The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1913-11-15
A DOLLAR ON THE FARM.
Youths Companion:

Youths Companion:
A thing that will make farmer of
many boy if he can learn it in time
is the relative value Of dollar in the
city and on the farm. 1t is inevitable
that we talk of business things in
terms of dollars, but that magic and
alluring word has two meanings, and
the boy, whether in city or country,
lives under the influence of one kind
of dollar, and is prone to think in
terms of the other The farmer boy
learns that the trolley-car motorman
gets two dollars, or two dollars and
half, day. He cannot earn SO much
at farm work, and at times there is no
farm work A salary of one hundred
dollars a month sounds to him like
riches. There are no one-hundred-
dollars-a.month salaries in his neigh
borhood, and so he goes off to town
while still in his teens, sure that there
is no money on the farm. 1t is true
that the farm does not offer many op-
portunities for boys to become mill
lionaires, but if you will pin the Amer
lean boy right down to it, he will free
ly admit that he is not primarily after
money. He wants living and life.
Those the farm gives with greater
richness in this generation than in
any other.
Many farm boys rush off to town,
and most city boys never consider the
country, because they do not know
that dollar on real farm is nearly
twice as effective as a dollar in the
midst of city. The young man who
rents a farm also rents house, and
has no house-rent to pay. He has
chickens and eggs, and a garden and
fruit and milk, and often fire-wood.
AS by-produet of the farm, he has a
horse to drive. In fact, much of the
family living is by-product of the
farm. The young man in the city
with one hundred dollars a month
must pay rent; every egg or turnip
or apple that he gets he must buy. If
he rides, he pays car fare; his cloth
ing costs more than the farmers, and
on every hand he meets more tempta-
tions to spend money. The man in
the city, with thousand dollars a
year, is poor, and the man with two
thousand dollars must look for a very
plain street when he rents his house.
In the real country, one thousand dol
lars net per year is usually comfort,
and two thousand dollars is affiuence.
1t is national misfortune that the
differing value of the country and the
city dollar is so little understood. Had
it been thoroughly grasped in time, it
would have been the making of thou
sands and tens of thousands of
farmers.
There are some people who say that
farming is drudgery. For many per-
sons that saying is correct. They
should not farm. Given normal health
and enthusiasm, there ought to be
some kind Of work that every man
can enjoy; and it is his duty to find
that work. But in agriculture there is
real enjoyment. A man can love it.
Some people love horses and COWS and
other farm animals very much as boys
love dogs. The little boy who at the
age of three ran across room, seized
a pot with blooming plant in it, and
Rugged 1t and petted it, was unques-
tionably showing his bent. Now, at
the age of forty, he is still working
with plants, and making comfortable
living. 1t is positive delight to many
people just to see their plants and
trees grow. Life of some sort inter.
ests nearly all of us.