236 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



Gymnasium athletics 5 per cent. Tennis 3 per cent. 



Concerts and Bowling 2 per cent. 



lectures 3 per cent. Golf 1 per cent. 



THE FARM PLAYGROUND * 



W. H. JENKINS 



THE following words were spoken by a very successful far- 

 mer, who brought up a fine family of boys on the farm : 



I brought up seven boys on the farm. Every one wanted to stay on the 

 farm until they grew to manhood. They are successful business men with 

 good habits of life. Some are farmers, and some in other occupations for 

 which their gifts best fitted them. The boys stayed at home and worked 

 with me, because there were more attractions and enjoyments for them 

 there than in any other place. We all worked together. We paid for 

 one farm and then bought another and paid for it, and when one of the 

 boys went into business for himself, his training, habits of life, and a 

 little capital we had for him, assured his success. One of the main reasons 

 why my boys loved the farm life and home so well that they never wanted 

 any of the dissipations that are demoralizing, and which the young people 

 on the farm engage in because there is nothing that satisfies their natural 

 love for play and recreation, was that I spent $30 to build a playground 

 where they could play baseball, tennis or croquet, and I played with them. 

 I have stopped work right in haying time to play with the boys and then 

 we all worked better for the change. 



The above is the testimony of a man who was successful both 

 in making the farm pay, and in bringing out the best qualities 

 of manhood in boys, so that they made men of such intelligence 

 and vitality and character that they were prepared to overcome 

 difficulties and win the battle in the struggle of life. 



DRAMA FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES 2 



ALFRED G. ARVOLD 



THE United States Department of Agriculture recently sent 

 out hundreds of letters to farmers' wives asking them what 

 would make life on the farm more attractive. Hundreds of the 



1 Adapted from the Rural New Yorker, N. Y., June 29, 1912. 



2 Adapted from American Review of Reviews, 54: 309-311, 1916. 



