Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1873-11-21
Written cor the Free Press and Time;
The Vermont Farmers in their Homes.

u,rs .Sii0gesfi0ns About HOmeH's Wort
Fr1iif and F7Oirer Culure-PldH Ad-
rice 10 The Girls-HoHea and DishoH-
eN Work.
Perhaps Your father viii let the whole
garden to y1u when he finds that you nave
tact ana skill and enterprise, and that you
succeed ia the husineS-, nothing 50 con
y,ncius D. success you know, and you VIII
he sure To succeed it you work with dill
gence. patience and intelligence.
lie viii be glad 60 be rid Of the garden
bother" aud vii, think. be willing to
Grant VOC reasonable share Of the profits.
some Of you will, perhaps, do better with
vegetable than with fruit hut iruit-groW-
my. the culture of grapes, strawberries
lear. apple. &c. seems TO me peculiarly
pleasing feminine vocation. The cultivation
If flowers If one has time, may be carried
int, the domain of high art. think the
farmer girls are generally interested IN
a.wer~. only-the meadows, the woods, even
the way side. yield so many beautiful things
- blossoms. ferns. moses and climbing
yines-l wonder they do not make greater
use Of them. One can do 81 much more
with bright colored autumn lcaves and iernS
than with bright-eolored worsted, and save
the eyes and get a run out OF doors besides
that wonder our busy girls do not oitener
exchange their embroidery for these things.
III were a clergyman, think should take
two or three times a year for my text
Consider the lilies" There are other
things that farmer girls may do that are
better than sewing. Poultry raising may
not be quite 50 aesthetical As horticulture
but it will give one plenty of open air exer-
else and as far a. money is concerned It is
very profitable. These bird ianciers tell Us
that it is exceedingly interesting to watch
the habits Of fowls.
4 few ladies have known 10 lind pleasant
and useful employment in the care of bees.
Horey. they say, always commands good
price in market and they dwell with enthusi-
assn upon the ways and manners Of the
little "bnsy bodies" What an interesting
chapter in entomology opens to the observer
here Some ofthe greatest men in the world
have not disdained to spend good portion
Of their lives before bee hive. Indeed
yon may take any department Of nature,
study it faithfully by observation. become
80 interested that you care for the opinion
Of celebrated students in the same realm
and study it in books. try to produce definite
results with it, as to earn money, and you
have entered upon a work which i y once
an education and a living.
Now have not written down these thing-
at random So many times girls ask me
"what shall do >" that suppose they ask
themselves and older people who are inter
ested, the same question. Often, too, ! am
at my witsend to know what reply to make.
Three things are always pertinent, and |
wish society would say these three things
50 emphatically to every young woman, that
she could not misunderstand. Do something,
do something honest and do not get married
for hring. The last is included in the
second injunction, only We do not usually
consider it 50.
Three things at least are essential to
honest work 1t must be conducive to
physical health, it must be conducive to
spiritual health and growth, and it must be
something that will benefit somebody when
it is done.
Have patience with me girls, while tell
YOU of the dishonest work that you DO some
times and between ourselves it is not only
country girls who are guilty ofthese things.
Sometimes. very often fear. it is school
teaching. 4 Young girl has been two or
three terms at the academy, or half a year
At the city boarding-school. She does not
like homework and wants a little money of
her own. A committeeman offers her
twenty, twenty-five and thirty dollars and
board to take charge of a district school /.
and She, not that she has chosen teaching
for her profession, not that she Is even try
ing to become a scholar, but because the
children are young and not advanced in
their studies. and because she "can make
twenty-five dollars easier that way than any
other accepts. This is her own statement
of the case have heard it dozens of times
Ii reminds me Of remark made by an old
minister once upon time he was ''out of
funds" he said. ''and must look ont for a
little lob of preaching.
Nv dear Young friends don't let what
YOUR parents say, what the committee man
saws or the town superintendent, who wrote
YOUR certificate because You was nice girl,
deceive yod it is miserable, dishonest
sort of trihing. Teaching school upon
ones own responsibility, tina: IS, away from
the eve of the superintendent, Is a work that
requires education, skill and training quail
hcations. that a girl in her teens who has
not had this object in view from childhood
can hardly have acquired.
TO 60 into school where the children
know but little. in order 10 gain few dol
lars, j. a. dishonest a the work of the
manufacturer when he puts poor material
into his goods and underSells the market.
and il does a deal more harm harm to
Yourself, TO your pupil, and to the pro
fession you disgrace.
Oltener still nice Young ladies practice
dishonesty with their needle. They steal
from their health. and this is most miserable
business, 1t Is many times like taking the
single eve lamb of the poor man, they
steal from their intellectual growth. from
their hours Of reading and thinking, time
and strength to nut useless iurhelows upon
their dresses. countless stitches upon gar
ments that will hardly wear as long as the
time spent in making them.
Sometimes again girls spend hours of each
day in the pantry by the kitchen fire, beat
ing eggs. stoning rnisins, melting butter.
simmering sugar and | know what else.
making up indigestible compounds for the
table, cakes, pies, pickles and preserves
enough to ruin the family stomach and give
q whole neighbOrhoOd the dyspepsia.
1t is wonderful how much eating some
communities do, for these things % by
fashion as much as rutiling.
| shudder sometimes when the thrifty
housewife shows me her cans of preserves
and her bottles Of wine, when look at the
groaning shelves of her pantry and see
lunches Of the little children and | grow
sick ct heart when the daughter with
an embroidered blouse and sixteen ruiiles
on the skirt of her dress assures me blandly
that she does "all her own sewing"
wonder if Thoreau was thinking OF this I'M
necessary sewing and cooking when he said
I'VE quarter our gross bodies upon our
souls until the former eat up all the latter :
substance
The two or three exceptions that have
recommended possess, it seems to me, the
essential requisites Of work that is good to
do. They add the merit of being genuine
farm work, and girls whose home is on
the farm should have the full benefit of farm
and country life, a life which may be as
pleasant, which is as full OF eompensations.
as full OF opportunities for growth as any in
the world.
Lest any one should think underrate
house-work, | would add the art of cooking
To my a 81 nd 4 a nj l.
cisely what our good country housekeeDers
do. ! mean the art of preparing food iii to
be eaten, food, pleasant to the taste. that
will nourish the body without inducing
aches. pains, diseases. If wanted nv
daughter to become a good cook 81 would
not put book of receipts in her hands at
first, by any means. but a physiology. |
would have her spend as much time study
ing the functions of the body as the medical
student. Why should she mott Is not our
food more to Us than our medicine? and