rinvi'i 
Vol. LXXI. No. 4132. NEW YORK, JANUARY 6, 1912. 
WEEKLY. $1.00 PER YEAR. 
STORY OF A FARMER’S WIFE WHO HELPED months. 
MAKE THE HOME. 
I have read with great interest the story of the 
college graduate and the answers. My husband was 
the youngest of a family 
of children, and I had 
always lived in the 
country. On the strength 
of what would be done 
for him when he mar¬ 
ried he remained at 
home until he was 26 
years old, when we were 
married. We had at that 
time those promises, a 
horse and $17 in money, 
and a desire for a farm 
of our own, I having 
been born and raised on 
a farm, too. Now, one 
of the greatest o f 
blessings that we had 
was that we were not 
afraid nor ashamed of 
honest work. We de¬ 
cided to rent a farm al¬ 
ready stocked. For two 
years we remained here. 
Then we had an offer 
to go to a tar Western 
State to work on a 
ranch of 3,000 acres, so 
we accepted the offer. 
I had never been away 
from home, but know¬ 
ing that the offer of $50 
per month was a good 
one, felt willing to go. 
We had everything fur¬ 
nished. My husband 
worked outside; I was 
to cook for the men. 
We arrived there in Oc¬ 
tober, were located about 
50 miles from the Rocky 
Mountains, not a neigh¬ 
bor or friend, but plenty 
of work. The Winters 
were long; often the 
mercury stood at 40°' 
below zero. During the 
Summer we often had 
as high as 26 men to 
cook for. I never had 
help but one Summer, 
when our baby was 
small. I often worked 
from three in the morn¬ 
ing until nine at night. 
Our wages were raised 
from time to time until 
my husband as one of 
the foremen was getting 
$75 per month. This* 
was clear money and we 
saved every penny we 
could. I did all my 
sewing Winters when, 
we had only a few men, as there was only time for 
work connected with the ranch in Summer. I often 
baked 18 large loaves of bread every other day for 
weeks at a time in harvest time, and in Winter there 
were times when I did not see a woman’s face for 
Hard, you say? Only the thoughts of the 
home back in the old home State kept me there. 
In the meantime my husband’s life insurance, a 10- 
year policy, became due. He had paid in $500 and 
received $460, losing, of course, the use of the money. 
This was placed on interest, as was our wages. After 
four years there we heard of a farm back in the neigh¬ 
borhood where I was born thaJt. had been rented until 
it was badly run down, no fences, the house old and 
not fit to live in, but had a good new barn, a good 
drilled well, and was easily drained. It had a sugar 
bush of over 1,000 trees, the pasture was overgrown 
with underbrush and briers, as were a good share of 
the plowed fields, but the location was excellent, and 
it could be purchased for $30 per acre, there being 
126 acres in the farm. It 
was near a good school 
and in an excellent 
neighborhood, so we de¬ 
cided to take it. We 
remained there 2years 
after this, then came 
back. We had our farm 
clear of debt and about 
$1,000 in money with 
which to buy farming 
implements and stock, 
and I would say to the 
man wanting to start 
without capital that this 
sum melted away like 
dew before the morning 
sun. The renters had 
found from five to seven 
cows and work horses 
enough stock. When we 
came to see it our hearts 
nearly failed us, but it 
would be home anyway. 
Our friends pitied us, 
which only helped us to 
a desire to make good. 
We found an old house, 
built after the plans used 
80 years ago, little 
boxes of bedrooms, and 
no conveniences any- 
where. However the 
rooms below were nine 
feet high and eight 
above. We tore all the 
old partitions out, placed 
new floors over the old; 
downstairs we made a 
large living room with 
an open fire, a dining 
room, bedroom, bath¬ 
room, kitchen and a 
roomy woodshed. We 
placed cupboards be- 
tweeen kitchen and din¬ 
ing room opening both 
ways, making the work 
much easier. A sink was 
placed in the kitchen, 
also a marble lavatory. 
This is one of the great¬ 
est helps I have. The 
well furnished plenty of 
water for all purposes at 
the house and barn. A 
small gasoline engine is 
used to pump it. My 
husband, being handy 
with carpenter tools, did 
nearly all the work in 
the chambers at odd 
times. I did all the fur¬ 
nishing, sandpapering, 
filling and varnishing, and waxed the floors. These 
are a great blessing, and yet it was hard work, but 
done a little at a time as I could, I did not mind it. 
We put up a silo, tile-drained the land as fast as 
we could. Our lawn was a disgrace, covered with bur- 
THE HOME PART OF “BACK TO THE LAND.” Fig. 1. 
THE BUSINESS PART OF “BACK TO THE LAND.” Fig. 2. 
