Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-09-11
gaoles' department.
For the VERMONT FARMER.
THOSE DUTIES" AGAIN.

had not intended to lnAict on the read ers
Of the FARMER another dissertation on this
subject which has been discussed and reds.
cussed until it is as clear as mud. If every
farmers wife didn't know her duties, she has
certainly had a chance to learn, if by any
possibility she has wit enough to reconcile
the conflicting theories. But alas ''who
shall decide when doctors disagree ?"
did not intend to alude to this subject
again. but sister " Advance is after me
with sharp stick, and "a Farmers Daugh-
ter" follows, so must ask for another hear.
ing. have been absent from home for
time, having fortunately finished haying-
though | didn't rake after the cart, as our
sister supposed-esc the matter should have
received my attention earlier.
Both our sisters discaim the idea of
household labor being degrading for women
it is only labor in Gods pure air and sun
light that degrades our sex, but each fail to
give any good reason for its being more de-
grading in the one place than in the other.
They think man shows himself "poor
protector, to allow woman to do work out
of doors that requires strength and muscle"
As if housework did not require those IN.
dspensable articles do work every day,
indoors that requires more strength and mus
Gle than many kinds Of work our hired men
do.
Farmers Daughter" asks, "when do
women ever have the time and strength to
do mans work % Perhaps nerer, but that
they have not the strength to do light labor
in the open air is not the fault of their Gre
ator, but their own. God gave women mus.
cIes, tissue, blood and nerves, the same as
men, and meant them to be healthy if moi
equally strong, and they have more endur'
ance than men ever had. Take one of ouI
strongest boys, compress his chest with cor.
sets, fotter his limbs with long, trailing skirts
let him wear cotton hose and underclothing
in mid winter, shut him up like hot house
plant, or if he goes out lct'a veil screen hin
from Gods sunlight, and if by the time hC
is twenty he has not a lame side, a veal
back, and disordered nerves. am no proph.
Ct Look at the Indian and negro women
who 1.-Two and work in the open air. Ar
they not quite as healthy and nearly al
strong as the men :
Want of time for other than indoor labo
is the most sensible objection made by ouI
sisters, and is probably in most cases a sufi
cient one, yet when women find time to knit
Shaker stockings, as many farmers wive
do, think the time would be far more prof
itably spent in some light employment in thu
pure air. But in the good time coming whe
men and women shall live as their Create
designed, want Of time will cease TO be a
objection.
God created man, male and female, an
placed them in the garden to dress and til
it. We do not read that each had any par
ticular part assigned them, or as our siste
has it, they did not " each know their par
and stand to it," Eve did not say to Adam
" such and such things will do and no 9th
er no, not if the pigs get out and root u
the whole garden of Eden God made 20
for my protector, and am not going to d.
grade myself by helping you dress the gal
den." Nor did Adam respond ." Such an
such things will l do and no other, not
d the queen of sheba were coming to Dime
, and all the little Gains aud Abels we're