Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-04-28
farm and firesidr.
Why Bows Leave the Farm.


The schultz Township Agricultural
club will argue this question at its
next meeting and the subject is quite
a great one. Truly the keeping OF
the intelligent boys and girls on the
farm is a problem upon which much
of the prosperity Of the south of the
future hinges. However. there is no
doubt that the trend Of the nation
is backward toward the land and con-
sequently many of the best young folk
of the country are going to remain on
the land, or go back to the farms
eventually. 1t is the independent life
and one which every one should covet.
From an editorial some time ago the
Inland Farmer in discussing the sit
uation had the following to say:
Boys brought up on farm show a
stern disposition to desert the country
these days and find employment in
other lines. The professions attract
some Of them, but just now many are
taking up engineering in its various
branches, and in fact almost anything
that will take them away from the
farm 1t is perhaps natural that we
should underrate the things that lie
near us and strive for what, because
of its distance from us, seems better.
Possibly this feeling of unrest and dis
satisfaction was implanted in us for
purpose. Anyway the old injunction,
Doe We next thinge" Is not a rule Of
conduct with u.s.
But when everything is considered
the farmer has a very decided advan-
tage over his fellowmen, and has of
all men least reason for discomfort.
He is practically Independent Of the
rest of the world, and this to an
American means more than it does to
most people. But apart from this he
is so placed that he can, If he will,
live more comfortably than city peo-
Pile He has good air all the time;
he can have wholesome food in va
riety all the time; he runs less risk
of taking contagious and infectious
and frayed by the rattle and rush of
city life.
Why then should a young man de-
sert the farm and deliberately place
himself under a task master as ap-
prentice, mechanic, lawyer or what
not, and submit to discomforts from
which sensible city people are anxious
to escape? There are several reasons.
and they have been discussed repeat
edly, but the writer has more than
once been impressed by one which he
thinks has not been sufficiently dwelt
upon The center of every farm and
it's activities should be the home and
home life. Too often the stable and
pig sty and the meadow become the
centers. Going direct from city homes
to country homes one is frequently
struck by the evident difference In
thought and care bestowed upon the
two, and this is where the resources
of those owning such homes are equal.
The settings of a country dwelling
are, in the first place, rarely what they
could easily be made. A few neglect
ed trees and shrubs placed helter
skelter, a weedy lawn unevenly mow-
ed by calves and other stock, poultry
roaming at will about the house, do
not tend to make an attractive outside
for a home. Why cannot good farm
maintain a generous, we'll clipped
lawn about the house, so as to show
it to advantage to the passing public,
make it delight in the eyes OF its
inmates and the most pleasant abiding
place in the world for them during
the hot summer weather? Why
Oh oll or hn rfO
cluded from this portion of the farm
and everything be made sacred to the
family.
A good garden and a well-kept
orchard should flank every country
home. Why do they not? A town.
bred man yearns for the country that
he may have garden and enjoy an
abundance of good fruit And the
first thing he does when he can Sc
cure a bit of land in the country is
to plant an orchard and fence off a
garden plot. Why do farmers so
often neglect these things?
Within the farm dwellings, too, one
often sees a lack of conveniences, a
lack of comfortable chairs, Of good
beds, of good books and pictures, of
music. of heating and lighting appli-
ances. There is no good reason why
a farm should not have all these
things. 1t is much better to put some
of the savings in them than in the
banks Make the good mother and
the boys and girls happy. If they did
not expect to find greater comfort and
happiness in the city they would not
so often desire to desert the farm.
Make the home and home life so at
tractive that every boy there will
yearn for 1t, and If perchance one
ShOOld now and then eScane tO the
city, that he will later come back,
drawn by the memories of his happy
youth, and urged, it may be, by the
diScnmfnr Of city life -Genrpia-