THE RURAL HOME 319 



who formerly led the fight are to head the counter-charge for 

 better things on the farms. 



AN OPEN LETTER TO SECRETARY HOUSTON 1 



FROM A FARMER'S WIFE 



MARY DOANE SHELBY 



I THINK that I must tell you first that country living is com- 

 paratively new to me. To my four years of life on a farm I 

 have a background of many years of city life, during which I did 

 the strenuous things which women of leisure are apt to do to-day. 

 In the midst of these activities a great doctor told my husband 

 that he was in a bad way physically and must henceforward lead 

 an out-of-doors life. It was decided that we should try farming. 

 Health was the first consideration in the selection of our new 

 home, but we must make the enterprise a paying investment. 

 We chose a beautiful stock farm in the foothills of the Ozarks, 

 in a sparsely settled neighborhood which had had no newcomers 

 for years. 



The roads are poor. When crops fail, our neighbors accept 

 the situation philosophically and keep their families in food by 

 cutting timber and hewing railway ties. They are a simple 

 people whose wants are easily satisfied. They know little of the 

 outside world save as an adventurous son or daughter has left 

 home to seek employment as a streetcar conductor or domestic 

 servant. Their forebears have lived here for nearly a hundred 

 years. While their opportunities for "book learning" have been 

 incredibly meager, they come of such fine stock that the lack of a 

 formal education serves to emphasize native ability. I feel very 

 modest when I am with them. 



Within a radius of ten miles I am familiar with family con- 

 ditions. Unless the mother is still a young woman, one finds from 

 seven to sixteen children in each household. I have given the 

 two extremes. I humbly confess that I fall below a fair city 

 average in this regard. With this exception, and the fact that 

 I have more material possessions, my problem and my neighbors' 



i Adapted from the Outlook, Vol. Ill, 923-5, Dec. 15, 1915. 



