40 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1899. 



fields, and may be seen laboring side by side with the men. 

 The position occupied by them may be fairly well illustrated by 

 the following story : A gentleman riding one day in the coun- 

 try overtook a man who had laden his wife with a heavy bundle 

 of sticks. He remonstrated with him, saying, " M}^ good man, 

 it is too bad that 3'ou should load your wife down in this way. 

 What she is carrying is a mule's burden." " Yes, your excel- 

 lency," the man replied, " What you say is true. It is a mule's 

 burden. But then you see Providence has not supplied us 

 with mules, and he has supplied us with women." It is the 

 same all through the East. Sir Thomas Munro, in his " Trav- 

 els to the City of the Caliphs," relates as a reason why an 

 Indian should be exempt from paying his tax that he pleaded 

 the loss of his wife, who, " Did as much work as two bullocks." 



Stuart Wood, in a recent number of the " Quarterly Journal 

 of Economics," says: "The agricultural processes of different 

 countries are among the surest indications of the condition of 

 the laboring population. In Germany it is a common sight to 

 see a cart drawn by a woman and a dog. Where labor is dearer 

 and money more plenty, or the people a little easier, a horse re- 

 leases both alike from their unnatural task. In the United States, 

 where labor is dear, costly agricultural machinery is extensively 

 used in spite of the smallness of the farms. It is much used 

 in England also, Ix^cause there the farms are large ; and wages, 

 although lower than in the United States, still far exceed those 

 of other countries. In Russia, on the other hand, in Turkey 

 and in Asiatic countries, we find the rudest tools ; baskets are 

 used instead of wheelbarrows, wooden plows instead of iron 

 ones ; and gangs of spade men replace both the plows and the 

 beasts which draw them. A part of this is no doubt due to 

 sheer stupidity, but much is also due to the price of labor and 

 the rates of interest." 



The products of the soil are as various as the climate and 

 geological character of the country. Fruits are abundant, of 

 excellent quality, and extensively used by the whole population. 

 Grapes are delicious, and within reach of the poorest, selling at 

 the rate of two and three-fourth pounds for two or three cents. 



