FORTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT. 119 



WOMAN'S LIFE ON THE FARM. 



BY ISIRS. RALPH BALLARD^ NILES^ MICH. 



A great deal of attention has been given us women of the farms in the 

 last few years, the papers and magazines having printed article after 

 article in regard to onr lives. Government commissions have investigated 

 onr conditions and suggested remedies for various ills. I feel that it is 

 time we farm women had something to say for ourselves, for any advance 

 in our lives must come from within and we ourselves be responsible for 

 it. 



I feel deeply that great injustice has been and is being done to the 

 great farming class by many of these articles and farm life is belittled by 

 them. 



Years ago while still in school I read Emerson's Essay on "Compensa- 

 tion". I have never tired of re-reading the great life truths that it puts 

 into such simple words. Summed up, it says that we cannot expect to 

 have all things in life and for each thing we have there is something we 

 have not, always the choice between two things but seldom the possession 

 of both. We pay for what we get and get what we pay for. 



From my point of view to each one of us at some time has come a 

 moment of choice and we have chosen. Our life on the farm being a 

 choice, why not look at the benefits and blessings which that choice han 

 given us, and not feel aggriei'ed that the difficulties and drawbacks, which 

 accompany it are not immediately done away with? 



Having all my life until my marriage lived in a small city, I feel that 

 T can look at the matter from both sides and sincerel}^ say that to my 

 mind, the life on the farm is greatly superior. Let us look for a moment 

 at what we have that is so common that we forget to think of it. First, 

 unlimited pure air. How many can feel now that choking sensation as 

 you enter one of the great cities, the smoke, the soot, the sulphur fumes? 

 Even out into the residenced sections and suburbs these conditions pur- 

 sue you and our city friends are struggling hard to devise some means of 

 settling the question and providing their families with healthful, breath- 

 able air, the kind we liave without cost or thought. 



Then we have or may have pure water. It is in our own hands and we 

 do not have to depend on some board of aldermen or commission to see 

 that our water supply is what it should be. There need be no boiling of 

 the water for our families if we use the care we should. What would 

 not that assurance of safety mean to the population of our cities! 



We have or can have, depending upon ourselves, an ample supply of 

 the choicest and freshest foods, fruits, vegetables, meats, fresh in season 

 and out of season and canned for the rest of the year. How many have 

 had city friends exclaim over the delicious fresh fruits and vegetables or 

 fried chicken and say enviously, "And they don't cost you anything?" 

 We know better for we pay in planning, work, sweat and tired muscles 

 but we get what they cannot buy with money if they have it to buy with. 



Best of all it i'^- the unilv of familv life and interests unknown in most 



