EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 727 



field of agriculture as great changes are taking place as elsewhere. Yet 

 with all these advantages and privileges there is still room for improve- 

 ment. The day has gone by when farmers will be satisfied with mere 

 hard work. The day is gone by when a farmer's boy or girl ought to be 

 expected to live in surroundings as devoid of comforts as many of their 

 parents lived in. No, if the farmer's boy or girl stays on the farm, if 

 they enjoy life there, it will be because their surroundings are such as 

 make life enjoyable. 



Few indeed are the influences that are stronger than the influences of 

 home. So it is the duty of every farmer to make those influences good, to 

 place his children in such an environment that they shall go out fitted for 

 hard and faithful work in whatever they may undertake, so that they may 

 look back upon their home as a place of pleasant associations and sur- 

 roundings, a place which is truly an incentive for good. The present 

 need then for many farmers is along the line of those things which add 

 to the beauty and attractiveness of the farm home. Many are realizing 

 this and are acting accordingly, but more should be done. We are fairly 

 well supplied with labor-saving machinery, good buildings and other 

 practical devices, yet we must not forget that other side of our nature 

 which demands attention and without the development of which we can- 

 not become well rounded and broad-minded men and women. 



The longest rainy day and evening vanishes if the table is covered with 

 papers, magazines and good books. One may go into many farm homes 

 and find the Chicago or Des Moines daily, stock and farm papers and 

 also religious papers. All these are good. Every boy and girl should 

 be encouraged to read the newspapers. There are many who object to 

 this and give good reasons, but much of the news of today will be the 

 history of tomorrow, social, financial and legislative. There is certainly 

 much in our daily papers neither elevating nor instructive; in fact, very 

 objectionable, but with proper training the child soon knows the good 

 from the bad, the true from the false and early in years learns to follow 

 the great moves of the world and loses all interest in the petty worthless 

 affairs that have little or no impression upon the canvas of life. 



In addition to this, magazines that review and discuss the questions 

 that are stirring the minds of the people should be found in every home. 

 In these days of clubbing rates a few dollars go a long way in supplying 

 a number of the best magazines of the day. There are very few farmers 

 who are not able to add each year a few new volumes to their library; 

 by doing this an atmosphere is given a home that it can attain in no 

 other way and will serve as a magnet to keep and hold the rising genera- 

 tion to the farms and no matter where their lots may be cast they will 

 not be strangers in a strange land, for their reading has kept them in 

 touch with all people and all lands. 



When studying the life of a nation, race or clan how anxious we are 

 to know something of the homes of the people in whom we are interested. 

 There is no surer index to the intelligence, culture and tastes of a people 

 than the homes they maintain and from which they send representatives. 

 Every advancement of the human race has been marked by the bettering 

 of its habitation, in our own land from the wigwam of the red man to the 



