
e. has tried a half dozen different kinds
of business, and has not been sue
cessful in any of them, simply be-
cause they did not especially inter
est him, and he was ready to change
whenever there seemed to be a slack
season for the article he was hoping
to produce, and d better demand for
labor in some other direction.
Our present system of factory work
is partly to be blamed for this. No
man is given a chance to learn how
to produce the finished goods he
helps to make, be it a boot or a
how to do more than a small part,
which by some change in style or in
the machinery used may cease to be
In demand when he most needs
steady employment. This must lead
to a change. even though he has no
fCkleness to cause him to desire new
work and new surroundings.
A half century ago there was little
IN the farmers life that was attrac-
tive to a young man. Those who
remained IN the farm were apt to
do so either because of family ties
which seemed to bind them at
home, or were those who lacked ambi
ton, energy or ability to find employ
ment elsewhere. Few cared to come
to the farm who were not born and
brought up there, while cities and
manufacturing towns were filled with
farmers son and daughters who
were seeking for easier and more re-
munerative employment than they
found at home.
1t was not necessary to seek far to
find the cause Of this. The hours Of
furm labor were long during the
greater part Of the year Nearly
every task indoors or out called for
strength rather than skill, and perse-
yeranCe more than Judgment. A
might be obtained, and some
managed to accumulate property,
but there was little money to be
handled, and it really seemed as if it
was a life of hard toll and little COM
pensatiOn. The change of seasons
brought some change of work, vet it
was mOnOtOnOuS. No machinery
frightened labor, and there were but
few amusements, excepting during
the long winter evenings. The farm
erS and their wives who worked dur
ing the hours Of daylight had little
chance for s~ociability, and little to
interest them outside of their own
affairs.
To-day farming is far different
from what it was as we remember it.
Machinery has been introduced so
that horse or steam power are doing
those things which were then done
by human strength. Skill to direct
and guide 7 in demand, and mus
Cuiar power is not severely taxed in !
the days labor. Even the few tools ]
which survive from that day, the ,
and forks, hoes and shovels. !
are now made so light and perfect
that they seem more like toys than
the implements of hard labor that ;
our fathers used. !
Better animals and poultry have '
come into fashion, and the care of
them becomes an interesting task ,
because we can e how they can be
improved or made more productive
by better methods of feed and care.
n young man who once berins
breeding and growing fine stock is
likely to learn to love them while he
Is watching their development and
Improvement, even almost as we'll