Situations and Problems of Older Rural Youth

Excerpts: Most of our studies of rural youth in recent years have concerned themselves with what rural youth think and want. This is important, but I am not going to spend much time discussing the data developed in numerous studies in that field. Other studies have thoroughly analyzed the ratio of rural youth to the remainder of the rural population and the ratio of rural youth to the total youth of the Nation. I shall use the results of these studies, but shall make only such use of the statistics developed in them as will set the task of wrestling with the problems which these statistics reveal. From almost every angle youth are the most important issue in American agriculture, first, because they are the greatest concern of farmers and their wives; second, because there are so many of them; and third, because we don't know what to do about them or for them. We are worried about agricultural surpluses, but our greatest surplus is rural youth. My whole text is stated in those first two sentences, and I shall spend the remainder of my time in expounding that text.

节选内容：近年来，我们针对美国农村青年开展的多数研究均聚焦于其所思与所求。这一研究方向固然重要，但笔者不会花费过多篇幅探讨该领域诸多研究生成的数据。另有部分研究已全面剖析了农村青年占农村总人口的比例，以及农村青年在全国青年总人口中的占比情况。笔者将采用上述研究的成果，但仅会借助其中的统计数据，用以确立起攻克这些统计数据所揭示的问题的任务。几乎从任何维度来看，青年群体都是美国农业领域最核心的议题：其一，他们是农场主及其配偶最为关切的对象；其二，该群体规模庞大；其三，我们尚不知该如何应对与帮扶他们。我们一直担忧农业过剩问题，但我们最大的过剩资源实则是农村青年。本文的核心主旨已蕴含在前两句之中，后续篇幅将用于对这一核心内容展开详尽阐释。