304 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



WHY WE ARE HERE. 



(The first meeting of the Conference was in joint session with the various farmers' 

 organizations. In response to addresses of welcome by Dean Mumford and Professor 

 Whitten, Miss Edna D. Day, as vice-president of the Home-malcers' Association, spolte 

 as follows) : 



The sociologists tell us that women were the first farmers, so it is 

 not surprising that women are with you today. Early man hunted and 

 fished, and fought, and made the weapons necessary for his warfare, and 

 the women did all the rest of the work. They had, of course, to take 

 care of the fires, which could not be allowed to go out because there were 

 no matches; cook the food and take care of the babies. In addition, 

 they had to make jars in which to carry water, and baskets in which 

 to gather fruits and nuts ; make from the skins of animals their clothing ; 

 carry home on their backs the animals that the men killed in the chase, 

 and seek for and crudely cultivate such vegetable foods as were eaten. 

 Thus were women the first farmers. 



By co-operation and invention men learned how to do their work 

 more easily. They learned to combine in the himt. They learned that 

 it was cheaper to raise and care for cattle than to hunt them. They 

 learned, by arbitration and treaty, to avoid war, and so it came about 

 that soon man had time to take over the agriculture that the women had 

 begun. The records of the early farmers' meetings have been lost. I 

 doubt, however, if any women had time to attend them, for they still 

 had the fires to keep, the blankets to weave, the game to dress, the water 

 to carry, and numerous other things to do. Still later, the men, by co- 

 operation and invention, succeeded in so conducting their work of agri- 

 culture that there was time left for them to take over some more of 

 woman's work. They saw that the women were slow in getting home 

 the fruits of the chase, slow in moving when the tribe had to move, so 

 they undertook to carry some of the burdens. However, when the men 

 took the burdens upon their backs they felt how heavy they were. The 

 women had carried them without complaining, but the men, feeling their 

 weight, looked around for relief, and saw that the beasts had horizontal 

 backs, broad enough to carry burdens, and they put the burdens upon 

 the beasts. They again walked freely themselves, and when the beasts' 

 backs would not carry all the burdens, the men invented wagons. They 

 invented boats, and comparatively recently, freight trains to carry their 

 loads. Men are equal to anything. If you put a man into the kitchen 

 for a week, how long will it be before he will have running water there, 

 and all the other conveniences that the women get along without ? 



So, through the ages, men have gradually been taking over the work 

 of primitive woman, and simplifying it, and the women have been 



