578 
ladies’ department. 
£atoes* ^Department. 
FARMERS’ WIVES. 
Too much praise can scarcely be bestowed upon 
your fair correspondent, E. M. C., for her excellent 
and spirited article on the multifarious and never- 
ceasing employment of farmers’ wives; and though 
“I have not vanity enough to think 
My praise is worth this drop of ink,” 
yet I cannot forbear offering my congratulations to 
the whole sisterhood for having so able an advocate 
to undertake their cause. 
If I knew her name, I would add it to my list of 
right-minded women, who take a proper view of 
things generally overlooked; who to precept add 
example, as doubtless she does,—being, as she so 
cleverly intimates, a farmer’s wife. May she reap 
the highest reward which a mind like hers is capa¬ 
ble of receiving—that of knowing that her sugges¬ 
tions have rescued even one of her hardly tasked 
countrywomen from being a mere household drudge, 
and raised her to the station she should fill by right 
as well as by nature—the companion of her husband 
and his friends; the participator in his plans and 
cares ; and the cheerful as well as able instructress 
of his children. I am not a farmer’s wife, and 
therefore cannot speak with all the wisdom gained 
by experience ; but I know and love many who are, 
and have seen and thought much on the subject of 
the life of almost uninterrupted labor to which they 
are too generally exposed ; and the little care bestow¬ 
ed upon their mental culture, or bodily comfort; and 
if I cannot name the individuals who sat for the 
speaking portraits by which she illustrates her posi¬ 
tion, I certainly know others of each separate class, 
who might have done so, and who could bear ample 
testimony to the truth of her statements. I can add 
little weight to the truth of her arguments in the 
cause she has so generously espoused; but I may 
perhaps be allowed to say something on a subject in¬ 
timately connected with it. 
Farming is a pursuit which tends to enlarge the 
mind, and I trust there are few who would wish to 
resist its enlightening influence —none so sordid as 
not to wish their children to be well educated ; but I 
cannot shut my eyes to the fact that all are not wil¬ 
ling to pay the price which would ensure its accom¬ 
plishment ; for next to having female help for the 
wife, no money is so grudgingly drawn from a far¬ 
mer’s purse as that to pay for what is called “ school¬ 
ing” for the children. 
The mother, when at a late hour of the day she 
sits down to rest after the toils of the day, is too 
much wearied, both in mind and body, to be able to 
attend to the education of her children ; happy if she 
is not called upon to minister at the bed of some suf¬ 
fering one, or the fatiguing, though eagerly sought 
endearments of “ the baby.” No time then for the 
cultivation of those mental graces which, learned at 
school, and practised with avidity in her hours of 
girlish leisure, perhaps attracted and won the man to 
whom all the energies of her future life are to be 
devoted. The prospect of the morrow’s labors are 
enough to sadden her spirits, and crush every aspira¬ 
tion for their future intellectual improvement; and 
with a feeling near akin to that which induces the 
women of some heathen nations to smother their 
female children in their infancy, rather than suffer 
them to grow up to endure the trials through which 
they have lived, she feels that it would be a cruel 
kindness to cherish in her daughter tastes and habits 
which must be laid aside for ever, as soon as she 
takes upon herself the pleasures and cares of a 
family of her own. 
It is a melancholy fact, that most of our country 
schools are miserably deficient in teachers capable of 
imparting a knowledge of anything above what the 
children of the poorest day laborer should be familiar 
with—the first rules of arithmetic, writing, and 
reading; and even for these they are too often but 
insufficiently compensated. The master may do his 
best, but as he cannot teach what he does not know, 
under such care the pupil’s progress will necessarily 
be slow, even in children who love to learn; and 
this makes the parents feel less hesitation in keeping 
“ Johnny at home a week or so, to pick up potatoes, 
top the corn, and pull the turnips; and Sally may as 
well stay too, to help mother prepare the poultry and 
butter for market, and mind baby ;” the others are too 
little to go alone, and therefore they stay to add to 
the poor mother’s cares and labor. 
There is a plan which has been adopted with the 
most complete success in several instances where 
want of time, or deficiency in their own education, 
prevented the mothers from engaging in a task 
which, as it should be their chief delight, should 
never, except in cases of necessity, be delegated to 
another. Where such necessity actually exists, I 
propose as the best substitute, and only as a sub¬ 
stitute, the adoption of the plan above alluded to; 
which is, that two or more near neighbors unite, and 
engage a governess for their little ones ; by dividing 
the expense, they can better afford to offer a sum 
large enough to ensure the services of a woman of 
correct and firm religious and moral principles, solid 
mental endowments, and who to school love adds a 
love for and knowledge of country employments, 
housekeeping, and even of country amusements ; in 
short, not a town-bred lady, who would start at sight 
of a snake or a frog, and scream at meeting a herd 
of cattle. 
The school room should be light and airy; in the 
most central house, if more than two combine, and 
the governess herself should be accommodated, if 
practicable, in the house where the largest number of 
little ones would claim her care; and happy will that 
family have reason to be, who can secure such an 
inmate as the one who should be fit to undertake an 
office the most responsible that can devolve upon a 
human being—the care of children. 
Very many young girls who are likely to be de¬ 
pendent on their own exertions, are at the presen 
time educated with the express view of their becom 
ing teachers, particularly in the Eastern States ; con¬ 
sequently there will be less difficulty in procuring 
persons competent to the task assigned them ; and J 
earnestly recommend to the serious consideration ol 
all right-thinking farmers, an expedient which 1 
know they will like the result of, even after a few 
months’ fair trial of its effects. By such an arrange 
ment their children remain under their own care and 
protection, and there is no risk of their getting conta¬ 
minated by improper associations with others, which 
will be a great relief to an anxious parent’s mind. 
Eutawah E. S. 
