No . 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 661 



We think of no other occupation in which men are engaged where 

 the wife is so completely a partner as on the farm. On the farm, 

 the home and place of business are one. The wife should be intelli- 

 gent enough to thoroughly understand all business details. The 

 farmer does not treat his wife fairly when he withholds from her 

 important transactions. We will say nothing about the manner 

 in which our sex conduct an argument. The intuitive judgment 

 of women is often more to be relied on than the more elaborate 

 reasoning of men. No man who has an intelligent wife will dispute 

 this. When Columbus laid a plan to discover a new world, it was 

 a woman who enabled him to carry it out. We do not find the chil- 

 dren of the intelligent farmer's wife anxious to leave home, to go 

 to the city, or to find something to do so as to escape so-called 

 drudgery on the farm. She is a successful home-maker. When 

 necessity takes the children from the home nest, they go fitted for 

 the new life. They go out into the world with the full belief that 

 there is no place like home. 



The farmer's wife must be strongmiiuled, have will-power. With- 

 out will-power she is liable to become a drudge, a mere machine, 

 allowing herself to forget all education or accomplishments she 

 may have possessed. Her trials are many. She has need of a will 

 which is monarch of the mind, giving directions to all its movements. 

 She must study and practice economy. Study to economize strength, 

 time and money. That great moralist, Dr. Johnson, asserted that 

 where there was no prudence there was no virtue. It is no one's 

 duty to deny herself every amusement, every comfort, that she may 

 get rich. There is an economy that becomes a duty. It takes but 

 a small per cent, to make the difference between profit and loss. One 

 of the greatest obstacles to success is the unnecessary expenditure 

 of money for articles for the family. There is no economy in buying 

 matches, two boxes for a nickel, when she can get a dozen boxes for 

 a dime. There is no economy in paying agents from $35 to $o0 for 

 a sewing machine that can be had for about half the money by co 

 operative buying. She should become a member of some farmers' 

 organization and thereby purchase direct from the manufacturer. 

 She should become a working member of the organization, for it 

 is important to her success, financially, socially and intellectually. 



The farmer's wife should be progressive. She should strive to 

 advance onward and upward to a higher plane. There is much said 

 about woman's advancement in the press of the day. Many of the 

 one-ideal women harp so continually on woman's wrongs, that their 

 weaker minded sisters appear to believe they are in some manner 

 abused. The greater part of them could not intelligently explain 

 how or by whom. They attempt to punish the world in general by 

 whining over and magnifying all the troubles they ever had or 

 expect to have. No one can make any progress in this way by 

 bewailing her condition. If I were advising I would say her progress 

 would be best promoted by cultivating a spirit of contentment. 

 Many women waste twice as much strength and nerve force fighting 

 against their destiny as would be required to bear it patiently. 

 Some of woman's greatest grievances are that they dislike to cook 

 and to sew. They are tired of housekeeping cares, and children 

 are wearisome. Many seem to think they should be delivered from 

 whatever they dislike. To be progressive farmer's wives should 



