Revort of Missouri Farmers' Week. 261 



ing, sewing, dressmaking and millinery; home nursing; poultry 

 raising, butter making, vegetable and fruit raising; canning and 

 preservation of foods ; the relation of home and school, the care of 

 children, the boy and the girl on the farm; books and magazines; 

 games, playgrounds, music, etc. 



Some one who excels in her particular line should be given the 

 leading part on the program and a free discussion by all present 

 should follow. Or, one meeting might be given over to one topic, 

 such as the canning and preservation of food products, on which 

 both State and government bulletins may be obtained and in which 

 everyone has had experience. 



These bulletins might be used as textbooks, examined critically 

 in the light of practical experience, and reported upon at the meet- 

 ing. The problem of the rural school is a much-discussed one at 

 the present time and several meetings or a part of each meeting 

 could profitably be spent in considering it, and in devising ways and 

 means of co-operating with the teacher and the county superin- 

 tendent of schools in making the school better serve its function in 

 the community. 



The first and greatest objection to these organizations which is 

 met, is that of lack of time and energy on the part of the women. 

 The home makers on the farm with three meals a day to get and 

 dishes to wash as often, children to care for and dress, lunches to 

 put up for the school children, beds to make, poultry to care for, 

 milk and butter to tend, cleaning, sewing and laundry work to do 

 for the household, have their hands rather full. But because of 

 this very fact, their needs are greatest. We need to come together 

 and talk things over. The greatest difficulty with housework is the 

 lack of standardization, and great good can be accomplished by study 

 and by profiting by each other's experience; by learning how we 

 may work to save labor; by learning how easily and at how low cost 

 the various labor saving devices may be installed in the farm houses 

 as well as on the farm. Devices and machinery that will so change 

 the life of the mother that it may not be one of drudgery with no 

 time nor energy for her own enjoyment of life are no longer so 

 expensive as to be prohibitive in the average home. 



We hear many bitter speeches nowadays about the farmer car- 

 ing more for his pigs and calves than for his children. It is true 

 that the feeding and sheltering of stock have received much atten- 

 tion. Also, bovine tuberculosis and hog cholera have had immense 

 sums expended on their study and attempts at elimination, while 

 much less is done by the State and government for the cure and 



