FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 139 



mother must see that her children have wholesome food, proper clothing, regular 

 exercise and regular rest hours. 



If a woman is able to bring to her home the culture gained from an intimate 

 acquaintance with literature, music or art, and a good knowledge of the more prac- 

 tical side of housekeeping, her influence Avill be far reaching, and the unhappy, 

 useless life under such conditions would require a special diagnosis. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mrs. Rockwood: I would like to take an exception to that part of Miss Smith's 

 paper in regard to the country schools. There may be instances where the pupils 

 who come from the country schools are not so well advanced as those in the city 

 schools, but I think our country schools far better than ten years ago, and I 

 am very sure that the facts will prove that they are taking rank with the city 

 schools. 



Miss Smith: I don't mean to say that everything in tlie country schools is bad. 

 I hope they are much better than they were ten years ago; I would feel badly if they 

 were not. I attended a country school myself when I was young, and I sometimes 

 feel that my time in the country schools was, to a great extent, wasted. 



Mrs. Elliott: Why is it that so many of the boys and girls who go from the coun- 

 try take first rank when it comes to graduation? A large per cent of the graduates 

 who are at the head of their classes are those from the country. 



Miss Smith: They get the training after they enter the high school. I do not 

 mean to say that the poor students are entirely from the country, but I do mean 

 to say that tlie pupils we get from the country schools are not as far advanced in 

 reading and writing as the pupils of the same age who have attended the city 

 schools. 



Mrs. Shattuck: I wish to quote what a superintendent said to me lately. He 

 said that out of the children who enter the higher grades of the city schools the 

 country children were better prepared than those who come from city schools. 



Mrs. Hinds: I know instances where country boys and girls came out at the 

 head of the class. 



Miss Smith: That is true, but you must remember than in most cases you send 

 us the best students from the country schools. In our freshman class, for instance, 

 the only ones I have had to condition on passing were those who came from the 

 country schools. We have found sometimes that in taking the examinations for 

 passing into the high school from the country they do not pass them honestly and 

 are not capable of doing the advanced work. As a whole, the country students 

 were not as well prepared as those who came to me from the gi*ades in the city 

 schools. Often the ones from the country stand at the head at graduation, but 

 you send us the best — you do not consider how many there are from the cities. 



Miss Snook: I have enjoyed the papers very much indeed, but I would like to 

 ask the question, how can the country children be expected to be advanced where 

 we have five or six months of school, whereas the city children have nine or ten? 

 The intelligence of the country children should not be be ignored. I do not think it 

 it always the best who are sent to the city schools from the country, for many have 

 to work and are never able to attend the high school. 



Mrs. Elliott: I think it is fine, if with five or six months of school, country 

 tea(?hers can send as good students as they do to the city schools. 



Mrs. Mary A. Mayo: The main question before us is— what do you think about 

 college education for mothers— the mothers of the futiire? 



Mrs. Alex Custard: I think, if it is a college ertncatiou for women, it is the best 

 thing a woman can have— if the college trnining is fitted for a woman's life. If 

 she can get out of it what she ought to have. If she goes to a college where a lib- 

 eral education is given— where a woman is trained as well in heart and eye as she 

 can be— let every woman have a college education. 



Mrs. Elliott: What food should we give to our children to make a well balanced 

 ration? They talk about well balanced rations for stock, in the main meeting; now 

 what would be a well balanced ration for a child? What should be put in a boy's 

 lunch for taking to school, for instance? 



Miss Keller: I think that question should have been asked when Miss Rushmore 

 was here. It depends on the boy. But college students, or those attending 

 school, should eat nutritious foods. I believe that half of the breakdowns that 

 come from college courses come because girls are very careless about the things 

 they eat, and careless about the manner of their life, and I feel that the college 



