THE NEGRO PROBLEM AT HOME AND ABROAD Page 11.
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A Farm and Home Weekly for the Carolina Virginia,
Georgia' and Tennessee.
FOUNDED, 1886, AT RALEIGH, N. C.
Vol. XXVII. No. 27.
SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1912.
Weekly: $1 a Year.
Make the Farm a Place Where the Young People Will
Wish to Stay.
WT
E get a great many letters about "how to keep the young folks
on the farm," also a great many letters setting forth the ad-
people as wen as oiaer ones snouia cnoose tne iarm ratner tnantne
city as a place to live. Some of these letters are interesting and con
tain valuable suggestions, but we can say frankly that the slogan,
Keep the boys on the farm ap-
lieve they can do better elsewhere. The way to keep the. young
people on the farm is to make farming a more profitable occupation
to give the young people who engage in it a better chance to make
money, to live comfortably, to acquire reputation and to influence
the lives and thoughts of others. How this is to be done, is the great
question, and one not fully to be answered by anyone.' Certain it is
that the man who makes his land
1
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peals to us just about as little as. .
the cry of "Back to the land.'; 'v
. The big problem, it seems to
us, is not how to keep the boys
and gls on the farm,-but how to v
make the farm a place where the
boys and girls will wish to stay.
The fact that a boy is born on the
farm, is no reason for his stay
ing there. Indeed, the propor
tion of farmers to total popular
tion will continue to grow smaller
all the time, and this means that
farm boys and girls will continu
ously be going to the city. And
there is no reason why this should
not be the case. There is every
reason, however, why things
should not be so adjusted that the
brightest and most ambitious
young people will go to the city and leave those of less energy or
with less education on the farm. This has too often been the case in
the past, and how to correct this tendency is one of the great prob
lems of our time.
We are told that the way to keep the young people on the farm is
to make the home surroundings attractive, to have books and pictures
and music in the home, to give the boy or girl an interest in some
thing on the farm, to teach agriculture in the public schools. All these
are good suggestions, but might it not be worth while to inquire why
there are so many unattractive farm homes, with bare yards and un
inspiring interiors, why the country boy and girl so often have prac
tically no money of their own, why country schools are often so
poorly adapted to the pupils needs? Is it because country people do
not care for convenience and beauty ? Is it because they do not be
lieve in education? Or is it because they get such small profits from
their labors that they do not feel that they can afford to spend money
for beauty and culture ?
There can be no question that long years of struggle, and mistaken
ideas of what is really worth while, have deprived many farm folk of
a proper appreciation of the value of things which have not a money
value ; it is unquestionable that many farmers and many farm com
munities do not fully realize the added power and the added zest in
life a good education gives; but, for all this, we are convinced that
the greatest trouble with country life of today is that the average far
mer does not make enough money to live as well as he should or to
give his children the advantages they should have.
Boys and girls leave the farm for the simple reason that they be-
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GOOD FARM BUILDINGS LIKE THESE INDICATE PROSPERITY
poorer is not helping to keep
the boys and girls on the farm.
Nor is f the man who raises poor
crops, nor the one who keeps
poor livestock, nor the one who
makes farm worfy unnecessarily
hard, - nor; the one who neglects
the social life of his community
nor the one who imagines that
the boy who is to be a farmer and
the girl who is to be a farmer's
wife can get along with less ed
ucation than other folks.
Better farming so as to give the
farmer larger profits, and better
training so as to enable him to do
better work and to deal more ef
fectively with other men, are all
that will make farming a suffi
ciently desirable life-work to be
come the choice of those country-bred boys and girls who, by reason
of their ability and enterprise, are especially needed by the farming
community.
Look after the farm, see that it is a good home for the boy and
that it pays well enough to appeal to him as a desirable business.
Then with the proper training for life and its work he will not be in
a hurry to leave the farm ; and if he does leave, he is not likely to
be one of those who leave only to fail.
FEATURES OF THIS ISSUE.
A CHEAP SILO A Tennessee Farmer's Plan 12
ADDING QUALITY TO TOBACCO How to Top and How to
Fight the Worms .v . 18
A PRIZE ESSAY ON FARMING Ry a Sixteen-Year-Old Boy 17
CARE OF THE CHILD IN HEALTH Things to Consider in Feed
ing and Clothing 8
DR. BUTLER'S TIMELY TALKS Millet, Acid Phosphate, Feed
ing Dairy Cows, Soy Beans, Etc. . 3
FARM AND GARDEN WORK FOR JULY By Professor Massey,
Professor Niven, and the Editors .'. .. .4,. 15
LAY CONCRETE FLOORS How the Work is Done. ............ 5
RAISING HOGS ON MULBERRIES Professor Duggar Tells How
an Alabama Farmer Does It 13
SOUTHERN MARKETING SYSTEMS How Our Diverse Interests
Prevent Co-Operation 17
TnE CHURCH AND RURAL SOCIAL LIFE A Great and Neg
lected Field for Church Work 0
THE NEGRO PROBLEM IN TWO CONTINENTS Mr. Poe's First
Letter From Abroad. ' 11