Missouri Women Farmers' Club. 



OFFICERS. 



President — Miss Frances Pearle Mitchell, Coluiubia. 

 Secretary-Treasurer — Miss Alice E. Kinney, New Franklin. 

 Members Executive (Board — INIrs. R. B. D. Sinionson, JefiEerson City ; 

 I\rrs. Cora F. Shewell, St. Louis ; Mrs. C. A. Cook, Centerview. 



THE WOMEN FARMERS' CLUB. 



(Miss Frances Pearle Mitchell, President.) 



"Back to the farm" has cea.sed to be an idle phrase coined by wit 

 or wag. It is taken seriously by young men and maids of this twentietli 

 century of fads and fancies. 



Who shall say it is not the call of nature to the innate primeval man 

 in whom centuries of separation, civilization and luxury have failed to 

 deaden the love of free life and fresh air ! 



For long it was that woman held to her ideas of self-effacement, of 

 being a satellite to the male constellations of her family, but there came 

 a time when she realized she had a brain and talents. 



In this day of progress she uses all her forces, and you find her in 

 every vocation. The last one which she entered was agriculture, for she 

 had thought brawn and muscle alone requirements to success in that 

 field. 



Now she is "Lady of the manor" — she directs, superintends, buys 

 and sells. She discusses the good points of her cattle and hogs, as she, in 

 the 16th century, talked of her pet poodle and canary bird. Instead of 

 the flower garden of Colonial days, she bends her energies on great fields 

 of waving grain — not that she neglects the flowers, but she extends her 

 interests to include both. 



]\Iissouri women have not been behind in adopting this profession, 

 but through modesty or indifference, they have been hiding their 

 light under a bushel. They were content to pursue the tenor of their 

 way, "To fortune and to fame unknoM^n. " 



(195) 



