BOOK THIRD. 



The Farmer's Relationships, 



CHAPTER I. 



THE FARMER AND HIS FAMILY. 



THE moral and emotional features of tlie family relation 

 so greatly overweigli, in most minds, its economic 

 importance that it may at first seem out of place to 

 consider it in a volume avowedly devoted to business affairs, 

 and yet the manner of discharging even these sacred obliga- 

 tions has its bearing on the family prosperity. Obligations of 

 business duty, as well as of affection, exist between husband 

 and wife and parent and child. These business obligations 

 are not one-sided, but mutual. 



The farmer's family consists of his wife, his children, and 

 his employees. Of these, more important than all the rest is 

 the wife. If there is or ever could be about a farm a being 

 who is entitled to the utmost consideration and respect, it is 

 the one who feeds the family and bears the children. If any 

 one earns an easy time, or the easiest time possible, it is 

 certainly she. And yet I do not believe that there is in all 

 America a farmer so distressed as to willingly change places 

 with his wife. 



The husband, to a great extent, does what he will; the 

 wife, to a great extent, does what she must. Tlie woman, 

 when she marries, voluntarily puts herself in the power of one 

 who is stronger than herself. If that power is exerted to 

 protect and comfort, she is happy; if it is employed to oppress, 



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