RURAL NEW ENGLAND. 

 By ]Mrs. Charlotte R. F. Ladd, Sturbridge, Mass. 



Read before the Society, February 27, 1909. 



It has been fortunate indeed for New England agriculture that 

 the farmers have had so much of that inherent quality — inde- 

 pendence — for they have been legislated for and against by men 

 of every profession except agriculture. 



Commissions of all kinds have been appointed to investigate their 

 conditions and make suggestions for their improvement whether 

 they have known anything about agriculture or not, and now 

 comes the National Commission on Country Life appointed by the 

 President without a farmer on it; and I note that the Mothers' Con- 

 gress, which met in New Orleans last week, is to take up the sub- 

 ject of the rural mother and rural child, notwithstanding the fact 

 that more than three-fourths of the greatest men in the country have 

 been born and reared upon the farm. Do not misunderstand me 

 and think I am trying to belittle the work of any commission for 

 only good must come from the work of honest, conscientious men. 

 In appointing the Commission on Country Life, however, it seems 

 to me that the President has failed to recognize one of the most 

 important factors in farm life today, and that is w^oman, presum- 

 ably from the fact that man has always been the one to advance 

 great ideas and then has depended upon the women to carry them 

 out. President Roosevelt has said, "that there is no more impor- 

 tant person measuring her influence upon the life of the nation than 

 the farmer's wife and no more important home than the farmer's 

 home, and it is of national importance to do the best we can for 

 both." 



I believe those words of the President will be an incentive to every 

 farmer's wife to do more and better work for her home in the future. 

 She knows that her life has been one of sacrifice; she has willingly 



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