Tlic Country Gcntkniaiis Magazine 



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VALUE OF SYSTEM EV HOUSEHOLD WORK. 



AMONG the numerous advantages we 

 enjoy in this favoured country, those 

 relating to the education of our sons are not 

 to be considered the least. AVe have excellent 

 schools in abundance for elementary instruc- 

 tion, masters for the higher branches, and 

 colleges and universities to prepare for the 

 learned professions. Those who wish to 

 follow mercantile pursuits can enter academies 

 where education is conducted with a special 

 view to this end. If agriculture be the object, 

 the sciences connected with it can be studied 

 both in the academy and the lecture room. 

 In short, education is provided for our sons, 

 with a viev/ to their future profession, be it 

 agricultural or literary, military or mercantile. 

 But with our daughters, the case is widely 

 different. Excellent seminaries, indeed, 

 abound, where elementary education is admir- 

 ably conducted, and fashionable accom.plish- 

 ments successfully taught. This is so far 

 good, for it is well that our daughters be so 

 educated as to become suitable companions 

 for intelligent men. It is well that they are 

 taught what will make them an ornament to 

 the drawing-room, and enable them to en- 

 liven the leisure hours of the family circle 

 with melody and song. But it is not enough. 

 To amuse is not their sole, or even their 

 chief object in life. They have duties await- 

 ing them, less pretentious, it may be, than 

 those devolving on our sons, and confined to 

 a more limited sphere, yet not on that 

 account less important or less difficult, and 

 for the proper performance of which they 

 ought to have some specific training — train- 

 ing that has a direct refei-ence to their pro- 

 bable future, be it town, country, farm, or 

 cottage. The position of a young girl 

 placed at the head of a family, fresh from 

 school and ignomnt of the commonest details 



of domestic life, is truly pitiable. And 

 could the experience of all such be written, 

 with their varied difficulties and numerous 

 mistakes, it would, we are persuaded, be the 

 best argument we could use for the establish- 

 ment of training-schools for our girls. Our 

 boys are not placed in positions of trust until 

 they have learned both the practice and the 

 theory of their work. And why should our 

 girls be expected to discharge the varied duties 

 of the housewife while ignored theoretically 

 as well as practically of all that concerns the 

 economy of the household. The young 

 farmer is taught to distinguish the different 

 kinds of soil, to know the value of various 

 manures, and the merits of the different farm 

 implements. He is expected to understand 

 much of chemical science and of vegetable 

 life, and to be able to apply his chemical 

 knowledge to the working out of his system 

 of agriculture. And why should the farmer's 

 daughter not have the same advantages? 

 Much depends on 'her, everything in the in- 

 terior of the house is entrusted to her, as out- 

 door concerns are to the stronger sex, and 

 without her wise co-operation little progress 

 can be made towards comfort or competency. 

 In some parts of the Continent there are 

 seminaries expressly for the purpose of teach- 

 ing "Household Economy in all its branches," 

 and to these, young ladies are introduced after 

 going through the usual course of study. It 

 would be well that we had, in this country, 

 something of the kind ; but, since v/e have 

 not, the young housewife must be content to 

 supply the deficiency as best she may, gather- 

 ing from every available source the know- 

 ledge vdiich her previous education has failed 

 to give. And if their education, notwith- 

 standing its defects, has had included in it 

 moral training and intellectual culture, it will 



