The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1911-07-21
THE NEW FARM-BOY.
Reasons for Thinking That He'll Stay
on the Farm.

The new farm boy lives in a thir,
dispensation. The sciences began t
take hold of the land at least so year
ago, but there was an otf-clearing nee
essary. The transition period was pro
tracted, mainly because the land wa
already in possession of a race of farm
ers that must die off. The agriculture
college applied the sciences to tillag,
and to crops and to animal life on the
farm 25 years ago. 1t was slow work
not only to awaken the farmer but Il
investigate, discover, and then to ap
ply. The age is now rapidly falling into
the hands of men who are alive to the
great fact that production has never yet
approached its maximum. The orchard
has, all this while, thanks to moths and
caterpillars, become more and more an
chronological laboratory. Gradually il
| has come about that not thing can
! be grown on the land without fight
This has not by any means been a per
manent loss, but has Weakened a spirit
J of scientific examination and deter
mination to master conditions. The
microscope and the crucible are as nee
essary today as the pillow and the hoe.
| The farm-bOv is not without stimulus,
nor is he without interesting conditions;
rather it will now take the brighter
boys to do the farming.
The development of farm machinery,
and the application of new forces on the
land has gone on at the same time. The
Mccormick reaper may be credited with
having opened the procession, that Just
now is marked by electric plows. doing
the work of 80 or 40 men; while the
steam thresher goes from barn to barn
covering a whole township In every
department of the home. in the house as
well as in the barn, machinery takes the
place of men, and the help problem is
now driving us to still more complete
age of mechanism. Our brooks are com
PEELED to light and heat our houses, and
run our barn machinery. Telephones
connect the remotest homestead with
the town, and with the metropolitan
markets. The trolley is not far away at
any time and the automobile belongs to
the village more than to the city.
There is no lot on earth so env1able
today as that of an American farm-boy
or girl. He has room, fresh air, beauti
full surroundings, while the arts and sci
ences are involved in his work, and isola-
ton is absolutely abolished. Now that
the conditions are ennobled the young
sters themselves must be of a new sort;
their education must be inspiration.
They must learn to know new sort of
facts. and their emotional natures must
be attuned to Nature. Ine town Scn00l
as graded is now almost equivalent to a
college, while the agricultural college
offers both boys and girls winter courses
at trifling cost. Every day the coun-
try home is increasing its relative ad
The trolley without poles and
without wires is not far off, and it does |
not seem improbable that the wireless |
telephone will cover most of the needs |
Of the country home. The rural carrier |
will soon bring parcels, and carry them
as well. Market rates the countryman
can learn every morning by phone, and |
the boy does not need to be born at the
centers in order to have
A daily view of the world affairs.
Nothing can be gained any longer by
the farm. 1t stands for every,
hing that is attractive, wholesome, and
but at the same time it stands
'or the new and the stimulating. Coun-
nv life cannot be made dull, unless it
vilfully sewers itself from advantages
hat are freely offered. The city clerk
las close confinement, monotony of de-
all, and not often anything else to show
or it but clean hands and clever wit.
lie does not have the freedom of action
IT of choice that is in country. work.
The country boy no longer need be any
ess of a gentleman than the city bred.
t looks now as if suburbanism would
axe in a very large part of the whole
and -Independent.