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TBE FOUNDnTION AND GROWTH OF THE x.'JOMEN'S INSTITUTE (Mrs. E. T. Green, Stoney Creek.) In 1896 when the Hon. John Dryden was Minister of Agriculture and Mr . F. "u. Hodson Superintendent of Farmers' Institutes, it was arranged that Mrs. Adelaide Hoodless of Hamilton, herself a daughter of the farm and one of the pioneers in advooating Domestic Science for. homemakers, should address the Farmers' Esperimental Union at Guelph. Her address, which stressed the need of science being applied in the management of the home and the family as well as on the farm and in the production of high--grade cattle, was so well received and voiced such a general feeling among the thoughtful men gathered there, that the late Secretary of South Wentworth Farmers' Institutes, Mr. Erland Lee, suggested that Mrs. Hoodless be asked to give the Same address at the winter series of meetings of the Farmers's Institutes. It was agreed than and there that it be given at the Stoney Creek program only. This was done and so well was the idea taken that the following Saturday, Feb. 19, 1897, one hundred and one women and girls gathered and the Women's Department of the Farmers' Institutes of South tent-- worth was inaugurated, with the assistance of in. Lee arfl Major Carpenter. This Branch was first called the Saltfleet Township Institute, but later "Stoney Creek". The first officers were; Hon.--Pres. Mrs. Hoodless Hamilton Pres. Mrs. E.D. Smith Winora Vice.Pres. Mrs. S.Dnelson stoney Creek Treas. Mrs. J. McNeilly, Stoney Creek Sec'y. Miss M. Nash Stoney Creek Mr. Lee at once notified the Minister of Agriculture and the Super-- intendent of Institutes of the action that has been takenand received a warm resPonse from both, with promises of all possible assistance. The following year both monetary assistarne arfl lectures began to come from the Department. In this way began the unique co-0pcration between the rural homemakers and their Government which thirty--eight years later has come to be one of the most important and far--reaching lines of administrative and educational activity in the whole world. It was early decided to adopt "To: Home and Countyy" as the W motto for the new organization, and the membership fee was set at 25¢ /__ per year so that no girl or woman over fourteen might be deterred by the cost from becoming an active menber. Many men and women of later years heartily endorsed this view, with the result that the great non--