Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-22

and Sunday, but the larger number are
not expensive machines. They are most
ly lightweight. low-power patterns Of
last year. made expressly for country
them are high geared, so as to pass
over roads which are cut deep with ruts
by heavy wagons. There are many
$500 and $3.50 machines sold throughout
requirements of the farmers families as
well as touring car worth 5000 But
many farmers insist upon having the
best machines they can get. and you pass
them upon the road every day.
While it may be considered extrava-
CANT for farmer to buy an automobile,
he has earned the money and deserves
the satisfaction. and SO long as a man
will get up in the morning at o'clock
and milk half a dozen cows before
every evening after supper by the light
of a lantern. he is not in much danger
of becoming a sybarite. Nor is there
much danger Of farmer losing his
head and becoming spendthrift when
he is compelled to earn his automopIe
and other luxuries by the sweat of his
brow. 1t is SO difficult to obtain farm
labor OF any kind at any wages In nearly
every part of the country that the
owner of the land is compelled to work
fact accounts for SO many lone crop
FARMS" which require attention only a
portion OF the year-during the sOmmer
months-and can be abandoned for more
agreeable surroundings after the har-
vest.
Keeping Young People on Farms.
The Introduction of automobiles, like
the telephone. the rural delivery and
other modern conveniences, is making
the farmers life worth living. and is ex-
ercising the strongest influence in keeping
the young people on the farm and in
drawing them back from the cities. Farm
life has been undergoing a very great
change: While that change has no.
reached all OF the rural population of the
country. 1t has made a decided difference
In the lives of a large minority by lessen
ing their labor and increasing the pleas
ures Of life. This is particularly the case
west. 1t would take something more than
an earthquake to alter the hereditary
habits and customs of New England and
other of the eastern states, although even
in those sections farm life Is by no means
so dreary and lonesome as 1t used to be
since their is daily mail and a daily
newspaper laid on the doorstep and q
trolley car to take the women and girls
to town. without compelling the father or
husband to leave his pillow in the furrow
or take the team off some other work.
The greatest progress. the largest num-
Der OF innovations in agricultural settle
ments are in the west, the new commune
ties that have sprung up upon the irri-
gated land, and in the rich valleys where
orchards and other fruit crops are paying
such large profits.
In letter from Twin Falls, Idaho, not
long ago. / described how much electric
ity was being used in the farm houses:
how the farmers wife not only read
novels from circulating library by an
electric lamp. but did her washing and
ironing. churned her cream and washed
her dishes by electric power One farmer $
wife told me that she did everything but
milk the cows and make honey by cleo
tricity.
Pleasure Of Canned Music.
AS one rides around the rural districts
out west he frequently hears the voices
OF Caruso or Schumann-Heink coming
floating out to the roadside from the par
Tor windows, half concealed by bunch
of evergreen trees, and If he will stop his
horse by the roadside he will undoubted-
~ have the pleasure Of listening to one
o. Sousas marches or the famous SEX
tet from Lucia which seems to be a
great favorite among phonograph owners
In the west. When a farmer comes In
tired from the field nothing rests him so
much as to sit on the porch and light his
pipe and listen to little canned music"
as they call 1t. In several places 1 Wis
tied this summer out west / was told
that 80 per cent Of farmers families had
monographs and 10 per cent of them had
automobiles; and II the prices and har-
vests OF the last few years are repeated