440 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



and helpfulness. And, since more is being done to solve the problem for 

 the boy than for the girl, let us look at the question from the standpoint 

 of girls and their mothers. 



"Is the country girl neglected?" We hear much on the subject of how 

 to keep boys on the farm, but what about the girl, who is just as intensely 

 alive, who has some big interest in books, perhaps, or in. art, or in music, 

 or in that most worth while of all big interests — people; who longs to be 

 some place where she can earn a little money of her own to buy the small 

 things that are so dear and so essential to every girl, and to do it without 

 being scolded for every expenditure: who would like to feel it within her 

 "rights" to spend a whole day once in a while wandering through the 

 woods and fields with a good book under her arm, or spend a dollar to go 

 into town for a concert without being accused of idleness and wild extrava- 

 gance? What about th's girl, whose very aliveness makes it impossible 

 for her to be completely absorbed in the dishwashing and the mending and 

 the laundry and the price of pigs? Every girl has a right to girlhood. 

 And every rural mother has to recognize and cope with the fact that her 

 daughter would rather buy herself a furbelow or go to a party than to 

 know that the mortgage was lifted. There is nothing regrettable about 

 it. It is her nature. If it were not, she might as well be a horse for all 

 she would contribute to the joy of the world. 



There is really very little in*:entional cruelty or conscious error on the 

 part of parents. The chief sins against this country girl are sins of ne- 

 glect, indifference and unenlighterment. And there are so many effective 

 little rem.edies that can be ao^lied to these big sins. The essential remedy 

 is to allow her to live a balanced life, having in it a proportion of these 

 elements; a certain amount of restraint, of work, of play, of recreation, of 

 social experiences, of practice in self-dependence, of opportunity for service 

 to others. And the girl may hope for these things as soon as a certain 

 balance is effected in the thought-life of the farmer. It may be expressed 

 in seven words — flaming words that ought to be emblazoned somewhere 

 in every farm home: 



Human rights are iDrior to animal rights! 



When farmers really learn this — and with all the talk about it they 

 ought soon to learn it — then more farm homes will be made really at- 

 tractive and livable. If the house is large, let her and her sisters have 

 a room of their own: put their treasures in it; keep their books there; 

 let them use their own taste in its decoration and furnishing. Through- 

 out the house modern conveniences will be installed, so that the family 

 washing and other tasks suited to a man's strength rather than to a 

 woman's will he accomplished with the minimum of effort. 



After these external matters have been attended to with intelligence, 

 we come to the big problem of internals; and first and foremost stand 

 nut two words: Good literature. Good thinking takes root and flourishes 

 in a home well supplied with good books. The girl may have suitable 

 and inspiring literature for every phase of her development. There will 

 be a time when her interest in the unbounded outdoors can best be 

 fostered by nature-study books in story form; then, with the inevitable 



