SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 251 



Would it be out of the way if the girl of the family has a 

 lamb, that it grow up into her sheep? or if a brood of chicks, they 

 grow up into fowls, to be held as her very own? Or if the small 

 boy have a calf or a colt, that they be his own when they arrive at 

 the full stature of beasthood? 



If the good wife, in addition to her regular home duties, cares 

 for a garden, should not the fruits thereof accrue to her individual 

 self, to do with as she pleases, either in charity or other special de- 

 sires of her nature? 



If any child, or the mother, raise a plant or fruit-bearing tree 

 with infinite pains, should the husband or father sell the products 

 for his own sj)ecial gain? 



The affirmative reply is not expected from those who consider 

 the wife the slave of the household, and the children the slaves of 

 the farm. Nevertheless, this class may well ponder the subject and 

 consider from a Christian standpoint how much they have been de- 

 relict upon these subjects. 



Please remember that the feeling of proprietorship makes tlie 

 child feel that there is something to live for besides hard work. The 

 overworked wife, if she have the proceeds of her horticulture or 

 poultry or dairy art, as her own, will have less occasion to ask the 

 master (?) for money to supply needed wants. Tliey will oftener be 

 spent for something the family really need than upon her own 

 special wants. If the children have a little money accumulated, the 

 result of their own exertions, the money will not be lost to the 

 revenue of the farm, although it may possibly be spent upon some 

 home or personal adornment. 



The increasing taste for flowers in cities, villages and about 

 many rural homesteads is due entirely to the influence of woman in 

 horticulture. The cultivation of flowers is not possible among the 

 masses until advancing civilization, and the wealth it brings, enables 

 the owner of the homestead to gratify the taste of the family largely 

 in this direction; but a beginning may be made at every homestead, 

 however humble. To do this, however, certain plants must be kept 

 over winter. Tender roses and other tender hard-wooded shrubs, 

 tubers and bulbs may be kept in u dry cellar that does not freeze. 

 Succulent plants must be kept over as window plants, and to ensure 

 success here that part of the room must never freeze, though a high 

 temperature is not necessary night or day. This continual tem])er- 

 ature costs no more than to let the fire die out in cold weather. It 

 takes no more fuel, since once the room is warm, and the walls also, 

 comparatively little fuel is required to keep it so. Double windows 

 are necessary to prevent drafts of freezing air striking the plants in 

 severe weather. These double windows are really an economy in the 

 country, since it ])revents drafts and enables every part of the room 

 to be kept alike warm. Neither are plants and flowers unhealthy in 

 living rooms, as ignorant persons have supposed. The reverse is the 



