A WOMAN’S HEN NOTES. 
wny so FEW fowls'? 
N inquisitor arrived at Primrose Farm one day last 
week. We had reason to suspect the inquisitor of 
being a poultry enthusiast. “How large a flock do you 
keep ?” he inquired when we had veered conversation 
around to poultry topics. 
“ We are wintering two cocks and 35 hens. Rather 
a large number for us.” 
“ Yet you have plenty of land and run your farm 
for proflt ?” 
“ Well, yes; but this is not a good hen farm and 
maybe we are not hen people.” 
Now that began to seem a poor excuse as we thought 
the matter over. The inquisitor’s queries have set us 
searching for the real reason why we are not being 
floated to wealth on the wings of 200 or 300 egg-lay¬ 
ing, broiler-hatching biddies, and our arguments and 
excuses are herewith set forth. 
Objections to the Natural Method. 
We pursue the natural method in poultry culture, as 
do most of our neighbors. That is, we have no well- 
arranged houses, run no incubator, and clean roosts 
only annually or even biennially or polyennially—if I 
may be allowed the term. Maybe we feed somewhere 
near what we ought, though we do frequently lapse 
into a diet of whole corn when the price of eggs runs 
low and we lose interest Rat we do not keep the 100 
hens and 17 cocks found on most farms, for the 
arrangement of our land would make it particularly 
unprofltable. Somewhere within three or four rods of 
the farm buildings is always a strawberry bed ; our 
fruit and vegetable gardens are also conveniently 
situated for scratching purposes. Rather than to feed 
our fowls upon the choicest of our fruit and the earliest 
of our spinach, lettuce and cabbage, the flock must be 
kept in confinement during many weeks of the sum¬ 
mer, Our neighbors plant their vegetables a half 
mile from the house and raise almost no small fruit. 
Their front walks, and even verandas and doorsteps, 
are frequently in a condition not pleasant to see or to 
mention, and they are never sure of a bit of clean turf 
on which to sit in summer. They probably receive 
more for dreised poultry than we do, but all through 
cold weather they feed at a loss, for their hens roost 
where they please and they get few eggs. This year 
in January, while our 35 hens were giving us over 
eight dozen eggs a week, many owners of 100 hens 
had no more than enough for family use, for our hens 
have warm quarters, if not a modern hen mansion. 
Of course, these 35 hens are kept at a profit; but to 
double or treble the flock with the present facilities 
would certainly be unprofitable from every point of 
view. 
Objections to the Modern Method. 
Rut why are there not convenient poultry houses 
with commodious runs and room for many families of 
fowls at Primrose Farm ? We have seen several of 
these well-lighted, wire-netted poultry dwellings go 
up within a few miles of us ; we have seen some of 
them go down. Where once were neat little flocks, 
now are doors and windows wide, weeds in the little 
yards, and no little bachelor all by himself setting off 
for market with his baskets full of eggs. Did the 
enterprise fail because there was no wheelbarrow and 
no wife ? Or did roup and gapes get among the fowls? 
Did the proceeds fail to support the little old bachelor, 
or did he grow weary of cleaning roosts and renewing 
dust baths? We only know that he disappeared and 
that the coops are for sale. 
We know three people who pursue modern hen cul¬ 
ture to their apparent advantage. One peddles his 
eggs and secures an advance upon the market price. 
Another sells eggs from purebred fowls. The third is 
a woman ; she has four other interests, never spends 
a night away from home and performs all the labor of 
caring for her flock with her own hands. She recently 
put 8150 into a new poultry house and yard, expecting 
to clear more than that for her season’s work. R at 
the unfortunate purchase of a cock that developed 
roup, brought disaster to all her first settings of eggs 
and lessened the year’s income. 
So much confinement! So much labor ! And—as 
always—the chance of unmerited disaster ! Is it not 
as well to earn less, spend less, and save less? Un¬ 
less, perchance, one has strength and leisure going 
to waste, or the pangs of impecuniosity press too 
keenly. 
