CHAPTER XIX 



THE FARM GIRL'S PREPARATION FOR A 

 VOCATION 



WHAT, may we ask, are rural parents doing in 

 regard to the careful preparation of their growing 

 daughters for the vocational life ? The author has 

 frequently asserted that many a farmer is to-day 

 giving vastly more thought to the question of prepar- 

 ing his live stock for the money market than to 

 preparing his girls for their life work. The serious- 

 ness, the well-nigh cruelty, of this situation becomes 

 apparent only when we inquire into the facts. How 

 long must this carelessness continue ? How long will 

 farmers remain indifferent to the tremendous re- 

 sponsibility of giving their children every possible 

 aid in the direction of a high and worthy occupation? 

 Their chief concern continues to be centered too 

 exclusively upon the cattle and the hogs and the corn. 

 Are the boys and girls to be left to shift for them- 

 selves ? And are they to continue to have their 

 careers determined by mere chance and incident ? 



WHAT is THE OUTLOOK 



So, if the country father having a young family 

 were here before us, we should ask him : What is the 



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