TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X 443 



force; about business training for the country girl; about her choice 

 of and preparation for a vocation; about the farmer and his wife as lead- 

 ers of the young; above all, about the farm mother and her opportunities 

 for living a well-rounded life; about any number of big, burning issues, 

 which, if women readers of The Gazette are interested in hearing of and 

 discussing, we may take up at another time. 



Recently while walking along a country highway, a traveler met a 

 funeral procession. Inquiry revealed a pathetic situation. It seems 

 that the deceased was the wife of a farmer under thirty-five years of age. 

 While she lived they had both been ambitious and hard-working, but 

 thoughtless of their own health and comfort. Their farm was new; be- 

 sides the routine affairs of home-keeping and crop raising there were 

 improvements to be made and a mortgage to be lifted. Their plans 

 were to have all the reasonable improvements made, pay off the mortgage 

 — and then take things easy! But under the strain the wife's health 

 broke, and her death left her husband sole caretaker of three little 

 children. In the same neighborhood similar tragedies have occurred 

 in half the homes during the last twenty years. 



These are startling, hideous revelations. A palliation of such condi- 

 tions will come about only through a general elevation of country living. 

 As soon as country parents learn to think .of themselves as, first of all, 

 engaged to better living and in bringing up their children for a better 

 human society, and, secondly, as engaged in farming and housekeeping 

 — then country life will have gained that necessary elevation. 



WHY SHOULD FARM BOYS GRADUATE FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL? 



By Mrs. F. E. Wakeman. 



(Before the Taylor County Farmers' Institute.) 



The importance of this subject demands thoughtful consideration. It 

 affects not only our children, but the state and the nation as well. 



In the discussion I shall quote from some of our most prominent edu- 

 cators, who have endeavored to urge upon parents, teachers, and the 

 young people themselves the growing need of the high school education. 



Whatever is said of the need of the boy must apply to the girl also. 



Why should our boys graduate from the high school? 



We may well ask this question and search for a satisfactory answer, 

 when we realize that over 70 per cent of our boys and girls who advance 

 beyond primary instruction never go beyond the grammar grades. 



It is not necessary to argue the need of an education, the need is ap- 

 parent. Perhaps this is not the place to point out the possible defect 

 in our high school course, or to show wherein it may be improved to suit 

 the needs of the various pupils, but rather, to give reasons why our chil- 

 dren should continue their studies at least through the high school course. 



Prof. McKeever says: "We are living in an age remarkable for its rapid 

 reconstruction of all our industrial affairs. Many splendid vocations are 



