amily, 36. Farming was stated as the
ambition of 167, teaching 21, experiment station work 23, landscape
gardening 6, and other rural professions 15.

In a similar referendum at Cornell the city students mentioned many
reasons for choosing their life work in the country. Among them were cited
the love of nature and farm life, the desire to live out of doors, love
for growing things, and love for animals, the financial rewards of
farming, its independence, its interesting character and the healthful
life it makes possible. Other interesting reasons given will be cited
later in this chapter.

II. The Privilege of Living in the Country.

_Some City Life Drawbacks_

Millions of people unquestionably live in the country from choice. They
would not live in the city unless compelled to do so. A peculiarly amusing
kind of provincialism is the attitude of the superficial city dweller who
cannot understand why any one could possibly prefer to live in the
country! Yet an unusually able college professor with a national
reputation recently remarked that he could not conceive of anything which
could induce him to live in the city.

With all the attractions of the city, it has serious drawbacks which are
not found in the country. If country boys actually understood the
conditions of the struggle into which they were entering in the city, more
of them would stay on the farm. "I lived one year in the city; which was
long enough," writes a country boy. The severe nervous tension of city
life, the high speed of both social life and industry and the tyranny to
hours and close confinement in offices, banks and stores are particularly
hard for the country bred. The many disadvantages of the wage-earner,
slack work alternating with the cruel pace, occasional strikes or
lockouts, and the impersonal character of the corporation employer,
coupled with the fact often realized that in spite of the crowds there are
"no neighbors" in the city, reminds the country-bred laborer of the truth
of President Roosevelt's words: "There is not in the cities the same sense
of common underlying brotherliness which there is still in the country
districts."

A striking cartoon was recently published by the _Paterson_ (N. J.)
_Guardian_ entitled "The City Problem." It represented "Mr. Ruralite" in
the foreground halting at the road which leads down to the city, while
from the factory blocks by the river two colossal grimy hands are raised
in warning, wit