196 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 31, 1920 
The Cash Value of “No Occupation”; 
Farm Women’s Labor and 
Farm Values 
The following article is taken from the 
Philadelphia North American. Farm 
thought is now working right along these 
lines. In the future the value of woman's 
work on the farm must be included in the 
price paid for farm products. 
“Farmer’s wife. No occupation”—is 
the way census enuineratoss are writing it 
thousands of times a day, while counting 
the (30,000.000 farm folk in the laud. 
Likewise, “Housewife. No occupation”— 
counting the rest of us. 
But our average farm woman is the 
hardest worker we have. She is the un¬ 
paid servant of the nation, and perhaps 
the most indispensable member of the big 
family which stands up when “The Star- 
Spangled Banner” is played. 
“Yet no one has ever thought of her 
in terms of cash,” writes Mrs. Phoebe V. 
Warner in a recent number of the Banker- 
Farmer. “She has no salary, no definite 
income, no fixed allowance by either writ¬ 
ten or unwritten law. She works from 
the day she marries till the day she dies, 
often without realizing in dollars and 
cents a single dream of her life. 
“How many men in America would 
WOi’k a lifetime without a thought of pay, 
without a hope of realizing through their 
.labors the ideals of their lives?” 
I| All this she does for the sake of “get¬ 
ting things done,” and she goes to bed at 
night assured of just one thing—that it 
must all be done over again tomorrow! 
What she cooked today is eaten by night. 
What she washed and ironed is ready for 
the tubs again by the end of the week. 
All of which is more or less true of every 
housewife, though the town and city sis¬ 
ters of the farm woman have a hundred , 
chances for recreation and change which 
are denied this most valuable woman we I 
have. 
“Most valuable”—yes. just that. If 
you have doubts, read the following: 
“I asked a young man to sit down some 
night with his mother and place a finan¬ 
cial estimate on the work she had done 
during the 30 years of her married life 
and then compare it with the present value 
of their, real estate. There have been 
eight children in the home, and I had 
never known the mother to have any help 
except the children. 
“In a few days I received this report: 
“ ‘Roughly estimated. I find the record 
of mother’s work for 30 years to be: 
Meals served, 235,425, at 15c. .$35,313.75 
Garments made, 3,100. at 50c.. 1,505.00 
Chickens. 7.0(30, at 25c. 1.915.00 
Eggs. 127.752, at 15c dozen. ... 1.590.(30 
Butter. 5.400 lbs., at 20c lb.. 1.092.00 
Milk. 21.900 gals., at 10c gal.. 2.190.00 
Lard, 1.500 gals., at $1 gal.... 1.50000 
Bread, loaves, 35.500, at 10c.. 3.530.00 
Cakes. 5.930, at 25c. 1,482.50 
Pies. 7.9(30. at 10c. 970.00 
Vegetables (bushels), 1,525, at 
50c bu. 702.50 
Fruit, by jars, 3.025. at 25c jar 900.25 
Fruit, fresh, 1,550 qts., at 
10c qt. 1.155.00 
Laundry, 177.725 pieces, at 3c. 5,331.75 
Hours spent in sweeping, wash¬ 
ing. ironing, scrubbing, 35,-, 
640, at 10c. 3,504.00 
the weeping willows, the clipped hedge 
and the tombstones. In these things it 
was like the average burying ground. 
But there was something queer about it, 
as every one who read the inscriptions 
soon came to know. 
These tombstones told the truth! 
Consoling platitudes were notable by 
their absence. No “Safe at Home” or 
“Too Pure for Earth,” but such epi¬ 
taphs as these: “Mother—walked to 
death in her kitchen”; “Sacred to the 
memory of Jane. She scrubbed herself 
into eternity”: “Gi - andma— washed her¬ 
self away”: “Susie—swept out of iife 
with too heavy a broom.” 
Those who read these tombstones smiled 
at first, just as you’re smiling now. Some 
were too shocked to smile. They thought 
it sacrilegious. So long as they thought 
at all, the purpose of this cemetery was 
served. 
“Such levity with the most solemn 
thing mankind knows could not be justi¬ 
fied merely on the theory that what was 
written was true,” said ope visitor- to 
this strange exhibit. “Those who saw it 
came away with the belief that it was 
justified as a means of keeping these 
things from coming true.” 
That was the aim of the agricultural 
extension depai'tment of the State College, 
which put it there. It was meant to em¬ 
phasize the. need for home conveniences 
for the farm woman ; for a little rest and 
recreation for this hardest-woi’ked class 
in the country. 
What are we going to do about it? 
Mrs. Warner, who seems to be a sane 
thinker, views it this way: 
First—If a reasonable commercial value 
were placed on the work of the women 
and children on the farm it would equal 
in dollars and cents the total real estate 
values of our nation. 
