No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 95 



we so often make, Why is it that the boys and girls leave 

 the country for the city? Why does the city entice and 

 allure them? I sometimes wish I might tm"n the proposition 

 around, and ask, Why should the boys and girls stay in the 

 country? and put the burden of proof on the farm and the 

 farmer. I Avould like to know what the farmer's answer 

 would be, if he were put upon the Avitness stand and cross- 

 examined upon that proposition. 



I may sa}^, in the first place, that not so many boys and 

 girls, proportionately, are needed in the country now as were 

 needed a generation ago. Fifty years ago it required in 

 labor to produce a bushel of corn 4 hours and 30 minutes, — 

 that much expenditure of effort, as measured in time ; at the 

 present time it requires to produce that bushel of corn 41 

 minutes of effort, as measured in time. Fifty years ago a 

 bushel of corn cost 35| cents to produce, and it costs 10| 

 cents now. Fifty years ago it cost in time to produce a ton 

 of hay 3");^- hours; now it costs in time 11 hours and 34 

 minutes. Fifty years ago it cost $3.0() to make a ton of 

 hay ; to-day it costs $1.29. And the saving in human labor 

 annually on the seven staple crops of the United States — 

 Indian corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley, potatoes and hay — 

 is something like $(;81, 000,000. 



By greater efficiency of farm machinery, and by greater 

 efficiency in the organization of human effort and labor, 

 we are able to accomplish more with the same unit of time 

 than we were fifty years ago. 



The cities have increased tremendously since that time ; 

 and it is an al)Sorbing fact to us that the cities should grow 

 and develop in wealth and power and influence. It is of 

 interest to the farmer that the consumers who live in the 

 city should be increased in numbers and in pro])ortion, for 

 they buy his products. Farmer bo^'s have hel})ed to make 

 the cities, and the farmer should realize this fact, as well 

 as the other fact, — that farmer boys also have made the 

 farms. 



But there are some special reasons why the farmer boys 

 leave the farm. I think I may as well recite a few of these 

 reasons. They are all familiar to you, but they all have a 



