MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 41 



■wliole of his family, in order to have the work either effectjiallj 

 done or promotive of his happiness. 



It is a singular fact, that the more enterprising and successful the 

 farmer himself is — the more broad acres he tills — the greater capital 

 he expends upon, and receives from them, the more his wife is usu- 

 ally overworked and overburdened in consequence. The money he 

 is making may relieve his own hands — may purchase the patent 

 mowers and reapers, and hire the extra help when needed, but fot 

 his wife's assistance, money will not obtain "help"; and the patent 

 cooks, washers, ironers and menders, are not yet invented, that can 

 be bought. The wife of the poor farmer, who keeps but two cows, 

 and hires no "hands," is a lady of leisure, compared to her who 

 has the responsibility and care, and sometimes all the work to do, of 

 a large farming establishment. Hired help in the house, that will 

 take the care and charge of butter and cheese making, washing, 

 ironing, mending, yeast and bread making, coffee roasting, meat and 

 vegetable cooking, bed making, sweeping, dusting, et cetera, et cetera, 

 ad infinitum, is simply a thing not to be obtained for love or for 

 money. The most that the farmer's wife can do, is to get some un- 

 certain, accidental person, who has not yet found out her way to the 

 factory or the shop, or who perhaps needs to earn a few dollars in 

 somebody's kitchen, before she can obtain a suitable outfit, for situa- 

 tions to which all American girls gravitate, as naturally as office 

 seekers towards a President ! Nor is this a fact to be Avondered at 

 or regretted ; and if we do wonder, regret or complain, it is very cer- 

 tain that we cannot change the matter, at least till we chancje our 

 kitchens, and make them more agreeable places of resort ; for with 

 our present system of domestic labor, our kitchens are simply detest- 

 able, and no intelligent girl is to blame for preferring the shop and 

 the factory to them. It would argue little for their enterprise and 

 good sense, if they did not. As it is a well understood fact that 

 foreign service does not leave the cities and the Catholic church, it 

 follows that the farmer's wife has no class from which to draw her 

 help, except a very small and very inefficient one. That it is small, 

 and growing less and less, speaks well for our country, while its 

 ignorance, and general good-for-nothingness, renders it a question 

 with many housekeepers, whether it is best to try to do with, or 

 without it. Energetic and capable women often resolve to do with- 



