Mabch 20, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



413 



ing for the most important work in nation- 

 building. The successful making and keep- 

 ing of the home is indeed a profession 

 which requires the most careful training of 

 women of the best moral fiber and the high- 

 est mental equipment. The housekeepers 

 of our land are those who perhaps spend 

 the bulk of the nation's money. Yet in the 

 past there has been little in the way of 

 careful training for this most important 

 economic work. The home-keeper is not 

 less important in our social development. 

 We leave to our women very many nonde- 

 script duties included in the care of the 

 home. She it is who knows all details of 

 the children's physical and intellectual 

 progress. She has accurate information 

 about our schools. To her we turn when 

 problems of civic house-cleaning and house- 

 keeping arise through man's negligence. It 

 is, therefore, most appropriate that at 

 length we are providing practical as well 

 as cultural training in order to enable 

 woman to meet some of her obligations. 



Universities must train our leaders in 

 women's work and provide facilities for re- 

 search in the science of home-making and 

 the art of housekeeping, if the word 

 "home" is to remain current in the Cana- 

 dian vocabulary, and this most important 

 phase of our national life is to keep abreast 

 of commercial and industrial progress. 



AGEICULTURE 



In agriculture we have many problems 

 which are of tremendous importance and 

 interest. The fascination of studies which 

 may lead to the growth of two stalks of 

 wheat where one grew before, of a head 

 which has a double number of grains of the 

 same size, or the same number of grains of 

 double size or a strain which improves 

 quality without impairing quantity, or is 

 adapted to land which was formerly un- 

 profitable or useless, can not fail to arouse 



national and even international interest 

 since it concerns the food supply of the 

 world. Such studies as those which re- 

 sulted in the production of the Marquis 

 wheat in Canada, or the work of Hayes in 

 Minnesota wheats, or of Zavitz of Guelph 

 on barleys, have meant millions upon mil- 

 lions of dollars to the new world and food 

 for the nations. The expeditions to Asia 

 of Hensen, of South Dakota, in the search 

 for, and development of, alfalfa suited to 

 cold winters and dry summers brought 

 about an economic revolution and furnished 

 a story as fascinating as is to be found in 

 literature. Babcock and Russell have 

 added millions annually to Wisconsin's as- 

 sets through their contributions to the ma- 

 king of cheese, butter and other milk 

 staples. 



However, these are only a few of the 

 rural problems where scientific, patient 

 work, and wide propaganda are needed. 

 Humanity is traveling cityward and the 

 best of our peoples must have their faces 

 turned again to the country, if we are not 

 to suffer disaster. This means that rural 

 life must be made possible. It must be- 

 come a life and cease to be an existence. 

 Toward this end every influence in our 

 provinces and in our land must be brought 

 to bear, but it is quite as much a social as 

 an economic question. It includes cultural 

 and artistic phases quite as much as scien- 

 tific agriculture and the food supply. It 

 also must not lose sight of rural hygiene. 



In our land we have many problems 

 which relate indirectly to the soil, and we 

 realize at once that we must develop agri- 

 culture as a profession comparable in all 

 respects to other professions. For this work, 

 undoubtedly, we must also develop an ar- 

 tisan class with industrial training just as 

 we must take pains to foster the teaching 

 of other trades and callings. 



It is to be hoped that all our universi- 



