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tutes are not only taking up this subject or food, but many other subjects 

 reUiting to the home which are quite as important. Domestic science does not 

 mean cooliing, and cooking alone. 1 think we have had a wrong idea of that to 

 a certain extent. There are other subjects almost, if not quite, as important. 

 There is the subject of ventilation, the need of pure air, the need of sunshine 

 and health, that is quite as important as any other. All these subjects are taken 

 up and discussed. We aim in our institute work to develop the all-round 

 wonmn, with a love for the beautiful, and to strengthen the spiritual and moral. 



The cultivation of a love fur tlu' beautiful has been one of our specialties for 

 the last year or two. We have encouraged the members of our institute to have 

 a women's institute exhibit at our fall fairs. I noticed last year a tendency on 

 the i)art of the members to note the little things around them in a way they 

 did not do formerly, and to find beauty in the things around them that had 

 previously been entirely overlooked by women living on the farm. As a result, 

 we have more wild-flower bouquets, and we noticed a difference in other respects 

 in the country home. The other day I was asked to note the vines on a tumbled- 

 down veranda. It was a beautiful place, almost like fairyland, yet it was an 

 old-fashioned house. The gentleman who called my attention to the matter 

 said, " Every one of these vines has been found within half a mile of this 

 house." I notice this tendency is increasing year by year, and we try to develop 

 the love for the beautiful in our institute work. 



In order to help mental development we have in some of our progressive in- 

 stitutes a roll call. As each member's name is called, instead of simply answer- 

 ing "present" she gives a quotation from an author, or. if she prefers, some- 

 times a recipe of some sort — for instance, it may be a recipe for removing stains. 

 In connection with this method of giving a quotation or a recipe it was found 

 that one woman in one institute did not seem to know anything about what 

 was going on in the outside world. She, like a great many others, had been 

 living her own little life, and had heard little about the outside world. In that 

 institute they decided to have each woman respond to her name by giving a quo- 

 tation from some public man. This has resulted in wider reading and a broad- 

 ening of views in the family. 



We believe we are solving a problem that has caused some of the greater 

 minds of the United States and Canada many an anxious thought, viz, how to 

 bring the women of town and country together, to interest and broaden the 

 minds of the women living a secluded country life by meeting with women from 

 town, and to give the women from town an idea of the peaceful life of the coun- 

 try ; and at the same time interesting each in the pleasures and difficulties of 

 the other. As in many sections of our Province the meetings are held alter- 

 nately in town and country, this is possible of accomplishment. The women's 

 institute is a purely home organization and of course is of interest to women 

 of town and country. 



Again, I believe we are becoming more cosmopolitan in our ideas as we read 

 and think and come together. 



Are the institutes to succeed? I believe they are. In my mind their future 

 success is assured, because their object is the milifting, the developing of the 

 home, the mainspring of society, and the pulse of the nation. 



Mrs. J. W. Bates, of Indiana. Women's institutes teach efficiency, accuracy, 

 and contentment. They teach the farmers' wives to see nature and home sur- 

 roundings in a new form. Washing, ironing, cooking, mending, and the care of 

 children ai'e not held as duty alone, but with the knowledge of how and why 

 these tasks are performed the once irksome duties become a pleasure. 



Woman's work is placed beside man's work in every department where her 

 efforts and ability place her in competition. Her influence is recognized for 



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