342 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



upon to face this problem of self-support. We all laugh to-day 

 at the woman who, when told at the bank that her check could 

 not be honored because her account was overdrawn, replied that 

 they need not worry, that she would draw another; but the laugh- 

 ter is of the sort that is very close to tears. 



There is another class of men who maintain this same reserve, 

 but from no special kindness of heart — merely from their fancied 

 s-uperiority to the members of their family, and from an inherent 

 contempt for a woman's business faculties, forgetful of the fact 

 that consultation may bring out some new thoughts and ideas on 

 that subject. 



Now, it is no disgrace to a man not to be endowed with a 

 business faculty, but it is a disgrace if he fail unaided, when the 

 advice and willing co-operation of another would have brought 

 him success. In the home life there should be no question of 

 the superiority of the one over the other, or who has the better 

 mind. 



When a team pulls steady and true you forget all about which 

 is the better horse, and no man has a right to sacrifice his family 

 to his own conceit. 



Administrative ability is not exclusively a masculine qualifica- 

 tion. The brilliant example furnished us in this country in the 

 late Mrs. Oswald Ottendoffer, the late proprietress of the Staats- 

 Zeitung, who assumed the management of the paper on the death 

 of her husband, soon after it was started, and who left a fortune 

 of $7,000,000, shows that we, too, may possess a power which 

 only needs development. 



To-day many of you men are haunted by the thought of what 

 will my family do if I am incapacitated for work. Would it 

 not lift some of the burden if von knew that thev were familiar 

 enough with your business to go on with it, and would not their 

 minds, too, be relieved? 



There is an accident to-night: A horse becomes unmanageable 

 and, instead of a man able to face the world, a helpless cripple is 

 carried to his home, and not one of you has any guaranty that 

 that may not be your fate. 



How many of you women here know enough of the work 

 planned out on your farms for the ensuing year to go on with it 

 intelligently? What fields are to be seeded with grass or grain, 

 the proportion of seed to the acre, the rotation of crops followed 

 on certain portions of your farms, where to sell your produce, 

 and where to buy on the best possible terms? Even though you 



