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The following from tha Review of RmUm is a suggested remedy for the deadly daloess •of oounsry life :-Mr J. W. Bobkwaltar, iv iha I' oram for September, writing on " Tha ffdrmera' Isolation and taa Remedy^' deals with tho question whioh is important ia every aountry, but especially in tha Far West and in Australia, of how to remedy tha deadly dulness of a farmer's life. Ftom all rural districts human being* are fleeiog to the towns for the sake of sooiety, aod'fbr all tha conveniences whioh oau never be (ouud when peopla live apart and aionSe Pho only remedy, therefore, for dul« neas in the oountry is to bring tha dwellings together. In other words, ia« stead of planting your farmsteads at a dia« tanoe of a couple of miles from eaoh bjhar, making oaoh iiouae an independent establishment, whioh has to supply everything for itself, the proper thing to do is to gather the farmsteads together into a village j for only by some such method oau the agrio'alturist enjoy some of the advantages of civilisation. I remember, when I was la Russia, discussing this point with Count iois;oi. He declared that, aa usual, tha ' ivioujik had divined the right solution to the problem. Nothing oau induce tho Ruasian peasant to live on his own plot instead ?L S a „ ofchera * Ho always says that it is too aul and inaiats upou living ia the vilage although it may lie a long way from nis land. Air liookwulter thinks this ia right. He thinks that if farmers in a'district five miles square were gathered 'to« gether into villages, it would have a good effect intellectually, physically, socially, and morally. In B uoh a village there would be a village well and a village oistern, a village bath house and a village laundry, a village bakery and a village butohery, horfld dobtbr, blacksmith, and creamery. One windmill would raise enough water for a hundred families, thus saving the expense of many windmills and the slavish labour of a hundred women. Washing day would bo übolichsd, f reeh meat would become a pwadbility, and tha vi.lage creamery would in* crease iho value of butier, and immensely decrease iho labour ot buUercnaking, In« lelleotually, such a Village, would, enable the farmers to have village clubs, evening sehoolhouses, libraries, musio halh?,. aul reading rooms, to say nothing of a village ohuroh, and debating sooiety, and general gossip centre. At present, such is the revolt of the boys against the intolerable dulnoes, that they will walk miles ia the vaia aud snow to spend half the day in sitting round the stove in the oountry store. It appears that Mr. Bookwaltor ia preparing to demonstrate how the need that he has pointed out may be supplied, by establishing farm villages iv Nebraska. The first of these will be built on a traofcof 12,000 aorea in Pawnee County. Tho land will bo divided into 160 farms of 80 aored eaoh, and ia the centre of tho trnot will be a village consist- - ing of 150 houses, one house for every farm,

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NEM18920331.2.18

Bibliographic details

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 74, 31 March 1892, Page 2

Word Count
517

Untitled Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 74, 31 March 1892, Page 2

Untitled Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 74, 31 March 1892, Page 2