The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1913-02-15

Southern city and that 80 per
cent of them had been bred on
farms.
= To him it was a matter of
pride and qualification, but l
will confess frankly that the
statement shocked and sadden-
ed me. / knew in a general way
that our cities were absorbing
too many country boys, but the
thought that the brains, ener-
gy and power of a great city
had been achieved at the eX
pense of the farms was start
ling. In it, 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 triti
to say that nations prosper
ity is measured by its agricul-
ture, but it is profoundly true
nevertheless.
There are thousand issues
over which our statesmen con-
Germ themselves and with which
they whip the people into
frenzies of political fevor. But
they are not striking at the
heart and soul of the most vital
problem of the day. These
questions are largely political,
while the greatest economic is
sue 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 law
making halls to sense this fact
and seek the remedy, then we
shall have a new era.
Here are just a few random
facts tending to show our farms
have been and are being drain
ed of it's best blood. Sixty-six
per cent of the tillers of the soil
in the United States are non
landowners.
In Georgia only 81 per cent
of the farmers own the land
which they till; in Alabama and
South Carolina 81 per cent.
while in other Southern states
conditions are as serious. Sim
liar conditions probably prevail
nationwide. This farm owner
ship by those who do not culti-
vate the land is becoming one
of the gravest problems of the
day, and / believe much of it is
due to the boys leaving the
farm for the city. This alien
land ownership must be serious
when Mississippi finds it eX-
pedient to pass law regulating
it.
We must face this problem
and find the remedy. Unless
this movement away from the
soil is checked our national
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.
We depend on the farmer
farther. 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 demon
strated very clearly what they
can and will do if offered the
right stimulus, the hope of re.
ward. Closer and better com
munity interests and inter.
course, accurate knowledge OF
the soil and the things that best
grow on it-all these form part
at least, of a general upward
movement for the future farm.
ers of this country.
Are we to have conditions
here in the South and in the
j., West as one may find them il
many of the New England
states-miles of abandoned
farms and houses vacant anC
falling into decay? | fear sc
unless we can check the flow OF
boys from the farms to the
cities. In the South particular