_THE FARM BOY'S INTEREST IN THE BUSINESS_
The theory that the boys and girls who grow up in the country must in
time become settled in farm homes of their own has neither logic nor
psychology nor common sense to support it. It is never a question of
whether or not a boy will take up the work of his father, but whether or
not he will find at length the true and only calling for which his
nature is best fitted. If the parents of the country boy will keep the
latter question clearly in mind, many a problem in the latter's rearing
will be made much easier.
In order to break the monotony of the style of expression, much of this
chapter will be addressed somewhat directly to the father of the country
boy.
WHAT IS IN YOUR BOY?
If a man should come suddenly into possession of a piece of land having
a productive soil, one of his first questions in regard to the soil
would be, What will it best grow? Farmers blundered and starved along
for generations in an attempt to make a first-class farm produce the
wrong crops, or to produce the right crop through the wrong manner of
treatment; and this simply because they used methods of tradition and
guess rather than those of science.
Now apply the foregoing situation to the boy problem, if you will. So
long as we attempt to secure from him the wrong results and deal with
him by wrong methods, we are likely to conclude that there is "nothing
in him." Therefore, in order to act intelligently and helpfully in the
matter of giving the young son a business relation to farm life, it is
first necessary to determine, as far as may be possible, the bent of his
mind, remembering that the great artist, the great writer, or the great
captain of industry is just as likely to be born in the country home as
elsewhere. In fact, we shall learn in time, much to our advantage, that
there must be a careful sifting process which will result in sending
some of the country-bred young men directly to their important places in
the city, and some of the city-bred youths to the rural industries.
MUCH EXPERIMENTATION NECESSARY
The one who undertakes to develop a boy's interest in business affairs
has really before him a problem in experimental psychology. Many of the
youth's best aptitudes are necessarily still slumbering and unknown to
either himself or others. The fundamental steps preparatory for a
successful commercial venture on the part of a young man are
comparatively few but none of them can safely be omitted. They are as
follows:--
1. _Willingness to work._--In this connection, perhaps something will be
recalled from Chapter IX. We may at least be reminded of the difference
in the attitude of mind of the boy who regards labor as a painful
necessity and the one who enjoys a willingness to work. So long as the
youth feels as if he were driven to his tasks there is little hope of
arousing his interest in the business side of it. His mind will continue
too much on the problem of avoiding work and on ways and means by which
to get something for nothing.
There is probably a period of dishonesty in the life of every normal
youth. Following the dawn of adolescence there is a great wave of new
interest and new meaning coming to him out of the business and social
world. The world is so full of interesting enticements. Everything looks
to be good and within easy reach. He is especially prone to accept
material things at their advertised value. He spends his dimes for prize
boxes thought to contain gold rings and other such finery. His quarters
and half dollars frequently go in payment for the "valuable" things
offered "free for the price of the transportation," the purpose of this
tempting gift being "simply for the sake of introducing the goods."
But it is well to see the boy safe through this period of allurement. So
long as the world seems to hold out so many highly valued things which
may be had for a trifle the youth will see little need of his working
to obtain them. So, attend him in his efforts to get something for
nothing. Permit him to be stung a few times and thus teach him how and
where to look for the sting. Finally, impress him with the thought that
every material thing worth while represents the price of somebody's
honest labor. At length he will see the reasonableness of industry and
settle down with a purpose of making his way through life by means of
honest endeavor. You now have the youth so far on his way to successful
business undertaking.
2. _Ability to save._--All healthy boys are naturally inclined to be
spendthrifts. Saving a part of one's means is a fine art acquired only
through judicious practice. It is assumed that the young son is being
reasonably paid for certain required tasks. So the next duty is to see
that he saves a part of his earnings. For the purpose of this training
in saving, a toy bank may be procured; or he may be directed in
depositing a small weekly sum in a penny savings bank. Still another way
is to teach him to keep a book account of his earnings, giving him
due-bills for the amounts withheld from his wages.
