14 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



climate and the impossibility of irrigating 

 near an adobe house, lest it should subside 

 into the mud-puddle from whence it sprang ; 

 consequently watering must be done by 

 hand, and the hands of the farmer's wife are 

 already overfull. Still, a little ingenuity over- 

 comes this difficulty in part, and the home 

 is blessed with the saving grace of flowers, 

 however few and humble. The Mexican 

 women are ahead in this particular, and it 

 is not uncommon to see in front of their mud- 

 hovels tiny spaces enclosed by cactus or 

 brush fences and blazing with colour. But, 

 generally speaking, not only is any attempt 

 at outside ornamentation of the ranchman's 

 home absent, but disorder runs rampant and 

 unchecked. Twenty years' intimate acquaint- 

 ance with a country confer some right to an 

 opinion, and I am obliged to confess that 

 neatness cannot be counted among the 

 characteristics of the average American 

 housewife, admirable though she be in other 

 respects. I have a theory, though theories 

 often disappoint one in the washing, that the 

 conspicuous lack of home-training, combined 

 with the fact that a large majority of 



