516 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



think we will raise some early chickens, and succeed in getting a few hens 

 set where we think they will not be disturbed, but there comes a snow storm, 

 and when we can get to the henhouse, we find that the snow has driven in, 

 and driven out our setting hens, and the eggs have a snow bank to keep 

 them warm ; so ends our early chicken venture. When we do finally get a 

 nice lot of chickens later on, we think now we are sure to make some money. 

 But we find that even counting chickens after they are hatched, is uncertain 

 business. There are the hawks in the day-time, and the owls and rats at 

 night, and the whole list of chicken diseases, from gapes to cholera, to con- 

 tend with, and if we have any chickens left to sell when fall comes we 

 are very fortunate. Of course the eggs from the farm are, or should be, 

 quite a source of income for someone, and the women generally claim them. 



Another source is the butter, there seems to be a general feeling, at least 

 on the part of the women, that tbat, too, belongs to them ; indeed I have 

 heard women declare that if they could not have the butter money they 

 would not make the butter. I often wonder what they would do if they 

 lived in a dairy country, where butter was the main source of income from 

 the farm. Would they still insist on having every cent of the butter money? 

 There is once in a while a woman who makes a success of keeping bees, and 

 loads her pockets with pin money from that source, if we are to believe the 

 newspapers, but I confess that I never happened to have the acquaintance of 

 even one such ; they always live away off somewhere. 



Another method of raising money that has been very highly recommended 

 for women of leisure, like farmers' wives, is the raising of silk worms. I have 

 given the matter some study and have found that those who recommend it 

 are usually those who have some silk worm eggs to dispose of, and the honest 

 advice of those who have tried it usually is, don't do it. There is too much 

 work about it for any one who has anything else to do, and then there is the 

 uncertainty of a market when you are done. 



Another way that I have seen recommended for filling the pocket-book is 

 to take an ageucy for some useful article or book. I have not tried it myself, 

 but should not have much faith in it as a source of income, and then, too, 

 who would be looking after the home affairs, getting the meals, making the 

 butter, caring for the children and other such trifles, while the woman of 

 the house was canvassing. 



I suppose there are some women who do make some money by the raising 

 of small fruits and even vegetables, but I think they are usually women who 

 have more leisure time at their command than the average farmer's wife. 

 Last spring I heard a woman say that she must do something to make some 

 money, so she was going to try raising onions. As she does alone all the 

 indoors work incident to a farm of a hundred and sixty acres, and usually 

 raises from two hundred to five hundred chickens and turkeys, I shall be 

 anxious to know how she succeeded. I have not seen her to learn the result. 



We have thus briefly gone over some of the various sources of income 

 supposed to be the legitimate field of the farmer's wife, f rom/which to supply 

 herself with pin money, which means, as I take it, the money with which to 

 get what she needs. 



Now it seems to me this whole question is looked at from a wrong stand- 

 point. A man and his wife are partners in business, and can have no sepa- 

 rate interest; whatever is for the best good of one, must be for the best 

 good of the other. Selfishness, which is the bane of all our lives, should 



