584 Missouri Agricnltural Report. 



THE AGRICULTURAL COURSE FOR WOMEN. 



(Miss Georgia E. Cantrell, Student in College of Agriculture, Columbia, Mo.) 



I am a farmer. I have lived on a farm the greater part of my 

 life, and expect to return to the farm when I have finished my 

 school work. Being especially interested in agriculture, I am very 

 glad to meet women who are interested in the same work, and I 

 feel that the meeting will be both profitable and enjoyable. I have 

 not visited many Missouri farms out of my own vicinity, and the 

 opportunity of coming in touch with farmers from other parts of 

 the State is certainly beneficial. 



The history of the College of Agriculture is, no doubt, familiar 

 to all of you. Its success has been demonstrated in the great num- 

 ber of students who have gone out into the world and are making 

 good in their chosen vocation. It has proved that scientific methods 

 pay. We know that the yield of corn per acre may be increased by 

 careful seed selection and cultivation. I know personally a young 

 man who after taking a short course in the Missouri Agricultural 

 College, won a premium of $65 at the Bates county fair for the 

 best ten ears of corn. He has established a reputation for Boone 

 county white seed corn, and not only supplies his neighborhood but 

 sends to the adjoining county. We have only to refer to the dairy 

 department of the University to be convinced that scientific methods 

 should be employed in feeding and caring for stock. The confidence 

 of the people of the State in the work of the College of Agriculture 

 is shown in the present enrollment in this department. 



So much cannot be said for the women's course in agriculture. 

 Only in the last two years has there been in Missouri the opportu- 

 nity of preparing girls for their work on the farm. The idea has 

 prevailed that girls might learn all of the essentials of homemak- 

 ing and housekeeping by apprenticeship. This condition of affairs 

 is probably due to an unwillingness to criticize our mother's 

 methods. We have followed in her footsteps, forgetting that we 

 are of another generation and living in a progressive age. At last, 

 however, we have come to realize that there is much to learn and 

 new methods to be employed. There are great possibilities for 

 development and opportunities for usefulness. In no other voca- 

 tion is a woman more wholly dependent upon her own resources, 

 both mental and physical. Believing that farm girls need special 

 training for their work, the course for women has been, designed to 



