584 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



who works at fifty dollars a month. She can, if she is well and indus- 

 trious, make more money with her cows and poultry than the salaried 

 man can save in a whole year. Some will say, '"I do not like to see wo- 

 men milk cows; no place for them." I don't think it is their calliiig 

 either, but one should remember it was the "sharing of one another's 

 burdens" when you were married. A farmer himself can milk three cows, 

 let the hired men do the same (they will stay just as long) and if you 

 have sons of your own let them learn. They marry sooner or later and 

 who will milk then if they do not. I think every boy and man; and I'll 

 say girl and woman, is better off in the end to have employment at 

 home. Better your children at home choring than loafing about the 

 streets and discussing every evil of the ^ay. Who but a farmer's wife 

 knows where her girls and boys are when bed-time comes You can not 

 keep your children in a few square feet of ground, and in consequence 

 they will get out and as they grow older they are more daring and bolder, 

 until a woman in the town scarcely knows where her family is when 

 night comes. What a worry, what a fret, if she be a true parent. 



The farmer's wife can send her children out to play without any 

 worry about their company. "Work has less victims than worry" and 

 "love lightens labor." We have to either worry in town about the where- 

 abouts of our family or be perfectly indifferent to their welfare. The 

 latter I don't think a true good woman can feel. If our children are a 

 failure in life what are we working for? 



I would say in conclusion, had I my choice (and surely I had once) 

 I would choose the happy, free, life of the farmer's wife. The wise man 

 has truly said, "'A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." 



SUNSHINE AND SHADOW ON THE FARM. 



Mrs. H. S. Greene, hefore Greene County Farmers' Institute. 



Pondering as to the meaning of my subject and its application I 

 turned to Webster and found the definition of sunshine to be "light of 

 the sun" or "the place where it falls," the embodiment of light and 

 warmth. Shadow "the absence of that light," to obscure from. In ap- 

 plying this to human life while we need the shine from that fiery orb 

 swinging in space and without which we and this earth as it is could not 

 exist. I take it my subject means more — something that shines from the 

 heart, its abiding place. 



Roll back the curtain of the past and let us read the record on the 

 scroll of the centuries. Light — sun — ''Son of Righteousness" here we have 

 it. We see the star of hope shining over the birthplace of the Holy Child 

 who, so the message said, would bring joy. peace and good will among 

 men. By the brightness we can trace the boy Jesus to manhood when 

 with all the splendor of that holy lignt a voice from the heavens spoke 

 and formally acknowledged Him as the light of the world. 



Easily can we trace him now by the throngs of people that are re- 

 joicing because they have found the Great Healer whose busy life filled 



