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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1906 



Monthly Comment 



J HE establishment of agricultural high schools 

 is coming to be looked upon as a valuable 

 force in keeping the youth of the country 

 upon the farm and thus, in a measure at 

 least, away from the cities. That there is a 

 remarkable trend of the young men of the 

 country from the rural districts to the cities has long been 

 obvious, and the movement has, long since, assumed such 

 proportions that thoughtful men have become aware that 

 some steps should be taken to check it. It has been pointed 

 out, and with much truth, that the present tendency of all 

 higher schools is toward fitting the students for a commercial 

 life; in other words, the schools themselves act as an incentive 

 toward bringing the country boy into the city. To those in 

 serious search for an education this is unquestionably true; 

 but the desire for education among the young is by no means 

 so widespread or so urgent as it should be, and the number 

 of boys who look upon the hours spent in the schoolroom as 

 wasted and useless could probably be counted by the million. 

 This really is the most serious question in primary education, 

 and until this aspect of the case can be generally bettered 

 the relationship of education to the country at large must 

 remain more or less unsettled. The fact is, while the Ameri- 

 can people undoubtedly regard education as a "good thing" 

 — as evidenced by the immense sums annually disbursed for 

 this purpose — the individual as a whole has not awakened to 

 its value to himself and his children. This constitutes a 

 national problem of the very gravest nature. 



The establishment of agricultural high schools will un- 

 doubtedly widen the knowledge of scientific agriculture 

 among our people, and hence be a help of the most valuable 

 kind in making the rural population content with the land. 

 When a man knows what he can do with land and what he 

 can get out of it, he is apt to be more satisfied with labor 

 upon it than when he attacks it with half-baked ideas as to 

 what he is doing and what results he may obtain. The place 

 of such schools in the general educational scheme is obvious. 

 The first element is the consolidated rural school; then comes 

 the agricultural high school; and, finally, the State agricul- 

 tural college. It can not be expected that such a scheme will 

 reach the entire agricultural population, for the expense of 

 sending a boy through this series of schools will be consid- 

 erable, and many parents will not be able to afford it; but 

 the plan is an excellent one, and its development throughout 

 all the States must, in the end, be exceedingly beneficial. 



But will agricultural knowledge, even when gained in spe- 

 cialist^ schools, keep the boys in the country and away from 

 the overcrowded cities? That, indeed, is the crux of the 

 whole matter. In some cases it will help to do so; in many 

 it will have no effect whatever; in others it may but whet 

 the appetite for more knowledge which can only be had in 

 the cities' city schools. The attractions of the city for the 

 country lad are quite without questions of education. To the 

 country boy the city stands for everything that seems to him 

 attractive in life. That is to say, it opens a road to possible 

 wealth and it certainly affords an infinity of enjoyments. 

 The latter aspect of the city is apt to have even greater fas- 

 cination than the former, since it is often supposed that the 

 enjoyments can be had hand in hand with the search after 

 wealth. There are, of course, a few people ready to certify 

 that this is not so, but their very loudest preachments would 

 have no effect on the country lad bound to enter where so 

 many have failed. Without ideas of amusing himself or oc- 



cupying himself, the country lad pants for the city where he 

 has but to look about him to see the most wonderful sights 

 or where he may himself meet with astonishing adventures. 

 Dull himself, he attributes his dulness to the quiet surround- 

 ings in which he lives. It is true that in the regions near 

 the large cities he has seen the country life adopted by city 

 folk on a new and elaborate scale; but these fortunate people 

 can return to town every day, take their dip into city adven- 

 ture, and return to a quiet evening in the country. The city 

 with its stupendous fascination is the lodestone that draws 

 all country souls to it. Their own life they know; their own 

 surroundings they are familiar with; but the city is the seat of 

 an unknown existence, of the splendors of which they have a 

 deep rooted and certain conviction. This is the real problem 

 that country schools of every sort have to contend with; it is 

 the situation that they must meet; it is the one thing they must 

 overcome. It is a problem our educators as yet seem 

 scarcely to have grappled with. 



A New York editor has been composing a eulogy on the 

 American boy, and has found words in which to express some 

 very agreeable ideas. The American boy of to-day, he says, 

 "is not only less obstreperous and egotistical, but clearer and 

 cleaner minded than the lad of twenty years ago. His ad- 

 vance physically will be manifest to any one who will com- 

 pare the figures in a class photograph of to-day with those 

 of yesterday. He is taller, straighter, better featured, finer 

 haired, handsomer and more like a thoroughbred in every 

 way. The exercise to which much of this improvement is at- 

 tributable may be no more zealous, but it seems to be less 

 spasmodic, more consistent, and better adapted to its true pur- 

 pose. As an inevitable sequence his habits have become more 

 regular, improving in turn his manners. Altogether he has 

 become attractive." 



This is certainly very pleasantly put, and were not the 

 editor's paper intended for grown folk should lead to a con- 

 siderable increase of circulation among the youngest readers. 

 It would be interesting to know just how many people would 

 agree with this estimate of the youngest generation. No 

 doubt there are many charming young boys; but there is also 

 a prodigious number of boy nuisances; and it is these, surely, 

 that one most meets with in the streets, in the shops and 

 offices, in the cars and in the crowds. We all know them, 

 and we know them with such feelings that we often wonder 

 if their own mothers love them. Perhaps they don't alto- 

 gether, and perhaps that is one reason why they seem so 

 dreadful. But what kind of citizens will they make? 



Co-operative apartments, while not altogether new, are 

 being looked to as a help in the solution of that constant city 

 problem, the avoidance of high rents. The plan is com- 

 paratively simple. A co-operative society is formed which 

 purchases an apartment house containing, say, fourteen to 

 twenty apartments. Each occupant rents an apartment, pay- 

 ing a rent sufficient to meet interest and other expenses, and 

 pays a share of the first purchase price. It is estimated that 

 the second mortgage can be paid off in five or six years, and 

 the first mortgage then liquidated or interest continued. The 

 promoters of one such scheme have provided for a board of 

 governors chosen from the members of the colony whose 

 function it will be to settle any differences between the ten- 

 ants, and an overseer is provided to buy supplies and attend 

 to the repairs. 



