1 6 OBSERVATIONS OF A RANCHWOMAN 



household duties without aid, and in most 

 cases without supervision. English people 

 who have done much visiting in well- 

 appointed American homes endorse without 

 question this and other graces of hospitality 

 in which the well-bred American hostess is 

 proficient. 



But here, in the Far West, the disorderli- 

 ness characteristic of the average house-owner 

 of moderate means is discouraging indeed. 

 From ranch to ranch we wandered, only to 

 be repelled by the same forlornness. ' It 

 would take a small fortune to make a home 

 of such a place !' was the despairing ex- 

 clamation as we turned our backs on one 

 squat adobe house after another, each planted 

 on a bare patch of hard clay, in most cases 

 destitute of a porch, and not a leaf or a 

 flower to be seen an untidy barnyard, 

 littered with farm implements, plebeian hens, 

 mongrel curs, and Heaven knows what not, 

 all in close proximity to, if not actually 

 elbowing, the dwelling. That good farm 

 buildings are rare is not surprising. In the 

 first place, the short sunny winters and the 

 hardy stock of the country make it possible 



