The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-26
The Farmers Son.

It seems necessary to repeat with con siderable frequency that agricultural col leges do not educate their students away from the land. Farm boys who leave these institutions or other schools and engage in mercantile or professional life instead of returning to their home to become prac- tical farmers either have divorcement from the soil gradually forced on them or possess an innate desire, which should never be suppressed Off it could) to follow another occupation.
 To trace the influences which largely are responsible for the decreasing dissertation of farms by the young men reared on them is to go directly to their homes. Education away from the farm begins that that period in the boys life when he is introduced to tasks and toll that are as far beyond his youthful strength they are irksome and monotonous. wearisome routine. which need not analyze. supplemented with despotic restraints against which any nor nal boy will instinctively rebel. are wholly capable of making a village or city clerk of the lad who might otherwise honor the vocation stigmatized by his father.
 Long hours of hard work, scant cash al- lowances If any. denial of social pastimes, shoddy clothes. unsanitary. ill-kept. book less, cheerless rooms in which to sleep and the absence of partnership interest in his fathers business are the sufficient factors which render farm slavery extremely pugnant to any ambitious boy. Dislike for agriculture is a perfectly natural character
 stic of the young man brought up in these circumstances. Eagerness to escape from this form of serfage and enjoy some of the liberties and pleasures which other fields seem to offer is a part of his education on the farm Every year of his prosaic life strengthens his early formed conviction that the lot of the farmer Is unspeakably hard. Participation In the farming operations in consideration of very few clothes, three meals per day and a place to sleep soon strikes the reflective boy as a very one sided case of reciprocity.
 Literally. there are boys whose reasons for wanting to leave their farm homes are quite similar In foundation to those of the ancient bondsmen who constantly sought liberation from the hand of regal oppres- sion. Wherefore the conclusion is inevit- able that most of the country boys who seek city life with its larger opportunities for the expression of their real selves do not leave the land much from inherent choice as from compulsion. They are not drawn
 away by the attractions of raban life, but driven away by the unreasonable hardships, deprivations and hollowness to which they l are subjected on the farm.
 Just in proportion to the progress of az ricultural education has been the decrease in the cityward movement of young men reared on the farms. Farmers who know how to treat their live stock and their land should know how to treat their sons
 Good stock is almost invariably found in the possession of good men and is significant that on stock farms sons succeed fathers in cases. as history tells us, to the fifth and sixth generations.
 There is only one way for the farmer to
 make a farmer of his son: That is to make
 him first his confident and then his busi-
 ness partner soon the boy can appre- | ciate this relation and share it's advantages. pecuniary and otherwise. Assumption of responsibilities at an early age creates an interest and rssourcefulness in the boy
 which are absolutely essential to his success
 as a farmer. At Fl years of age a farm. raised boy ought to have had at least six years of practical business experience as a farmer. Instead, the probabilities are that at this age he knows farming only as a hired man knows it. He has worked only with his hands. He knows nothing of the receipts and expenditures of the farm. only he knows that precious little has been ex- pended on him. He perhaps does not know how to fill out a blank draft attend to any of the most rudimental affairs con- nected with the business management of the farm.
 A farm boy not have proper interest in his fathers business unless be is first told all about 1t and has a part to play in its management. Enjoying an intimate knowledge of its affairs and sharing the profits as well the losses of the farm and treated with the consideration and respect to which a partner he is entitled. a farmers son will never have the inclination or an excuse to abandon the land unless his health should require a change. It is an easy matter to keep the boys on the farm | where there is no constant though un- conscious effort to drive them away. Model Chicken Farm Profitable Investment. Savannah News.
 A model chicken farm which has been conducted only six monthst but ~naS" "