OUTDOOR WORK FOR WOMEN
Seven years ago I became impressed with the idea that there was a wider
range of industrial work for our girls. The idea grew upon me that it
was unwise in a climate like ours in the South to narrow the work of
our girls, and confine them to indoor occupations.
If one makes a close study of economic conditions in the South, he
will soon be convinced that one of the weak points is the want of
occupations for women. This lack of opportunity grows largely out of
traditional prejudice and because of lack of skill. All through the
period of slavery, the idea prevailed that women, not slaves, should
do as little work as possible with their hands. There were notable
exceptions, but this was the rule.
Most of the work inside the homes was done by the coloured women. Such
a thing as cooking, sewing, and laundering, as part of a white woman's
education, was not thought of in the days of slavery. Training in art,
music, and general literature was emphasised. When the coloured girl
became free, she naturally craved the same education in which she had
seen the white woman specialising. I have already described our trials
at the Tuskegee Institute, in attempting to get our girls to feel and
see that they should secure the most thorough education in everything
relating to the care of a home. When we were able to free them of the
idea that it was degrading to study and practice those household duties
which are connected with one's life every day in the year, I felt
convinced that one other step was necessary.
New England and most of the Middle States are largely engaged in
manufacturing. The factories, therefore, naturally give employment
to a large number of women. The South is not yet in any large degree
manufacturing territory, but is an agricultural section and will
probably remain such for a long period. This fact confirmed my belief
that an industrial school should not only give training in household
occupations to women, but should go further in meeting their needs and
in providing education for them in out-of-door industries.
[Illustration: OUTDOOR WORK FOR GIRLS]
In making a study of this subject it became evident that the climate
of every Southern State was peculiarly adapted to out-of-door work
for women. A little later I had the opportunity of going to Europe
and visiting the agricultural college for women at Swanley, England.
There I found about forty women from some of the best families of
Great Britain. Many of these women were graduates of high schools and
colleges. In the morning I saw them in the laboratory and class room
studying botany and chemistry and mathematics as applied to agriculture
and horticulture. In the afternoon these same women were clad in
suitable garments and at work in the field with the hoe or rake,
planting vegetable seeds, pruning fruit trees or learning to raise
poultry and bees and how to care for the dairy. After I had seen this
work and had made a close study of it, I saw all the more clearly what
should be done for the coloured girls of the South where there was so
large an unemployed proportion of the population. I reasoned that if
this kind of hand-training is necessary for a people who have back of
them the centuries of English wealth and culture, it is tenfold more
needful for a people who are in the condition of my race at the South.
I came home determined to begin the training of a portion of our women
at Tuskegee in the outdoor industries. Mrs. Washington, who had made a
careful study of the work in England, took charge of the outdoor work
at Tuskegee. At first the girls were very timid. They felt ashamed to
have any one see them at work in the garden or orchard. The young men
and some of the women were inclined to ridicule those who were bold
enough to lead off. Not a few became discouraged and stopped. There
is nothing harder to overcome than an unreasonable prejudice against
an occupation or a race. The more unreasonable it is, the harder it
is to conquer. Mrs. Washington made a careful study of the girls and
discovered the social leaders of a certain group. With this knowledge
in hand she called the leaders together and had several conferences
with them and explained in detail just what was desired and what the
plans were. These leaders decided that they would be the pioneers in
the outdoor work.
Beginning in a very modest way with a few girls, the outdoor work has
grown from year to year, until it is now a recognised part of the work
of the school, and the idea that this kind of labour is degrading has
almost disappeared. In order to give, if possible, a more practical
idea of just what is taught the girls, I give the entire course of
study. In reading this it should be borne in mind that the theory is
not only given, but in each case the girls have the training in actual
work. Since the school year opens in the fall, the work naturally
begins with the industries relating to the fall and winter. The course
of study is:
First Year.--Fall Term.--Dairying.--The home dairy is first taken up,
and a detailed knowledge of the following facts taught: Kinds, use and
care of utensils, gravity, creaming. A study of stone, wooden, and
tin churns, ripening of cream, churning, working and salting butter,
preparation and marketing of same. Feeding and care of dairy cows.
Poultry Raising.--A working knowledge is required of the economic value
of poultry on the farm, pure and mixed breeds, plain poultry-house
construction, making of yards, nests, and runs.
