The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1878-07-04
TOPICS FOR FARMERS.
The Olive as an American Prod,

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, its cultivation
may prove real and valuable addition
| to our resources.
Farmers Wives.-An Illinois " Far
mer's Wife " writes in the Inter- Ocean
l have been greatly amused to see the
| great amount of pity wasted on farmers
wives, and might as well confess to a
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
| &c Il af !, &c -
l 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 tt
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 whit
work as hard, and have not the pleas
ant homes, pure air, and plenty that sur
round the farmers wives. But wha
can they do but work, if they have no
the means to hire help to assist them il
their work?
True, farmers must work, but if the,
should spend their summers picnicking
and donate their fruits, etc., to hospitals
who would provide bread and butter fo
, their city cousins, who are engaged i
intellectual pursuits, but who are s
nearly allied to their country relation
that they must be fed with the common
!. herd? And it is not true that most fal
mers are trying to get all the land the
can, and neglect to provide comforts fo
their families. Very many are Jryin
| to pay for what they have, and Civ
their children better education tina
, they themselves have had. Women G
: this nineteenth century are no NOR
: slaves than their husbands are tyrants
and all women cannot be Mrs. Live
, mores and Anna Dickinsons, though W
, do all admire them, but they can fill th
: position they have been placed in.
: Any woman who has not larg
e family can not have so much work to d.
1 and if she has family she has compan
e and sympathy, and most of us hay
f more than one paper, and do sometime
t buy new book and find time to rea
it, and exchange ideas with our neigl
( bors. am surprised that it is not
r well-known fact that the machinery ths
f saves the farmer saves his wive as wei
: as it does away with the great bugbes
), of farmers wife, strange men in tt
n family, and gives the farmer more tin
" to assist his wife. And here let me as
o what is to be done with the army
s tramps, who, since they are not burde
J. to the farmers wife, are likely to be
It burden somewhere else. Had the r
n formers not better take them in trainin
l. and make variable hewers of wood al
d drawers of water of them, and in th
way give their weaker sisters more tin
IS for mental improvement? But, abo7
d all, let us not as American women leal
n to look down on our work, and think
Is degrading, but let us so teach o7
n daughters to love their work and sa
!; their muscle and nerves that they w
=, not be household drudges, but happ
r, cheerful women, doing their part we
t. in the great drama of life; for wom'
S, must work and women must pray viii
e the world stands.