Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-12-25
ADVISES FARM BOYS
TO SHUN CITY.

So very marked has the desertion of
the farm for the town and city by the
country boy because in all parts of the
country of late that earnest attempts
are being made in various quarters to
check the tendency. The National
Grange has taken up the matter and
agricultural publications all over the
country are endeavoring in every way
possible to keep the boys at home. The
Maine Farmer, one of the most infiuen-
tial agricultural papers in New En-
gland, is particularly vehement in the
crusade. In a recent number it had
the following things to say to the boys:
''We don't like to see young men
who have the right stuff in them be-
come mere cogs in the wheels of some
body else's machine. 1t is good deal
to be independent, and remember that
the men who have the ability and
strength to run a great business are to
be found not only on the farms, but in
the towns themselves.
''The country boy seems to have come
to the conclusion that it is a too for
midable task for him to set out to &C.
quire little farm for himself and his
best girl. So he goes to town and en-
cages in some business for which he
has no taste and for which he is not
adapted.
Don't go to town unless you have
some business in view there for which
you are good deal better adapted than
you are for farming. 1t is quite as
difficult to secure home in the town or
a partnership or paying investment in
any of the leading lines of business
there as it is to secure farm. A man
can always do a great deal better in a
business for which he has a sincere lik-
ing than in one for which he must ac-
quire liking. To do something for
which you are not adapted is always
hard; to do that in which you have no
pleasure is always hard, backaching, or
nerve-wearing work.
"Hire out to the best farmer you
can find, giving preference always to
the stock farmer, and the better the
stock the farmer keeps the cheaper the
young man can afford no work for him
the first year or two.
Learn to save money. Twenty-Five
or thirty dollars a month with board
and washing is good pay. better than
the boy of the same ability can get in
town, all things considered. He should
be able to save anywhere from $40 to
$50 month if he will simply cut out
all unnecessary expenses. This may
not be much of start towards getting
this eighty-acre farm, but nevertheless
it is the first and absolutely essential
thing to do. Let him put his money in
the savings bank or loan it out to a
good farmer at interest. The savings
bank is the best place for it the first
year.
''Spend this first years profits on
yourself, not in clothing, nor in a court
ing buggy not on the outside of you
but on the inside, not in luxuries for
the body, but in food for the brain. II
is not necessary for you to begin a
college course to do this. The country
school has not given you a sufficient
education to enable you to enter college
but you can use this money in getting
the best books you can find on the sub
ject of farming; take at least two papers
ian agricultural and stock paper)
make application for the bulletins OF
your experiment station, and for the
bulletins of the department of agricul.
ture, especially on those lines in which
you are particularly interested; study
these. Then arrange to attend the
short course of your agricultural col.
lege."