I  have  made  it  my  habit  to  ask  every  lady  in  my  community  if  they  would
like  to  join  our  Domestic  Science  Association.  Most  generally  the  first  ques-
tion is,  "What  kind  of  a  society  is  it?  I  never  heard  or  it  before. "  And  some
of  these  women  were  practicing  domestic  economy  before  I  was  born,  yet  ask
me  what  it  is.  When  I  reply  to  their  question  by  simply  saying,  "A  better
knowledge  of  home- making  and  many  of  our  dear  girls  are  getting  that
knowledge  in  many  of  our  schools  today,"  they  seem  surprised.  When  I  try
to  explain  to  them  that  housekeeping  is  a  science  and  has  become  so  much  of
a  trade  and  profession  at  the  present  time  as  the  years  come  and  go,  and
there  are  so  many  wives  that  lack  the  art  of  making  a  home  what  it  should
be  that  it  waB  thought  best  to  form  an  association  and  see  if  something  could
be  done  toward  making  more  intelligent  farmers1  wives  and  mothers,  I  have
found  it  quite  difficult  to  get  them  to  fully  realize  that  we  really  have  a  club
of  this  kind — not  a  club  talked  of,  but  fully  organized — really  on  foot,  walk-
ing abroad  in  the  grand  old  State  of  Illinois.
