THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. 683 



Since writing this paper I have heard for the first time of a "Farmers' 

 Reading Course." It is under the auspices of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. A description of it may be found in "Farmers' Bul- 

 letin No. 109." Pennsylvania was the first state to adopt it. Michigan 

 followed, then New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, West Virginia 

 and South Dakota. The work was set on foot by the agricultural colleges 

 and experiment stations. The supervision and direction of the work has 

 been largely in their hands. The work is conducted on the Chautauqua 

 plan. The college lays out certain courses of agricultural reading on such 

 subjects as soils and crops, live stock feeding and breeding, dairying, fruit 

 culture, gardening, farm economics, domestic economy and other like 

 topics, selects sets of books for reading, provides for superintending the 

 work and makes arrangements for supplying readers with book, examina- 

 tion questions, etc. The reading course is designed to bring to the farmer 

 in his own home the opportunity of taking under college directions a 

 course of reading on subjects especially pertaining to his work. Then, 

 where a number of farmers in the same community are reading the course 

 they can organize themselves into a farmers' club and meet occasionally 

 to exchange Me»s. J think Iowa had better follow the lead of South 

 Dakota. 



INFLUENCE OF FARM LIFE. 



Mrs. W. T. Goodman, before Page County Farmers' Institute. 

 Why are so many of our great men and women from the farms? First 

 we as a nation wish men to manage the affairs of state, and generals to 

 lead our armies that are physically, as well as mentally strong; and all 

 know that no labor is so conducive to health as that found in the tilling of 

 the fields. The prosperous farmer is judicious, broad minded and careful 

 when, how and what he sows, that we may reap an abundant harvest; 

 and a good statesman will always be on the alert to strike when the iron 

 is hot. It has been at the knee of some dear old country mother that our 

 most devout and saintly pastors first felt called upon to do God's work. 

 From where springs our sympathy and tenderness? How they blend in 

 that word love in the country home. Does sympathy and science clash? 

 No, not if the true man stands behind the surgeon's knife. There is some- 

 thing almost divinely brave and tender in the great physician, who can 

 increase suffering, if need be to have life, all the while ready with watch- 

 ful eye to give that sympathy so needed when both body and heart fail ; our 

 best skilled physicians came from the farm homes. In the city a mothers' 

 time is spent in clubs and entertaining her guests; her children are left 

 to the care of hired help, while in the country home the mother ministers 

 to her child's needs. Think what an advantage the one mother has over 

 the other in leading those children into paths of honor and right. Chil- 

 dren here with us while they are tender and flexible; we can bend them 

 as a twig. Mothers, none in the world have such an interest in your 



