Vol. LXXI. No. 4146. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 13, 1912. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
WHY A FARMER’S WIFE ? 
A Woman’s Arguments for the Farm. 
The autobiography of so unimportant an individual 
as myself seems to indicate a considerable egotism, 
but as a representative of that great class, “the farm¬ 
er’s wife,” possibly it 
may be instructive and 
excusable. As to the 
question, “How came 
you to be a farmer’s 
wife?” it seems easily 
answered by saying “Be¬ 
cause the right man hap¬ 
pened to be a farmer.” 
Yet if I had not also 
loved the farm life it is 
possible I might have 
persuaded him to become 
a wage-earner in town, 
as many other women 
have done in like case, 
but I would far rather 
be a “poor farmer” than 
“town poor.” There is 
always something to be 
said on both sides of a 
subject, but I am asked 
to tell only why I prefer 
farm life, and will not 
be expected to mention 
any of its disadvantages, 
ind I fear The R. N.-Y. 
cannot spare me space to 
detail all the reasons in 
favor of the farm. 
As dairymen we have 
come to believe strongly 
in the power of heredity 
and environment; nor 
have we quite forsaken 
our forefathers’ faith in 
predestination. I was 
born in a farm home at 
the close of our great 
Civil War. All my an¬ 
cestors, back to early 
Colonial days, were land- 
owners in New England. 
My father was one of a 
family of seven sons and 
two daughters. With a 
rather better general 
education than the aver¬ 
age farmer of his gen¬ 
eration, my father had 
‘His own free bookless lore, 
The lessons Nature taught 
him. 
The wisdom which the 
woods and fields 
4.nd toiling men had brought 
him.” 
He was always the 
most delightful com¬ 
panion of my childhood 
and youth, and I greatly 
regret that my mind has 
to retain his intimate knowledge of woods and fields. 
Both my father and mother have been active Grange 
workers since the Order of Patrons of Husbandry was 
iirst organized in this State, and I joined the Order as 
trict, where we boarded and chaperoned ourselves 
quite happily and with propriety. The next year I 
attended the academy in our own town, usually riding 
horseback the three miles morning and night. And 
here I must digress to remark that the 40 boys and 
girls of that school learned more, and had a better 
time doing it, than is 
ever possible in a large 
town school. There' 
were no saloons, no mov¬ 
ing picture shows, no 
nickelettes, no trifling 
and salacious tempta¬ 
tions constantly held out 
to us. We were there at 
some expense and con¬ 
siderable effort to get a 
little more book educa¬ 
tion, and we were a good 
live lot of young people 
who were also getting 
plenty of pure joy out of 
living, for there was al¬ 
ways enough skating, 
sleighing, c oasting, so¬ 
ciables and kitchen 
dances to keep our spare 
time well filled. A good 
many of our abandoned 
farms—which are no 
myth, for our hills show 
hundreds of them—are 
the result of our present 
school system, which 
does not allow the dis¬ 
trict school teacher to 
take children beyond the 
eighth grade. We must 
then board them in some 
larger town or city, dur¬ 
ing the formative years; 
there, away from the 
home influences, unre¬ 
strained and unguarded, 
to make their friends, 
and to acquire a taste 
for glitter, constant ex¬ 
citements, and triviali¬ 
ties. It is this shallow- 
minded idea that some¬ 
body or something must 
continually amuse them 
that causes the often- 
heard complaint of the 
dullness of farm life. If 
our young people are 
never taught to think 
for themselves and must 
have all their lessons 
taught to them, instead 
of studying, they lack all 
training for individual 
effort. Life and labor 
often train the men to 
broader views, but the 
women, alas, too often 
continue to think small 
matters great. . It is an error to allow any youth un¬ 
der 18 to lose one of our greatest advantages, which 
is the intimacy of our family life, and the working 
together of father, mother and children for an un¬ 
derstood mutual benefit. 
soon as old enough. My mother is an enthusiast in 
promoting fraternal and literary work, and also has 
an abnormal development of that characteristic which 
phrenologists designate as inhabitiveness, or “love of 
place,” for I have heard her say she would rather 
live alone on our home farm than anywhere else, even 
THE BEST GIRL FOR THE BUSINESS HEN ! Fig. 166. 
too loose a grasp on detail 
though she might have her family all with her. I 
attended district school, one and one half mile from 
my home, until 15 years old, then attended the high 
school of a neighboring manufacturing town one year, 
renting a room with a girl friend from our own dis¬ 
