THE TRAINING OF FARMERS 



We have practically no good poems of 

 American farm life. A poem of the plow- 

 boy is very likely to be one that sees the 

 plow-boy from the highway rather than 

 one that expresses the real sentiment of 

 labor on the land. I do not know where 

 I can find a dozen first-class poems of 

 farming. Farm poems usually are written 

 from the study outward, and by persons 

 who see farming at long range, or who come 

 to it with the city man's point of view. 



The nature books are largely forced and 

 lack personality. There are, of course, 

 distinct exceptions; but taking the books 

 as a whole my experience seems to justify 

 this judgment. We need native and sen- 

 sible books with country direction in them. 

 We need something like the Burroughs 

 mode applied to farm operations and farm 

 objects. 



Of late the reportorial type of literature 

 has forced itself into country-life subjects. 

 The reporter discovers a high point here 

 and there, does not understand relation- 

 ships, writes something that is efferves- 

 cent and entertaining and very likely mis- 

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