THE FARMER AND Ills FAMILY. 91 



from home, and the pleasure of a flower garden, and neatness 

 about the liouse, are part of the necessary cost of carrying on 

 any farm. These and similar things are the wife's due. Tlie 

 man owes them. If he does not pay, he defaults, simply 

 because his wife is helpless. She gives her love and her life. 

 She is entitled to affection in return, shown daily in the little 

 things that make up her life. And how she repays such 

 things! The wife will work herself to death for a kind word, 

 and deem it happiness. As a pure matter of business it is as 

 profitable to treat a wife well as it is to feed a steer well. 



Men are accustomed to assume that they alone provide 

 the family income. This is not true. In ffirmers' families 

 it is true that the man usually provides the gross income, but 

 the net income is what counts, and for this the woman is 

 in great part responsible. Money sav^ed by the wife is as 

 much a contribution to family support as money earned by 

 the husband. The wife's contribution to the partnership has 

 upon the average as much pecuniary value as that of the 

 man. In some cases it is more, and in other cases less. The 

 man, being stronger, is not inclined to recognize this. The 

 woman is entitled to control one-half the net family income, 

 and to the independent use of what she needs for enjoyment. 

 She has the same right as her partner to take partnership 

 funds for individual use. 



If a man has children he has a certain duty towards tiiem. 

 If unwilling to discharge that duty he should not marry. If 

 he has a family and neglects his duty he is as much a 

 defaulter as if he fails to pay money that is due. I have no 

 occasion or intent to discu.ss the duties of parents to children 

 except in so far as they are peculiar to the condition of the 

 farmer. 



The farmer's children are more subject to illusions than 

 those brought up in towns and cities, because they are brought 

 less in contact with reality. Their imagination is stimulated 

 by the unwholesome fiction which constitutes much of what 

 is called literature in country homes, and their tendency is 

 to acquire a distaste for country life and a longing for the 

 imaginary ease of the city. This tendency is increased by the 



