166 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



question, are thoroughly discussed. Women 

 take part much more freely than they do in the 

 general sessions of the institute. Across the 

 border, in Ontario, the women have formed 

 separate institutes, as they have also in Indiana. 



All this means a new opportunity for the farm 

 woman. The Grange is an organization, and 

 its members gain all the development that comes 

 from engaging in the work required to maintain 

 a semi-literary and social organization. The 

 institute, on the other hand, is an event, and 

 there cluster about it all the inspiration and 

 suggestion that can come from any notable con- 

 vention for which one will sacrifice not a little 

 in order to attend. Institute work for women is 

 in its beginnings. 



So far we have found that existing institutions 

 for women in rural districts bring together merely 

 the women of the farm. In the women's 

 section of the institutes half the audience is 

 usually from the town. This meeting occurs, 

 however, but once a year, and the social effect 

 of the commingling of city and farm women can 

 prove only suggestive of the desirability of 

 further opportunity for similar gatherings. At 

 a Michigan institute some years ago this desire 

 fructified, and the product was a "Town and 



