May i, 1885.] 



TTTE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



831 



To horticulture it is essay to add Fruit Culture: 2. 

 The orchard is not outside of woman's domain. KUt 

 tog and budding ; selecting and packing the ripened fruit, 

 ■who could better accomplish this kind of work r in 

 these pursuits especially I would say, work upon the 

 principle of doing the very best that can be done. 

 Kaise the choicest fruits and flowers ; select them care- 

 fully aud offer them for sale in the most attractive 

 style. It will pay you to have your rosy-cheeked apples, 

 luscious grapes, p'lums, peaches and pears free from dust, 

 and packed with neatness and care. _ 



3 S3k Culture which has been receiving much atten- 

 tion of late years, is a growing industry which Southern 

 ladies will do well to look into. Mr. Crozier of Corinth, 

 Mississippi, spent eight years in visiting Asia Minor, 

 Syria, Turkey, Wallachia, Persia and Japan m search ot 

 the best breeds of silk worms. He seems to have made 

 an exhaustive study of the subject; and after tenyeais 

 experience in Missouri, Kansas, North Oarolima. Lousiauaand 

 Mississippi, concluded that none of the silk growing count- 

 ries he visited were better adapted to silk culture than 

 the Southern aud Middle States. The Corinth Mississippi 

 Silk Co. offered, in 1882, 1,000 eggs for 51.00 and mul- 

 berry trees a year old for §1,000 per hundred They 

 offered also to pay cash at Lyons prices for all good 

 cocoons. The Woman's Silk Culture Association at 

 Philadelphia makes the same offer, and will pay for 

 cocoons according to the market value of the silk obtained 

 from them. Late experiments have shown that the osage 

 orange, of which we have an inexhaustible supply in the 

 South, is better food for the worms than the mulbery. 

 Of course it is impossible within the limits of an essay 

 like this to go into any details of methods of such 

 occupations as are discussed: but those interested who 

 wish to take up silk culture for instance can obtain circul- 

 ars of information from the Woman's Silk Culture Associ- 

 ation of California. It is an occupation of exceeding 

 interest, and has the great advautage of not requiring 

 a large outlay of money. 



4. Poultry Eaisiiuj, even without any of the new 

 patent incubators, can be made vastly profitable by the 

 sale of eggs alone: nor need this industry be confined 

 to country people, though of course poultry can be raised 

 at less expense on a farm than in town. A judicious 

 selection of good breeds of fowl, careful paius taking, 

 atteutiou to the henery. which by the waj- should not 

 be over-crowdtd, is almost sure to repay amply the out- 

 lay in the beginning, which may be very small ; and 

 eventually to yield a good profit. In this, as in all other 

 pursuits, concenteratiou of energy is the prime factor 

 of suscess. 



Leaving the domain of garden and field, let us see what 

 can be done with the kitchen fire. Next to the cultiv- 

 ation of flowers, Southern women excel perhaps in the 

 (5) Coition <>f Table Delicacies. Many well-to-do families 

 in cities would be glad to purchase at good prices, such 

 home-made delicacies as would yield a handsome profit to 

 the producer. Notwithstanding this day of canned goods. 

 there are some things to be desired that are not found in 

 canneries. The old-fashioned preserves, marmalades, jellies, 

 sweet pickles, &c, that in our childhood were the delight 

 of our hearts, aud the pride of our grandmothers, have 

 almost disappeared from our tables, and their places are 

 supplied with canned horrors. A despairing writer in 

 Harper's Magazine sometime ago asked, ••'Where, with the 

 fullest of purses, can one buy quince marmalade?" 

 Thousands ot families live upon baker's bread who would 

 gladly pay the same prices for a good article of home- 

 made bread if they could be regularly supplied with it. 

 The profit on bread is enormous. So with cake and 

 pastry. A lady in Maryland finds ready : de for spiced 

 beef at thirty cents per pound, the profit on which is 

 fully li » 1 per 'cent. What is needed is the regular system- 

 atic production of such desirable articles as house-keepers 

 need, and a ready market can easily be found. The 

 grocer from whom supplies of flour, sugar &c, are bought 

 would in most instances take such products as are sale, 

 able ou commission. Here, again I would caution the 

 novice against attempting too much. 



