86 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



use as seems best from the common pocket-book, tlie same 

 as my husband does. The account book tells how it is used. 



I think it not an unprofitable plan for lovers to discuss 

 practical business matters, and although Shakespeare does 

 tell us, ''At lovers perjuries they say Jove laughs," promises 

 of honest lovers are as good as any, with the exception of 

 any promise involving the appetite for Intoxicants and tobacco. 

 Young Farmer Brown may in all honesty tell his love that 

 for her sweet sake he will never touch a glass of liquor or 

 smoke a naughty cigar, but if the appetite is already formed, 

 it is too often one of the "promises made and never kept." 



A word about proi)erty rights of farmers' wives. Since 

 the law does not recognize the wife in the common earnings 

 on the farm, this duty rests upon the husband. If a division 

 of property seems impracticable, he should make a will secur- 

 ing to her what in justice belongs to her. Many wrongs 

 arise from the neglect of this duty. It is seemingly hard for 

 the fVirmer to find time to make a will. It is like the senti- 

 ments of one of my old school-mates in her first composition, 

 on the subject "The Time to Die." It read, "I would not like 

 to die in the springtime, when the fields are green and the little 

 lambs are skipping about. I would not like to die in the 

 summer when the flowers are in bloom. I would not like to 

 die in the autumn when the leaves are falling and all nature 

 is dreary. I would not like to die in the winter when the 

 earth is cold and covered with snow." The natural conclu- 

 sion was — there is no proper time to die. 



The partnership of farmer and wife includes the home, 

 school and church, and should extend to every line of common 

 interest. One of the present great needs of the farmer is the 

 help of his wife in politics. There is no interest of the farmer 

 that the ballot controls that is not the farmer's wife's, from 

 the President of the United States up to the little red school- 

 house on the hill top and in the valley. 



It is noticeable that the leaders of the two great political 

 parties do not want the help of woman in affairs of govern- 

 ment, although the platform of the coming party in power 

 declare its willingsness for broader usefulness for woman. 

 Two theories for the meaning of that plank — the more charit- 

 able one, that it means nothing; the other, that women work 



