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WOMAN AND HOME 
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Social Needs and Possibilities 
of Country Women 
By Dr. Kenyon L. Bitterfielo. 
A response t<> the* editor's request for 
a lew words on this subject has beeii 
made with considerable hesitation. 80 
much is now being written about coun¬ 
try life, and especially about the farmer’s 
wife, that is unwelcome, often unsympa¬ 
thetic, and not seldom uninformed, that 
one may well be cautious about adding 
words of unwisdom or vainly multiplying 
counsel. And especially if one be a mere 
man ! Moreover, the life of rural women 
in many individual homes, and indeed in 
many farming areas, is so satisfying that 
any word of suggestion would be not only 
superfluous but ungracious. 
My only reason for consenting to write 
on this topic is found tn the unquestioned 
fact that not alone in multitudes of 
country homes, but <*ven in wide stretches 
of country, the status of the farm home¬ 
maker is far from satisfying, her lot far 
from a happy one, and her life far from 
the ideal. I recall reading seores of re¬ 
plies to a question sheet sent out by the 
Country Life Commission, to country 
women, seeking light on woman’s work, 
position, and ideas, in American farm life. 
Doubtless the discontented were the ones 
who might have been expected to reply ; 
but the answers indicated the existence 
of many grievances, varying from in¬ 
excusable lack of sheer necessities for 
labor-saving, to pathetic isolation of life 
and meagreness of opportunity really to 
live—in all those realms that a human 
soul needs for growth. I believe, more¬ 
over, that the best single lest of an ade¬ 
quate rural civilization is the farm 
woman’s part and condition. 
First of all. what are the chief social 
needs of country women? They are 
legion, but may he summarized in two 
brief statements: (1) Social contacts 
that are at once pleasurable and cultural; 
( 2 ) leadership in securing these contacts. 
Just what is meant by this somewhat 
professorial phrasing? Well, we must 
admit that farm life is relatively isolated. 
The contact or association of person with 
person is less frequent than in the city. 
In extreme cases this becomes a serious 
deprivation, and brings in its train not 
only loneliness but a stunted mental and 
moral development. The need then in 
such cases is just plain sociability, 
friendliness, neighborliness—“contacts.” 
The pleasures that arise from human as¬ 
sociation are both moral and necessary. 
In fact unless these associations are 
pleasurable they are of little value* 
But there are all varieties of enjoy¬ 
ment. The pleasure that brings relief to 
loneliness, or gladness to sorrow, or sub¬ 
stitutes laughter for tears, is good. But 
it is not all. We need the breadth of 
sympathy that comes from meeting people 
who live in other spheres than our own, 
who know more than we do, who have 
read and traveled more widely—people 
at least who have had different if not 
superior experiences. We must learn the 
pleasures of mutual expansion as well 
as of humor. I lence our “contracts” must 
be “cultural,” or productive of mental 
and spiritual growth, ns well as “pleas¬ 
urable” or enjoyable. 
Illustrations of this philosophy can be 
supplied indefinitely by Grange lectuies 
and farmers’ institute lectures. The 
lonely country woman awakened to her 
true life by institute speech, trained to 
growth and self-expression in the Grange 
—these are everyday occurrences. And 
they are precisely the sort of thing needed 
in thousands of farming communities and 
in tens of thousands of humble farm 
homes. Just the opportunity to gain a 
new life and a new joy by freer human 
association. 
This process is often accomplished by 
the woman herself. But more often it 
comes because some other woman, 
stronger and freer, leads the thirsty one 
to the waters of life. This need for leader¬ 
ship is then the second great need among 
multitudes of country women, and is 
moreover the arena of largest possibilities 
for country women. This leadership may 
find its opportunity in at least four ways. 
1. In making a "homey” farm home. 
There is no home iti America superior to 
the best of our farm homes, in all that 
goes to make for dignity, simplicity, 
“sweetness and light.” Nevertheless the 
absence of the things that count for most 
in home-making, is one of our rural de¬ 
ficiencies. Tin* woman who can appreci¬ 
ate the type of furniture and pictures, 
the s tting of house tend its environment, 
most suitable for the rural life aud at¬ 
titude, avoiding both undue simplicity 
and poor city imitation, can render an 
immense service in country life leader¬ 
ship. 
2. In establishing the “culture” point 
of view. The moment the word culture 
is mentioned, the feeling arises that 
something is suggested that can be the 
portion of the few, and somethin;; not 
quite consonant with kitchen work aud 
other household duties. But true culture 
is appreciation of environment—mental 
and spiritual. There are degrees and 
kinds of culture. Every person lias some 
culture of some kind or another. Think 
of the possibilities of culture in the open 
country. Nature and all her secrets, the 
processes of a great industry, the presence 
of problems that lie at the root of civili¬ 
zation and progress—all this is the ma¬ 
terial of culture, the rural environment. 
