668 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



study comparisons in its efforts along tliis line by advertising by cir- 

 cular letter, folders and booklets. Although good results have been 

 obtained from the efforts of the association only a favored few who 

 had more or less knowledge of their interests have been benefited. 

 Through the columns of the farm journals millions have been and can 

 be reached. Much has been done but greater things can be accom- 

 plished in breed extension if all organizations will do their work in co- 

 operating in a substantial manner with the press in general and the 

 farm journals in particular. 



THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF FARM LIFE. 



(By Mrs. C. L. Herren. Read at the Page County Farmers' Institute, 

 Clarinda, Iowa, Dec. 11, 1914.) 



In one of his early addresses at the close of the late presidential 

 campaign. President Wilson said: "The delusion may exist in some 

 that the arts, the sciences, wealth are the keystones of human happi- 

 ness, so far as social and political government are concerned. This is 

 not true. The keystone, the enduring or the crumbling center of sup- 

 port is the human home." 



During the last twenty-five years this nation has been undergoing 

 a terrific economic change. Wealth has trebled, resources have ex- 

 panded like an Arabian Night's dream, and what influences the 

 American nation, in just the same proportion is the American home 

 affected. 



The home is the center of all government. What is done within 

 its walls makes or unmakes government. No difference whether the 

 home be a sod shanty on the prairie or a mansion in the city, the in- 

 fluence is the same. 



In all lyric poetry which deals with the tender side of home life, 

 there is none more beautiful than Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night." 

 In the simple lines the Scotch poet has expressed all that tends to unite 

 the father and mother, which brings the child into unity with the 

 parents, which puts a song of joy into the whistle of a winter's wind. 



Let us look now to the making of better homes; to the practical side. 

 The word "practical" meaning "capable of being turned to use." Let 

 us consider the greatest needs in farm life. 



The American Branch of the International Congress of Farm Women 

 held its fourth annual meeting in Wichita, Kansas, last October. The 

 keynote of the congress was the speech of Dr. Carver, head of the Rural 

 Organization Service Bureau of Washington. He declared that the 

 great needs of farm life today are better schools, more thorough pro- 

 vision for sanitation, better opportunity for recreation, a wider effort 

 for beautiful surroundings, and last of all, rural organization. Dr. 

 Carver declared that the first four needs could be answered by ac- 

 complishing the last. 



Farming is just as much a business as merchandising, and farm op- 

 erations must be carried on. in a business-like way. Every depart- 

 ment of farm work corresponds to the various departments of a larger 



