The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-11-02
Farm and Firm Life.

ID. P. McEachern in Notes and
Comments" printed in the Red
Springs Citizen makes the follow
ing observations on farming and
farm life.
I'VE don't suppose there has ever
been more gush and slush written
on any one subject than that of
farming and farm life. Talk about
back to the farm" is about as
silly as to talk about going back
to the poor house. People that
about farm life are the people who
know the least about it. Poets
have sung about its beauties, and
novelists have written of it's many
enjoyments and pleasures. until
one would think that it was the
only life worth living, but we who
have been there know that the
birds may sing and the flowers
may bloom, but until huckleberries
ripen and the horse apple is bea-
| ten into cider, there is very little
outside of hard work that comes to
the average farmer. But seriously,
as we have said before, people are
not coming back to their farms af-
| ter once leaving them, and why?
| People are not naturally gregarlous
in their natures, and are more hap
py and contented when touching ell
bows. The feelings of isolation on
farm are something repellant to
our better selves, and We naturally
long for something to break the
monotony and lonesomeness that
hangs like a pail over the farm.
Where one has been raised to such
surroundings it becomes after a
while endurable, like the prisoner
in jail, with no hope of relief. and
besides the farmer has never known
any other condition of life"
No doubt Mr. McEachern express
es the sentiment of many people to-
day, but we believe that the major
ity belong either to those who
know nothing of farm life as Mr..
McEachern sees it, or the poets and
noVelists who are enabled to eX-
press themselves in words as only
a few minds and hearts can, live
their lives out in every day work
on the farm. Farming is like all
other work-you get out of it what
you put in it. All work is the
same, the difference being in the
variety.
AS for the monotony and dullness
If farm life, it is governed by
ones capacity to live. The man
who can find life in nothing but
local politics and baseball should
be put in a Psychological squirrel
cage, where the restlessness of
his own mind will furnish him au-
tomatically with the desired excite
ment.
Another thing about farming to-
day is that 1t uses brain as well as
muscle. 1t requires system, fore
sight and technical knowledge of
plant. soil and cultivation to farm
to the best advantage. 1t requires
of one closer neighborship on the
farm than ever obtained in the
largest cities or livest towns.
Life OH the farm outside the
work-what is It? It is what one
cares to make of it; what ones
capacity to live will let him get out
of it. To whom could the knowl-
edge of chemistry, botany and BIZ
ology, astronomy and physics offer
more attractions than to the farm
er? To whom could literature, his
tory and poetry offer more pleasure
than to the farmer? Where can
the home-life, so necessary to the
preservation of high civilization, be
built up and preserved better than
on the farm. Where can strong
men and pure women be reared
easier than on the farm. 1t may be
answered that few farmers know
and fewer still have any use for
the history and literature and
science and new ideals of home life
True,-in a certain way; but in
no wise is it the fault of the farm.
The farmer may not cut as big fig
ure as a literature, but bis life ex-
ample, and contributions to a list
of the worlds great men, shows