458 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



could be carried under one arm. So interested have we been in the 

 accumulation of wealth that we have permitted the welfare of our 

 domestic animals to supplant in our interest the welfare of our 

 children. The home economics movement seeks to remedy this 

 unnatural and illogical situation and to stimulate investigations 

 and researches that shall put the feeding of the human race upon 

 a rational and scientific basis, as is the feeding of our farm animals. 



You, who are engaged in this work, however, have a larger 

 responsibility than this. From one point of view we might say 

 that we are not interested in a rational system of feeding the 

 human race; that improper nourishment will have advantages in 

 weeding out the weak and leave only the strong to reach manhood 

 and womanhood. Be this as it may, the future of the home itself 

 is involved in this enterprise. The tendency of the age that appalls 

 me most, is that of the strong women to leave the home and seek 

 some occupation, and live in another sphere. This is primarily be- 

 cause the home, as it is now organized, does not appeal to the 

 intellect of these women, but is considered to be a drudgery, and 

 that in leaving it they are escaping the humdrum existence which 

 it involves. The building and managing of a home must be made 

 to appeal to the intelligence and imagination of these strong women, 

 that our homes may be enriched by their presence, rather than be 

 impoverished by their absence. Take out of these homes the top 

 stratum intellectually, and the average must be immediately 

 lowered. There is certainly enough in the management of homes 

 and grounds, and in the rearing and guiding of children to employ 

 the best talent of the most intellectual, if the whole could be re- 

 duced to some scientific basis and stripped of its present chaos. 



Another feature of this work that appeals strongly to me is its 

 influence upon rural life. The trend from the farm to the city, 

 which we so lament as a recent tendency, is as old as civilization 

 itself. It may be more characteristic of this age than of any that 

 has preceded, and, if so, it is because the strong and attractive 

 women of the country will not marry men who are engaged in 

 farming, or who contemplate entering this occupation. This means 

 that the strongest of our young men will be forced into the cities, 

 or else forced to marry girls of mediocre ability. The effect in 

 either case is to fix rural life upon a lower plane, and to affect 

 vitally the class of people who are to grow up on our farms. In the 

 past the great cities have been kept alive and progressive by the 

 best blood of the country. But this cannot continue, if those of the 

 highest intelligence are to leave the farm early in life. The home 



