FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 216 



FARMERS' GIRLS. 



[This essay was read by Mrs. Mary Sherwood Hinds of Stanton, at the Thursday evening session of the 



Eoond-Up.] 



I am fully advised as to some of the business methods of some farmers 

 in dealing with their sons. I am of course aware that the contract made 

 in the spring by some farmer with his boys ranging from 10 to 15, was 

 that the measly, lousy colt back of the barn is to be theirs if they keep 

 it tailed up and alive until grass comes. Also that the tough brush 

 patch of an acre at the southwest corner of the cornfield, which must be 

 cleared out and broken up to square out the field, they are to plant with 

 late potatoes and have half the crop, provided they do the job at odd 

 times, when not crowded with the regular farm work. I am aware that the 

 field of late potatoes sometimes only grows the father's half; that the 

 poor colt, by careful nursing, wintered and grew up, and was finally 

 broken very handy by the boys, and turned out at last to be dad's horse. 

 I am also aware that it was these same boys who finally decided that 

 they did not like the old home farm, and a little later started off to town 

 for a job, or perhaps went west and grew up with the country. 



This very emphatic assertion I am now prepared to make : That nine- 

 teen-twentieths of the men and women who have made this country 

 of freedom great and themselves famous, came from the fields, not even 

 being born in the town. That they were the output of the country free 

 schools, while the bulk of them never saw the inside of an institution 

 of higher education, except as visitors. They have been grown among 

 environments which strengthened the muscles and expanded the nerve 

 power, an atmosphere that developed their staying qualities. Their 

 actual practical education was acquired from, friction among men. 



As a farmer's girl I had childish aims, hopes, ambitions, and aspira- 

 tions, and I may not have quite gotten over my childishness yet, but in 

 the race of life along the broad highway of human experience with my 

 eyes open, it is by no means surprising that I should have learned a little. 

 It is highly probable that the above fact is equally as true and bears 

 with equal force on others as well as myself. Yet the fact that we were 

 once children seems to be forgotten by many fathers and mothers. The 

 farmers' girls are the coming wives and mothers and the homemakers of 

 our country — one of the most sacred vocations ever given to humanity. 

 The bars are down and the way open for the farmer girl to avail herself 

 of any occupation to which she can turn her hand, and for which she is 

 best fitted by taste, education or inclination. The advancement of the 

 age and the business and political progress of our women are causes for 

 congratulation. Practically, all legitimate occupations are now open 

 to woman, which of course includes farmers' girls, and she avails herself 

 of her privileges so fully that her doing so has ceased to be a matter of 

 comment. Time was — and not past the remembrance of many of us — 

 when the only work in which girls could engage was sewing and teach- 

 ing. She could teach without loss of social caste, but the line wa» 

 drawn just there. Today she can choose from a wide range of avoca- 



