168 CHAPTERS IN RURAL PROGRESS 



practical form of assistance to the women of the 

 farm, but they may be the means of developing 

 a form of co-operation between the women of 

 the village and the farm, and eventually leading 

 to some permanent scheme of mutual work. 

 Possibilities of this sort of thing are easily recog- 

 nized. 



In the realms of higher education the girl 

 who is to stay upon the farm has not been wholly 

 neglected. In Kansas, Iowa, Connecticut, Illi- 

 nois, Ohio, and Michigan, at least, and in con- 

 nection with the agricultural colleges of those 

 states, courses for women (including domestic 

 science) have been provided. They are well 

 patronized by girls from the farm. Many of 

 these girls do not marry farmers ; many of them 

 do. And their college training having thus been 

 secured in an atmosphere more or less agricul- 

 tural, they must inevitably take rank among 

 their sisters of the farm as leaders in demonstrat- 

 ing what farm life for women may be. 



Nor should it be forgotten that the tremendous 

 movement of recent years which has so multiplied 

 standard reading-matter, both periodicals and 

 books, has reached the farm. A census of 

 country post-offices will reveal the fact that the 

 standard magazines go regularly to thousands 



