farmers' institutes. 820 



It is strange that large numbers of people will leave the country 

 where homes are cheap, air pure, all men equal and extreme poverty 

 unknown, and crowd into cities where the reverse is true, where smoke 

 and dirt and sin shorten life and cause the race to lose its vitality. It 

 has been said that "there is no such thing as the fourth and fifth genera- 

 tion in the city," so that fresh blood must be supplied from the country 

 and small towns to fill the places of those who can not keep up in the 

 maddening race for wealth and position. Viewing the movement from 

 , the standpoint of a student of sociology and not of the individual we 

 realize that the movement will only add to the trouble of the municipal 

 governments which are already almost breaking down with corruption 

 and inefficiency. He knows that crime is increasing in the cities and that 

 the massing of dense population means impaired public health and morals. 

 The constant depopulation of .the smaller towns and country by steadily 

 drawing away the best can not help lowering the tone of village and 

 farm life. It prevents to a great measure the improvement of educa- 

 tional methods and tends to exclude the people of the country from those 

 cultural influences of modern life which ought to be common to all. 

 Viewing the city from the standpoint of the individual, we see that it 

 offers better social opportunities. Undeniably the city has superior at- 

 tractions for the well-to-do. Even the poorest classes seem to find in the 

 noises, the excitements, the crowds, and even the filthy tenements, a 

 charm that makes them remain when they know that better conditions 

 are to be found in the country. The city offers greater opportunity for 

 promotion. 



Our schools and school teachers has been looking not towards the 

 farm but away from it. Is it anyone's fault? No; it is everybody's 

 fault. Through education our young men will be brought to see the dig- 

 nity, the beauty, the profit and the honor of farming. It presents vast 

 problems worthy of the mettle of any young man. When every other 

 art and science shall have been worked out to their utmost limit, the 

 science and practice of agriculture will present boundless unexplored 

 fields for work and research. The idea that anybody can farm who has 

 the brawn has been drilled into them until they completely overlook the 

 wonderful opportunities that agriculture presents. The very magnitude 

 of the problems yet to be solved cause them to fail to see them. Their 

 eyes are too close to the picture. The successful farmer must be a busi- 

 ness man of no mean order. Very feAV occupations require a broader 

 knowledge. He deals not only with men but also with animals and plants 

 and machines, so that he must know something of botany, zoology, 

 chemistry, physics, bacteriology, veterinary, medicine and mechanics. 

 The farmer must be an accurate observer and have plenty of room for 

 the exercise of keen judgment. He can not hope to become immensely 

 wealthy, but by careful management he can secure riches enough to min- 

 ister to the needs of the ideal family life. 



