40 Wisconsin State Hobticultural Society. 



music and peace. Then she can gather roses where others gather 

 thorns ; then she can never grow old, no matter how much the 

 body decays. We see so many women about us who are actually 

 dying of mental starvation, or stagnation, as you may be pleased 

 to call it, that if I could lead one dispirited woman, whose heart 

 is full of pain, in this sweet path by living waters, I would feel 

 content. There is no denying the fact that life in the country, to 

 many women, is but a ceaseless routine of endless work, care and 

 disappointment, and as they look into the future nothing but 

 work, work, work, seems to beckon them on. Is it any wonder 

 that after struggling on for years against fate, many of them be- 

 come morbid, fretful and unreasonable, so much so that love is 

 withdrawn from them, soon health and hope is gone forever, and 

 many of them become subjects for the insane asylum — for statis- 

 tics are showing that a much larger proportion of farmers' wives 

 are becoming insane than of any other class. This is a dark pic- 

 ture, and one I would gladly turn from could I do so. 



It is next to impossible for a man who is out in the opeu fields, 

 in sunshine and storms, among stock and growing crops, to under- 

 stand what the needs of his wife are, the routine of whose life 

 must, of necessity, be monotonous and warping. It has been said 

 of her that it is nothing outside of her that kills, but what is 

 within. She needs more love, sunshine, sympathy, society and 

 books ; something for mind as well as body. Every intelligent 

 and kind-hearted farmer ought to understand this more fully, and 

 insist upon his wife's taking respite from care for a certain time 

 each day, if she will do it, for himself; for he as well as she will 

 reap the reward. The body must be recreated after severe toil, 

 and the mind must be wholly fieed from care for a time, until 

 reaction takes place. Each person must select the kind of recrea-* 

 tion most suited to his or her wants. 



Every farmer's table should be supplied with the most palatable 

 and digestible food. Good health and common sense teach this, 

 but there is no necessity of a woman's being a slave to pies and 

 cakes. Many women feel that they would be of little value to 

 their households were they to omit making and baking a ton of 

 cake and a thousand pies a year. Let us be sensible and adopt 



