Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1913-03-28
CONSERVATION OF OUR BOYS
Greatest Economic Issue Is to Create
Conditions to Make Young Men
Stick to Farm.

/
OF the men who had achieved success
in a large southern city, and that
ninety per cent OF them had been
bred on farms.
/ To him II was a matter of pride
and qualification, but | will confess
frankly that the statement shocked
and saddened me. | knew in a gen.
eral way that our cities were ABSORB
ing too many country boys, but the
thought that the brains, energy and
power OF a great city had been
achieved at the expense of the farms
was startling. In 1t l saw one of the
main reasons why farming was falling
into decay. and farm lands were in
alien hands.
| We hear and read a vast deal these
days about conservation, but to my
mind the most vital things in America
today is the conservation Of our
young men on the soil. 1t is old and
trite to say that a nations prosperity
Is measured by its agriculture. but it
is profoundly true nevertheless.
There are a thousand issues over
which our statesmen concern them
selves and with which they whip the
people into frenzies of political fer
vor. But they are not striking at the
heart and soul of the most vital prob
lem Of the day. These questions are
largely political. while the greatest
economic issue of this century is to
create such conditions and to so edu-
cate our boys as to make them love,
prosper on and stick to our farms.
When statesmen big enough and
broad enough fill our lawmaking halls
to sense this fact and seek the rem
edy, then we shall have new era
Here are just a few random facts
tending to show our farms have been
and are being drained of its best
blood. Sixty-six per cent of the till
ers of the soil in the United States
are non-land owners.
In Georgia only "a per cent. of the
farmers own the land which they till;
in Alabama and South Carolina. 81
per cent, while in other southern
liar conditions probably prevail ma
tion-wide. This farm ownership by
those who do not cultivate the land is
becoming one of the gravest problems
of the day, and l believe much of it
is due to the boys leaving the farm
for the city. This alien land owner
ship must be serious when Mississippi
finds it expedient to pass law regu-
lating it.
We must face this problem and find
the remedy. Unless this movement
away from the soil is checked our ma
tional prosperity and greatness is sure
to crumble. Agricultural schools, rural
delivery, rural telephones, wider and
more general dissemination of infor-
nation on improved farming and now
The parcel post are helpful factors
and beacon lights along the way, but
much more is to be done to accom-
plish real results.
Much depends on the farmer-father.
They must treat their boys right;
teach him how to love the farm and
let him share In the profits of his
toll The Boys Corn clubs have dem
onstrated very clearly what they can
and will do IL offered the right stim-
illus, the hope of reward. Closer and
better community interest and inter
course. accurate knowledge of the soil
and the things that best grow on it
all these form part at least of a gen.
eral upward movement for the future
farmers of this country.
Are we to have conditions here in
the south and in the west as one may
find them in many of the New Eng
land states-miles of abandoned farms
and houses vacant and falling into de-
cay? fear so unless we can check
the flow Of boys from the farms to
the cities. In the south particularly,
where the negro farm help is even
more pronounced in its tendency to
leave the country and congest In the
cities. the farmer must learn how to
hold his boys. or go to smash.
l am not an Enthusiastically and
naturally / am an optimist and be
lieve most men are struggling toward
the light and better conditions. But
| would be foolish to blind myself to
the conditions outlined. and which any
observant man may see. Good schools
and broader educational advantages
will go far as a remedy.
This Is a real and great problem
of the day as I see it. Unless it is
solved we shall inevitably decay and
vanish as the most powerful nation
on earth. c. S. BARRETT.
IInion CITY Ga