176 WISCONSIN STATE AORIGULTUIiAL SOCIETY. ' 
cumstances. He is posted in regard to the improved breeds of 
stock, and selects such as he considers best for him. As the years 
roll away, he becomes a strong man in general information, and 
perhaps a very useful one to his whole community. He is constant¬ 
ly growing away from his wife, and none knows it as quickly or 
feels it as keenly as she does. Years ago, when they stood side by 
side at the commencement of their life’s journey, she was his equal, 
not only morally but intellectually, and in some things his superior. 
Now it is the giant and the dwarf. Now the husband looks at his wife 
and wonders why they are so far apart. He knows that she was 
once fully his equal. Why is she not so now? Whose fault is it? 
He has not intended to be unkind or untrue to her. Nay, more, 
he has always truly loved her, and does so still. But she is not the 
social and intellectual equal to him that she once was, and she can¬ 
not possibly make herself such. She cannot make his home as hap¬ 
py as it might be, and herself his most desirable companion and ad¬ 
visor, for the simple reason that she has not had the educational 
advantages that have been constantly pouring in upon him in his 
everyday life; the equivalent of which he should have provided for 
her in oiher wa 3 ’S, instead of allowing her to move along in her 
daily treadmill of household cares and labors. He is almost alone 
even in his own home. If he has been neglectful in the little mat- 
ters and comforts that he might, and ought to have seen provided 
for his home—the thousand things that are really necessary to a 
happy home, but which I have no time to mention on this occa¬ 
sion— his home becomes not a home in any true sense of the term, 
but the headquarters of his farm and his business, and his wife the 
head manager of the house, and in some sense a kind of partner 
with him in some of his business transactions; though he never con¬ 
sults her, but simply tells her that he has done this or that or the 
other. Do not think this picture overdrawn. 
During my recent journey east, I met an acquaintance upon the 
cars, and while chatting together, a very prominent farmer was men¬ 
tioned, one with whom we were both well acquainted. He is in 
many respects a man of much more than ordinary intelligence and 
ability. He owns a magnificent farm, and has it well improved and 
well stocked. He is thoroughly wide awake, and is certainly one 
of the best farmers of the state in which he resides. I remarked 
to my friend that I was surprised that such a splendid farmer, and 
