Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
467 
We rejoice that the Grange offers some encouragement to farm¬ 
ers* wives, and recognizes them as equal co-workers with man in the 
noble course of truth and justice. Let us accept every opportu¬ 
nity to make ourselves more intelligent wives and mothers, and 
daily use our influence for the promotion of every noble enterprise. 
Let us advocate the doing away of useless work, and claim for our¬ 
selves more time for social intercourse, reading and thinking. It 
were better to save our strength that w^e may live to raise our boys 
and girls, and give them good home influence, than to wear out 
with ceaseless toil, and leave them to the care of strangers. Every 
hour taken from hard work, and spent either in mental or physical 
recreation is an hour added to our lives. 
“ There is many a rest on the road of life, 
If we only would stop to take it, 
And many a tone from the happy land, 
If the happy heart could wake it.” 
Let us not then, my sisters, be anxious for more work to do, but 
only ask for time to well do that which is already our duty to do. 
The Master has given us our work, and he will presently require 
an account of our labor. Let us be able to show a faithful per¬ 
formance of the work entrusted to us, not forgetting that it requir¬ 
ed the best efforts of the head and heart as well as the steady toil of 
the hands. We trust the day is not far distant when farmers and 
farmers 1 wives shall rise from the obscure position they have so long 
held and stand the acknowledged equal of any class. If they do not 
it will be their own fault. 
/• 
The way is open for improvement. Let us avail ourselves of it, 
and not only strive to make our business a success, but to elevate 
ourselves socially and morally. Let women as well as men enter 
heartily into the work of reform. There is nothing ignoble in it, 
but much that requires our earnest labor. As we glory in the home 
and its hallowed associations, as we love the dear ones who call us 
wife or mother, let us strive to elevate that home, to make it re¬ 
spected in the world, and give aid to every cause tending to its 
prosperity and happiness. Happy in its surroundings, rejoicing in 
its prosperity. So let us ask only for more time to enjoy it, earn¬ 
estly hoping that in the good time coming to farmers, there may 
also come a rest for the farmer’s wife,—a daily respite from toil, in 