In short, a hen out of place becomes a nuisance that 
it is a wonder any tolerate about the home, and to keep 
poultry in confinement necessitates an amount of labor 
that may well cause the farmer, that man of innumer¬ 
able “ chores," many cares and small money capital, 
to hesitate before undertaking, prudence primrose. 
MORE ABOUT THAT LABOR QUESTION. 
CIRCUMSTANCES CUT SUCH A FIGURE. 
T seems to me that so much depends upon circum¬ 
stances that no general rule can be given. Speaking 
for myself, I might feed pigs and calves if there were 
no men on the farm, and the food was where I didn’t 
have to carry it far. I would consider that I could 
“lend a hand” at milking in a busy time, or when 
milkers were scarce. I am very fond of the work con¬ 
nected with poultry, feeding, etc., and would find it 
hard work to keep away from that, especially when 
the chicks are little. I think the work of caring for 
the little chicks is more adapted to women than men, 
'as they 1 equire constant care; the men being away 
from them, would be likely to neglect them for mat¬ 
ters of more importance to them. The same with the 
garden. It goes without saying that much of the 
work is too heavy for us, but I think women who plan 
their gardens and see that their plans are executed, 
raise their own plants, and superintend the setting of 
them, kindly but firmly insist upon this work being 
done at the right season and then properly cared for 
during the weeks to come, will surely reap their own 
reward in the tempting array of appetizing fruits and 
vegetables which will be theirs as a reward of duty 
done. 
I know many women who drive horses to pitch off 
loads of hay and grain, preferring that to the cook¬ 
ing for extra help. I know of but one woman who 
drives mowers, reapers, etc., and she has a shiftless, 
drunken husband, whom I presume she cannot trust to 
drive her horses, as she always drives them herself to 
“mill and to meetin’.” 
My men, when not too busy—help me about wash¬ 
ing—pound clothes, turn wringer, empty tubs, etc. I 
think a man may profitably cook his own meals when 
his wife is sick in bed. I suppose he could use a car¬ 
pet sweeper or run a “Mary .lane” dishwasher, but 
I have had no experience in the matter. He should 
surely bring in wood and water if it is outdoors—ours 
isn’t. Ruilding fires is a mere matter of taste, many 
women preferring to build them rather than clean up 
after an untidy man. Of course, if one has little chil¬ 
dren to care for without capable help—which is so 
hard to get, or is physically unable, she could not be ex¬ 
pected to do much work out-of-doors under any circum¬ 
stances ; but for those whose health and strength will 
permit, I think outdoor work rests tired nerves. Even 
though I had to hire some one to help with housework 
to give me time, I think I could make it pay. 
AUNT JEMIMA. 
An Equal-Interest Partnership. 
The only general rule that can be laid down in this 
is the Golden Rule. The trouble is just here—it is 
“ laid down” instead of being taken up and used for 
its legitimate purpose of moral measurement. The 
farmer takes unto himself a helpmeet. His wife takes 
unto herself a labormaker. As usually carried out, 
the life partnership on the farm is a very one-sided 
affair. It should be an equal-interest and a help-one- 
another partnership. While the man’s and the woman’s 
duties should be sharply defined, there should be no 
hesitation on the part of either in stepping far over 
the limit and doing all that he or she can do in the 
other’s department when occasion justifies. Feeding 
the calves and pigs, milking, tending the garden, driv¬ 
ing the horses on the mower, etc., is man’s work, and 
he should never call upon women to do any of these 
things unless it is impossible for him to do them and 
it is possible for the women. If the man hires help 
and there is no hired help in the house, and the board¬ 
ing of the hired field help falls upon the women, then 
such management ought to be used as will insure the 
man’s chores being done by a man, and as many of the 
women’s as possible. 
On rainy days, or at such times as field work cannot 
be done, the man should be willing to do any woman’s 
work that he can. do, and he should do it cheerfully. 
