Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-09-20
WOMEN AND The FARM
BY Frederic J. Haskin.

drawbacks of the life she leads and her
ideas of how these difficulties may be
overcome There are $1,000 prominent
farmers in the United States through
whom the country gets it's information as
to crop conditions These crop CORE
spondents are scattered through all the
counties in the country, and are repre-
sentative farmers in their respective
communities.
I'VE have been getting their views on
crops and other matters" reasoned Sec
rotary Houston, land their views have
been of great value. Now, it is certain
that their wives are as representative a
class of rural women as they are Of
farm operating men. They must have
some views on the needs and the neces
sites Of farm life that are valuable and
some suggestions that will be Of great
help, so we will write to them and find
out what they think"
Secretary Houston laid his plan before
the men who help him with the work of
the department and they pronounced 1T
good So letter was drawn up and is
going forward to the womenfolk OF the
farm In this letter the farm women
will be asked a number of questions to
elicit the information most desired, and
they will then be requested to add such
other information as they deem worth
while, and help their Uncle Sam to bring
to them and to their sisters the assist
ance they need What the department
wishes mainly is not so much mere criti-
cism Of existing conditions. but. rather.
criticisms with suggestions for improve
ment.
X
Nor is the recipient of letter restrict
ed wholly to her own experience and
conclusions. She Is
Views Of Neighbors requested to dis
Also Are Wanted n nehS s and nc. or
bring the matter up at the sewing circle,
the missionary society. or at the meet
ing Of any other sort of woman's or
ganization of which she happens to be
member. She is requested to transmit
to the department the views of her
friends as well as her own.
AS soon as the replies are all in the
division of Information will card-index
them and prepare sort OF digest OF the
information they contain for the use of
the Secretary. The department will then
do the best it can to give the results OF
the inquiry to the public. and to let the
wife of the farmer thinks is lacking in
life, and just what she believes can be
done to improve those conditions. 1t Will
be a chance for the farmers wife to
make her voice heard to the ends of the
nation and to take some part In the pro-
gram of helpfulness which Secretary
Houston hopes to carry out during his
incumbency of the agricultural office.
1t is hoped by the department that this
will, in some ways, prove the most far
reaching and valuable inquiry into the
affairs of the women of the farm that
ever has been undertaken. 1t is an In
vestigation that concerns itself only with
the women. 1t leaves the men and their
affairs entirely out of the reckoning.
There have been numerous other in
quiries into country life conditions, the
most interesting of which was the work
of President Roosevelt's country life CON-
mission.
In addition to holding hearings in many
places. the commission sent out about
half million
Deal of Information circular letters
Received in Replies. supplied by
the Department of Agriculture. state ex-
pertinent stations and farmers societies.
The letters went to farmers. physicians.
ministers, members of women's clubs. ru-
raj free delivery carriers and other peo-
pie foremost in the average farming COM
munity. To these about $4,000 answers
came. Some of them contained a great
deal of information and many helpful
suggestions.
A farmer from Missouri wrote that he
was the father of eleven children and
that he and his wife were each ffty-two
years old. He was the owner Of $40
acres of land, not an acre OF which was
encountered. He wrote that few farm
homes were what they should be be-
cause of the mortgages that were over
them: that the education children were
getting at rural schools did not attain
its purpose; that there was a little one
horse grange in his community, but that
every darned member thought he ought
to be q king; that renters seldom made
a good living because they spent too
much time hunting better Jop; mat
there was a scarcity OF labor because the
people had gone out OF the baby bust
ness: that sanitary conditions were not
satisfactory, citing that In the wall or
one neighbor's well he had counted seven
snakes, and that the farmers wife had
died since, leaving him to look Tor an
other.
When the results of the present inquiry
are all in and tabulated, Secretary Hous-
ton expects to do everything that is
within his power to carry out the
worthy suggestions that it brings forth.
What can be done without further con.
sressional authorization that the general
powers already confer upon him will
be promptly undertaken. What he cam
not do under these powers will be re-
ferred to Congress with request for
money and authority.
There are perhaps 100000 wives and
daughters of farmers in the United
Sta es.
Ahout 1900, 600 Hard T h vi
n. rIv