If you are a first rate bread maker, stick to bread 

 making— don't scatter your energies. Have regularly at 



your place of deposit a fresh supply; and have an order- 

 book always ready for your customers when special 

 supplies are needed. Let your aim be to produce a superior 

 article ; remember that you cannot compete with bakers 

 and eanners; but you may certainly produce what they 

 cannn ; a wholesome and toothsome article of food; aud 

 if offered at a fair price, it will bring yoj a good 

 return. 



So far I have spoken only of a few pursuits, to which 

 Southern women seem best adapted ; and which seemed 

 to the writer the most practical. But there are higher 

 vocations aud professions waiting. These call for training 

 and study. The best years of the girl's life must be 

 given to hard work in class-room, the lecture-room, the 

 laboratory or the dissecting room if she is to foHow in 

 after years any of the higher professions. These years 

 of toil, days and nights of study are the only "sesame" 

 that shall open for her the gates that guard the treasures 

 of knowledge. Work, earnest, loving work alone will 

 lead to success. 



6. Positions of Trust are open to women when they 

 show themselves fitted to fill them. Any women of 

 average ability can, with practice, become a good account- 

 ant. Book-keeping is by no means beyond her powers. 

 Becent disclosures of fraud, aud embezzlement of funds 

 by defaulting clerks, point to a fair opening for women. 

 She. has less temptation to dishonesty than man has ; 

 why should she not put herself in training for such 

 work ? A druggist of many years' experience said to the 

 writer that it was almost impossible to obtain a reliable 

 clerk for his business. The temptation and opportunities 

 to drink are so great. What more beautiful or interest- 

 ing study than that of chemistry '. 



7. The compounding of prescriptions, as well as manu- 

 facture of the various preparations, tinctures, extracts, 

 syrups, &c, in constant use in every drug store, is work 

 well adapted to women. The same may be said of tele- 

 graphy and type writing. 



One might fill volumes with the enumeration of the 

 various occupations and trades that are open to women : 

 but the vital question is, for each individual woman, 

 '■What is my special vocation?" "For what are mi/ powers, 

 mental or physical, best fitted ?" Not "what is most lady- 

 like or fashionable, or lea6t open to social criticism ;" 

 but "what can I do best, and what is most profitable 

 to soul aud — purse." A true woman can ennoble the 

 meauest drudgery. It is the spirit and mind of the 

 worker, the truthful earnestness of purpose, the honest 

 intentions, the faithful performance of duty, that gives 

 character to toil. And if a woman is to engage in any 

 self-supporting employment she must make toil her daily 

 companion and friend. The markets that are calling for 

 your fruits and flowers ; the looms that are ready for 

 your cocoous; the hungry public that are ready to buy 

 your delicious bread aud jellies or dainty cakes and pies, 

 are impatient; and will not wait while you dawdle. If 

 your supplies are not prompt, they will buy elsewhere. 



The woman's cry need no longer be "stitch, stitch, 

 stitch !" The "Song of the Shirt" is now a thing of the 

 past, but the refrain is only changed to "work, work, 

 work !" The curse of Eden is still upon us. Not man 

 only must live by the sweat of the brow; but it rests 

 with woman, perhaps, to transform the curse into a 

 blessing. 



Make choice of tin' attest calling, pursue it earnestly. 

 As earnestly as if it were the one thing in life worth 

 living lor; know it thoroughly, though you know nought 

 else. As a toiler and bread-winner, banish from your 

 mind the ion:: cherished notion of the idea] woman. 

 A creature to be flattered and caressed; to bo shielded 

 from tin- ,-torm and blast, and sheltered always bl man's 

 protecting arm; for in this work-a-dny world the real 

 and the ideal are as far removed from each other as 

 the heavens from the earth. — Jean Bat) ) . — SovMu 



BLIGHT. 



In our last issue we referred to the publication of a 

 work by Mr. Wood-Mason, on the subject of Tea Blights. 

 The only two blights touched upon, however, are the I 

 Bug, or Mosquito blight, and the Tea Mid. or Red 

 Spider. Formidable, undoubtedly, as these pests are, there 



