Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1911-03-24

| mixture Oh DTdluS Will SOlA'
The Dry Farming congress mem
bership, numbering as it does nearly
fourteen thousand of the most pro-
gressive farmers, professors, expert
mentalists, and the heads of educa-
tional institutions, as well as, in
many nations, the actual executive
heads of the agricultural depart
ments, has felt more and more each
year that the back to the farm
. movement so much discussed must
be organized and encouraged, and
that public sentiment must be focus
ed in an effective manner upon the
various phases of the subject.
With this in mind there were a
number of notable addresses upon
the subject of rural education and ag-
ricultural college and extension work
before the Fifth International Dry
Farming congress at Spokane last
| fall, and, with determination to
! lead in the wonderful uplift move
ment already under way, the interna-
tional governors of the congress, CO.
operating with the Colorado board of
control of the sixth congress, has au-
thorized the calling of the very first
international convention of farm wo-
men ever held in America, if not in
the world.
This convention, while an auxiliary
to the Dry Farming congress, is to be
known as the International Congress
of Farm Women, and the initial ses-
sion vii convene in Colorado Springs,
| Colo, Monday evening, October 16.
If letters already received from many
of the leading educate nal workers of
the states, east and west and from
many women leaders, are a criterion,
the first of Farm Women will be a
brilliant and notable affair, and will
be great impetus to the already re-
markabe Dry Farming congress
movement.
The day of the old-fashioned far
mer type is past, and the book far
mer" is recognized as a business ele-
ment to be reckoned with as a COM
mercial and political factor, and it is
as true that the day of the old-fash-
toned drudge of a wife" at the far
mer's home should be ended. The
average convention of farmers now
contains a large percentage of col
lege-bred men, former school teach
ers, retired merchants, few retired
| lawyers, and newspaper men, and
the average farming community con-
tains many women whose attain
ments would admit of their mingling
with the best of society in the city
women who are competent to take
hold of social and religious work in
diligently and SUCCESSFULLY in any
j community and yet-the spirit of
! commercialism has been do dominont
upon the farm as elsewhere, that the
average farm home is not conducive
to the development of the finer things
,
the love for literature, the little So
cial amenities that would fill the lives
of these very same people were they
within easy access to the circles
where custom demands certain obser-
vances and establishes certain habits
of thought and conduct
And yet, where could one more
nearly attain to spiritual andsphyscal
perfection than in Gods great beauti-
full country, where the air is pure
sweetened with the perfume of the
freshly turned soil or the flower of
the crop, where the study of the
science of life is from leaves forever
D., opening at some new picture-in the
midst of the great miracles of crea-
ton and reproduction
To the drudge of the farm home.
even to the old type of farmer, all
this meant nothing. Farm life meant
! staying where one had been planted
to work out the problems of every
day mostly because one
was untitled for anything elsa
mere getting through one day and the
preparation for another just as long
i just as wearing, and just as monoto-
nous.
A favorable season meant good
crops and a few trifies of added com
/ fort and pleasure. An unfavorable
year meant little more scrimpine
on the part of the wife and mother
a little more hard work and worry
4 for the farmer, and less educational
i opportunity for the boy and girl
the cutting out of frills. Altogether
the old rule Of the three Rs was quite
sufficient. provided the "readin ritin
and rithmetic" were accompanied by
sufficient clothing and food to make
life possible.
But, today, the farmer is a thinker