582 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



I wish I might persuade every farmer in the house to get his boys to 

 work at a musical education. Don't tell them they may study music, but 

 they must. Then allow them the time to study and practice. They will 

 not all make musicians, but the time and money thus employed will be 

 amply repaid you. 



If you have no piano or organ in your home, then let me urge you to 

 get one. Or, if you can not afford either, get something else, a violiu, 

 cornet, 'cello, or one of the many instruments suitable for the home and in 

 the years to come you will see less demand for saloon and other demoral- 

 izing amusements. 



Every town and community should have a good band, orchestra and 

 choral society. If we as parents do our duty in encouraging our children 

 along these lines, there will be less need for such questions as these: 

 "How to keep the boy in Sunday school?" or "How to keep the boy on the 

 farm?" 



I feel that I can not close this paper without an earnest plea for the 

 sacred music in our homes as well as in the church. If you say you have 

 ho talent for music, don't consider that it is a little thing to be able to 

 play and sing those sacred songs that have been a help to humanity for 

 ages past and will be for ages to come. What more beautiful sight than to 

 see a mother gathering her little children around her and singing with 

 them, "Rock of Ages" or "My Faith Looks Up to Thee." 



Who can tell how many times the memory of the sacred songs learned 

 in the home have in a moment of peril kept our children from evil. 



So, if there is but one thing you can do. sing the songs of Zion in 

 your home, and keep your soul in harmony with God. 



And now I will close by quoting from an unknown author, but I 

 think you will heartily agree with the quotation: "Music is at home a 

 friend, abroad an introduction, in solitude a solace, and society an orna- 

 ment. Music is Gk)d's best gift to man. The only art of heaven given to 

 earth, and the only art of earth we can take to heaven."" 



SHARE OF THE! FAR.MER"S WIFE. 



Mrs. T. K. Black, before Greene Coiinty Farmers' Institute. 



When your worthy secretary requested me to write a paper for the 

 institute and sent me the subject, I read it. repeated it. and pondered. 

 Could he mean a share of the husband's broad acres, or a share of the 

 work to be done on a farm. 



Well, as I love both, the share of the acres and a share of the work, 

 and also know we can not expect a share of the former unless we, as 

 farmers' wives, are willing to perform the duties allotted to every good 

 helpmate, I concluded he meant both. I can hear some of the men sav- 

 ing, "Now for a sermon on women's rights."" Not so. I believe in 

 women's rights in one way and in another I do not. I would not care to 

 vote if the laws were such as to grant me the liberty to do so. I believe 



