Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1920-07-15
THE FARM BOY AND THE
FARM LABOR QUESTION

The great cry from our farms to-
day is for a larger number of efficient
laborers. It was common saying OF
a few years ago, that "it takes no
brains to farm" but the falacy Of
such a statement has been proved be-
You'd doubt. In fact many farmers
who in the past have been using un-
trained, transit labor are now being
forced out of business. In many oc-
equations considerable of men can
be presided over by a competent
foreman who directs their work and
is able to see them every few minutes
of the day. At farming, every lab
orer, no matter how inefficient he be.
must be his OWL boss large part of
the time, and the work is so compli-
Gated and varied, that unless he UNI
derstands and is interested in what
he is doing, the farm will suffer.
Why this scarcity of efficient farm
labor? 1t is not because there is
more men being used upon the farms
for one man can do fully one third
more work in the same length of
time than he could five years ago. It
takes less good men to manage agri-
culture than ever before in the his
tory of modern civilization. Neither
is this scarcity of men due to the
fact that there is fewer number of
boys being raised up upon the farms,
for while the cities are gaining in
population over the country, the fact
still remains that if we could keep
our farm boys upon The farm this
problem of efficient labor would be
practically solved.
Let us consider the qualities man
must have in order to be at his best
upon the farm. believe that may
be quite we'll surmised in the four
words, Interest, knowledge, Ability
and Push or Vim. Of the four quail
ties perhaps Interest is the most es-
sential, for without it the others
will either be difficult to obtain or
will be impossible to retain after they
are secured. The man that is inter-
ested will find out why the cultivator
is not securing, or is covering up all
the corn. After remedying these
conditions he will get in close and get
the weeds and still be willing to stick
it out until the corn is laid by.
Now the question arises as to how
4 we are going to get men to have these
desirable characteristics. In trying
to solve this problem let us remember
these two old time sayings: Bring
child up in the way he should go
and when he is old he will not depart
from it," and cit is hard to teach an
old dog new tricks" are good quota
tions which are just as true now as
they were when first uttered. Good
farmers cannot be expected then from
transplanted city men, altho this
will happen once in while, it will
be but short way towards solving
our labor problem. What we must
do is to work with, and depend upon
our farm boys.
What wonderful, but often neglec.
ted. materials the farm boys Offer
from the standpoint of making eff.
Gent farmers, wonderful because the
environment makes for strong
body, mind and soul. Altho there
are thousand and one things which
hinder the town men or boy wher
they start in to farming which do not
affect the farm lad, for they learned
so gradually that they seem to bt
born with him. But why do we say
that the farm boy is neglected as fal
as making future farmers is concer
ned? 1t is because so many people
take it for granted that once boy
has been raised upon the farm he
will always remain there. All the
rest of the world strying t oget ou1
farm boys interested in what they are
doing but we intend to let the boys
interest themselves in the farm.
Let us consider some of the things
that should be taken into consider.
= alton if we are to interest and retair
our young people upon the farm.
believe we may summarize the prin.
cipal requirements up in four words
namely, companionship, responsible.
ty, ownership and knowledge. Otter
we do not realize the value of COM
partnership upon the lives of young
people, but it is an influence that
when rightly used can hardly be ov-
erestimated. Next give boy or a
girl something to do, tell them they
are responsible for it's success or fail
ure, and they give them all the en-
couragement possible, and see they re-
spond to the call. Responsibility
is the soil in which our manhood and
womanhood grows up and we should
never neglect to use it. Much could
be said upon the great problem of
ownership, but it is sufficient here to
say that it is this that often makes
things interesting and worth while.
A certain amount of ownership sur
rounded by responsibility and mixed
up with understanding will usually
make a good farmer.
The Smith Hughes Agricultural
schools of this country are helping
in solving the problem of the farm