Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 585 



meet their needs. It is not the sole purpose of this course to train 

 women for farm managers, since there are comparatively few 

 women who voluntarily choose this work. But we believe that 

 every girl who expects to live on a farm should be capable of 

 managing the farm if the occasion demands it. A thorough under- 

 standing of the principles of agriculture is necessary for a happy 

 and useful life, A woman's interests on a farm have a greater 

 range than man's, since it is impossible to separate the manage- 

 ment of a farm from the management of the home. If she does 

 not manage the farm she should be able to counsel wisely. These 

 things being taken into consideration, the course for women includes 

 not only agricultural subjects, but training in home economics. 



As this course is practically a new movement, and like all new 

 movements requires time to become firmly established, we can 

 give no actual demonstration of its success. However, I shall 

 endeavor to tell you something of the work we have been doing in 

 the agricultural courses and the things that seem to me the most 

 practical. 



The work in the course for women during the first two years 

 consists mainly of the fundamentals which underlie all education, 

 and give only a small amount of the time to purely agricultural sub- 

 jects. The work of the junior year is largely elective, while the 

 work of the senior year is wholly so. This gives the student the 

 opportunity of selecting the subjects in which she is most inter- 

 ested and those most fitted to her particular needs. 



In agronomy we have studied the different farm crops. We 

 studied the different varieties of wheat, oats and corn. Besides 

 learning the general characteristics of each type and their adapta- 

 bilities we have learned to score them. We made germination 

 tests. It seems that every one reared on a farm should be able 

 to do these things, but I was surprised at my own ignorance, and 

 I don't believe that I am more uninformed than the average farm 

 girl. One of the things that seemed to me most interesting, as well 

 as most practical in this course, was the study of common weeds. 

 It is practical because a knowledge of the habits and growth of the 

 weeds will help us to eradicate them more quickly and economically. 

 The ability to recognize weed seed may prevent us from buying 

 adulterated seed for our farm crops. It has been said that the 

 United States is a dumping place for impure seed. In 1906 test 

 was made of some imported clover seed and it was found to be 

 48 per cent pure clover seed. The actual cost of 100 pounds of the 



