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which obstructs the natural and healthy development 

 of the lungs and chest; also by imprudent prudence 

 in avoiding exposure to the weather; and a too 

 effeminate reliance upon the horse, for services 

 which heaven intended should be rendered by their 

 own limbs ! The lamentable consequences will not 

 be confined to them ; children will inherit the feeble- 

 ness of their mothers, and a sickly race will come 

 after us. 



Useful as the needle is and beautiful as are its con- 

 tributions to our show, I appeal to the mothers, to 

 forbid its excessive, its constant use by the daughters. 

 I entreat them as they value the well being of their 

 children, to give the daughters daily and thorough 

 training in the care and labor of the dairy and of all 

 household affairs. It were well -— well for them and 

 for a future race, that they should revive the ac- 

 quaintance which their mothers and grandmothers 

 had with the milking-stool, the garden, and to some 

 extent the field ; for then, bloom would linger upon 

 their cheeks ; health would flow in fuller tides through 

 all their veins ; they would acquire vigor of body 

 and soundness of mind, that will contribute to their 

 usefulness and enjoyments when time shall bring 

 them to the places which you now hold — shall make 

 them the wives of farmers and mothers of the rising 

 generation. 



The command which Adam received, " to till the 

 ground," was merciful in its design, and has ever 

 been beneficent in its operations upon mankind. The 

 husbandman's labors give healthful exercise to the 

 body ; and where he is attentive to the beauties, 



