340 Singing Valleys 



central and southern Europe, has so filled the foreground of 

 our history that we are scarcely conscious of another move- 

 ment which has been going on steadily for the past century 

 and a half. This is the flow from the farm to the city, and back 

 to the farm again. It started, in the east, during the first rush 

 of industrial and mercantile growth after the Revolution. 

 Young men born in the Back Woods became drovers, and 

 herded cattle to the cities for sale. There many of them re- 

 mained, to become apprentices in shops and in counting- 

 houses; and later pursy merchants, bankers and promoters of 

 land schemes in the new west. While some of the returned 

 soldiers left New England for the Black Wilderness with 

 Rufus Putnam, others followed the path of Franklin to the 

 growing towns. Always, when there was a slump in farm 

 values, the fields sent their crop of young men to the paved 

 streets. 



The ebb from the farms, which increased steadily after the 

 Civil War years, went on for a half century up to our entry 

 into the World War. In Illinois, corn acreage diminished an- 

 nually. Meanwhile towns sprang up and cities swelled to 

 startling proportions. The farmers who remained on their land 

 had markets aplenty, and close at hand, for their corn, pork 

 and lard. It might seem that this would have ensured the 

 farming class widespread prosperity. It did create wealth for 

 many; but as it greatly increased the taxes and land valuations 

 it also laid a burden of debt on the fields. 



The growth of the towns brought something else to the 

 farms. This was discontent. The disparity between life on the 

 farm and life in the towns, where there were gas later elec- 

 tricity city water, plumbing, opportunities for education and 

 amusement and social life, was too striking not to have its 

 effect on the farmers' sons and daughters. Farmers 7 wives, who 

 had scrimped and saved all their lives, made butter and raised 

 poultry for the only money they ever handled, urged their 

 daughters to marry men with wages or salaries, men who could 

 give their wives homes with a bathroom and a kitchen sink. 



