ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 81 



THE FARMER'S WIFE AS A PARTNER. 



MRS. VENA M. BEEDK, CHADWICK. 



Doubtless every nation owes a large share of its pros- 

 perity to good bonseliold management. Certain it is, the 

 X*ower is in the hands of the home-maker — whether she be 

 the wife of the millionaire or the man who works for one 

 dollar per day to help or hinder financially. The work of 

 w^cman on the farm nece^sarially reaches farther than the 

 home-making — she must help earn the bread. 



When youthful farmer John and Elizabeth enter into 

 That "till death do us part" partnership not only is it a part- 

 nership of ordinary joys and sorrows of life, but a business 

 I^artTiership, only we do not usually think about it that way, 

 but it is truth. Elizabeth must keep up one end of the line 

 of farm work or John can not keep up the other. 



Unless your John is already the possessor of a farm home 

 free from incumberance, which case is so rare that it scarcely 

 belongs to the story — the real every-day story reads: "We 

 began with nothing; but we were young." Have you noticed 

 that no difference how sagely we speak to young people of 

 the wisdom of putting off the marriage day until there is 

 some provision for the future, "just as of old," wisely or un- 

 wisely, there will be Johns and Elizabeths begin life together 

 w^hile still in the verdancy of youth. 



Said a mother to me — so mournfully that congratulations 

 over the new daughter were entirely out of order — "I tried to 

 get James through the green age without getting married, but 

 I couldn't." 



I think we need have no fears of these early partnerships, 

 if only these Johns and Elizabeths possess strong, healthy 

 bodies, clear minds, good habits, hands willing to work and 

 brain ready to think— an abundance of hope, that blessed 

 special quality of youth, its best equipment for battle, and 

 better than all, a love for each other so strong and deep that 

 time with its wrecks strengthens and deepens. 



On the basis of usefulness in society, such take precedence 

 over all the successful money manipulations of the world. 