What shall bo the country woman’s at¬ 
titude toward this environment? Shall 
there be intellectual curiosity and inter¬ 
est concerning the problems of field and 
market and community? Shall there be a 
spiritual response to the wealth of plant 
and animal life, the voice of the forest. 
the music of the winds? It is chiefly 
a matter of point of view, attitude—not 
primarily of capacity. The alert country 
woman can help create this point of view 
—that of culture or appreciation. 
She can also assist in relating the 
home to the community. We are coming 
to cherish the idea of community welfare 
and development as the core of rural 
progress. The home may minister to the 
community need and betterment. The 
home-maker may find the walls of the 
home widening to take in the good of all 
the neighborhood. Leadership of a high 
order is needed here. 
4. She may be active in those organized 
efforts that seek to crystallize with action, 
ideals such as we have been discussing— 
church. Grange, school, women’s club, 
Sunday school, study club. In this way 
ideals will become realistic, personal in¬ 
fluence find its widest outlet. 
And through and beyond all activities, 
the country woman may learn that both 
personal growth and helpful service are 
not measured in terms of multitudes of 
people, nor bigness of institution. The 
farming neighborhood is rich to repletion 
with opportunities for personal culture 
and Christian service—and for what else 
is life anywhere worth the living? 
“BACK TO THE EAB.M.” 
The students of the Minnesota School 
of Agriculture have always taken a lively 
interest in debating and other literary so¬ 
ciety work. There are at the present 
time something like a dozen literary so¬ 
cieties maintained by the S(H) students of 
the school. These societies hold weekly 
meetings during the school year, and once 
each year each society has a chance to 
show its talent on the stage before the 
whole school. Formerly each society was 
allowed to give a play in chapel each 
year; but since the societies have grown 
so numerous, it has been necessary for 
two of them to combine in giving each 
play, for the reason that there were not 
enough available evenings during the year 
to accommodate all. This kind of work 
has developed the fact that many of the 
students have real talent for the stage, 
and also that some are capable of writ¬ 
ing really interesting and worthy plays. 
One of the members of the present jun¬ 
ior class has written two or three plays 
that have real merit. One of these has 
been played by a group of school and col¬ 
lege students at many of the county fairs 
and towns throughout the State where 
the extension department has held short 
courses and other farmers’ meetings. So 
well have this play and the players been 
received, that the cast is in constant de¬ 
mand, and has been obliged to appear at 
some place nearly every Saturday even¬ 
ing during the year. 
The play is called “Back to the Farm,” 
and is a three-act drama intended to 
show the advantage of scientific farming 
over the old-fashioned rule-of-thumb 
methods. The hero of the play is a young 
farmer’s son who believes that the farm 
might be made to pay if it could be man¬ 
aged according to modern methods. He 
does not receive any encouragement from 
his father, who is satisfied that he knows 
about all that needs to be known about 
farming. The young man finally decides 
that he will go where he can get an agri¬ 
cultural education. This he decides to 
do after an interview with the heroine of 
the story, a young lady from the city who 
is teaching the district school. In this 
interview she tells the hero tUat she could 
not endure the thought of being a farm¬ 
er’s wife because of the drudgery 
The hero goes to an agricultural col¬ 
lege. where he works his way and saves 
a little above expenses by work during 
vacations. During the years he is away 
from home the farm is constantly run¬ 
ning down and the holder of the mortgage 
threatens to foreclose. The mother fin¬ 
ally hunts up the son and begs him to 
come back to the farm. This he gladly 
does, for he thinks he sees a chanee for 
working out the theories he has learned 
and making the old farm “the best in the 
State.” He takes charge of the farm, 
borrows a little capital of a umu who has 
faith in modern farm methods, aud pro¬ 
ceeds to put his theories iuto practice. 
The third act shows the farm after two 
or three years of good management. The 
dairy herd has been improved by weeding 
out the undesirable cows and introducing 
new blood. The whole farm has been im¬ 
proved and made profitable by a system 
of rotation of crops, and the house made 
more comfortable and convenient by 
modern improvements. In the meantime 
the heroine has taken a course in domes¬ 
tic science at college and is teaching her 
specialty in a neighboring consolidated 
high school. The hero seems to have no 
particular trouble in convincing her that 
life on a modern farm may be made very 
enjoyable, and she agrees to join the part¬ 
nership. 
The necessary touch of humor to en¬ 
liven the play is furnished by a young 
Swedish hired man and a maid of the 
same nationality who have some difficulty 
in absorbing enough knowledge of germs 
and other mysterious matters to enable 
them to understand the reasons for care 
in following sanitary rules. The father 
in the third act takes great pleasure in 
telling air old crony neighbor how pros¬ 
perous the farm has become under the 
new order of things, and he gives the 
young man so much credit that the audi¬ 
ence is quite willing to forgive the too 
frequent use of the word “we.” 
J. xr. DREW. 
AN OLD FASHIONED GRANDMOTHER. 
