24 INTRODUCTION. 



THE COOPERATION OF THE WIFE. 



" Good husband without it is needful there be : 

 Good housewife within is as needful as he." TUSSER, 



However judiciously and economically the plans for the opera 

 tions of the farm may be laid, if a man and his wife do not har 

 monize, most completely, in prosecuting their labors, he had better 

 at once dispose of his farm, and lay by the avails of it for decrep 

 itude and old age, and work out by day's work. The housewife 

 and her operations are the great regulator of the operations of the 

 farm. There is too much truth in the old maxim, for fiction, that 

 " if a man would succeed well in his livelihood, he must ask his wife." 

 A very great fault among many farmers is, they do not consult 

 their wives in relation to matters with reference to which it is 

 highly proper they should have a word or two to say. "We com 

 miserate the man who bears the reproach of a hen-pecked husband ; 

 and, when we see a wife ruling, and engineering in-doors and out 

 of doors, we think that if she had a husband far superior to her- 

 self, she would be a woman of sterling worth. It cannot be 

 denied that wives have often made, to their husbands, some most 

 capital suggestions, in reference to the operations of the farm ; 

 and it must be acknowledged, that many women are far more 

 capable of planning judiciously, and carrying on more economi 

 cally the operations of the farm, than their husbands. But if a 

 wife superintends and executes, in the best manner, the in-door 

 operations, nothing more should be required of her. I know that 

 very many men consider it a little beneath them to consult their 

 wives with reference to any of their plans ; and they will never 

 suffer their wives to know, if they can prevent it, any thing about 

 their income or expenditures, or their debit or credit. But it is 

 a matter of doubt whether there ever was an instance in which a 

 ni;m habitually consulted his wife, when, as a consequence, it 

 proved detrimental, or a disparagement to him in any respect. 

 There can be no impropriety in the practice of some men, of 

 allowing the housewife to know exactly all about the income and 



