West-Jersey pioneer., 1866-01-13

ing and ripening. So one day, merely as
a method of getting rid of the oyerplus,
a huge basket was sent to the nearest
CITY, under the seat of the little family
vehicle, and found ready market. That
summer the strawberry contributed
fifty dollars to the domestic exchequer.
How long would it take to earn fifty dol
lars by sitting in close garret to make
shirts at ten cents apiece Give us the
sunshine, and the winds sweeping over
the hills, and heavens free air to nil our
lungs.
Now if one woman has done this, why
may not another If fifty dollars can be
realized, what is to prevent person from
making five hundred ? Nature imposes
no limits to her glorious possibilities, and
all she asks from her votaries is little
courage, little faith, and little perse-
verance. She never stops to question
the sex of her dependents, nor puts them
on half wages because they are less able
to fight the world than men. Nature IS
behind the times, you see, but then her
old-fashioned ways are very comforting 10
those who need CLEAN of comfort most
Not very far from the locality where
these strawberries grew and hourished, we
saw an orchard of several hundred apple
trees, bearing the most magnificent aud
valuable varieties. But it didn't grow 50,
every branch had been grated, and grail
ted, too, by woman's hands Strange to
say, the scions grew just as vigorously as
if man had been paid four dollars day
for putting them in. And as long as peo-
pie know the difference between golden
pippin and knotty little fall apple, this
sort of fruit will command premium in
the market. 1t isn't considered at all
unwomanly to travel from door to door
selling fruit by the pint measure ; why
should it be an out-of-the-way proceeding
to send fifty or hundred barrels of ap-
pies by steamboat or railroad to commits
sion house in New York There may be
difference and distinction, but to our
female optics the latter appears very much
the most sensible mode of operation. At
all events, we think we should prefer
wholesale to retail, if ever We went into
business.
Of course all this involves work, but
was not WORK the primary element with
which we started on our argument =
And as any such enterprise as this grows
and develops year by year, as it most Ger
tainly will, the woman who has had eour-
age to originate it will not be lacking in
| Judgment and discretion to continue
And if it happens that she finds it deslr-
able to employ the muscular strength and
force of men in her behalf, some hard
handed and harder-headed old farmer,
who raises the stereotyped crops OF hay
and corn year after year, and grows poor
er with each revolving cycle, may even
pay her that tribute that was awarded to
Hannah Adams, the scholar and metsphy-
sician, by the Boston carpenter, when he
surveyed the plan of house designed by
, her accomplished fingers "Well, de-
| clare she knows e'en-a-most as much as
man !"
/ Now we do not see why these depart
ments of labor are not more profitable and
far more pleasant than teaching, sewing,
or giving music lessons. As far as health
goes, they are infinitely to be preferred.
Think over them, ye toiling and moiiing
women in our great, over-crowded cities,
| and render in your conscientious yerdicts.
| But our subject is by no means exhaus-
ted. The particular branch that We have
been considering relates merely to those
who are impelled by the iron spur of me-
cessity to an immediate action. There
are others, now beginning the world, with
plenty of time for consideration and cleo
tion. To these far more comprehensive
field lies open. ~ A @
MRS. GEORGE WAsHISGroS WILLS.