Horticulture.--Instruction is given as to the importance of an orchard
and small fruits, varieties best suited, particular locality, selection
and preparation of ground, setting, trimming, extermination of borers,
lice, etc., special stress being laid upon the quality and quantity
of peaches, pears, apples, plums, figs, grapes, and strawberries that
should be planted in a home orchard.
Floriculture and Landscape Gardening.--A study of our door-yards, how
to utilise and beautify them. The kinds, care, and use of tools used in
floriculture and landscape gardening. Trimming and shaping of beds and
borders, and the general care of shrubbery and flowers. The gathering
and saving of seed. Special treatment of rose bushes and shrubbery.
Market Gardening.--Importance of proper management of the home garden,
its value to the home, selection and preparation of ground; kinds, care
and use of tools, planting, gardening and marketing of all vegetables.
Gathering of seeds, drying of pumpkins, okra, and fruits.
Live Stock.--Study is limited wholly to ordinary farm animals; the
number and kind needed, how, when and what to feed; characteristics
and utility of the various animals.
Winter Term.--Dairying.-The commercial dairy is the subject of study,
and emphasis is laid upon the following: Use of separators, of which
the school has two leading styles; churns, feeding, and care of the
dairy herd, breeds of dairy cattle and their selection, butter-making,
packing, salting and preparation for market.
Poultry Raising.--Special study of breeding and feeding. When, how
and what kind of eggs and the breed of fowls to set; the period of
incubation, poultry book-keeping, saving of eggs for market; an
introductory of study of young chickens.
Floriculture and Landscape Gardening.--Trimming of beds and borders,
mulching, tying, wrapping, and preparation of plants for the winter.
Winter decoration of grounds, the decorative value of native shrubbery;
a study of window plants, their value in the home, halls and public
buildings, their economic value, etc.
Market Gardening.--The selection of grounds and making of hotbeds, cold
frames, etc., planting and managing of same, the raising of winter
vegetables, marketing.
Spring Term.--Dairying.--Milking; a study of pastures, how to destroy
lice and other parasites, the care of calves, the utilisation of waste
in the dairy; laboratory work.
Poultry Raising.--A more advanced study of young poultry; brooders,
sanitation of the house, runs, and of all the apparatus; egg-testing,
moulting and its effects upon different breeds.
Horticulture.--Spring planting, trimming, budding, grafting, spraying,
care of grape vines; the wire and post system of supports; spring
layering and cuttings.
Floriculture and Landscape Gardening.--Renewing of beds and borders,
seed sowing, special study of propagation by layers, cuttings, division
of roots, bulbs, etc.; kinds and uses of fertilisers for this special
season.
Market Gardening.--Preparation of ground, what and how to plant,
special stress being laid upon the production of early vegetables for
the home and market. Reproduction of plants by seeds and by division of
numbers; water and its office in plant economy.
Live Stock.--Course includes the history, development, characteristics,
standard points, utility, adaptability to climatic conditions; lessons
on judging, care, selection and management of the leading breeds of
horses, sheep and hogs.
Second Year.--Fall Term.--Dairying.--A more comprehensive study of
milk and its constituents; weeds and their harmful effect upon dairy
products; general sanitation of dairy barns; the drawing of plans, etc.
Poultry Raising.--Insecticides, how to make, when and how much to use,
diseases of fowls and their treatment. A study of foods and their
adaptability to different breeds, special study of turkeys and guineas.
Horticulture.--Root and stem grafting with active and dormant buds;
formation of trunk and top starch, and its relation to the hardiness of
fruits and shrubs, botany of the orchard, entomology; book-keeping.
Floriculture and Landscape Gardening.--Systematic botany,
bouquet-making--harmony of colour, form and size of flowers; laying
out of private and public grounds, roads, parks, walks, and streets;
entomology of the flower garden.
Market Gardening.--Botany of the field and garden; physical analysis
of soils and the improvement of clay and sandy soils; the depletion of
plant food and its replacement by direct and indirect fertilisers; the
source of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Draining.
Live Stock.--How to hitch and unhitch horses, the care of vehicles and
harness, how to drive, the names of common diseases and treatment of
sick animals; swine for profit.
Winter Term.--Dairying.--The weighing and recording of milk in a
commercial dairy; the Babcock and other methods of testing milk;
composition of cheese and its value as a food.
Poultry Raising.--Composition of the animal body; a special study of
ducks and geese; brooders, ponds, runs, etc., by-products and their
value.
