THE RURAL HOME 323 



almpst entirely to your Department. My text-books have been 

 the Government bulletins. I have them bound, indexed, and 

 catalogued. There is not a day ,when some one of the household 

 does not refer to them. Yesterday I heard one of my aides, a 

 neighbor's daughter, say to the other: "Marthy, if you take 

 that jelly off now, you will be goin' right against the Gov- 

 ernment ! ' ' 



WOMEN IN RURAL LIFE 1 



SIR HORACE PLUNKETT 



IN the more intelligent scheme of the new country life, the 

 economic position of woman is likely to be one of high importance. 

 She enters largely into all three parts of our program better 

 farming, better business, better living. In the development of 

 higher farming, for instance, she is better fitted than the more 

 muscular but less patient animal, man, to carry on with care that 

 work of milk records, egg records, etc., which underlies the 

 selection on scientific lines of the more productive strains of 

 cattle and poultry. And this kind of work is wanted in the 

 study not only of animal, but also of plant life. 



Again, in the sphere of better business, the housekeeping 

 faculty of woman is an important asset, since a good system of 

 farm- accounts is one of the most valuable aids to successful 

 farming. But it is, of course, in the third part of our program, 

 better living, that woman's greatest opportunity lies. The 

 woman makes the home life of the Nation. But she desires also 

 social life, and where she has the chance she develops it. Here it 

 is that the establishment of the cooperative society, or union, gives 

 an opening and a range of conditions in which the social useful- 

 ness of woman makes itself quickly felt. I do not think I am 

 laying too much stress on this matter, because the pleasures, the 

 interests and duties of society, properly so called, that is, the 

 state of living together on friendly terms with our neighbors, 

 are always more central and important in the life of a woman 

 than of a man. The man needs them, too, for without them he 



i Adapted from "The Rural Life Problem in the United States," pp. 

 139-141, Macmillan, N. Y., 1910. 



