1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



183 



to be the fact. Subsequent inquiry and observa- 

 tion, however, have somewhat reconciled us to the^: 

 unwelcome truth. The prevalence of this terri- 

 ble malady among men engaged in farming, we 

 infer, is often occasioned by the want of a proper 

 action and development of the brain, — the disease 

 not assuming a spasmodic and excited form, so 

 much as a gradual sinking into a half-idiotic or 

 imbecile condition, that often ends in a total loss 

 of mental power. But in the case of women, the 

 cause of the malady may be traced to intense 

 mental activity, to unceasing care, and to the 

 overtasking of every power, both of mind and 

 body, in the ever-recurring and perpetual duties 

 and responsibilities of the family. 



Let us present a brief sketch of actual life, of 

 •which thousands have sat for the picture. It is 

 that of a young farmer. He marries, and for a 

 year or two his wife can do very well without 

 help ; but by-and-by his work is too much for 

 him alone, and he must have a hand ; and one, by 

 one, little children increase the family, until the 

 wife's burden is much heavier than when she took 

 it up. But he is just getting a start, and if they 

 want to get rich (as every body does,) they must 

 economize ; so she gets along without help. She 

 rises early, gets breakfast, often for several men, 

 dresses the children, washes dishes, skims milk, 

 churns, perhaps, sweeps rooms, makes beds, pre- 

 pares dinner, "clears up," snatches an hour to 

 sew, keeping a restless baby quiet meanwhile, gets 

 supper, puts children to bed, and after they and 

 husband are asleep, resting from their weariness, 

 sits up to sew, that she may save paying a seam- 

 stress ! 



In addition to this daily routine, she does all 

 the washing, ironing, baking, scrubbing, house- 

 cleaning, soap-making, and hog-killing work ; it 

 costs so much to hire help ; and at the same time 

 enacts the part of the lady of the house and en- 

 tertains the company. 



So year after year, she toils and drudges, not 

 allowing herself opportunity for improving her 

 mind, so that she may be abetter guide and coun- 

 sellor for her children. At length, her once fair 

 face is faded and care-worn, and herself now and 

 then prostrated by fits of illness, only to resume 

 her wearying labor as soon as her returning 

 strength permits. And thus she yearly becomes 

 less able to bear the burden of her increasing 

 household duties. 



Too many men leave the wife to draw water 

 and carry wood, and as for the baby — they think 

 it a woman's place to tend children, — so it frets 

 and cries, or the mother must work with it on 

 her arm, while they read the paper and talk with 

 the hired men. The farm increases in value and 

 fertility, and the husband's labor becomes lighter, 



as he is able to hire more help ; but it is still ex- 

 pected of the wife to do all the housework, with 

 what little help the elder children, if they are 

 girls, can give her. 



At length — through this ceaseless application 

 — they are ready to build, ^and when the com- 

 fortable, new house is finished and nicely furnished, 

 and the children are beginning to be a real help 

 to her, the pale, sickly wife and mother lies down 

 to die ! She has saved by ceaseless, wearying 

 toil, hundreds of dollars for her husband, and he 

 has "lost what money is powerless to recall ; the 

 companion of his youth, the one who has walked 

 beside him and cheered him through life's most 

 thorny paths ! And such untimely deaths are 

 whispered among friends as "mysterious providen- 

 ces," instead of the neglect of a proper household 

 economy, on the farm ! 



These views are partly corroborated by state- 

 ments in a recent report upon the Insane Asylum 

 at Hartford, Ct. The Superintendent says — "that 

 of one hundred and eighty-seven female patients, 

 thirty-four per cent, were the wives of farmers 

 and mechanics." The consideration of the causes 

 which led to this most natural result, showed that 

 between nursing, the accumulation of household 

 duties and drudgery, and the 7iiiserable, short- 

 sighted economy which often led the husband to re- 

 frain from supplying the necessary domestic assis- 

 tance, the poor, heart-broken and discouraged wife 

 had lost in turn her appetite, her rest, and her 

 strength, her nervous system had become pros- 

 trated, and sinking under her burdens, she had 

 sought refuge in the Asylum. Such is the lan- 

 guage of the Report. 



This great error has been a common one, and, 

 has desolated many a farm-house. It grows out 

 of an overweening desire to accumulate too fast. 

 We know men, now, with whom this is a passion 

 that overrides everything else. Sometimes it is 

 manifested in a desire to add $100 more to their 

 railroad or other stock, at others to increase the 

 acres of their land, or again to hold the notes of 

 their neighbors. This passion makes them mean 

 to themselves, mean to their families, and mean to 

 their country ; and they habitually cheat all these 

 for the sake of hugging to their sordid souls a lit- 

 tle more of that which they must soon leave, and 

 perhaps to be quarrelled about by others. All 

 this is bad economy. We do not advocate extrav- 

 agance in anything, — but only that happy com- 

 mingling of labor and leisure, of recreation and 

 study with our daily duties, and that sympathetic 

 association which gives life a charm, and which 

 cannot fail to increase our real happiness. Let 

 us listen more frequently to the promptings of a 

 refined taste, and do'some things about our homes 

 with reference to beauty, as well as utility. These 



