"Why the Boy Leaves the Farm. 347 



arrive at the age when their school days are over, they turn to 

 the busy marts of life, and, for the reasons I hare mentioned, are 

 nearly always successful. 



Now that we know why the boy leaves the farm, w T e might try 

 to counteract this tendency by doing all in our power to make 

 farm life agreeable and profitable. 



Let us as a community try and be sociable. 



In the lack of a library, let us form reading circles, and should 

 any of us engage the help of our neighbors' sons, let us treat 

 them like friends and neighbors. 



The real work of farm life is no more monotonous than that 

 of a shop or a store, and while we cannot, perhaps, dress as well 

 while at our work, yet there is no excuse for a young man not to 

 be neat and tidy. Even the shopman must don his coat before 

 going upon the street. 



Then there is not so much risk of failure in business upon a 

 farm. 



We never (or hardly ever) hear of a farmer going into bank- 

 ruptcy. 



.Mother earth is so bounteous that, if the soil is merely stirred, 

 it will yield sufficient to keep the wolf from our door. 



And now, with the aid of our " Farmers' Institutes," and the 

 many fine lectures upon profitable farming, stock-raising, stock- 

 feeding, farm-working, etc, (which the State gives us free); the 

 experimental stations and their reports (also free for the asking), 

 avc should be able more than " to stir the soil a little." 



With care and labor we can bring our farms into a good state 

 of cultivation. 



There are but few farmers who " stick to their trade " but can 

 own and cultivate a farm by 30, while we find many laboring 

 men in shops who always live in the company's houses, and buy 

 on credit at the company's store. 



Then, on the farm there are no strikes. ISTo man is obliged 

 to lie idle because his fellow-man does not choose to labor. 



Xo man is killed or injured because he desires to work and 

 maintain his family in comfort while the leader of the strike says 

 he must not. 



You will observe that I speak of farmers and their sons as 

 belonging to the laboring class. 



In this I think I shall be justified. And as labor is honorable, 

 I can see no humiliation in the fact that we are obliged to labor. 



Rather let us strive so to do our work that it shall be an honor 

 to our name that we did our work well. 



