University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-10-21
The Farmer's S Chance.

and coming to the cities to live. No
one appreciated the seriousness of
that statement until few days ago
when the word came out from Wash
ington that the rural districts of Mis-
souri, had decreased in population III
the last ten years and the cities had
shown proportionate increase.
The situation is serious because the
farmers are the great producers of
food and when they give up their
work, they are giving up the most
important work in all the world Men
can live without a great number OF
things the city produces, and the
things the farmer are coming to help
produce, but they cannot live with
out the things the farmer is neglect
ing.
1t wouldn't be fair to assume, per-
haps, that farms are being neglected,
but it is clearly evident they are not
receiving the attention they deserve
and the attention the world is will
ing to pay the farmer for wing them.
This great problem of .uoDe ern civili-
cation, the food problem, must be
worked out on the farm. 1t may
seem that there is too much civiliza-
ton, and not enough of the priml-
tive, but that is not the idea. Civil
iyafinn iS hpnnn,inc.
and the farm is not getting its share.
We need a wider spread of intelIi-
gence. Study should not be confined
to what are known as the centers of
culture and learning. AS much study
is needed on the farm as in the office
Of the physicist.
Why are farmers moving to the cit
les?
The farmer has the wrong notion OF
prosperity. He has wrong concep-
tion of success. Success with the
farmer is too often the acquiring of
a home in the city. He hopes for
that as his reward. He is looking
forward to the day when, after ac-
cumulating little fortune, he can give
up the farm with its drudgery, it's
long hours of work, isolation from So
ciety, its dreary surroundings, poor
conveniences and advantages; take
Mary Jane, stopped and faded after
years Of toll, and Saliie and John, off
to the city with all it's splendors and
luxuries.
/ That is the trouble. The farmers
face is turned the wrong way. He has
SKINNED over the soil with too little
understanding of its treatment. He
has regarded his work as miserable
necessity and never thought of the
possibility of making it a great joy.
He has done too little to make farm
life easier and more pleasant. OF
course, he is sick and tired of it.
Could not the farmer give little
more attention to the improving of
his roads than he has done and thus
shorten the distance between himself
and those about him? He might make
his neighborhood more compact that
way. He has failed to appreciate and
make the most of his situation. He
should regard the farm as his home,
his permanent home, and, as such, the
best place in all the world. Regarding
IL nn1U bic h.
only a half interest in its work.
Farming is only a matter of intel
ligence and is a great science. 1t
presents problems that men may well |
afford to spend whole lives in solving.
1t is great field for intelligent study. |
The farmer, settling down to battle |
with these problems, might have much |
that is pleasant. A whole world of |
opportunities for happiness and pleas
ure are before him. He may make |
the rural community a city of advan-
tagas with all the unwholesome fea-
lures of the city left out.
Farmers. working comparatively may
Dulid schoolS suited to the peculiar
needs of the farmer boy and girl.
There is need in the rural communi-
ties of churches, directed by men as
pastors trained fro the work of the
country ministry.
The farmer must have not only i'm
proved machinery on the farm, bit
in the household as well. He must
save for these things. Instead of car
rying his home to the city, with it's
costly living, he can select much the
city affords and bring it to the farm.
The same convenient means of trans
portation that make it so easy for
the farmer to be carried away from
the farm may be used instead in bring
ing much that is good to the farm