New Ideals in Rural Schools | Page 5

to herd together as is
the case in many other industries. This has its good side, but also its
bad. There are no rural slums for the breeding of poverty and crime; but
on the other hand, there is an isolation and monotony that tend to
become deadening in their effects on the individual. Stress and
over-strain does not all come from excitement and the rush of
competition; it may equally well originate in lack of variety and
unrelieved routine. How true this is is seen in the fact that insanity,
caused in this instance chiefly by the stress of monotony, prevails
among the farming people of frontier communities out of all proportion
to the normal ratio.
Farming is naturally the most healthful of the industrial occupations.
The work is for the greater part done in the open air and sunshine, and
possesses sufficient variety to be interesting. The rural population
constitutes the high vitality class of the nation, and must be constantly
drawn upon to supply the brain, brawn, and nerve for the work of the
city. The farmer is, on the whole, prosperous; he is therefore hopeful
and cheerful, and labors in good spirit. That so many farmers and
farmers' wives break down or age prematurely is due, not to the
inherent nature of their work, but to a lack of balance in the life of the
farm. It is not so much the work that kills, as the continuity of the work
unrelieved by periods of rest and recreation. With the opportunities
highly favorable for the best type of healthful living, no inconsiderable
proportion of our agricultural population are shortening their lives and
lowering their efficiency by unnecessary over-strain and failure to
conform to the most fundamental and elementary laws of hygienic
living, especially with reference to the relief from labor that comes
through change and recreation.
The rural community affords few opportunities for social recreations

and amusements. Not only are the people widely separated from each
other by distance, but the work of the farm is exacting, and often
requires all the hours of the day not demanded for sleep. While the city
offers many opportunities for choice of recreation or amusement, the
country affords almost none. The city worker has his evenings, usually
Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday free to use as he chooses. Such
is not the case on the farm; for after the day in the field the chores must
be done, and the stock cared for. And even on Sunday, the routine must
be carried out. The work of the farm has a tendency, therefore, to
become much of a grind, and certainly will become so unless some
limit is set to the exactions of farm labor on the time and strength of the
worker. It separates the individual from his fellows in the greater part
of the farm work and gives him little opportunity for social recreations
or play.
One of the best evidences that the conditions of life and work on the
farm need to be improved is the number of people who are leaving the
farm for the city. This movement has been especially rapid during the
last thirty years of our history, and has continued until approximately
one half our people now live in towns or cities. Not only is this loss of
agricultural population serious to farming itself, creating a shortage of
labor for the work of the farm, but it results in crowding other
occupations already too full. There is no doubt that we have too many
lawyers, doctors, merchants, clerks, and the like for the number of
workers engaged in fundamental productive vocations. Smaller farms,
cultivated intensively, would be a great economic advantage to the
country, and would take care of a far larger proportion of our people
than are now engaged in agriculture.
All students of social affairs agree that the movement of our people to
towns and cities should be checked and the tide turned the other way.
So important is the matter considered that a concerted national
movement has recently been undertaken to study the conditions of rural
life with a view to making it more attractive and so stopping the drain
to the city.
Middle-aged farmers move to the town or city for two principal reasons:

to educate their children and to escape from the monotony of rural life.
Young people desert the farm for the city for a variety of reasons,
prominent among which are a desire for better education, escape from
the monotony and grind of the farm life, and the opportunity for the
social advantages and recreations of the city. That the retired farmer is
usually disappointed and unhappy in his town home, and that the youth
often finds the glamour of the city soon to fade, is true.