The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1878-07-13
TOPICS FOR FARMERS.
The Olive as an American Product.


The olive has been successfully grown
in California and South Carolina, though
not for profit. Gen. A. G. Jones, of the
Department of Agriculture, after a
careful investigation of the matter, is
confident that there is no good reason
why olive culture should not be profit
ably added to the list of our industries.
The forthcoming annual report of the
Department contains paper in which
is given large amount of information
with regard to the. soils and climates
most favorable to these trees, and the
inducements they offer to the cultivator.
In full bearing the olive tree yields from
two to three bushels of fruit, producing
from fifteen to twenty pounds of oil.
An acre of land properly planted should
contain about one hundred trees, and
grass or other crops may be cultivated
between the trees to advantage.
Throughout the Mediterranean region
the olive is an important source of in
dustrial wealth and since, in many
parts, the climate of our country is not
unfriendly to the tree, it's cultivation
may prove a real and valuable addition
to our resources.
Farmers Wiyes.-An Illinois +" Far
mer's Wife writes in the Inter- Ocean /:
/ have been greatly amused to see the
great amount of pity wasted on farmers
wives, and might as well confess to
feeling of irritation at the same time.
Why is it that farmers wives are in
most cases regarded ashousehold drudges
and objects of commiseration Now,
is not great deal of this "bosh," (there,
| have said it, the only word that would
answer to express it, and written by
persons who know nothing about it?
Perhaps we ought to feel thankful to
Mentor" but had she not better take
up her cudgel in behalf of lady clerks
and seamstresses, who are quite forgot
ten in the grand scheme of reform
And there are many women in cities who
work as hard, and have not the pleas
ant hemes, pure air, and plenty that sur
round the farmers wives. But what
can they do but work, if they have not
the means to hire help to assist them in
their work?
True, farmers must work, but if they
should spend their summers picnicking,
and donate their fruits, etc, to hospitals,
who would provide bread and butter for
their city cousins, who are engaged in
intellectual pursuits, but who are so
nearly allied to their country relations
that they must be fed with the common
herd? And it is not true that most far
mers are trying to get all the land they
can, and neglect to provide comforts for
their families. Very many are trying
to pay for what they have, and give
their children better education than
they themselves have had. Women of
this nineteenth century are no more
slaves than their husbands are tyrants;
and all women cannot be Mrs. Liver
mores and Anna Dickinsons, though we
do all admire them, but they can fill the
position they have been placed in.
Any woman who has not a large
family can not have so much work to do
and if she has family she has company
and sympathy, and most of us have
more than one paper, and do sometimes
buy new book and find time to read
it, and exchange ideas with our neigh
bors. / am surprised that it is not a
well-known fact that the machinery that
saves the farmer saves his wive as well,
as it does away with the great bugbear
of farmers wife, strange men in the
family, and gives the farmer more time
to assist his wife. And here let me ask
what is to be done with the army of
tramps, who, since they are not burden
to the farmers wife, are likely to be
burden somewhere else. Had the re-
formers not better take them in training.
and make variable hewers of wood and
drawers of water of them, and in this
way give their weaker sisters more time
for mental improvement? But, above
all, let us not as American women learn
to look down on our work, and think it
degrading, but let us so teach our
daughters to love their work and save
their muscle and nerves that they will
not be household drudges, but happy,
cheerful women, doing their part we'll
in the great drama of life; for women
must work and women must pray while
the world stands.