The wood should be man-sawed and man-split and 
man-piled in a man-made woodshed adjoining the 
kitchen—then the women will not ask to have the 
wood brought into the house except in winter time, 
when so much fuel is used and the man has plenty of 
time to fill up two big woodboxes twice a day. As 
for building fires, if there be plenty of good kind¬ 
ling, nicely split, and the wood be dry, the women 
will cheerfully build the fires while the man is 
milking and feeding the stock at the barn. Rut when 
there is a baby in arms, the man should hustle out of 
bed in time to build the fires and have everything 
warm and comfortable down stairs by the time Tootsie 
Wootsie comes down. (And if T. W. has been en¬ 
gaged in its usual occupation of cutting its teeth 
during the silent (?) watches of the night, the man 
will all the more readily hurry down to light the 
fires.) 
I have said nothing about the poultry : I believe the 
care of the poultry to be woman’s work ; not because 
the man hasn’t time to attend to it, but because he 
doesn’t know how, and wouldn’t do it right if he did. 
If two purses are kept on the farm—and one is better 
than two—then the feed of the poultry should be off¬ 
set by the chickens and eggs used in the family, and 
the money received from the sale of poultry and eggs 
should go straight into the female purse—and it 
shouldn’t come out to help pay for groceries, or taxes, 
or a new plow, or anything that the farm should pay 
for. It should be “ pin money” strictly. 
“ Tending the garden.” To see a big, strong man 
plow up the garden in the spring, perhaps when the 
soil was a little too wet, give it a harrowing, then tell 
his wife that she can now plant her garden, is a sight 
to make the angels weep. A woman has no business 
in the garden except to gather the fruits and smaller 
vegetables. In the flower garden ? Yes, but few, if 
any, flowers are grown on farms where the vegetable 
garden is woman-tended. 
If the rule to regulate this business be the Golden 
one, on such farms as it is used you may see women 
riding the mower, rake, etc. ; they may be found mill¬ 
ing the cows, feeding the calves, pigs and poultry, 
digging potatoes for dinner, helping to unload hay 
and grain, and many other things that men usually 
do. And the men may be caught in the act of cook¬ 
ing, sweeping, “minding” baby, scrubbing floors, etc., 
and, when so caught, will not look shame-faced and 
make some excuse for their conduct, but will say they 
were not very busy outdoors and so thought they 
would help along a little in the house. Oi such farms 
Tootsie Wootsie can cut teeth all the way down its 
backbone, if it chooses, without eliciting a harsh re¬ 
mark. A. L. CROSBY. 
Mrs. T. B. Terry on Housework. 
Husband and wife should be partners, and full, equal 
partners, each willing to do all possible to help along. 
Woman’s natural place is indoors; man’s work is in 
the field and barn ; but true partners will not be par¬ 
ticular as to just where they draw the line. They will 
be governed by the necessities of the case, and by the 
strong handedness of either side of the house. 
For example, when husband and I started at farm¬ 
ing, poor as we well could be and unable to hire help, 
I never hesitated for a moment about helping in any 
line I could. Our family was small, and there was not 
much in the house to take care of. Husband had to 
work very hard, why should not I ? I have even 
loaded hay and grain for him, milked the cows, fed 
the calves and pigs, and anything else I could do was 
most willingly done. I often let my own work go to 
help outdoors, because this must be done. Our very 
food depended on it. Husband has been as willing to 
help me when his work was ahead. As soon as we 
thought it would be safe, he employed help enough so 
that I need not be called on to go outside, and arranged 
also to make our work in the house as light as possible. 
It is some years since I have milked a cow, and a good 
many more since I have been on a load of hay ; but it 
is not very long since husband wiped the dishes for me, 
and he is constantly urging me to save myself more. 
Any true wife will be willing to help all she can, 
whenever it is necessary, and a kind, thoughtful hus- 
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