452 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



The evolution of life brings us to the 20th century business 

 problems, the most important being the necessary skill and art to 

 meet the two great foes of our race — hunger and cold. 



The secrets necessary to combat these two forces must be 

 known to the house-wife of every successful home. 



A misfortune of mankind is that matrimony is the only voca- 

 tion for which candidates have no training. Yet it is the one that 

 should have the most careful preparation. 



Before a man makes love to a woman with the intention of 

 asking her to become his wife, and before a woman accepts his offer 

 of matrimony, both should be intelligently trained for the nobla 

 vocation of home-making. Girls should be told that their destiny 

 is to be wives and mothers, and boys should be prepared to be good 

 husbands and fathers. 



The founding of a home is the beginning of a co-partnership 

 that should exist through life — not being limited, and obligations 

 equal. The partners have but to thoroughly understand conditions, 

 and each one attend to his own branch of the business. 



The farm, the profession, the capital invested in business, the 

 skill or the muscle, are the basis from which the revenue is de- 

 rived to finance this co-partnership known as the Home. The day 

 laborer, working for $1.25 per day, 300 days in the year, repre- 

 sents an investment at 6 per cent, (the legal rate of interest) of 

 $6,250.00. The professional man getting $1,200.00 a year, repre- 

 sents an investment of $20,000.00, while a farmer with 160 acres of 

 land, at $50.00 per acre, all his own, represents an investment of 

 $8,000.00 in land, plus his skill and muscle. These various invest- 

 ments represent the source of supplies to be used by the other part- 

 ner (the house-keeper). 



The husband must be in close touch with the investment, in 

 order that the various demands of the Home may be intelligently 

 met and provided for. 



It would be well for every housewife, as well as every hus- 

 band, to keep a set of books. It will take but little time, and the 

 wonders that it will reveal to a wife and mother are manifold. 

 I would suggest for the town home an account something after 

 this plan — an account book (about 6 by 8 inches), and arranged 

 as follows: At the top of the page or pages set aside for rent 

 (or interest on the investment), write rent, and so on, for lights, 

 food, incidental expenses, help, husband's expense, wife's, children's 

 (each child separate). 



Prices fluctuate but each year adds knowledge, and if the 



