98 MASSACHUSETTS HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ask — Towards what docs tins all tend? Is it right and wise to 

 put a girl into the midst of such temptation, and then expect her 

 to be other than she too often becomes ? 



School days over, the excitement of graduation, the crowded 

 house, the applause, all are ended, never to return — no more city 

 life, no more railroad rides, no more excitement. A quiet coming 

 home, and to a home which perchance may not be that home of 

 beaut)', of luxury and comfort and pleasure, to which it would be 

 the good fortune of many of you to welcome your daughters, but 

 a home such as we know luindrcds of our l)iothers liave on these 

 bleak though beautiful hills, and damp though smiling valleys of 

 our own New England. And most of them being totally ignorant 

 of what might make such homes a pleasure, it seems to them a 

 coming down to a mere round of cooking, and cleaning, and small 

 economies that fret day by day. What a dull routine ! How 

 hard a one to be borne ! Seldom company to enlighten ; no 

 money except for the barest essentials — only a weary, dreary 

 home ! The mother tired, the father silent, a brother absent, per- 

 haps, or worse, indifferent. Work that is always pressing, no 

 luxuries, no garden — even the songs of the birds serve but to 

 recall the songsters of the city park, and to make her feel gloomy. 

 And so comes the sad final break with home. 



In all the routine of culture of soil and fruit and flowers and 

 flocks, is there uo pleasant place for these girls to step into, no 

 ■welcome duty for these daughters' hands? Is there no way of 

 showing them that they too have a mission, a heaven-given mis- 

 sion, on a farm? 



It was settled some time ago that agricultural schools and col- 

 leges are quite as essential to train boys for agricultural life, as 

 arc other schools and colleges to train boys for other paths in life. 

 Is it not time to conclude that there must be schools to train girls 

 to home-life? And training them to home-life does not mean 

 making them household d'udges, but girls with healthy minds and 

 bodies, loving nature and humanity, and with hands and hearts 

 calmly, strengthfuUy, sweetly, prayerfully bearing the dail)' burden 

 in a way that makes it uo liuidon, but a God-given duty thoroughly 

 understood — such girls will never be household drudges. 



Our girls can be and ought to be taught to be better providers 

 for comfort, better bread-makers, l)etter home- keepers ; but also, as 

 home is not all within the house, they should be taught to under- 