There is one small business practice, the importance of which for the
boy is too frequently overlooked; that is, the practice of carrying a
small amount of change in his pocket. He must learn to use his money
thoughtfully and not merely on every occasion of his being allowed to
have it. He must acquire the habit of self-restraint in the use of
money. To do this is to learn to spend judiciously. To have reached this
stage of financial training is a sufficient guarantee that the youth is
proceeding well on his way toward success in business enterprise.
START ON A SMALL SCALE
Then, give your growing son as wide a variety of experience in work and
in watching business affairs as the situation will permit of. During the
process of this mental growth help him to make a small investment in
something that will grow and increase under his intelligent care. Let us
assume that your specialty is a certain strain of corn or a certain
breed of cattle. If the boy shows an interest in this matter, start him
in at an early age, say ten to fourteen, on his own account. Give him in
exchange for his work a small plot of ground on which to grow corn,
perhaps with a view to his later entering the boys' contest for a prize.
Or, help him to get a small beginning in the cattle business.
But in case the lad shows no interest in your business, do not let the
matter seriously trouble you for a moment. Simply continue to give him
his general education, including the best school course available and a
training in the performance of work as well as the judicious use of the
spending money that may come into his hands. Careful study of the boy
may indicate to you that his aptitude for business runs in the
direction of something to which you are giving little or no attention
but to which you may in time bring him.
There is the case of a successful wheat raiser who discovered his son's
fondness for thoroughbred cattle. So the boy was carefully started on a
small scale in the business of raising short-horns. To-day that son is
known far and wide as an able specialist in this line of stock breeding.
Now, if the father in this case had done as thousands of other farmers
are still doing; namely, if he had attempted to force the boy, against
the latter's natural inclination, to take up wheat raising or any other
undesirable business, then, the son would have most probably skipped off
for the city and secured a fourth-rate place for the mere wages it would
bring. Some day this tragic, oft-repeated story of mismanagement and
misdirection of the growing boy will come out in all its distressing
details.
GIVE YOUR SON A SQUARE DEAL
Deal with your young son on business principles from the beginning. Do
not hastily and unwisely give him a piece of property that will have to
be taken from him in the future because of its having grown into a
disproportionate value. This old form of mistreatment of the country boy
has been the means of thwarting the business integrity of many a
promising youth.
If the boy's small beginning develops under his care into a business of
large proportions, the only check or hindrance that the ethics of the
case will allow is that you treat with him on fair business terms, just
as you would with any good business man. You may cause him to bear all
his own personal expenses and all the expense connected with the care
and development of his live stock or crop. Then the matter of curtailing
him must stop. And if the son soon becomes able to buy you out, it is
certainly an affair to be proud of, not a thing to hinder by unfair
means.
KEEP THE BOY'S PERFECT GOOD WILL
It is a serious matter to lose the boy's confidence or in any way break
faith with him, even though there be nothing about the place in which
you can make him take a business interest. As he grows to maturity his
own inner nature must gradually guide him into the way of a calling--and
a divine calling at that it may prove to be. It may not seem out of
place to quote the words of a religious teacher who says: "Do you not
know that if one's inner nature points out clearly and inspiringly what
he should undertake for a life work, such thing may be regarded as the
Voice of the Divine One speaking faithfully through the instrumentality
of one of his own creatures?"
So it may prove at length that you will have to sell a load of corn in
order to set up in the garret of your house a miniature art studio of
some kind for your young son. Or, perhaps you may have to establish a
small machine shop as an adjunct to the barn or wood shed, wherein the
budding genius may blossom into that beauty of manly power and
efficiency which all the world is glad to admire. Out of just such a
wise indulgence as that last named a certain Kansas boy finally became
enabled to revolutionize the old farm home and the work done there
through the installation of an excellent motor power plant. Electric
light for the house and barn, power for operating feed grinder, washing
machine, grindstone, fanning mill, and many other such machines--all
this has resulted from the rightly directed work of a youth who could
have easily been driven to the city into some treadmill of mere wage
earning.