Horticulture.--Forestry, botany, cryptogamic and systematic; nut
culture; preservation of timber, the economic value of different woods;
the relation of forests to climate, water supply, floods and erosion.
Market Gardening.--A study of the life-history of insects, injuries to
stored grain, peas, beans, meal, flour, dried fruits; botany of the
greenhouse, cold frame and hotbeds; the use of thermometers. A study of
markets, library work.
Spring Term.--Dairying.--Cottage and Cheddar cheese-making, scoring
of butter, bacteriology of milk, butter, and cheese. Judging of dairy
animals by the score-card method, diseases of cows and their treatment;
analysis of food stuffs.
Poultry Raising.--Physical and chemical study of foods, library work,
fancy breeds, what and how to exhibit, the history and development of
the industry. Heredity and the effects of in-breeding.
Horticulture.--Origin of new varieties by cross-fertilisation, hybrids,
sports, atavisms and reversion, correlation between plants and animals,
rejuvenating by pruning, grafting and scraping the bark, special
diseases of both trees and fruit, and their treatment. Knot-growth,
blight, gum excrescences and frost injuries; drying, preserving, making
fruit syrups, etc.
Horticulture and Landscape Gardening.--Special designing in cultivated
flowers. Origin of new species; bees and their relation to the forest
and garden; the hiving of bees and after-management. A study of
honey-producing plants; the economic value of the honey.
Market Gardening.--Relation of crops, geology of the garden,
agricultural chemistry, good roads and their relation to the success
and value of the farm, mineralogy and useful birds and insects.
I believe that all who will make a careful study of the subject will
agree with me that there is a vast unexplored field for women in the
open air. The South, with its mild climate and other advantages, is as
well adapted to out-door labour for women as to that for men. There is
not only an advantage in material welfare, but there is the advantage
of a superior mental and moral growth. The average woman who works in a
factory becomes little more than a machine. Her planning and thinking
is done for her. Not so with the woman who depends upon raising
poultry, for instance, for a living. She must plan this year for next,
this month for the next. Naturally there is a growth of self-reliance,
independence, and initiative.
Life out in the sweet, pure, bracing air is better from both a physical
and a moral point of view than long days spent in the close atmosphere
of a factory or store. There is almost no financial risk to be
encountered, in the South, in following the occupations which I have
enumerated. The immediate demands for the products of garden, dairy,
poultry yard, apiary, orchard, etc., are pressing and ever present. The
satisfaction and sense of independence that will come to a woman who
is brave enough to follow any of these outdoor occupations infinitely
surpass the results of such uncertain labor as that of peddling books
or cheap jewelry, or similar employments, and I believe that a larger
number of our schools in the near future will see the importance of
outdoor handwork for women.
There is considerable significance in the fact that this year more
than fifty girls have taken up the study of scientific farming at
the Minnesota College of Agriculture, and have thus announced their
intention to adhere to country life. The college has been in existence
for the past decade, but girls have only recently been admitted.
The character of the instruction available to the girl students is
suggestive. The course presented emphasises the sciences of botany,
chemistry, physics and geology, requiring, during the freshman and
sophomore years at least, two terms' work in each of them. Boys and
girls work together throughout two-thirds of the entire course,
which includes study in language, mathematics, science, civics, and
considerable technical work. In the courses for girls, cooking,
laundering and sewing are substituted for carpentry, blacksmithing and
veterinary science. The girls, too, give more attention to household
art, home economy and domestic hygiene than to the business aspect of
farming. It is happily the chief purpose of the college to awaken in
its entire student body a keen interest in farming, farm life, the
farm-house and farm society. Both boys and girls are taught to plan
farm buildings and to lay out the grounds artistically. Considerable
attention is given to the furnishing of houses, to literature, music
and social culture, with the general thought of making the farm home
the most attractive spot on earth. The result of the new movement is
being watched with keen interest by agriculturists and educators. It is
evident that, should it prove successful, the innovation will spread to
other agricultural States. Its influence, one readily apprehends, is
apt to be social as well as agricultural in character. Heretofore, one
great drawback to farming, even in the North, has been the difficulty
of keeping the farmers' sons on the farm. With trained and educated
girls enthusiastically taking up the profession of farming, the country
life will take on new charms, and the exodus of young men to cities
will be materially lessened.