BETTER LIVING ON THE FARM.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1776, 14 June 1913, Page 27

BETTER LIVING ON THE FARM.

SOME IDEAS FROM ABROAD,

AN EXPERT'S VIEWS.

THE NEED FOR ORGANISATION.

It has of late years been generally admitted that in most ' English-speaking communities the city has been developed to the neglect of the country, and ■ our civilisation thus, grown dangerously onesided. Some of the steps which might be taken to counteract this tendency wero discussed in a book on the rural life problem in the United States, which was recently.written by Sir Horace Plnnkett. This littlo book possesses an especial value.' for its author is not only well acquainted with American conditions, but is also one of the foremost authorities on Irish agriculture and one of the leaders in the great movement made during reccnt years for the agricultural regeneration of Ireland. Much of what ho says can bo studied with profit the world over.

"I fear it cannot bo denied," says Sir Horace Plunkett, "that in the .application of the natural sciences to the- practical, and of economic science to W, business side of farming, the country folk are decades behind their urban fellow-citizens." This disparity bo attributes to the difference in their respective degrees of organisation for business purposes. Ho proceeds:— j "The relation between business organisa.Hon and economic progress ought, I submit, to bo very seriously considered by •the social workers who perceive that progress is mainly a question of education. Speaking from 'administrative experience at Home, and from a good deal of interested observation-in America, I am firmly convinced that the new rural education is badly handicapped by the lack of organised bodies of farmers to act as channels for the new knowledge now made available. In some instances, lam aware, great good has been done by the formation of farmers' institutes which have been established in order to interest rural communities' in educational work and to make the local arrangements for instruction by lectures, demonstrations _ and otherwise. But all European experience proves the superiority for this purpose of the business association to the organisation ad hoc, and has a much better chance of permanence. Applying New Ideas. "Again, the influence upon Tural life of the agricultural teaching of the Colleges and; Universities, as exercised by their pupils, iriay be too easily accepted as being of greater potential utility than any work.which-these institutions can do amongst adults.'. .This is s a mistake. The thousands of-young men who are now being trained for. advanced farming too often have to restrict the practical application of their theoretic knowledge to tho home circle, which is not always responsive, for a man is not usually a prophet in his own family. It is hero that the educational value of co-operative societies comes in; they act as agencies through which scientific teaching may become actual practice, not in the uncertain future, but in tho living present. A cooperative association has a quality which should commend it to the social reformer —tho power of evoking character; it brings to tho front a new typo of local leader, not the best talker, but the man whose knowledge enables him to -make some solid contribution to the welfare of the community. "The new organisation of the rural community for social as well as economic purposes, which should follow from tho acceptance of tho opinion I have advanced, would bring with it the first ef-fective-counter-attraction to the towns. Their material advantages the country cannot hope to rival; nor can anv conceivable evolution of rural lifo furnish a real counterpart to tho cheap and garish entertainments of the modern city. Take, for example, the extravagant use of electric light for purposes of advertisement, which affords a nightly display of fireworks in any active .business street of an American city far superior to the occasional exhibition at the Crystal Falace in . London, wWch was the rare treat of my childhood days.'\ These delights—if such fhey 1)0— cannot be extended into remoto villages in Kansas or Nebraska; but their enchantment must bo reckoned with . by thoso who would remould the life of the open country and make it morally and mentally satisfying to thoso who are born to it, or who, but for its social stagnation, would prefer a rural to an urban existence.' ' ■

