Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1916-04-21
FARM OPPORTUNITY
BETTER THAN EVER
City DWeIIers Struggle for Their
Meager Comforts.
GOOD FINANCIAL PROSPECT
Wisconsin 0ffieiaI Shows Why Young
Men and Women Should Stay In
Country and Help Make the
Nations Real Wealth.

CBy MATTHEW g. DUDGEON Of Wis.
consin Free Library Commission.)
"EN years ago-twenty years
ago-all the alert, energetic
farm boys were leaving the
farm for the city. They did
this because they wanted to make
money, because they wanted to see
life. II they stayed on the farm. they
were not only sure to be lonely and to
be in unattractive surroundings. but
they were sure to be poor. But times
have changed.
Today, If you 90 through q fairly
prosperous farming community, you
will find the telephone in nearly every
farmhouse and q daily delivery Of mail
bringing the daily newspapers to
every door. You will find many farm
houses better fitted up with con-
veniences and comforts than are the
homes Of the average city laborer.
Because there are better roads and
better horses and better buggies and
more automobiles, you will find that
| the farmer and his family are no long.
| er imprisoned in the farmhouse. but
move about and have as much social
life and as great an opportunity to
meet each other as do the city man
and his family. Many q farm boy
who is ten miles in the country, with
his automobile, can and frequently
does, reach town in less time than It
takes the average man In the big city
to reach his business from his city or
suburban home. The boy who stays
on the farm need no longer look ahead
to . lonesome, cheerless existence.
Prices Going Higher.
Never before has the American farm
boy had SO promising financial pros
pect as be has at the present time.
Profits are surer than they ever were
and they bid fair to increase. Prices
are high and they are going higher.
American consumers are demanding
more and better farm products and
stand ready to pay better prices. They
are going more directly to the farm
for what they want and the farmer ID
getting q bigger share Of what they
pay. The war and the disturbances
that have grown out Of It have inter
rupted, II they have not permanently
cut OF, the channels of trade for for
eign farm products, 50 that the Amer
lean farmer is likely in the future to
have open to him the markets Of the
world as they never before have been
Skill and experience In handling
soils, in rotating crops, In selecting
4 seeds, and in planting and tending
is rendering q total failure Of any
crop unusual and unlikely. But 81
up-to-date farming Is now carried on
the failure of a single crop Ia no long
er the disaster which 1t formerly was
No one is now q one-crop farmer. To
days successful farmer hiss not only
q variety of crops which constitutes
reserve resources when the yield OF
the price of a single crop fails him
but he now gets revenues from q
: score of sources, from bis corn and
! oats and wheat and potatoes as O
old, but also from his truck garden
, from his orchard and small fruit, from
his fat hogs and cattle, from hi
purebred stock animals sold at fancl
, prices, from his dairy products. and
| even from his poultry.
Big Financial Returns.
In fact, the farmer who formerl!
was considered q plodder working q
one thing, with one idea and one re
source, is now getting to be q re
sourceful business man, al admins
traitor, an alert student of the mar
! ket and finance, a well-read profession
al man who understands the scienc'
; Of his profession.
. The boy who stays on the farm t
become a successful farmer is enter
. ing into an occupation where brains
intelligence and study, energy ant
I alertness are getting as large hnan
: cial returns as they are in any hu
man activity. Moreover, he is enter
? ing into an occupation where work
: ing and living conditions are NOR
8 universally attractive and healthfu
, than are the surroundings of any groul
r of workers in the world. What NOR
Z can he hone for II he goes to tn