But, occasionally the boy will prove himself a versatile character,
succeeding in a measure in every line of small business to which you
introduce him, yet showing a marked success in none. In such case the
advisable thing to do is to continue his general education for a longer
period than is necessary for the boy who shows an early inclination
toward a given line of work.
SOME WILL BE RETAINED ON THE FARM
It is admittedly desirable, all things fairly considered, that many of
the very best boys remain on the farm and help develop rural life into
what it should be. Hence the necessity of finding a way to interest such
boys in some of the many business affairs connected with the farm home.
Perhaps there is no better way to develop the lad's interest in the
affairs of the place than that of allowing him to participate in the
practical business transactions as the conditions may allow. Let the
parents take him to the store, the bank, and other such places for the
benefit of his experience. Send him in with the produce with authority
to sell and to invest a part of the proceeds in whatever the family may
need. The father should have the boy with him when selecting and buying
machinery or live stock at public sales. Send him to the bank with
checks or drafts to be deposited or collected. Give him an opportunity
to keep the family accounts, or at least to keep his own recorded in a
book.
The ordinary farmer can think of more ways than the foregoing whereby to
give his growing son the needed experience in money matters. The best
result of such practice is that if there be anything in connection with
the affairs of the farm in which the boy will have a native interest
this aptitude will be discovered; and it can then be made the basis of
the young man's introduction into a successful participation in some
practical business. The boy's permanent calling is seriously involved in
this discussion. On page 279 of this book will be found a description of
three methods of vocational training.
THE AWAKENING OFTEN COMES FROM WITHOUT
Parents who find it difficult to arouse the farm boy's interest in any
part of the home business may sometimes easily secure the desired result
by sending the youth away on a trip to the county fair or other such
place. As a means of stimulating boys in respect to some kind of
productive home industry the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical
College instituted a school of agriculture for country youths at the
state fair. Each organized farmers' institute and each county
superintendent was asked to send one boy. A large tent was furnished by
the college. This served for a lecture and display room during the day
and a boys' sleeping room during the night.
At the first session 122 boys attended, coming from 57 counties. The
lectures covered such subjects as farm crops, veterinary science, track
and field athletics. The displays at the fair were used for illustrative
matter. So far the results of the school have been reported most
favorable. An increasing number of boys throughout the state are making
preparation for it.
AN AWAKENING IN THE SOUTH
It is most encouraging to observe the changing ideals of business
and industry now in progress throughout the nation. The many
vocational-training schools and the increasing attendance at the
mechanical and industrial colleges bear witness of this fact. The
American Negro, ever a faithful laborer, is now being taught in such
institutions as Tuskegee and Hampton, not only to perform some honest
work well but also to plan and prepare for a business of his own.
The son of the southern planter is becoming more and more imbued with
the new spirit of efficiency through personal industry. On this matter a
member of the faculty of the Louisiana Agricultural and Mechanical
College says: "It is a mistake to think that the best of the country
youth of the south are continuing in the old-fashioned ideal of becoming
mere gentlemen of culture and leisure. In 1910 there were nearly 50,000
boys living in a dozen of the southern states, who astonished the entire
country with their achievements in corn-raising. They ranged in age from
fifteen to eighteen years. At the national exhibit held in Columbus,
Ohio, one hundred of them showed an average yield of 134 bushels of corn
to the acre. This corn-growing practice is under the direction of the
national government, and is more than a big, exciting contest, it is a
splendid course in rural home education.
[Illustration: PLATE XXV.
FIG. 32.--A group of "coming" Kansans. Every boy pictured here carried
away some sort of prize at a state corn show.]
"We have at this college hundreds of young men from the plantations and
they are intensely interested in working out the industrial problems
that pertain to their own home affairs. I have been surprised at their
eagerness to get into the soil and to do the mechanical work
connected with their studies. All over the south there seems to be an
awakening among the boys and young men, of an interest in the industrial
and commercial problems of the plantation."
