The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1919-05-01
SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION
ILL.,. The Farms Offer to the Young
Man of Today.

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The farm of today is not the farm
of yesterday. In an article of some
weeks ago, [ spoke of the central i'm
portance which the farm holds in the
life and prosperity of the country.
That fact has not changed: the farm
is always the backbone of the coun-
try; upon it depend the lives of the
millions crowded together in the cities
who buy their food at the grocery and
the butcher-shop without a thought
of where it comes from. But the
| farm has changed for the farmer,
and especially for the young farmer.
Not so many years ago, the farm
er's life was one of hard work and lit
tie profit and no comforts. He was
often miles from the nearest town
and even store with bad roads and
long distances to cut his communica-
lions. He got his water from a
spring or we'll and carried it in buck
cts to the house; he had for artificial
light tallow candles, a coal oil lamp,
lantern, or perhaps no light at all.
He was far from social life, got his
papers late, if at all; had few books,
poor schools, few neighbors crude ma
chinery, poor buildings, and his only
way of getting money when in tight
place financially was to mortgage
his property to some money-grabbing
shyster who only waited for the first
preteXt to sell him out of house and
home.
This was not very encouraging for
the boys who grew up on the farm.
They were the farmer s>sons, but of
ten had no more rights on the place
than a good farm hand. They had
nothing they could call their own, no
special interest in the management
of affairs, no hopes of making agri-
culture paying investment even if
they could get the land and money to
make a start of their own The farm
err was often responsible for the boys
leaving his country home for the city
career which did not always turn out
the way it had looked in his ambi-
tious dreams.
Today, things are very much
changed. Within the last en- years,
roads have been built throughout the
country, and are still building which
make communication between the
farm and the outside world compare
lively very easy-the farmer can get
to town, his products can get to a
market, the mails can get to him reg
ularly and promptly. Farm machin-
cry has been improved and extended,
natural advantages, such as water
supply, sewerage, draining, the pres
ence of building material, etc, have
been studied and made use of in a
modern, time-saving and comfort Civ
ing manner, electric and acetelyhe
lighting systems have been installed,
automobiles have made travel and
transportation swift and easy, prop
er farming methods have insured
more successful crops and increased
income; much of the waste on the
farm has been found useful or mark
etable, stock and poultry raising are
about thousand per cent. better than
formerly-any number of instances
of the change at the farm front might
be mentioned. The Department of
Agriculture, state and national, the
Good Roads Commission, the develop
ment of markets, and the automobile
have been prime movers in this
change.
Better schools, more social life,
such as parties, picnics, visits, church
meetings, etc, circulating Libraries,
easier access to the towns and cities,
farmer and retail man, better hous-
ing and more accommodations have
made the farm more comfortable and
agreeable, even attractive. Agricul-
tural agencies have provided instruc-
ton for both the older farmers and
their sons. and have afforded them
advice in the difficulties they meet
in their work. Best of all, farmers
have seen, or are being taught to see,
that to keep their sons on the farm,
they must be interested in farm life
and work. The wise farmer now
breaks the boy in to care for some
special department of the labor. some
particular crop, or the poultry, or the
dairy cows, the horses or the sheep;
and thus the boy begins to take an in
terest in the work with the result
that farm life becomes interesting.
And where there is someone to see
that things are properly looked after,
farming is paying business. The
farmer should give his boy some
piece of land to plant as he pleases.
This will become an interest which
Will iloiu MIN vi Tic ldTll. MUCH
might be said of ways in which to
Tighten the household drudgery of the
women and making life more pleas
ant for them, but am not so we'll
qualified to talk on that subject.
Encourage the younger generation
of the soil and the future of the coun-
try will be secure Many business men
have retired after building up pros
porous business and gone back to the
farm because they knew that of all
the occupations a man could find
farm life, if properly conducted, is the
most Independent, most healthy, and
most happy life in the country. If
you have not the capital to start i'm
provements at once on the wholesale
there are many that take no capital
but only little skill and a little hard
work in spare moments. And every
such improvement is a saving and
helps towards the accumulation OF
means for larger and more costly
ones.
= GRACIOUS.
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