Second—If the value of the work of the 
women and childi*en is equal to the value 
of the farm, not one man in 10 could ever 
(Continued on page 214) 
TFie entire food values 
of wheat and malted 
barley are found in 
GrapeNuts 
A food in. every sense: 
nourishing, delicious, 
economical. 
V« •• ‘ c.:V \ . 
Easy to digest because 
of twenty nours baking. 
Ready-to-serve. 
Steel Wheels 
Cheaper than any other wheels AAQT 
when you figure years of serv- vUo I 
ice. Make any wagon good as ■ rpr 
new. Save labor— easy to load. LCww 
CUBIDC Norepairs. Writ, for FREE Book 
ClnrlllC Mfg. Co.Boi296,Quincy, III 
"We Sell Farms 
Write for complete list of New York State Farms for tale 
We have a size, location and price to please you. 
Reliable representatives wanted. Give referen¬ 
ces and mention Rural New-Yorker. 
MANDEVILLE REAL ESTATE AGENCY. Inc., OLEAN. N. Y 
FARMS AND HOMES 
WHERE LIFE IS WORTH LIVING. Moderate prices—genial 
climate—productive lauds. For information write 
STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. • Dover, Oebwart 
Virginia Farms and Homes 
FREE CATALOGUE OF SPLENDID BARGAINS. 
R. It. CIIAFFIN A CO., Inc., Richmond. to. 
When you write advertisers mention 
The Rural New-Yorker and you’ll get 
a quick reply and a “square deal.” See 
guarantee editorial page. 
Built in the East for the East 
Total ...$61,630.35 
Present value real estate. 50,000.00 
“Difference .$11,630.35 
“I tried the same test in a home where 
there were six childi - en, and the mother 
had been married 20 years, with the re¬ 
sult that the work of the mother and 
children totaled $32,425. The value of 
the farm is $16,000. 
“I tried this test in another homo where 
the mother had died and left a family of 
12 members to be cared for by an 18-year- i 
old daughter, and I found that the work 1 
of this daughter and the other children > 
amounted to $2,540 annually. 
“Yes, there are duplicates in these fig- j 
ures, hut they will not cover the work 
not mentioned. I have not included a 
chicken, a dozen eggs or a pound of butter 
that goes to market, yet the farm women 
of our country, in addition to feeding 
their own families, produce 90 per cent 
of the poultry and dairy products con¬ 
sumed by the city.” 
Of course, the financial basis used for 
this calculation seems absurdly inade¬ 
quate in these times of inflated values. 
Eggs at 15 cents a dozen, butter at 20 
cents a pound, milk at 10 cents a gallon, 
pies at 10 cents, and sweeping, washing 
and scrubbing at 10 cents an hour read 
like a fairy tale. But this very feature 
magnifies the significance of the state¬ 
ment. It shows that with prices at rock 
bottom the farm woman as a producer of 
values must be placed near the head of 
the list. 
It shows every mother’s son of us some¬ 
thing else. It should show us how vain 
is our pride in what men accomplish! 
And what a pitiful lack of business sense 
we have evidenced in ignoring the cash 
Value of the housewives, the homemakers. 
Out at the Montana State fair last 
Summer was a neat little country ceme¬ 
tery. There were the arched gateway and | 
The John Deere Syracuse Two-Way Plow is the product of an 
Eastern factory’s 43 years of successful experience in building 
plows for Eastern farmers. It’s the ideal plow for hillside 
plowing, for plowing out the nooks and corners of irregular 
fields, around stones or other obstructions, or up close to 
fences. It also does good work on level land. 
JOMEf ©EEM1S 
SYRACUSE T piOW AY 
With this plow you can throw all of the soil one wav 
and do away with dead furrows and back ridges 
where these are not desired. 
Practically self-operating. The patented Auto 
Foot Frame Shift, enabling the operator to maintain 
full width of furrow under all conditions, is con 
trolled by slight pressure on foot levers The 
Clevis Shift and the Horse Lift are both automati 
Controlling the plow is as natural and easy as driving 
the team. Wheels are set wide apart—plow can e 
tip over on hillsides. 
Equipped with the famous Syracuse bottoms 
made in different styles to fit every soil condition in 
the Last. 
Because of its combination of operating convenience 
thorough seed-bed making and long life, this plow 
is a special favorite among Eastern farmers 
Write for a folder describing this plow tullv 
Address John Deere, Moline Illinois Ask toi 
Booklet ST-440, 
JOHN 
Moline, ill 
DEERE 
JTJHE TRADE MARK OF QUALITY MADE FAMOUS. BY^G.QQIHiyiPLEME 
