CORRECTIONAL AGRICULTURE 301 



wages, wishes to keep up the parental control indefinitely, and 

 the boy gets tired of it and wants to get away. 



Then somebody else's boy must be hired. And the farmer 

 is not always considerate or reasonable in his treatment of him. 

 In the cases studied are a number of instances where a boy has 

 gone to work for a farmer or has been placed with one by some 

 society or institution and has been badly overworked and misused. 

 More than once the act of delinquency covered under the former 

 charge "incorrigible" or "vagrant" consisted in running away 

 from a farmer for whom the boy was working. It must not be 

 concluded that in all these cases there was misuse of the boy, but 

 it may be assumed from the evidence at hand in these instances 

 and others that usually there was some bad condition from which 

 the boy wished to get away. 



One of the cases was that of an eleven-year-old boy at Industry 

 who, before his commitment to the institution, had been placed 

 with a farmer, but was so abused by these foster parents that he 

 was removed by the truant officer. An interview with the boy 

 brought out the fact that the farm where he lived was seven miles 

 from the village. When asked what he did to have a good time 

 he replied that he "used to plow and drag and milk and go to 

 see the boys evenings." The farmer used to whip him for poor 

 work and also refused to buy the necessary school books for 

 him. 



Besides being hard on the boy physically, farm work causes 

 truancy, since there is a constant inducement to keep the boy out 

 at harvest time and at spring planting to work. 



Farm work under prevailing conditions in the rural districts 

 is, then, not only hard on the children while they are young, but 

 affords little opportunity for the future. 



This evil, however, is becoming more and more clearly recog- 

 nized, and plans of one kind and another are already being tried 

 in many places for the betterment of farm conditions. 



The one active but disavowed rival to the church as a social 

 center for old and young is the village tavern. 



In some cases the village itself is "dry," but any one in search 

 of refreshment can easily find the way to a neighboring town or 

 village where rules are not so strict. The tavern is the catchall 

 for every sort of amusement proscribed by the church and the 