"In one of his many public references to country life, President Roosevelt attributed the. rural exodus to the desire of 'the more active and restless young men and women' to esoape from 'loneliness and lack of mental companionship.' He is hopeful-that the rural freo delivery, tho telephone, the bicycle, and tho trolley, will do much towards 'lessening the isolation of farm life and making it brighter and more attractive.' Many to whom I have spoken on this subject fear that tho linking of tho country with the town by these applications of modern science may, to some extent, operate' in a direction tho opposite of that which Mr. Roosevelt anticipates and desires. According to this view, the more intimate knowledge of tho modern city may increase the desire to be in personal touch with it; the telephone may fail to give through the ear the satisfaction which is demanded by the. eye; among,tho 'more active and restless young men and women' the rural free, delivery may circulate the dime novel and the trolley m.akc accessible, the dime museum. In the total Tesult tho occasional visit may become more and more frequent, until the duties of country life aro first neglected and then abandoned. Country v. City. "I do not feel competent to decide between these two views, but I offer one consideration with which I think many rural reformers will . The attempt to bring the advantages of the city within the reach of the dwellers in the country cannot, of itself, counteract Hie townward tendency in so_ far as" it is due to tho causes summarised abovo. However rapidly, in this respect, the country may be improved, the city is sure to advance more rapidly and the gap between them to be widened. The new Tural civilisation should aim at trying to develop in tho country the things_ of. the country, tho very existence of which seems to have been forgotten. But, after all, it is the world within us rather than the world without us that matters in tho making of society, and I must givo to tho social influence of the co-operative idea what I believe to be its real importance.

"In a properly organised rural neighbourhood could be developed that higher kind of attraction which is suggested by the very word 'neighbourhood.' Once get the farmers and their families all working together at something that concerns them all. and we havo the beginning of a more stable and .1 more social community than is likely to exist amid tho constant change and bustle_ of the large towns, whero indeed some thinkers tell us that not only tho family, but also the social life, is batllv breaking down. When people are really interested in each other— and this interest comes of habitually working together—the smallest personal traits or events affecting ono are of interest to all. Tho simplest piece of amateur acting or singing, done in the village ball by one of the villagers, will arouse moro criticism and more enthusiasm among his friends nnd neighbours than can be excited by tho most consummate performance of a professional in a great city theatre, where no ono in tho audience knows or cares for tho -performer.

"But if this attraction—tho Attraction of common work and social intercourse with a circle of friends—is to prevail in the long run over the lnre which the city offers to eye and ear and pocket, thero must bo a change in rural education. At present country children are educated as' if for the purpose of driving them into the towns; To the pleasure which tho cultured city man feels in the country— because lie has been taiiglit to feci it— the country child is insensible. The country offers continual interest to the mind which has been trained to bo thoughtful nnd observant; the town offers continual distraction to the vacant eye and brain. Yet, tho education given to country children lias been inveatod for them in if 3

town, and it not only bears no relation to tho life they aro to lend, but actually attracts thorn towards a town career.' I am aworo that I am here on ground where angels—even if specialised in pedagogy—may well fear to tread. Upon the principles of a sound agricultural education pedagogues are in a normally violent state of disagreement with each other. Hut whatever compromise between general education and technical instruction be adopted, the resulting reform that is needed lias two sides. Wo want two changes in the rural mind—beginning with the rural teacher's mind. First, ilie interest which the physical environment of the fanner provides to followers of almost every branch of science must lio communicated to the agricultural classes according to their capacities. Second, that intimacy with and affection for natue, to which Wordsworth has given (he highest expression, must in somo way bo engendered in tho rural mind. In this way alone will tho countryman come to realise tho beauty of tho life around him, as through the teaching of science he will learn to realise its truth. Business Organisation. "Upon this reformed education, as a basis, the rural economy must bo built. It must, if my view be accepted, ensure, first and forernost, the combination of farmers for business purposes in sucli a manner as will enable them to control their own marketing and make use of tho many advantages which a command of capital gives. In all European countries—with the exception of the British Isles—statesmen, have recognised tho national necessity for tho good business organisation of the farmer. In some oases, for example France, oven Government officials expound tho co-operative principle. In Denmark, the most predominantly rural country in Europe, tho education both in the common and in the high school has long been so admirably related to the working lives of tho agricultural classes that the people adopt spontaneously the methods of organisation which tho commercial instinct they have acquired through education tells them to be suitable to the conditions. The rural reformer knows that this is the better way; but our problem is not merely tho education of a rising, but the development of a grown-up generation. Wo cannot wait for tho slow process of education to produce its effect upon the mind of tho rural youth, even if there were any way of ensuring their proper training for a progressive rural life without first giving to their parents such education as they can assimilate.. Direct oction is called for; we have to work with adult farmers and induce them to reorganise their business upon the lines which I have attempted to define. Moreover, this is essential to the future success of tho work done in tho schools, in order that the trained mind of youth may not afterwards find itself baulked by the ignorant apathy or lazy conservatism of its elders. "Tho development of a more intensive cultivation must carry with it a much more careful consideration of the labour problem. The-difficulty of getting and keeping labour on the farm is a commonplace. I think farmers have not faced tho fact that this difficulty is due in tho main to their own way of doing their business. Competent men will not stay at farm labour unless it offers them continuous employment as part of a wellordered business concern; and this is not possible unless with a greatly improved husbandry.

