158 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



jects makes possible greater economy m all our resources and this 

 would be of special value to that class which most needs economy, 

 the very poor. No truer proverb was ever penned than this: "The 

 destruction of the poor is their poverty." Is it not a consummation 

 devoutly to be wished that the small girls who are to suffer through 

 life the hardships of poverty, that they should by skill be able to mul- 

 tiply the one loaf into two and the one garment so that it should clothe 

 two? 



We must advocate still further the opportunity for woman's study 

 of landscape gardening, plant culture and horticulture, of dairying, 

 poultry raising, bee-keeping and the like. Various instances might 

 be cited of the success of women in these lines. Let the girl exercise 

 her" constructive faculties, her executive faculties and let her see that 

 her own labor, the work of her hands, is an honor to her. No girl, rich 

 or poor^ should feel that she is above actual work. 



It is not necessary, as Pres. Hadley suggested in a recent address, 

 to reconstruct the collegiate courses to meet the needs of those who 

 do not want them. But it is necessary to provide training for that 

 vast industrial army which the conditions of the twentieth century 

 require. Not twenty years have passed since the practical training 

 of girls was begun in our country; and yet great advance has been 

 made, since that small beginning in North Branch Street, Boston. 

 The movement has spread to remote paces and is destined to con- 

 tribute much to the world's good. 



What doth it profit a woman, my friend, to know either Latin or 

 French, if she understand not the speech of children, or of the people 

 at her gate? Is it not better that she should know the fruits and roots 

 the vine and flower and of their powers to nourish and beautify, than 

 that she should have knowledge only of the fiuit and Hower and 

 vintage of literature? that she should be able to grow the common 

 potato and the corn rather than have acquaintance with plants in the 

 abstract merely. 



A woman may have studied calculus and have traced a comet's 

 orbit — a stronger woman will she thereby be — but if she might also 

 calculate dietetic value of the foods on her table, or estimate the hy- 

 gienic condition of her cellar, then, indeed, would the household rise 

 up to call her blessed. A knowledge of bases and salts, of acids, and 

 alkalies, of poisons and antidotes even, will not suffice when a wo- 

 man wants to make a nourishing loaf or an appetizing soup. 



The woman who can pour balm and oil on the wound and bind up 

 the broken heart, restoring to health both body and spirit, uses her 

 God-given skill far more effectively than she who can play the Fifth 

 Symphony or paint a portrait merely. It is all very well for one to 

 study the philosophy of Plato and Kant and even to forget it all. but 

 suppose she has failed to study the philosophy of love, that she under- 

 stands not the principle of womanly sympathy nor practices that of 

 sisterly kindness? All these things are good, but let us add unto them 

 these others, also. 



Let us have, then, the liberal training of the arts and the liberal 

 training of the industries as well. The heritage of the ages belongs 

 to your girls, let them enter upon their inheritance. The twentieth 

 century, the industrial age. is upon us, let them be prepared for their 

 part in it. 



