The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1904-11-24

farmers VINO nave farms TO rent usually
make arrangements with their tenants
for the year, or years to come. We
have no doubt a number of our readers
are thinking of renting or selling their
| farms and moving to town. While this
is peculiarly their own business, we
think we are perhaps justified, in view
of good many years experience and
observation, in saying word on the
subject.
| The practice of selling or renting a
farm and moving to town has become
quite general over almost the entire
Mississippi valley. Farmers who do
this are called retired" farmers, and it
is no small tribute to the resources Of
any state or country that the farmers
are about the only class of men engaged
in active employment who are able to
retire after they have pa sed middle
life. The merchant, the lawyer, and
the doctor seldom retire. The office
holder seldom retires voluntarily, but,
fortunately, he is often retired"
This problem of whether he should
retire and move to town is one of the
most serious that ever the farmer is
called upon to solve. Generally it in
wolves the entire future of the younger
members of the family; changes, in fact,
their whole course of life. 1t has very
important bearings on the life and hap
piness of the farmer himself. Our
readers who have this problem under
consideration will, therefore, not take it
unkindly if we discuss the subject some
what in detail.
The reasons usually given for moving
to town are various. Those given by
the man over sixty years of age are the
following: First II am too old to do a
full days work on the farm; therefore,
II will retire, move to town, and take
j life easier 1t is~quite true that when
a man passes sixty, or in some cases
fifty, he is much less able to do a hard
days work than before. His joints be-
come stiff, his fingers are all thumbs,
and he gets out of breath when he
chases the fractions horse or tries to
drive the old SOW out of the potato
patch. He tires more readily after q
days blowing, and is convinced, wheth-
er he will or not, that he is growing old.
He has not, however, become useless
on the farm because of any or all of
these things. He has had life time of
experience and observation and has
qualities which the young man has not
had time to acquire. When man thinks
about retiring, his head, if he has used
it. to good purpose, is worth more dol
lars per month to the farm than the
work he can no longer perform as COM
pared with his younger days. The old
mans place is not to do hard days
work but to direct and plan and allow
) others to execute.
This brings up the second reason for
moving to town; namely, it is almost
!, impossible to get help either in the
field or in the house. Unfortunately
this is true. Help never was as scacre
on the farm as it is in 1904, nor has it
ever been of poorer quality. Not be-
cause the young men of today are less
intelligent than heretofore, but because
the improvements in farm machinery
and in methods of feeding and caring
for stock require a higher degree of in
telligence and a greater skill. Farm
ing is fast becoming a profession, or
business, requiring skilled labor.
Formerly we bought muscle when we
hired men; now we buy brains and prac-
tical experience as we'll as muscle
The young men who have not brains
enough to do farm work are being
driven to town to work on the streets
or on the roads, or in some line of bust
ness where they are required to do but
one thing and that becomes automatic
from habit and does itself. Nor is it
likely that things will be any better
soon. The demands on the hired man in
the way of intelligence and skill will be
come greater and greater every year
The time will come before very long
! when labor will be more or less of 8
drug on the market in the town or city
but the labor will be useless on the
farm.
We suggest better way out of the
difficulty than moving to town. Let the
j, man past middle age rent his farm tt
! the brightest young farmer that he car
get hold of, and give him, to use a com
i mon expression, a good "lay.' Let him
: however, retain in his hands the rota
! tion of crops generally, and give direc
4 tions as to how the farm shall be man
! aged. Let him build small but com
p Portable house for himself, retain on,
! team, COW, and enough acres Of Lane
: to keep him busy and go into SOM
+ special line of farming; such, for ex
a ample, as raising seed corn, improving
a grains, breeding improved hogs, o
: poultry, or bee keeping anything t.
. keep his mind busy and keep himself a
q much as possible under the old environ
n ment.
IS The third argument for moving t
g town is: 81 want to give my childre
d the benefit of a tirst-class education.
Now, it is quite true that the countr
school is not what it should be. 1t
equally true that so far as the mere in
1T parting of knowledge is concerned tn
is graded school in the city or town
IN vastly superior. The inferiority, how
Or ever, of the country school and tn
s. superiority of the city school is largel
n the result of the custom of farmer
i, moving to town. The country schoo
" are Comparatively empty; the cit
It. schools are over crowded. Howeve
ut the farmer must bear in mind that ed
t" cation does not consist solely in impair
ing knowledge. That really is but
small part Of it, and the farmer WI
moves to town solely for the purpose
Mt giving his children an education in OF
s. line is quite likely to give them
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