256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



her town, or as member of an advisory board. If there be 

 no public library or reading-room, why should she not 

 organize one ? Surely the kind of reading that is popular 

 with the young concerns her. 



I have, in the suggestions made to the farmer's wife, given 

 her little time for idleness. She asks none. My acquaint- 

 ance with ^Massachusetts farmers' wives is not a very narrow 

 one, and I assure you that I cannot recall a single lazy 

 woman among them. It is complimentary to them that I 

 should fill their lives so full. They must be misers of their 

 time 



The mother must do much towar^l the education of her 

 girls ; but she cannot do everything ; nor can all mothers do 

 equally w^ell. Many a daughter will outstrip her mother, to 

 that mother's joy, not regret. Let the mother, however, 

 try to keep pace, to bring back once bright school-days, and 

 to brush the dust and cobwebs from matters nearl}^ forgotten. 

 Follow Bacon's famous direction. Pursue a course of read- 

 ing wdth congenial associates. Join a company of people 

 with the same tastes and employment as yours. Try writing 

 out, in your own words, the information that has come to 

 you by reading, then w^rite your own ideas. Find wdiether 

 writing maketh an exact man. Try conference with the same 

 associates, and find whether it really maketh a ready man. 

 We will not pass without considering Dean Swift's advice to 

 talkers : — 



" Conversation is but carving : 



Give no more to every guest 



Than he's able to digest ; 



Give him always of the prime, 



And but little at a time. 



Cai've to all but just enough, 



Let them neither starve nor stuff; 



And, that you may have your due, 



Let your neighbors carve for you." 



Encourage the daughters to tread the path of learning as 

 long as they will. If any lag by the way too early, urge 

 them on. " It is less painful to learn in youth than to be 

 ignorant in age." Alice Freeman says: "Hardly a week 

 passes that fathers and mothers and teachers do not ask me 

 whether it will pay to send some bright, ambitious girl to 



