The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1906-11-17
THE FARM-HEIp PROBLEM.
BIZ vALANcEY Z. FULLER.

BIZ vALANcEY Z. FULLER.
At the meetings of the farmers in
stitutes there is no question so often
put in the question box as, How can
we secure and keep proper farm
heip9" twenty-five years ago this
difficulty did not confront the farmers
to anything like the extent existing
today. Then the boys of the families
remained on the farm, and were not
above aiding their fathers in their
farm work. The daughters were satis-
fed to help their mothers in the dairy
and kitchen and to join with the men
and boys on the farm in milking the
cows and doing the chores.
The farmers themselves are not
blameless in this matter. They allow
their boys, when they return from the
schools, to drive about the farm and
the adjoining country in rubber-tired
buggies, behind high stepping or fast
horses. Then, on the other hand,
the mothers consider that it demeans
the daughters to work in the kitchen
and help in the dairy with the milk
ing, or at the other chores which girls
of twenty five years ago were expect
ed to attend to, and did willingly.
Instead, the daughter presides at the
piano, and in place of waiting on the
table, allows her mother the privilege
of waiting on the whole family, her
self included. Instead of showing
respect for and desire to help their
parents the majority Of girls and boys
on the farms of today lack in both
these qualities which used to be con-
sidered essential.
The basic cause of this condition of
affairs on the farm is that the farmer
does not realize that his calling is a
profession, one of the highest in the
land, and one of the noblest of all
one that brings him nearer to nature
than men in other professions or trades
can ever hope to reach.
The farmer is, too, a proverbial
grumbler. When I was a boy, I re-
member, during year of most bounti-
full crops, visiting with my father,
farmer, who said, during a conversa-
ton in which my father spoke of the
great blessing of such a lavish har-
vest, that the crop of wheat was so
great that it would not stand upright
for him to harvest. The strange part
of it was that he said it in complain
ing manner and this, have found,
is characteristic of many farmers.
Then, too, in this era of the illus
trated Sunday paper and cheap books,
the farmers boy gathers that there
awaits him in the city life of pleas
ure. He knows, of course, that he
must work to make his way, but it is
not the idea of working in the busy
hive that lures him cityward it is
the idea of participating in scenes of
pleasure that he has never known ex-
cept by reading of them, and which
have all the glorious hues which an
ticipation, in league with imagina-
ton, can dash. on the canvas of the
future. He fancies, too, that he can
make more money, at faster rate,
in the city than he can hope to on
the farm; and he seldom stops to con-
slider that his expenses in the city
will be many times what they ever
could be in the country. The mass
of farm boys who come to the cities
are sadder and wiser before many
moons are past; but they will not,
| for shame's sake, admit it, except in
few cases. There are few, it is
true, who make their mark, but they
are in the minority; the majority
plod along on the dead level of medic
Gritty, and often long for the smell of
the fresh-ploughed earth. the new
mown hay, and the countless, intan-
gible sweet scents of summer in the
country; the sound of the lowing of
the cattle; the call of the birds, and
the kindly interest that those in the
country always show in their neigh
bors, but which is not to be found in
the city.
We hear much of the fads and frills
of our system of education and this
is not confined to the city, but ex-
tends in a great measure to rural
schools. In the rural schools too
much attention is given TO educating
the farmers boy along lines which
do not attach him to the farm.
The Province of Ontario long ago
recognized this weakness In the rural
educational system, and adopted for
use in the public schools form of
primary education ir agriculture and
in elementary chemistry as applicable
to the farm, to the end that there
should be instilled in the minds of the
sons and daughters of farmers the idea
that farming was not matter OF
mere drudgery and hard work, but a
science and brain work as far as they
could be applied to farming opera
tions, and thus give them desire to
follow in their fathers footsteps.
am glad to say that the Board of
Education of this State is beginning
to realize the necessity for work of
this kind, and has prepared sylia-
bus for teachers in which the outline
is given for teaching agriculture, soil,
fruit-growing, poultry raising, dairy
ing and animal husbandry by theory
and observation.
A good groundwork having been
prepared the pupils are ready, in the
sixth year, to take up the study of
real agriculture, dealing with the
farmer and his work in the commu-
nifty. This they are taught thoroughly
including the local agriculture the
farmer; the farm and home; the