8 BULLETIN 269, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



in the United States, since this method of fostering agriculture has 

 been in successful operation for many years in the older countries. 

 The following notes, which are incapable of tabulation, were trans- 

 lated and abstracted from current foreign journals received since the 

 last report was written : 



France. — Considerable emphasis is given to what is called the feminist 

 movement in agriculture in France. 1 In addition to the extension of instruc- 

 tion in agriculture for girls in the regular schools, clubs of farm girls and 

 women are becoming more and more numerous. The great agricultural so- 

 cieties are opening their ranks to female collaborators. Everywhere rapid 

 progress is being made in the technical and general education of the women 

 who live on the farm. In 1914 there were 38 movable schools giving house- 

 keeping instruction to 2,S0O young girls. The program of these schools is ar- 

 ranged according to the needs of the region in which they are held. In addi- 

 tion to housekeeping subjects, the care of milk, the making of butter, and 

 aviculture are taught. When a course is finished in a community, the teachers 

 assemble the mothers and farm women for evening courses and lectures. 



Clubs of farm women are organizing institutes for farm women along the 

 lines of those conducted in Canada and the United States. Also numerous com- 

 petitions for farm women are held in aviculture and other lines of agriculture 

 in which prizes valued at from $70 to $200 are awarded. 



The women's section of the Society of French Agriculturists is now two 

 years old, having been founded in 1912 to interest women in country life and 

 to enable them to work out more efficiently their economic, moral, and social 

 education. The first work of the section was to conduct a survey to ascertain 

 the condition and needs of farm women, and its inquiries show clearly the 

 gravity of the rural crisis for which the " distaste of women for rural life " 

 is largely responsible. This survey revealed the growing distaste of the young 

 country woman for farm life ; her extreme ignorance of housekeeping and farm 

 work ; her loneliness and her desire for recreation ; and the need for her mental 

 improvement. The section has founded five traveling housekeeping schools. 

 Many clubs of farm women which were among the first independently estab- 

 lished in France have associated themselves with the section. 



The National Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, through a happy 

 innovation, has just begun to allow female competition. In organizing the 

 congress of the farm home, an effort has been made to show clearly, by the 

 choice of the subject as well as by the personnel of the committee of organi- 

 zation, that the rural crisis is worthy of consideration from the female point 

 of view. 



Brazil. 2 — Brazil has conducted its first agricultural institute train. The 

 Argentine Central Railway, with the cooperation of a provincial agriculturist 

 fitted up two passenger coaches, one for lecture purposes and one for an exhibi- 

 tion car. 



The conferences and demonstrations are held in the rural centers on Sundays 

 and holidays. They are thus carried on without taking the farmers from 

 their work. When extraordinary occurrences, such as sudden plagues and 

 the like, make the work of the school necessary, it is moved to the place indi- 

 cated to give advice and practical teaching as the case may demand. 



!Vie Agr. et Rurale, 3 (1914), No. 23, pp. 625-628; Bui. Soc. Agr. France, 75 (1914), 

 No. 1, Sup., p. 248. 

 2 Bol. Min Agr. Indus, e Com. [Brazil], 2 (1913), No. 2, pp. 104-107. 