The farm papers and the educational magazines in the southern states
give much evidence of this same sort of awakening. The farmers' and
planters' organizations, the local improvement and school betterment
clubs, and many other movements, are giving both incentive and direction
to the country youths who are at all inclined to find an interest in the
home affairs. The rural parents who desire outside aid in arousing their
boys' interest in the home business may well seek such assistance by
bringing the latter into closer touch with one of these progressive
organizations.
PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN FATHER AND SON
After the farmer's son has fully settled upon his father's business as
an ideal one for himself, there may be brought to the latter a gradual
relief from the worry of details, and that through a partnership
management. A. G. Hulting, Jr., of Geneseo, Illinois, thus describes
such a plan of cooperation in a letter to Arthur J. Bill, the
agricultural writer:--
"We have 160 acres of land in the farm. My father owns the land. I do
the work, provide all the labor, horses, and machinery, and we have an
equal interest in the live stock and we share equally in the net
returns."
Other terms of cooperation have proved successful. In many cases, the
son rents all or a part of the place on terms similar to those allowed
the outside renter; excepting that he is usually given the advantages of
free board and the use of the home conveniences. In all such business
transactions between father and son it is highly advisable that the
contract be carefully drawn in writing. The verbal contract is
proverbially a trouble maker, and that even among relatives.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING SUGGESTIONS
1. Not nearly all promising youths can be encouraged to take a vital
interest in the father's business.
2. In case the boy cannot be induced to take a permanent interest in
anything on the home farm, he may at least have much practice in the
transaction of the small business connected therewith.
3. The ability to work willingly, the ideal that an honest living is to
be earned through personal effort, and the practice of saving a part of
the weekly or monthly earnings--these will give any boy an excellent
start on the road to success and affluence.
4. Deal with the young son on business principles from the first, seeing
that he shares reasonably in the losses as well as in the gains.
Although his interest in any chosen line of work may not become vital
till he makes some money out of it, hold him persistently in line
during the "lean" years and thus allow him to learn the excellent
lessons of failure.
5. It may prove unfair to the members of the family to permit one of the
sons to secure control of the business of the home farm. Some pathetic
instances of this kind have really occurred. For the sake of the peace
and well-being of all, such an occurrence must be prevented by careful
forethought.
6. On the other hand, in case where the boy has started with a scrawny
pig or through renting a piece of the home place, and, after dealing
fair and square with all, has come into possession of considerable
property of his own, do not wrest it from him or in any way take
advantage of his minority. Such a youth will in time most probably
reflect high credit upon the family.
7. Finally, the farm parent needs to be warned against the possibility
of developing his son into a mere money-maker. Such is a poor standard
of success. The man whose only aim in life is merely to prosper
financially is a poor citizen of any community. Teach the boy to succeed
in his business ventures, but at the same time imbue him with the
thought that his money wealth must be regarded as so much opportunity to
help build up the community, the state, and the nation. Teach him that
financial success is worthy of the name only when it is linked with
social efficiency.
REFERENCES
Again we find the field of literature treating the subject
directly an exceedingly scant one. In forming a business
partnership with his son the farmer should be guided by
well-tried precedent. A letter of specific inquiry to one of
the leading agricultural papers will most usually bring a
helpful reply.
A First Lesson in Thrift. Horace Ellis. _Psychological
Clinic_, March 15, 1910.
Industrial Education for Rural Communities. Annual Volume
N.E.A., 1907, p. 412.
The Child's Sense of the Value of Money. Dr. William E.
Ashcroft. _S.S. Times_, July 24, 1909.
Psychology and Higher Life. William A. McKeever. Chapter XIV,
"The Psychology of Work." A. Flanagan Company, Chicago.
Industrial Education. Various Authors. (Pamphlet, 25 cents.)
_The Survey_, N.Y.
Industrial Education. Kimball. No. 1, Educational Monograph
Series, School of Education, Cornell University.