442 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



and that belief of his may be responsible for a young life of unhappiness, 

 ill health, and incomplete womanhood. 



Upon the heels of this comes the big question of the farm girl's 

 pleasures. The hurry of work and the isolation of the ordinary country 

 home tend to foster an over-serious disposition in girls. There is too 

 little practice in smiling, and laughter is too infrequent. After a hard 

 day's work the older members of the family are prone to spend a quiet 

 evening over their papers, and are too likely to forget that the girl sitting 

 just across the table with a book upside down .on her lap, and a wistful 

 look on her face, is longing for that very thing which she so often uses 

 as her excuse for leaving the farm: sociability. A little exchange of new 

 stories, a little hearty laughter, some discussion .of happenings in the 

 world, an interested request for some music, a smiling encouragement 

 to someone's offer to read a good book aloud — how all this would 

 brighten up some of those interminably dull, lonely, uninspiried evenings 

 and help to produce some of that longed-for sociability. But the whole 

 question of sociability is not settled with this increasement of the family 

 circle's happiness. It extends beyond that into the realm of a girl's need 

 for society of her own age and sex — and of the opposite sex. The social 

 life of adolescent boys and girls rests on a deeper basis than that of 

 merely "giving them a good time." "It has its source," says Prof. Mc- 

 Keever, "in the sex instinct then so predominant * * * and is n.ot 

 therefore to be regarded as a piece of superficial sentimentality, but 

 rather as a profound law of nature." One of the beautiful things about 

 a well-organized social life in a rural community is its success in effecting 

 a compromise between the tendency of the city toward a too-rapid social 

 maturity and that of the country toward an over-slow development. 

 Experiments in gaining this happy medium ought to be a paramount 

 interest to farm parents. One experience of the kind that resulted tri- 

 umphantly to both children and parents is w.orth quoting here. It is told 

 in Prof. McKeever's book by an Iowa father: 



"For years we had a room in the house which -we called the 'parlor.* 

 It contained some expensive furniture which the members of the family 

 scarcely ever saw, as the place was usually kept closed up and dark. 

 Why we reserved such a dark, musty room for the 'special company' 

 that came two or three times each year, I do not know. At any rate, we 

 decided to make the place useful. In remodeling the house we enlarged 

 it to 16 by 20 feet in size, and added one very large window. Here we 

 made a society room for the young people of the neighborhood. Extra 

 chairs were obtained, also a large new stove and fixtures for gaslights. 

 There were also some simple wall decorations and a small library table 

 and reading table. That was two years ago. Since then our two boys and 

 two girls have given many parties in that room, and no one has got more 

 enjoyment out of the affairs than their parents. We feel as if that room 

 was the best investment we ever made." 



These are only a few phases of a girl's life as she will live it, if she 

 stays on the farm, or as she may prepare to live it in wider places. There 

 is the problem of rural schools, for instance. There is so much said about 

 the modern rural church, and how it may be transformed into a vital 



