Missouri Country Life Conference. 175 



it, but go down to the place, and Mrs. Smith in the country no 

 longer has to go to the back door, not because the city sister is 

 better than she, but because she happens to live in town and 

 don't want the groceries delivered at the front door. Mrs. 

 Smith no longer goes to the back door of the city sister to leave 

 the butter there, but the city sister goes and gets it. It is the 

 same with the eggs. This is just a give and exchange from 

 country woman to city woman, and with no feeling of timidity, 

 no feeling on the part of the country women that they are not 

 side by side and hand in hand with the women of the town. 



And then we went to work on co-operative egg marketing 

 last year among all these country women. A big commission 

 merchant came to me one day and said, "Miss Mathews, I want 

 to get hold of a good bunch of farm women in the country." 

 I said, "What do you want?" He replied, "I want them to 

 furnish country eggs and I want them to do certain things." 

 I said, "You write that down on paper, not less than one page, 

 in language which puts it out in good plain type, so that he who 

 runs may read; tell them what you want done and what you 

 will do for them if they do it, and I will get them to do it." 

 He wrote it down. He said, "I will pay you a fair price. I can 

 always pay as much and frequently more than your local mar- 

 ket." He quoted the difference in prices at that time. He 

 required that the eggs must be gathered twice a day. Remem- 

 ber we live far south and it gets mighty hot in August. The 

 eggs were to be kept in a cool place and turned twice a week. 

 They must be shipped at least once each week. Patrons must 

 secure an egg stamp with name and number so the firm could 

 know responsible parties. They must separate the cockerels 

 from the flock so as to have no fertile eggs. Those are the 

 things that were told to those women. I sent out ten thousand 

 copies of that letter. I am not working for a commission house; 

 I am working for the women of Oklahoma. I was out in one 

 of the counties not long ago where a club of women were mar- 

 keting their eggs in Oklahoma City at sixteen cents net. The 

 rest of the women of Kiowa county were selling their eggs at 

 Hobart for six cents a dozen. For instance, these women, the 

 few of them that sent to Oklahoma City for sixteen cents a 

 dozen, showed a difference of ten cents a dozen in their favor 

 over the women who had not tried. One old lady expressed it 

 very nicely when she said: "Some of us take care of our eggs 

 and others take their carelessness to town and sell it for six 



