156 Bureau of Faumers' Institutes. 



me at the door a half hour later with his eves shining and smiles 

 all over his face, he exclaimed, " Miinima, I can go clear 'round 

 the house." " Clear 'round the house." How much the one sen- 

 tence told! 



Oh! You mothers whose children may run at will over your 

 own broad fields and beautiful hills, imagine if you can the prob- 

 lems of the mother who has for her child's play-ground only a 

 bare, sun-baked back yard, shut in b}^ city walls. This is the lot 

 of the better class of city people, those who pay from |300 to |500 

 a year for rent. Do you wonder that my children think of grand- 

 mother's farm with its orchards and tennis court, its swing and 

 croquet grounds as an earthly paradise? 



I know of no other business in which the bright side overlaps 

 the dark so much as in farming. Take the first necessity of life- 

 food. Who ever heard of a farmer with the first particle of push, 

 starving? He may not be able to live on. blue points and canvas- 

 back duck, and wear lilies of the valley as a boutonniere the year 

 round, but some form of good food and necessary fuel he may 

 be assured of. New York farmers do not know what suffering 

 is. You are so accustomed to being well fed and cozy that you 

 forget that it is not so everywhere. Six years ago we were living 

 in the heart of industrial Pittsburg, during the great iron strike 

 of 1893-4. I wish I could make you understand what life was 

 like there. Day after day thousands of men in thinnest clothing, 

 with the look of famine in their faces, marched miles through the 

 bitter cold to the " Charity Relief Station," to try for work at 

 any price, only to be told, " Only half of you can work, there 

 is not money for all. Those who work to-day must be idle to- 

 morrow." One dollar once in two days to provide for a family 

 where rent must be paid and every scrap of food and fuel bought! 

 Try it for a week, estimating your rent, food and fuel at prices 

 you receive in market, and you will thank God more truly than 

 ever before for the plenty which surrounds you. Mothers! 

 What would it mean to you to be obliged to send your children 

 to school to keep them warm, because there can be no fire at 

 home; to have to take your baby on the street and beg at the- 



