Save the Boy Crop to Make the Corn Crop 



By W. W. Finley, 

 President Southern Railway Company. 



The subject, "Save the Boy Crop to .Make the Corn 

 Crop," is one of the most imiHjriaiit that can engage our 

 attention. Upon the finding of some practical and ef- 

 fective way of lessening the drift of young people from 

 the country to the towns and cities depends the solution 

 of many of our present-day economic and social prob- 

 lems, including the high cost oi living and the congestion 

 of population in our larger cities. 



The reasons which impel one boy to leave the farm 

 may be different from those that influence another. 

 These reasons are partly economic and partly social, and 

 they can only be removed by changing economic and so- 

 cial conditions as aft'ecting the boy on the farm. These 

 conditions differ in different localities. In some rural 

 communities social surroundings are not the most at- 

 tractive. In some localities there are few, or no social 

 gatherings to attend, little music, few books or papers 

 to read, and few improved implements or other con- 

 veniences to lighten work on the farm and in the farm 

 home. The boy has little encouragement financially to 

 remain on the farm. He is ambitious and, on many 

 farms, can see little opportunit}' for advancement. To 

 a certain extent we must look to Government for the 

 changing of these conditions through the provision of 

 educational systems which will best fit the boy for suc- 

 cess as a farmer, through the i)rovision of good country 

 highways which will facilitate the business and social re- 

 lations of farm communities, tiirough the working out 

 of improved methods in agricultural colleges and on ex- 

 periment station farms, and through carrying knowledge 

 of such methods to those farmers who have not been 

 able to avail themselves of agricultural college training. 



Primarily, however, I believe we must look to the in- 

 dividual farmers to bring about the most important of 

 these changes. My investigation of the question has led 

 me to the conviction that the reason why a boy leaves 

 the farm can often be traced to the conditions surround- 

 ing him. Methods on the farm where he lives may not 

 be of the best. There mav be a lack of implements and 

 conveniences designed to lighten farm work. Proper at- 

 tention may not be given to planning a rotation which 

 will embrace the maximum number of money crops con- 

 sistent with building up soil fertility and which will econ- 

 omize labor by distributing it as evenly as practicable 

 throughout the busy .season of the year. Under such 

 conditions the boy absorbs the idea that farming does not 

 offer as favorable opportunities for success and advance- 

 ment as are to be found in other occupations. . 



The country boy in such a situation reads of the suc- 

 cess of poor boys from the farm who have gone to the 

 city. Much of the periodical literature of the day tends 

 to give him an exaggerated idea of the profits of city 

 occupations and the pleasures of city life. Perhaps some 

 of his own acquaintances have gone to cities and towns 

 and have employment at what seem to him. with only 

 the most vague ideas of living expenses in such com- 

 munities, to be almost princely wages. Is it surprising 

 that he embraces the first chance to follow them? If he 

 is successful, the story of his rise to wealth and position 

 will be an incentive for future country boys to follow him 

 from the farm. The storie-^ of the failures are not so 

 widely told. 



I believe there are few farms in the United States on 

 which it would not be profitable to the farmer to stim- 

 ulate the interest of the bo\' and increase his efficiencv. 



The American l)oy is almost invariably ambitious. Give 

 him a definite object to work for and he will accomplish 

 wonders, lie is usually progressive. If the farmer is 

 indisposed to adopt new methods on his whole farm he 

 may let his boy try them out on an acre or two. What 

 the' results may be has been illustrated by the achieve- 

 ments of the boys' corn clubs. 



When the late Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, whose memory 

 the American people can not too highly honor, instituted 

 the organization of these clubs, he created what 1 believe 

 will be a most effective instrumentality for checking the 

 movement of boys from the farm. As I have said on a 

 previous occasion, the most important work being done 

 by these clubs is not the growing of corn, but the raising 

 of farmers. The boy who goes into one of these clubs 

 and follows the methods which are advised by the dem- 

 onstrator of the Agricultural Department or Agricultural 

 College, or the field agent of a railway department of 

 farm improvement work, and who succeeds in growing 

 as much corn on a single acre as his father grows on 

 from two to four or even five acres, is a convert to 

 scientific farming. He has learned that farming can be 

 made profitable. He will want to apply the same pro- 

 gressive methods to larger areas and to other crops. He 

 becomes an optimist, and. especially if he is permitted to 

 have a fair interest in what he helps to produce, I be- 

 lieve that the lure of the city will seldom be strong 

 enough to draw him from the farm. 



Complex as it may seem at first thought. I believe that 

 we are making substantial progress toward the solution 

 of the problem of keeping the boys on the farm. There 

 is no question that, with the adoption of the best methods, 

 farming in our .Southeastern -States can be made profit- 

 able. When the boy on the farm thoroughly realizes the 

 opportunities that are open to him, when our country 

 schools give him some rudimentary instruction in the 

 fundamental principles of scientific farming, and implant 

 in him a determination to continue his education along 

 practical lines, either in higher agricultural schocils or 

 on the farm, and when he is given an equitable interest 

 in the results of his labor, the problem will have been 

 solved. In my opinion we shall, within the next few 

 years, begin to see evidences of the success of the work 

 along these lines that has been inaugurated. We shall 

 see the voung men in our rural communities growing up 

 into intelligent farmers ajiplying the methods which they 

 have learned on single acres in the boys' corn clubs to 

 entire farms. When this condition shall have been 

 brought about, it will carry with it the improvement of 

 the rural schools and the country highways and the so- 

 lution of the social problems of farm life. It will con- 

 tribute to the solution of our urban problems as well by 

 affording larger rural markets for the products of indus- 

 trial centers. 



In mv opinion there has never been a time when the 

 outlook for a.griculture in the L'nited States was so fa- 

 vorable as at present. With the increase in population 

 the demand for farm products of all kinds is constantlv 

 expanding and scientific farming is tending to reduce 

 the cost of production. L'nder these circumstances I do 

 not believe that the boy who elects to remain on the farm 

 will have occasion to regret his choice. He may not 

 attain great wealth, but. comparing him with the average 

 citv boy. I believe that he is much more certain to attain 

 financial independence and to create for himself and his 



