57 THE LETTER THAT 



PROMPTED THIS BOOK 



and want to get in the country to spend my declining years. 

 I will see what can be done about getting the necessary land 

 for the colony you speak of. I would gladly give it my- 

 self, if I had it." 



This is from a man in middle age, hale and 

 hearty in body and also in soul and mind, or he 

 would not see things as they are. 



Mr. Fred P. Fox, industrial agent of the 

 Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad 

 Co., writes me as follows: 



" One of the most serious problems of the present day 

 is the reclamation and rehabilitation of unused farm lands, 

 especially east of the Mississippi River. The subject 

 divides itself into two questions: 



" How to get the youth of the country, bred on the 

 farm, to stay there? 



" How to induce the city bred youth to take up farming 

 as a profession? 



" These are questions that are occupying the attention 

 of many great minds. 



" For the country-bred youth, better schools, teaching the 

 chemistry of agriculture, the technique of farming, the 

 analysis of soils, better environments, etc. 



" To the city-bred youth, literature telling in pleasing 

 form the profits to be derived from farming in money as 

 well as the larger dividends of health and happiness. 



" In regard to the appeal to the dwellers in cities the 