"To-day agriculturo has to coinpeto in the labour market against other, and to many men more attractive, industries, and a marked elevation in tho w.holo standard of life in the rural world is the best insurance of a better supply of good farm labour. Only an intensive system of farming can afford any large amount of permanent employment at decent wages to tho rural labourer, and only a good supply of competent labour can render intensive farming on any large scale practicable. But the intensive system of fanning not only gives regular employment and good wages; it also fits the labourer of to-day—in a country where a man can strike out for himself—to be the successful farmer of to-morrow. j\ot, in these days of impersonal industrial relations, should:the fact be overlooked that under an intensive system of agriculture, wo find still preserved the kindly personal relation between employer ami employed which contributes both to tho pleasantness of life and to economic progress- and security. Tho Labour Problem. "Moreover, in a country where advanced farming is the rule, there is a remarkable, and, from the standpoint of national stability, most valuable, steadiness in employment. Good farming, by fixing tho labourer on tho soil, improves the general condition of rural life, by ridding tho countryside of the worst of its present pests. Those wandering dervishes of tho industrial world, the hobo, the tramp—the entire family .of Weary Willies and Tired Timothys—will no longer havo .even an imaginary excuse for their troubled and troublesome existence. But the farmer who was the prey of these pests must, if he would bo permanently rid of them, learn to respect his hired farm hand. He; must provide him with a comfortable cottage and a modest garden plot upon which his young family may employ themselves; otherwise, whatever the fanner may do to attract Labour, he will never retain it. In shorf, the labourer, too, must get his full arid, fair share of the prosperity of the coming good time in the country. "In the more intelligent scheme, of tho new country life, the economic position of woman is likely to be one of high importance. Sho enters largely into all three parts of our programme—better farming, better business, tatter living. In tho development of higher farming, for instance, sho is better fitted than the more muscular but less patient animal, man, to carry on with, care that work of milk records, egg records, etc., which underlies tho selection on scientific lines of tho more productive strains 'of cattle aud poultry. And this kind of work is wanted in the study not only of animal, but also of plant "life.

"Again, in the sphere of better business, tho housekeeping faculty of woman is an important asset, since a good system of farm nccounts is 0110 of tho most valinblo aids to successful farming. But it is, of course, 111 tfne third part of the programme —better living—that woman's greatest opportunity lies. The woman makes tho homo life of the nation. But sho desires also social life, and where she has tho chance she develops it. Here it is that tho establishment of the co-operativo society, or union, gives an opening and a rango of conditions in which the social usefulness of woman makes itself quickly felt. I do not think tbat I am laying too much stress on this matter, because the pleasures, the interests and tho duties of society, properly so called —that is, tho state of living on friendly terms with our neighbours—are always moTe central and important in the life of a woman than of a man. TTie man needs them, too, for without tliem he becomes n mere machine for making money; but tlio woman, deprived of tlwm, tends to becomo a mere drudge. The now rural social economy (which implies a denser population occupying smaller holdings) must thereforo include a generous provision for all thoso forms of social intercourse which specially appeal to women. Tho Women's Sections of th© Granges have dono a great deal of useful work in this direction; wo need a more general and complete application of tho principles on wfiicli they act."