INTRODUCTION 



While it is not the province of the public schools, as at 

 present organized, to teach the trades, it is their privilege and 

 their duty to put the child in intelligent touch with the life 

 about him and to use all of the means at hand in the process 

 of education. 



Much has been said about the tendency among boys to 

 leave the farm for the town, and many attempts at explana- 

 tion and justification have been made. While it is perfectly 

 proper for the boy to leave his father's farm and seek his 

 fortune in a crowded city, sometimes he has gone with the 

 mistaken notion that he could substitute wit for work in life's 

 contest, or because of a lack of appreciation of the dignity of 

 labor. Sometimes, also, he has gone because he has failed to 

 see his opportunities on the farm. The fact that he has not 

 always bettered his condition has suggested a possibility of 

 bringing about at least a more intelligent consideration of the 

 question. 



With the lessening of distance between town and country 

 by telephone, interurbans, rural routes, with the conveniences 

 of life brought to the very door of the farmer, with much of 

 the drudgery of farm life removed by machinery, it looks as 

 though the tide might turn from town to country, or at least 

 as though the exodus from the farm might be stayed. 



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