1849. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
34? 
their wives with hard work. This assertion is too no¬ 
toriously false to need refutation; and even if the farm¬ 
ers were such brutes, the women of New England are 
too independent to submit to such treatment. 
Where do we look for the healthiest women ? Is it 
among that class who never see the sun rise, or the 
dew sparkling in his early rays ? Or is it among those 
who are compelled by their avocations to rise early, 
and to inhale the fresh and invigorating morning air ? 
It is an undoubted fact that farmer’s wives and daugh¬ 
ters, as a class, are the most healthy, are capable of 
enduring the greatest fatigue, and consequently live to 
a greater age. 
The writer in the Republican accuses the farmers of 
loving money better than other men, and says, that in 
order to gratify this passion, they make slaves of their 
wives, and that 11 while they are enjoying the ease and 
luxury of independence, the cares of their faded and 
broken down wives, know no relaxation.” Are farmers 
more avaricious than other men, and is the dollar their 
only standard of respectability ? I have always suppo¬ 
sed that wealth was more powerful in the city, and 
among commercial men, than in an agricultural com¬ 
munity: and where, if not in the country, do wives re¬ 
ceive their due share of kindness and attention from their 
husbands ? In this section of New England, the wives 
and daughters enjoy the reward of their toil sooner than 
the husbands and farmers; owing perhaps, to the fact 
that the female character is more susceptible to the al- 
luremements of fashion and luxury than the other sex, 
so that there are more fine ladies than gentlemen, to 
be found in farmer’s families. The writer in the Re¬ 
publican goes on to say, “ that from such a life, the 
girls of our day are learning to shrink, because they 
know they are to be sacrificed.” Girls who have 
been taught to despise labor, and to spend their time 
in frivolous amusements, would of course shrink from 
such a life. But those who are willing to be useful, 
who desire to become truly independent, know that they 
are making no sacrifice in becoming farmers’ wives. 
There is one class of writers who would deprive the 
farmer’s family of all participation in the accomplish¬ 
ments of modern female education, and consider them 
fit only for the drudges which the first writer alluded to 
describes them to be. This latter class would gracious¬ 
ly allow them to spend their winter evenings in listen¬ 
ing to some useful, practical work on natural history, 
the management of bees and the like, read by one mem¬ 
ber of the family, while the rest are employed in knit¬ 
ting. They do not seem to consider them capable of 
appreciating the beauties of poetry and elegant litera¬ 
ture. Perhaps they might permit them to read Thomp- 
son’s Seasons, and Bloomfield’s “ Farmer’s Boy,” as 
having reference to rural pursuits in general. Is there 
any reason why a farmer’s wife and daughters should 
not receive the same education, and be allowed to read 
the same books which are considered proper for females 
of other classes ? 
Now I, for one, protest against this constant interfe- 
rence with our rights and privileges. Farmers are as 
intelligent, and as capable of taking care of themselves 
as the merchant or mechanic, or the professional man, 
and they have too much freedom to be placed under the 
guardianship of those who know nothing about them or 
their employment. Let us spend our time as we 
please, provided no other person’s rights are interfered 
with. If we prefer doing our own cooking to having it 
half done by girls who feel little interest in doing it 
well, why may we not be allowed the privilege 1 
There are some who seem to think the farmer in a 
very degraded condition, and who kindly wish to ele¬ 
vate him. Now if this is really their object, the best 
way to accomplish it, would be to endeavor to render 
labor respectable, and to teach the rising generation 
that industry is the surest road to respectability. There 
can certainly be no employment so well calculated to 
refine the character, and ‘develop the noblest faculties 
of our nature, as farming, provided the cultivation of 
the mind is not neglected; and for this there is no ne¬ 
cessity, and indeed no excuse. Any farmer can find 
sufficient time and opportunities for reading and study, if 
he is disposed to improve them. A Farmer’s Daugh¬ 
ter. Manchester , Vt., Sept. 20, 1849. 
A Cheap Farm Gate® 
This design is for a gate four feet high and 
twelve feet long; but they can be made of any re¬ 
quired length or height The rails and forward up- 
89 — farm gate. 
right are 2+3 inches, and the hind upright 3+4, 
framed together. The cross pieces may be round, 
made of small hemlocks and peeled, or they may be 
of sawed stuff an inch square. The rails are bored 
with an inch auger, two holes side by side, and 
slanted each way to accommodate the cross pieces, 
which are a foot apart. After the gate is put to¬ 
gether, nail the cross pieces at each end, and nail 
them together in the middle with wrought nails, 
which should be clinched. The post on which the 
gate is hung, has a plank cap on top with a hole 
through it for the round tenon on the upright piece 
of the gate; at the bottom it may turn in a piece of 
wood morticed into the post, or what is much bet¬ 
ter, in a stone, with a hole drilled in it about an 
inch. 
The advantages of this gate are, its cheapness 
—a man can make one in about six hours, and there 
is no iron about it except the nails,—and it will not 
sag, as the cross pieces brace each way, thus re¬ 
medying the great defect to which gates are liable. 
W, L. Eaton, East Weare, N. H. 
Cisterns for Live Stock* 
I have a water-lime cistern ten feet in diameter, 
and six feet deep, which has been estimated to hold 
90 barrels. For nearly two months of our late ve¬ 
ry dry season, it has chiefly furnished the drink for 
half a dozen cows and four horses, while many far¬ 
mers who had no such cisterns, drove their cattle 
to considerable distances. 
In some parts of England it has been found that 
the rain from the roofs of the necessary buildings 
on a farm, is sufficient, if saved, for all their live 
stock through the year; and we put the question, 
Are not cisterns as cheap as wells ? Many wells in 
this part of the country, especially in the Hamilton 
Group, are not fed by springs in severe drouths, 
and become in effect, cisterns, soon to be exhausted. 
Without any roof to turn in more water, they are 
useless till the soaking rains of autumn, saturate 
not only the soil, but the subsoil to considerable 
depths. On the contrary, a cistern which depends 
on a roof for its supply, may find business for its 
pump after a very moderate shower. 
