The Sentinel=record., 1912-09-08
BACK ID FARM
 PLACE FOR BOYS
CITY BOY GOING TO COUNTRY RE- ALIZEs THAT HE HAS WIDE
 OPPORTUNITIES
Country Boy in the City Does Not Find Same Advantages and Usually
 Is DIstanced in Race.

lpopularized by Bolton Hall, author of the delightful little booklets, -Four Acres and Liberty" and "A Little
 Land and Living" was the first chapter in tn economic problem of the Thigh cost of living. We have passed on to another chapter says the Mem phis News Scmitar.
 Such literature was born in bloom in the earlyd avs of the high cost scare" or, to be exact. few years af ter the menace first appeared on the horizon of the economic world. Hall was an enthusiast in those days and l had the interest of the struggling clerk at heart. He advised this in- dividual to go back to nature and the soil. and raise cabbages and flowers, sounded good then. and these little books were real literary treats.
 But the question is, isN the back to the farm" movement an economic ne- cessity? We rather think that 1t Is not. The city clerk the middleaged man and the boy born in the city. where he received his training and his culture, and where he can best serve society and the general public. should remain there. The farms are not calling for middle aged men and boys. because such individuals, amiliar with the luxuries of city life. are un- fit for the farms, either the big farm or the garden farm.
 Farming requires just as much in- ttclligence, individual initiative and ex-
 perience as the commercial businesses
 of the city, and those believing that
 they can run back to the soil, un-
 equipped with agricultural knowledge and experience and succeed, are mis-
 taken. Nor can they get the proper credentials to admit them to the fur
 rows unless they can farm by tutelage or first attend an agricultural col lege.
 The back to the farm movement Is not the proper movement at all.
 Stay on the farm Is the proper
 thing. The crowding of country men
 to the city, and the movement of city men to the country, we believe are
 both economic evils. Keep the boy
 on the farm" should be the keynote
 of the economic battle. Make the
 farms just as profitable and interest ing as the city. That is exactly what | the newspapers, magazines. agricul- tural schools, the department of agri- culture and the various state depart ments of agriculture are seeking to | do
 The city boy going to the country to live feels the solitude, but the coun- try boy sits on the rail fence, com placently smokes his cob pipe, and. like Robinson Crusoe, feels like he is monarch of all he surveys.
 Secretary Wilson sees the economic evil of the back to the farm, gnoye- ment He says:
 In addition to the large farms de- voted to standard crops and standard types of livestock farming, we find one other type of farm increasing in numbers, not only in the corn belt, put In every state in the union. They are the small three to twenty-acre farms, devoted to the production of garden vegetables and small fruits. Whether their increase in numbers represent legitimate development we are unable to say It is probable that this increase is partly due to the at tempt of city people to get back on the land, and that these people having small capital, undertake to begin farming by trying to farm a small area intensively. INSOFAR AS THE 1 INCREASE OF FARMS OF THIS ISIZE IS DUE TO THIS CAUSE. WE FEAR TT IS NOT A PROPER ECO NOMIC DEVELOPMENT: but the main cause of increase in farms of this size is the increasing demand for garden products to feed our growing cities, and this has undoubtedly led to legitimate increase in farms of l this ize''
 It is best for the farmer boy to re- main on the farm. and for the city boy to remain in the city. If the city bred man wants to farm, let him be- come a suburbanite--a commuter of the outskirts and raise garden and chicks on~a little plot. la Bolton Half style, or remain In the city and take up vacant lots and demonstrate that intensified farming is feasible. leven under the shadow of the sky lscrapers
 There is no place in the country for the city bred man, economically Ispeaking. at least
 l Secretary Wilson believes there Is lstill room left for fams of from three to twenty acres in size He says
 There ds however. distinct limit lon the number of such farms which lean legitimately exist Only about 5 lper cent of the arable land of this Icountry is devoted to the production
 of fruits and vegetables. The legiti-
 mate sphere of these small garden
 farms is that of feeding the cities.
 land they should not increase In mum Der beyond that point"'
 Keep the boy on the farm is the lsecond chapter olkthe "back to the
 farm" movemtnt, and 1t should be the lconclusion.