«0 



THE (GENESEE FARMER. 



fact is, "our boys,'' liave no time to do it; they 

 work hard emmKh without, and though they vvouhl 

 be willing to lend a s|)are moment, tiiey will not do 

 it all, or even commence it. 



It is an appropriate employment for woman, even 

 if they iiave considerable housework to do, thev 

 would find the change of employment very beneficial 

 to both mind and body, and alter workintr out of 

 doors an hour or two, thciy would not be half so apt 

 to ask the tired boy to bi ing their wood or v,'ater, as 

 they would after sitting the same time, diligently em 

 ployed on some useless needle work. While the men 

 of a family, labor for the general good, in providing 

 the necessaries and comforts of life, women should 

 also labor for its embellishment, not only preserv^nu' 

 their own beauty, but making everything about theii' 

 home beautiful and attractive. There is no fear but 

 the men would appreciate the improvement, let it he 

 ever so small, and every sacrifice of merely selfish 

 pleasures would meet an abundant reward. 



A Mother. 



IS IT RIGHT TO ASK THE WOMElJ FOLKS TO DO THE 

 miKING DURING THE BUSY SEASON ?' 



Undoubtedly it is; but it is not always safe to do 

 it. It is not only right, but very reasonable to muke 

 Buch a reqiiest of your wife, or daughter, — certainly 

 in a busy time of the year, and one cannot very well 

 ask it at any other time, in this section, for let him do 

 it under any circumstances, and ever so meekly, he 

 will have a busy season, and a very waim one too, 

 right away. The subject is "open to both sexe,-'," 

 and my wife already — for I am a married man, ol 

 course — is quite prepared to show the impropriety of 

 the whole thing, and wishes to write out an argument 

 at length, but is prevented from doing so, hecaus-e 

 she is confined to a single page in the Genesee 

 Farmer, and if she once begms to talk it up, she 

 wont get throvigh till after the '-cows have come," 

 &n^ it would not be decided who should milk them. 

 When we say it is right for the women to sometimes 

 milk the cows, and are told by them that it is highly 

 improper, we still feel it to be right, without going 

 into an argument to prove it if we could, and are 

 like the small boy, who, when he was one day asked 

 by the minister who was visiting at his father's house, 

 if he could tell him how many were two times two. 

 replied that it made four. But the parson wanted it 

 explained, and asked him how he knew it was so. 

 The boy said he did know it, and that was enough. 

 Still the good man insisted upon an explanation, or a 

 reason for it, when the boy, out of patience, said 

 pretty sharply, " Because I do know it, and so do 

 vou, you d — 1 — h old fool. You only want to talk to 

 near yourself talk." Whether the women talk 

 against milking to hear themselves talk or not is of 

 no consequence, so long as they are unwilling to 

 perform so reasonable a task — if it is not a duty. 



Moreseriously, and with all reason, let us show the 

 justness of our cause. We have in view just now, 

 the man in haying or harvest time — the busy season, 



• We have received a great number of answers to this question 

 Affer mucli liesit.^ti(jn, we have selected out two, nuf in favdr 

 cf the practice and the other ag.inst it, and award a premium nf a 

 dollar booli to each of them. We shaU endeavor to m;ike room 

 next month for smue portions of the other e?.say8 on tliis suliject, 

 all of which are very good — especially thnsp written liy the la^.iei 

 It may be wortliy of remark that nearly all the ladies who have 

 writtea talie the affirmative side of the <jueslion. — Eds. 



if ever — going forth to the field at the earliest dawn 

 of the morning, to return only at the approach of 

 iiighi, to find ten, twenty or t irty_ cow,- — in this 

 ilair\ing coiailry — )o be milked, ready and lowing at 

 his very door; he, wearied by the heavy lal)o!g of a 

 mid-.-uunuer's day, and just asking for a little 

 aSNistance about milking, finds his wife busy with 

 compi^ny, his girls enjoying them.M Ives about the 

 house, and not one of them so much as giving so 

 interei-ting a !-ul)ject a single thought, and every one 

 of them afraid of their shadows, made in t'te milking 

 yard, if they should by accident uet in theie. O, for 

 ihe good old ti.iies when our daughters were wont to 

 go forth morning and evening, with Hushed and rosy 

 cheeks, through the pastures and green meadows, 

 mid daisies and many oMier beautiful flowers, and 

 with soft and willing hands, almost charming the 

 milk into the neat milk pails! 



But after all we cat^ say, I rather expect the 

 women will have their own way, and I will close by 

 relating an incident that came under my own ob- 

 servation, by which the cows themselves are shown 

 to be sometimes qualified to decide the question. 



Many years ago, we owned a cow — the brimHe cow 

 — that by some means got in the habit of being 

 milked by the women, and by the women folk.-j alone. |. , 

 But after a while, when sewing, quilting, missionary 

 and many other societies began to come into fashion, 

 the women would sometimes be gone, and at Puch 

 times old "Brin" would have to go without milking. 

 But after a while longer,, as the men could not get 

 near her, and the women would be gone ofiener and 

 oftener, we thought to try an cxper iiu-nt, ; an 

 older brother went and put on an entire suil, for all 

 the world like a woman's dress, and it was nothing 

 else, and proceeded to m'lking thi?! truly woman's 

 cow, but it would not all do, for old " Brin," who, at 

 first did not discover the fraud, as soon as the man in 

 disguise began his milking operution.s gave a sudden 

 start, and with a still more sudden kick, sent our 

 humble imitator of female fashions almost half way 

 across the yard, with the milk pail, milk, and all 

 mixed up with this novel attire from head to foot 



This story will finish the subject, and your humble 

 servant will now wait with some interest to see who 

 will get the dollar book. E. A. B.— Oxford, JV. Y. 



IS IT EIGHT TO ASK THE WOMEN FOLKS TO MILK 

 THE COWS DURING THE BUSY SEASON? 



We answer no. The province of female superin- 

 tendency, is Ipfcunded, as we conceive, by the line 

 which separates the inside from the outside of a 

 farm-house; and in this position, thelalior of woman 

 is b.'unded by the same line. Appropriate labor is 

 a duty no le^s imperious in its claims on the woman, 

 than on the man; but upon each in their proper 

 sphere. The attentive, economical, and industrioua 

 wile, fulfilling best her design, — a help-meet, — so 

 highly commended by the wise man, In the great 

 directory of human life, is not commended for 

 clearing away the forest, splitting rails, and erex-ting 

 buildings, thus converging the wilderne.«s into rich 

 pasture" and meadows, that she might luive an 

 opportunity of keeping many cows, and milking (hem 

 with her own hands, and so bless the world. iNo, she 

 performs her work, and establishes hep reputation 

 inside the line. But the question is, "Is it right to 

 ask the women folks to milk the cows during the busy 



