204 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



2. The Woman in relation to the Farm. 



{a) The domestic animals, dairying, rabbits, bees, etc. 

 {b) Agriculture (a few underlying principles), the soil, 



manures, 

 (c) The housewife and the garden. 



3. The Country-Woman and Society. 



Clubs, Women's Institutes, Co-operation, etc. 



This course would really follow up and amplify the prac- 

 tical work done in the elementary schools. Particularly in 

 the case of girls, we have made a great mistake in specializing 

 in this or that subject. Too often a girl goes out to the Colonies 

 or to settle on a farm at home, who perhaps has been taught 

 to make butter, but who knows nothing at all about the feeding 

 of cows, or the causes of butter having a bad taste, or the ways 

 of handling and keeping butter. 



The first object should be to turn out women who know 

 how to use their hands intelligently, and who know how to 

 manage their homes well ; afterwards it will be time enough 

 to add proficiency in special subjects. 



If we are to attract the rising generation to a life on the 

 land, we must resort to such associations for the brightening 

 of social life as Farm Lads' Clubs, and Women's Institutes, 

 which have played such a part in the brightening of life in 

 the country districts of Canada. Co-operation must be en- 

 couraged ; for at present we are far from possessing an 

 organized rural society, we have not even a society inchoate. 



Mr. Russell, the Irish poet, seer, and practical reformer, 

 puts this so well that I must quote his words : 



" Our rural populations are no more closely connected for 

 the most part than the shifting sands on the seashore. There 

 are personal friendships, of course, but few economic or social 

 partnerships. Every one pursues his own occupation without 

 regard to the occupation of his neighbours. If a man emigrate 

 it does not aflFect the occupation of those who farm land about 

 him. They go on ploughing and digging, buying and selling, 

 just as before. They suffer no perceptible economic loss by 



