FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 267 



You are, for the most part free Irom one trouble which afflicts Michgan. 

 You are younger and the troubles of middle life are not yet upon you. In 

 Michigan, the early settlers are all gone. Their sons now own the farms 

 and are becoming advanced in years. The grandsons have come west to 

 aid in building up Iowa or gone still farther west to populate the growing 

 cities of the coast or the hither side of the Rockies. The homes of these old 

 Michigan farmers are left unto them desolate. Most of them have foolishly 

 left farms to seek comfort and happiness in some inland city or village. I 

 say foolishly, because in almost every case these people are searching for 

 happiness where, for them, it can not be found. A man is a creature of 

 habit and finds pleasure in continuing the activities which habit has made 

 pleasant no matter if inherently disagreeable. A letter carrier had had no 

 holiday for twenty years. He was granted leave of absence for two days. 

 On his reporting for work again , his comrades asked him if he had had a good 

 time and what he had done. He replied that he had enjoyed himself im- 

 mensely and had spent his longed for vacation in walking his beat, going 

 over the same old route. 



A farmer, accustomed to the life of his farm home, to the broad views 

 from his farm house windows and the broader liberty of the country can 

 seldom be content in the narrow streets and the cramped surroundings 

 of the village or city. It is folly to make the attempt to do that which 

 so many have failed to do. 



It is bad to have the boys go west or to the great cities, but it is useless 

 to try to dam the current. The great cities can not live, can not exist with- 

 out the constant influx of fresh and stronger blood from the country. The 

 city boy is hampered by the fact that very early in life he does not acquire 

 habits of self-denial and devotion to work. The country boy must get up 

 early in the morning, long before breakfast to accomplish the regular task 

 before starting for school. There is stock to be fed, wood to be carried in, 

 chickens to feed, sheep to care for and cows to milk. These things must 

 be done morning after morning and night after night. The boy grows up 

 with the habit of doing things regularly and in the right way, whether dis- 

 agreeable or not and that habit becomes an invaluable asset to him through 

 all his later life. Character itself is but the soul as controlled by habit and 

 these habits of self-denial, industry and perseverance in the face of obstacles 

 can be acquired with difficulty and then but defectively later in life. To 

 speak the language of business without a halting brogue we must acquire it 

 early. The country is therefore the breeding ground of the city. 



The emigration of these country boys has left a large minority of Michi- 

 gan farms in the hands of tenants. May the day be distant when absentee 

 ownership shall become notable in Iowa. It is an un-American condition 

 and fatal to the best interest of the State. Neither the landlord nor the 

 tenant will adopt good methods of dairy work, the former because he does 

 not work the farm and the latter because he does not own it. The silo is 

 tabooed and progress made impossible. 



The remedy is easy to suggest but hard to apply. Educate the country 

 boy and make the farm pay. Raise corn, but feed it on the farm. Feed it 

 to what? You can feed it to hogs and make money, but swine feeding will 

 not tend to keep the thinking boy on the farm, because, with all due respect 

 to the skill required to grow a good hog economically, the business does not 



