THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. g 



In diversified farming by irrigation lies tne salvation of agriculture. (9 



THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with 

 this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pic- 

 tures of fields, orchards and farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. 

 Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs, 

 etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, such as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. 

 A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help 

 us improve the appearance of THE AGE? 



POLITENESS IN THE HOME. 



It is said that "politeness costs nothing. " 

 But politeness does cost something, some- 

 times a great deal ; but it is always worth 

 more than it costs. A habitually polite, 

 courteous person is necessarily a person of 

 training, and such training should always 

 be had at home. Parents have no right to 

 expect teachers in the schools to give chil- 

 dren their only lessons in courtesy and 

 politeness. This is properly a home ac- 

 complishment, to be best secured in the 

 home by the force of daily example. 



This training, which is absolutely indis- 

 pensable to those who hope to attain to 

 the higher walks of life, should be the 

 constant care of parents and should not 

 be shirked in the least, or the duty falls 

 upon teachers and others who have in- 

 finitely less interest in the child. Chil- 

 dren in these days are a bug-bear to 

 friends and neighbors, and are merely 

 tolerated in most cases for the sake of 

 peace with the parents. Many fond 

 mothers believe their children faultless, 

 while recognizing with rare discrimina- 

 tion the faults of other children. To the 

 outsider, who sees more clearly, the chil- 

 dren of one mother may be as disagreeable 

 as those of another, and generally are. It 

 is a lamentable fact that American chil- 

 dren in general lack training in the home. 

 They are early taught by over-indulgent 

 parents (particularly mothers) that they 

 can have what they want by crying for it, 



or otherwise making things disagreeable 

 in the household. They are thus taught 

 the most arrant selfishness from the cra- 

 dle, and the lessons thus early acquired 

 are seldom forgotten. Children should be 

 early taught to practice self-denial, as 

 well as self-reliance and respect for their 

 elders. 



It is a sad commentary upon the way 

 American children are brought up to see 

 the notice everywhere, "No children 

 wanted." This may seem barbarous, but 

 it is merely a plain truth bluntly spoken. 

 Why are not children wanted ? Mainly 

 because they are disagreeable and have 

 never been taught to respect the rights of 

 others. This is the reason, and it is not 

 because of any inherent or acquired sav- 

 agery on the part of the average manor 

 woman. Well-behaved children are always 

 wanted ; hoodlums never. But the rela- 

 tive proportion of the two classes of chil- 

 dren in any community is so preponderat- 

 ing in favor of the latter that the general 

 opinion seems to be pretty well grounded 

 that there is little peaee or comfort in the 

 neighborhood of other peoples' children. 

 All this could easily be remedied in 

 one generation, if parents could but know 

 that their own children are much like 

 their neighbors, and that if they are not 

 taught consideration for the rights 

 of others in the home, they will not learn 

 it at all except later in life by hard knocks 

 when brought into contact with those who 



