336 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



the forms of domestic animals, and wild animals that prey upon the 

 domestic animals. 



In this problem of the boy, parents, if I had any word to suggest 

 I would say, give your children a good education, an education that 

 lifts them above the lower planes of humanity, and draw them 

 nearer to the One who controls all things. You can give them no 

 safer heritage. The girl and the boy of the future will need more 

 education than of the past. In the future even more so than at the 

 present, the person without a proper mental culture, will be obliged 

 to stay in the rear, or even to be a stranger in the world's onward 

 march through life. 



HOW TO LIGHTEN THE LABOR OF THE FARMER'S WIFE. 



BY MRS. MANETTA BINGHAM, VIearview, Pa. 



READ AT PLAINGROVE INSTITUTE, LAWRENCE CO., JAN. 3, 1901. 



There are only two ways of making any labor more light: One, is 

 to lessen the number of tasks performed; the other is to discover, 

 ndopt, or obtain easier ways or better methods for doing the work. 



No class of women in our knowledge are expected to labor so 

 hard, nor so long as the wife of the average farmer — oft-times is com- 

 pelled to do — by sheer force of her circumstances and surroundings. 

 The store, the grocery, the butcher and baker shop are far removed, 

 therefore, the meals on her table, must at all times, be largely, the 

 production of her own hands, even to the smallest detail. She must 

 be prepared to entertain unexpected company on short notice, and 

 with a good, square meal, or she is considered, to say the least of it 

 —not a fit fore-handed, and this is a small part of her work, when we 

 ?ome to think carefully. 



Woman's labor is supposed to consist of washing, ironing, baking, 

 /ookiug, dish-washing, scrubbing, sewing (including mending and 

 darning), and then, that endless cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, ever- 

 more, w'hich as we ask, when 'twill be finished, comes the answer, 

 like Foe's Raven, ''Nevermore." A formidable array, truly, and 

 enough to appal the heart of any one except the wife of a Western 

 Pennsylvania Farmer. 



Many of us would feel we had struck "an haven of rest," could 

 we but know that this were all. When added, thereto, we have milk- 

 ing, churning, care of calves and poultry, advising about this, pre- 

 scribing for that, caring for the sick and waiting upon the well. 



Attempting to lighten any of these labors by lessening their num 

 ber, is a rather delicate matter, requiring great tact, skill and shrewd- 



