172 
Wiscomij^ STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
Afternoon Session. 
Convention met, and adjourned to the Senate Chamber, at the 
request of the members of that body. 
BETTER AND HAPPIER HOMES FOR OUR FARMERS. 
BY J. M. SMITH, GREEN BA.Y. 
Last fall, while conversing with some friends and visitors at my 
home, about farming and farmers in general, a young lady from Il¬ 
linois, who was one of the company, said, in a very determined 
tone, “ I will never marry a farmer.” “ How is that?” said I. “ We 
think farmers are, or ought to be, at least, as good if not a little 
better than almost any other class.” She replied, “ Well, it means 
a life of slavish toil and hard labor; a life almost excluded from so¬ 
ciety, and shut up, too, in a home where there are but few things 
more than the mere necessaries of life; there is no chance for a wo¬ 
man to be more than a mere drudge or slave of toil, and I will nev¬ 
er marry a farmer.” This young lady is a native of Illinois; she 
has lived there all her life, up to last October. She has taught 
school among the farmers of those magnificent prairies, and thinks 
she knows something of how they live. I scarcely know when I 
have been more impressed by any casual remarks in mixed compa¬ 
ny, than with those of this young lady, and also her determined 
manner as she uttered them. I could not but ask myself the ques¬ 
tion over and again, “Are the farmers’homes so much worse than 
other people’s that they are to be shunned by educated and refined 
young ladies?” If this is so, surely a reform in this respect is 
sadly needed. 
Shortly after the conversation above alluded to, my wife and I 
started on a somewhat extended pleasure excursion. We traveled 
some hundred of miles in Illinois, as well as through many other 
states. I kept in mind this young lady’s remark. I saw many 
pleasant and comfortable looking homes, many beautiful ones; but 
I must confess that I saw many that were neither pleasant nor com¬ 
fortable, that is, if we can judge from outside appearances. I saw 
