570 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



People are all the time saying that people are discontented on the 

 farm, usually because the women on the farm are not happy and con- 

 tented. I believe that there is need of special training of the farmers' 

 daughters along these lines. They should be trained along the point of 

 animal life, for that is such a large part of farming. Not that we want 

 the girl to be a farmer, but we Avant her to be in sympathy with the 

 life on the farm— with the father and brother— and with the husband. 

 She should understand plant and animal life as taught in the classes by 

 teachers of enthusiasm. If this is done she will see so much more in 

 the farm than before. This special training will also aid them in de- 

 signing houses and barns which are fit for farmers to live in. This is 

 something that will make their lives more comfortable. This is much 

 nicer than being conipcllod to live in a house which, a carpenter will 

 put up for you. The home is the place where the opportunity is given 

 for right development of the phj'sical and spiritual natures, and the 

 girl who is in school is taught about cookery, about sewing, and the ele- 

 mentary principles of hygiene. The girl who is specially trained will 

 make a better housekeeper, a better wife, a finer woman, and a greater 

 factor in the social life of the country. So, then, we have the greatest 

 need of this special training for women who are going to live in the 

 country. There is a groat need of this. There is a great need every- 

 where. I wonder if you would be shocked if I were to say that I think 

 there is a special need for the training of women to be farmers. I live 

 twelve miles from my father's, and I drive that many, many times in 

 a year, and for six miles on every side of the road every farm is owned 

 by a woman, and only one woman lives on her farm. She is a German 

 woman who was left a widow with several children, and she was enabled 

 by this farm to raise and educate these children. Some of these women 

 who owned these farms longed to live on them, but they didn't know 

 how to manage them. One of the greatest changes which has come to 

 us in the last fifty years has come through the inheritance laws of the 

 United States, which allows a daughter to inherit equally with the sons, 

 and so it has come to pass that girls inherit farms. Sometimes they do 

 not know what to do Avitli them. There are a great many women who 

 never get married for the very best of reasons. May be you don't know 

 what they are. There are not enough good men to go around. This 

 woman would like to live on the farm if they could make things go, and 

 there is no business to my mind so suitable to women as farming. She 

 is removed from competitors. If she undertakes to be a doctor, medical 

 students will not have a woman in the class if they can help them- 

 selves. Ministers will not permit Avoinen to preach. Men do not want 

 women in the professions, and 1 for my part, do not want my girl to 

 be a clerk, or do any of the things girls do down town. I would so 

 much rather she would farm, because I know that every good man on 

 a farm will help her if she needs help, and will do it in the very best 



