The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-02-07
FARMER & MECHANIC.
WHY THE BOY SHOULD STAY on
THE FARM.
(MarShVille Home

The efforts that are being put forth
to keep boys on the farm should be
encouraged by everybody, both coun-
try and city jewellers. 1t is a step in
the right direction. Many boys have
become physical. mental and moral
wrecks by choosing city life and be-
coming poisoned with the vice that
these large centcrs of population af-
ford, when if they had remained or
the farm their lives might have been
full of success and happiness. Re-
ferring to the new Industrial rela-
tionships which have been created by
city conditions and machine indus
try, Frederick G. Howe, in Hamp-
tons Magazine. says: over forty per
cent of the people of America live IL
cities. In some of the Eastern States
from sixty to eighty per cent are city
dWellers. Thirty-five millions Of our
people have left the assured indie
I~pendence of the farm to become
cliff dwellers and tenants, employers
and employees. And of our ninety
million population, twenty million are
to be found i'll the great behemoth
industrial and commercial centers. In
little more than a generation THIS
change from farm life to city life
has taken place. Our civilization has
become a city civilization with all or
the e poverty and crime which
\ III IN - P'NSitS otA
crime are not due primarily to the
badness of humanity; they. are due
largely to the new industrial. relation
ships which have been created by city
conditions and machine industry. The
city is Americas problem OF prob
lens. If the city is corrupt, misgoV-
erned and a breeding place for dis
ease, poverty and vice, the nation
| will suffer from these evils. The city
problem is more important than the
tariff or the railway question:: it is
greater than forest conservation, the
army or the navy; greater in its ulti-
mate Significance to the life OF Amer
lea than the immediate work of Con-
gress. the courts, or the President Of
the United States"
If your boy wants to go to the city
to live, tell him that rural life ;s
no longer as it once vas; that the
telephone, daily mail, good schools
and churches and scientific methods
of producing and marketing crops
have turned a different light on the
farming industry. Have him to UNI
derstand tina in the rural districts
the sunshine is brighter. the atmos-
phere purer, the fOod more whole
some and neighbors and friends
truer than in the cities. Don't leave
him alone until he is thoroughly
convinced THAI q course III IL -. "
M. College will fit him for a service
on the farm that is just as honorable
as any position held by city folks
Give him some lessons in nature to
the effect that every article of food
that is used to keep earth's teeming
millions alive must come from old
mother earth, and that a thorough
knowledge of how to make the land
that has been u here by nature
yield her %bountiful supplies is rather
to be chosen than frills and fashions.
Never turn him loose until the idea
Of industrial habits has been exalted
far above the frivolous inclination to-
ward society and dress parade Teach
him that honesty, truthfulnesS. So
briefly and industry are TO be valued
far above any position Of honor and
fame that the large cities afford. and
that the farm is the best plae 70 cult
Vate these virtues.